The detection and quantitation of protein-ligand binding interactions is critical in a number of different areas of biochemical research from fundamental studies of biological processes to drug discovery efforts. Described here is a protocol that can be used to identify the protein targets of biologically relevant ligands (e.g. drugs like tamoxifen or cyclosporin A) in complex protein mixtures such as cell lysates. The protocol utilizes quantitative, bottom-up, shotgun proteomics technologies (iTRAQ) with a covalent labeling technique, termed Stability of Proteins from Rates of Oxidation (SPROX). In SPROX, the thermodynamic properties of proteins and protein-ligand complexes are assessed using the hydrogen peroxide-mediated oxidation of methionine residues as a function of the chemical denaturant (e.g. guanidine Hydrochloride or urea) concentration. The proteome-wide SPROX experiments described here enable the ligand binding properties of hundreds of proteins to be simultaneously assayed in the context of complex biological samples. The proteomic capabilities of the protocol render it amenable to detection of both the on- and off-target effects of ligand binding.

Shotgun proteomics protocols are widely used for the identification and/or quantitation of proteins in complex biological samples. Described here is a shotgun proteomics protocol that can be used to identify the protein targets of biologically relevant ligands in complex protein mixtures. The protocol combines a quantitative proteomics platform with a covalent modification strategy, termed Stability of Proteins from Rates of Oxidation (SPROX), which utilizes the denaturant dependence of hydrogen peroxide-mediated oxidation of methionine side chains in proteins to assess the thermodynamic properties of proteins and protein-ligand complexes. The quantitative proteomics platform involves the use of isobaric mass tags and a methionine-containing peptide enhancement strategy. The protocol is evaluated in a ligand binding experiment designed to identify the proteins in a yeast cell lysate that bind the well-known enzyme co-factor, β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). The protocol is also used to investigate the protein targets of resveratrol, a biologically active ligand with less well-understood protein targets. A known protein target of resveratrol, cytosolic aldehyde dehydrogenase, was identified in addition to six other potential new proteins targets including four that are associated with the protein translation machinery, which has previously been implicated as a target of resveratrol.