基于细胞打印与Orbitrap Astral DIA-MS的单细胞蛋白质组分析

Single-Cell Proteomics Analysis Based on Cell Printing and Orbitrap Astral DIA-MS

  • 摘要: 蛋白质作为生命活动的直接执行者,其表达与翻译后修饰特征是细胞功能异质性的直接体现。传统群体细胞蛋白质组学因平均效应难以捕捉细胞间的细微差异,而单细胞水平解析对精准医学和细胞生物学领域的发展至关重要。本研究采用细胞打印技术实现了单细胞蛋白质组学样品的快速制备:将裂解液打印至96孔板后,分选A549/HeLa单细胞并进行酶解与酸化处理;通过Vanquish Neo-Orbitrap Astral系统开展数据非依赖性采集(DIA),并在Spectronaut软件中完成数据分析。结果显示,2种细胞在单细胞水平共鉴定到6 072个蛋白质群组和41 577条肽段,蛋白质丰度既存在高度相关性,又保持异质性特征。基因本体(GO)分析表明,所鉴定的蛋白质空间分布无偏性。该方法最大限度地减少了细胞活性丧失与蛋白质降解,缩短了实验时间并提高了检测通量,有助于推动基于质谱的单细胞蛋白质组学技术发展,为解析复杂生物系统提供了有力支撑。

     

    Abstract: As the direct executors of life activities, proteins play an irreplaceable role in regulating cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, and signal transduction. Their expression levels and post-translational modification patterns directly reflect cellular functional heterogeneity, which is a key feature associated with tissue homeostasis, disease progression and stimulus response. Conventional bulk proteomics analyzes mixed cell populations, which has an obvious averaging effect that masks biologically significant intercellular differences, hindering the exploration of rare cell subsets, heterogeneous disease mechanisms, and precise therapeutic targets. In contrast, single-cell resolution proteomic analysis has emerged as a pivotal driving force for the advancement of precision medicine and modern cell biology, enabling the decoding of cellular diversity at the molecular level. In this study, cell printing technology was innovatively employed to establish a high-efficiency sample preparation workflow specifically designed for single-cell proteomics, addressing the long-standing challenges of low throughput, high sample loss, and prolonged processing time in traditional methods. Specifically, cell lysis buffer was precisely printed into 96-well plates using a high-precision printing system to ensure uniform reaction conditions; this was followed by the accurate sorting of A549 and HeLa single cells into the pretreated wells, and subsequent in-well enzymatic hydrolysis and acidification steps to complete sample processing. For proteomic detection, data-independent acquisition (DIA) was conducted on a Vanquish Neo-Orbitrap Astral mass spectrometer, which delivers excellent sensitivity and reproducibility. Data analysis was systematically completed using Spectronaut software to ensure reliable identification and quantification of proteins. The results demonstrated that a total of 6 072 protein groups and 41 577 peptides were successfully identified in the two cell lines at the single-cell level, achieving comprehensive coverage of the cellular proteomes. Further analysis revealed that the protein abundances in single cells showed excellent correlation, while maintaining distinct heterogeneity. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis further indicated that the identified proteins displayed an unbiased spatial distribution across subcellular compartments such as the nucleus, cytoplasm, and cell membrane, ensuring the integrity of proteomic profiling. Notably, this integrated approach minimizes cellular viability loss and protein degradation by shortening the time window between cell sorting and lysis, significantly reduces the overall experimental duration compared to conventional workflows, and improves detection throughput through 96-well plate parallel processing. Collectively, this method reduces cell viability loss and protein degradation, shortens experiment time, and enhances throughput, thus promoting mass spectrometry-based single-cell proteomics research for deciphering complex biological systems.

     

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