Analysis of Cell-Surface Receptor Dynamics through Covalent Labeling by Catalyst-Tethered Antibody

A general technique for introducing biophysical probes into selected receptors in their native environment is valuable for the study of their structure, dynamics, function, and molecular interactions. A number of such techniques rely on genetic engineering, which is not applicable for the study of endogenous proteins, and such approaches often suffer from artifacts due to the overexpression and bulky size of the probes/protein tags used. Here we designed novel catalyst-antibody conjugates capable of introducing small chemical probes into receptor proteins such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in a selective manner on the surface of living cells. Because of the selectivity and efficiency of this labeling technique, we were able to monitor the cellular dynamics and lifetime of HER2 endogenously expressed on cancer cells. More significantly, the current labeling technique comprises a stable covalent bond, which combined with a peptide mass fingerp...