Figure 2. Schematic illustration of site-specific caging of proteins. (
A) Caging based on cysteine mutagenesis. (
B) Caging based on unnatural amino acid introduction using genetic code extension technologies. (
C) Caging based on protein semi-synthesis using expressed protein ligation (EPL). (
D) Caging based on ligand-directed chemistry.
As a method for site-specific protein caging, another genetic approach using unnatural caged amino acids has been widely employed
[5][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53]. Using the genetic code extension technology such as notably amber mutation and four-base codon mutation
[43], in which an unnatural amino acid is coded to a specific codon, the desired position of the protein of interest can be replaced with a caged amino acid (
Figure 2B). Until now, caged aspartic acid
[35][39], caged serine
[36][51], caged glycine
[37][43], caged tyrosine
[5][38][40][48][50], caged cysteine
[42][47], caged lysine
[44][49][52][53], caged phosphoserine
[46] and caged phosphotyrosine
[46] have been utilized for photo-activation of various proteins including enzymes
[35][39][42][43][44][45], intein proteins
[36][47], ion channels
[37][38][40], receptors
[46], phosphorylation cascade proteins
[50][51], and so on
[5][48][49][52][53]. The site-specific incorporation of unnatural caged amino acid into proteins was first achieved in
E.
coli [35][36][42][43][44] and a cell-free protein expression system
[46], and subsequently their photoactivation was examined in vitro. Furthermore, the recombinant caged proteins were transduced into mammalian cells with a transfection reagent to utilize their photoactivatable functions for clarifying the spatial and temporal molecular mechanism of the living system
[5][48]. Next, to photo-regulate ion channels on the plasma membrane of living cells, in situ expression of site-specifically caged proteins was performed in
Xenopus oocytes by injecting the caged amino acids-combined tRNA through microinjection
[37][38][40]. Recently, the genetic code extension technology has become applicable to eukaryotic cells by using the genetic expression system for the orthogonal pair of pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase and the corresponding tRNA, enabling the genetic incorporation of caged amino acids into proteins in yeast cells
[42][51] and mammalian cells
[5][49][50][51][52][53]. By using such a genetic encoding system, a pioneer group, Chin et al. demonstrated light-induced intracellular localization change of caged nuclear localization proteins in human cells
[49] and achieved photoactivation of receptor-mediated signal transduction by caging a phosphorylation protein, STAT1
[50]. Furthermore, to understand the role of cancer-specific mutation, they reported to photo-activate the synthesis of the oncometabolite (
R)-2-hydroxyglutarate through caging an isocitrate dehydrogenase mutant in normal cells and exposing those engineered cells to light
[52]. Such genetic caging with unnatural amino acid introduction was also reported to achieve light-induced gene editing through caging of Cas9
[53], photo-activation of immune response through caging of MEK1
[5], and screening of caspase substrate proteins through caging of caspase-3
[5] in human cells. Thus, in this approach, a variety of wild-type proteins could be site-specifically caged by utilizing various caged amino acids. Moreover, this approach is advantageous in introducing a photodegradable protection into the active site inside the closed structure of proteins because the caged amino acid can be incorporated on translation before protein folding. However, it requires advanced and specialized gene engineering techniques, and therefore is not easily available.
Other strategies in protein caging have also been reported. In semisynthetic approaches, a small part of the protein was chemically synthesized by incorporating caged amino acid through peptide synthesis, and then linked with a major part of the protein to produce a site-specifically caged protein
[54][55][56]. First, as a pioneering approach, site-specific caged ribonuclease S (RNase S) was prepared by mixing a synthesized caged S-peptide and S-protein
[54]. RNase S is consisting of two peptide fragments, S-peptide (1-20 residues) and S-protein (21-124 residues), and these fragments bind in a self-assembly manner to exert the enzymatic activity. In this report, by optimizing the replacement site of caged amino acids in S-peptide, the caged RNase S was activated by light in an off-on manner
[54]. This approach was greatly developed by the expressed protein ligation (EPL) method (
Figure 2C)
[55][56]. In EPL-based caging, the fusion protein of a
C-terminally-truncated target protein with a self-processing intein domain is overexpressed in
E.
coli, and through the intein-mediated processing reaction
[57], the
C-terminal is converted to a reactive thioester moiety. In parallel, the
C-terminal domain peptide including a cysteine residue at the
N-terminal end and caged amino acids at the desired positions is chemically synthesized. Then, the caged
C-terminal peptide is linked to the
C-terminal end of the truncated protein through native chemical ligation
[58]. A signal transduction protein with multiple caged phosphorylated serine residues was reported to be prepared by this approach
[55][56]. Based on the high degree of certainty and freedom of peptide synthesis, the semisynthetic approaches allow for the precise introduction of multiple photodegradable protecting groups and the expansion of the range of amino acids that can be protected. However, the caging position is limited to the terminal sequence of proteins, leading to limitation of applicable proteins. Recently, a total chemical synthesis-based approach was also reported to overcome this limitation of the semisynthetic protein caging
[59], but it requires chemical reactions that are too specialized for anyone to immediately utilize. In ligand-directed caging approaches, a ligand molecule that selectively binds to the active site of a protein assists site-specific modification with the caging group
[60][61]. In a pioneering study of this approach, the substrate peptide with a thiol-reactive moiety through a photocleavable linker was utilized for active-site specific caging
[60]. This synthesized peptide was recognized with enzyme and reacted with the cysteine residue selectively at the active site. Based on this approach, a protein kinase was caged in vitro and introduced into living cells by microinjection, leading to light-induced activation of phosphorylation for cellular morphological change
[60]. Similarly, a small substrate analogue with photodegradable ability was reported to specifically incorporated into a serine residue at the active site of enzyme, and the protected activity of enzyme was regenerated by light
[61]. Hamachi et al. have presented a number of sophisticated reports in ligand-directed chemistry for in situ protein labeling
[62][63][64]. For site-specific caging, a photocleavable linker was inserted between the ligand for proteins of interest and a special reactive group, and after mixing with proteins, this caging reagent could be selectively attached to amino acid residue surrounding the active site through a ligand-directed proximity effect on the reaction (
Figure 2D)
[65]. By employing this method, an enzyme and a receptor protein were efficiently caged with the reagents including specific ligand, respectively, and demonstrated to be uncaged by light exposure. Thus, ligand-directed approaches can achieve site-specific caging of intact proteins of interest simply by mixing with the specific caging reagents. However, the application is limited to enzymes and binding proteins. Moreover, ligands with an appropriate dissociation constant, which must meet both the requirements for the selective binding in the caging step and the rapid releasing in the photoactivation step, are needed. Such demands of this approach may be issues in terms of versatility.