Experimental and data analysis advances in thermal proteome profiling

Abstract

Method development for mass spectrometry (MS)-based thermal shift proteomic assays have advanced to probe small molecules with known and unknown protein-ligand interaction mechanisms and specificity, which is predominantly used in characterization of drug-protein interactions. In the discovery of target and off-target protein-ligand interactions, a thorough investigation of method development and their impact on the sensitivity and accuracy of protein-small molecule and protein-protein interactions is warranted. In this review, we discuss areas of improvement at each stage of thermal proteome profiling data analysis that includes processing of MS-based data, method development, and their effect on the overall quality of thermal proteome profiles. We also overview the optimization of experimental strategies and prioritization of an increased number of independent biological replicates over the number of evaluated temperatures.

Keywords: CP: biotechnology; cellular thermal shift assays; drug discovery; protein-ligand interactions; target engagement; thermal proteomic profiling.