These antibodies could be useful reagents for monitoring BBB dysfunction expression vector (Novagen/EMD Bioscience, San Diego, CA), induced by 0.1 mmol/L isopropyl–d-thiogalactopyranoside (Sigma-Aldrich, St. of phosphorylated occludin at T382 and Naphthoquine phosphate S507, and claudin-5 at T207 from full-length recombinant occludin and claudin-5 transiently expressed in COS-7 cells and mouse brain microvascular endothelial cells. Finally, these phosphospecific antibodies demonstrated enhanced staining of brain endothelial cells in the mouse model for HIVE and human HIVE brains featuring mononuclear cell infiltration across disrupted BBB. Our results demonstrated the direct phosphorylation of occludin and claudin-5 by RhoK at specific sites, which was increased in encephalitic brain tissue. These antibodies could be useful reagents for monitoring BBB dysfunction expression vector (Novagen/EMD Bioscience, San Diego, CA), induced by 0.1 mmol/L isopropyl–d-thiogalactopyranoside (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) in BL21DE3 (Novagen), and purified on a Ni-NTA column (Novagen). The His-tag sequence of purified OCC-CT was cleaved by thrombin (Sigma), which was removed by dialysis of the sample using Slide-A-Lyzer (molecular weight cutoff of 3.5 kDa; Pierce Biotechnology, Inc., Rockford, IL). The purity of the OCC-CT and GST-RhoK was determined as 90% by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and R-250 Coomassie brilliant blue staining. The cytoplasmic C terminus domain of mouse claudin-5 (CLD5-CT, amino acids 199 to 218: KYSAPRRPTANGDYDKKNYV) was prepared as purified synthetic peptide with 100% purity (Alpha Diagnostic International, San Antonio, TX). Phosphorylation Assay The kinase reaction Naphthoquine phosphate of substrate with purified GST-RhoK was performed in 50 l of reaction buffer (50 mmol/L Tris/HCl at pH 7.5, 2 mmol/L EGTA, 1 mmol/L EDTA, 5 mmol/L MgCl2) containing 200 mol/L [-32P] ATP (5 Ci; Perkin Elmer, Wellesley, MA), 0.5 g purified RhoK, and the indicated amount of bovine myosin light chain (MLC, Sigma), purified OCC-CT recombinant protein, or CLD5-CT peptide. After incubation at 30C, the reaction mixtures for MLC and OCC-CT were boiled in Laemmli sampling buffer22 and subjected to SDS-PAGE. The radiolabeled bands were visualized and quantified by a phosphoimager (Typhoon System; Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Arlington Heights, IL). For CLD5 peptides, the reaction mixtures were boiled and spotted onto phosphocellulose membrane (P81; Whitman, Maidstone, UK). The spots were excised and radioactivity levels were measured by liquid scintillation counter (Beckman Coulter, Inc., Fullerton, CA). Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) OCC-CT and CLD5-CT were phosphorylated by incubation with GST-RhoK in reaction buffer (50 mmol/L Tris/HCl at pH 7.5, 2 mmol/L EGTA, 1 mmol/L EDTA, 5 mmol/L MgCl2, 200 mol/L ATP) at 30C for 20 hours. The samples were separated by SDS-PAGE and the stained bands were excised and subjected to LC/MS/MS analysis as described.23 Briefly, in-gel trypsin digestion was performed (Promega, Madison, WI), and the digested peptides were extracted in 5% formic acid/50% acetonitrile and separated using a C18 reversed phase LC column (Dionex, Sunnyvale, CA). A quadrupole-time of flight (Q-TOF) Ultima tandem mass spectrometer (Waters, Milford, MA) with electrospray ionization was used to analyze the eluting peptides. The system was user-controlled using the MassLynx software v3.5 (Waters) in data-dependent acquisition mode with a 1-second survey scan (380 to 1900 Da) followed by up to three 2.4-second MS/MS acquisitions (60 to 1900 Da). The instrument was operated at a mass resolution of 8000 and was calibrated using the fragment ion masses of doubly protonated Glu-fibrinopeptides. Database searches of the acquired MS/MS spectra were performed using Mascot (v1.9.0; Matrix Science, Boston, MA). The database was restricted to mouse proteins. The search parameters were as follows: no restrictions on protein molecular weight or pI, enzymatic specificity was set to trypsin, and phosphorylation was allowed as a variable peptide modification. Only peptides that gave a Mascot score greater than 13 ( 0.05) for phosphorylated forms were considered as positive identifications. Determination of Phosphorylation Sites of OCC-CT and CLD5-CT by RhoK by Synthetic Peptides Because LC/MS/MS was unable to sequence lysine- or arginine-rich sequence after tryptic digestion of proteins, the following peptides were synthesized to examine their phosphorylation by GST-RhoK: KRAPTKGKAG (peptide 1, OCC 378-387), KQLKSKLAHIK (peptide 2, OCC 500-510 with S507A mutation), KQLKAKLSHIK (peptide 3, OCC 500-510 with Naphthoquine phosphate S504A mutation), KYSAPRRPAA (peptide 4, CLD5 199-208 with T207A mutation), and KYSAPRRPTANGDYDKKNYV (peptide 5, CLD5 199-208). The phosphorylation assay for these peptides was performed as described. Production of Phosphopeptide Antibodies for OCC and CLD5 Rabbits were immunized with phosphopeptides corresponding to OCC phospho-T382 [CKRAPT(PO4)KGKAGKG], OCC phospho-S507 [CKQLKSKLS(PO4)HIKRMV], or CLD5 phospho-T207 [CAPRRPT(PO4)ANGDYDK] conjugated with keyhole limpet hemocyanin at their NH2-terminal Mouse monoclonal to CD56.COC56 reacts with CD56, a 175-220 kDa Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule (NCAM), expressed on 10-25% of peripheral blood lymphocytes, including all CD16+ NK cells and approximately 5% of CD3+ lymphocytes, referred to as NKT cells. It also is present at brain and neuromuscular junctions, certain LGL leukemias, small cell lung carcinomas, neuronally derived tumors, myeloma and myeloid leukemias. CD56 (NCAM) is involved in neuronal homotypic cell adhesion which is implicated in neural development, and in cell differentiation during embryogenesis cysteine residue, followed by injection of complete Freunds adjuvant (Biosynthesis Inc., Lewisville, TX). After three boosts of antibody titer by peptide injection, antisera were preadsorbed three times with affinity column immobilized with corresponding nonphosphorylated synthetic peptide to remove nonspecific anti-peptide antibodies in the sera, followed by affinity purification using phosphopeptide column. The working.