英国伦敦国王学院Ulrike S. Eggert小组的一项最新研究探明了脂质阱质谱法鉴定细胞中的脂质-蛋白相互作用。该研究于2026年4月13日发表于国际一流学术期刊《自然—细胞生物学》杂志上。

在这里，课题组报告了一种名为脂质阱质谱（LTMS）的技术的发展，以系统地研究直接从哺乳动物细胞中捕获的脂质-蛋白相互作用。LTMS对HeLa细胞中表达的GFP标记蛋白进行免疫沉淀，然后对与GFP标记蛋白结合的脂质进行脂质组学分析。研究组将LTMS应用于细胞分裂来说明该技术。研究组之所以选择这一过程，是因为主题膜在细胞分裂过程中会发生重大变化，从而调节其脂质组成，而且许多细胞动力学蛋白，包括RACGAP1和ESCRT-III组分CHMP4B和CHMP2A，都与膜相关。通过LTMS，该课题组人员发现与非分裂细胞相比，RACGAP1和CHMP4B在分裂过程中与特定的脂质种类相关。该课题组研究人员扩大了他们对细胞分裂过程中脂质多样性的理解，并提出了一种探索脂质-蛋白相互作用的一般方法，以进一步了解脂质在哺乳动物细胞中的作用。

据介绍，细胞主动维持复杂的脂质体，包括脂质的需求；然而，这些脂质的许多作用仍未被探索。脂质和膜蛋白之间的特定相互作用可能是脂质组复杂性的一个原因。

附：英文原文

Title: Lipid-trap mass spectrometry identifies lipid–protein interactions in cells

Author: Paquola, Andrea, Benson, Clare E., Desale, Smita Eknath, Ozbalci, Cagakan, Storck, Elisabeth M., Terry, Stephen J., Rao, Bhagyashree Dasari, Nwite, Kelechi N., Ferrentino, Federica, Eggert, Ulrike S.

Issue&Volume: 2026-04-13

Abstract: Cells actively maintain complex lipidomes that encompass thousands of lipids; however, many of the roles of these lipids remain unexplored. Specific interactions between lipids and membrane proteins are a likely reason for lipidome complexity. Here we report the development of a technique, named lipid-trap mass spectrometry (LTMS), to systematically study lipid–protein interactions directly captured from mammalian cells. LTMS uses immunoprecipitation of GFP-tagged proteins expressed in HeLa cells, followed by lipidomic analysis of lipids bound to the GFP-tagged protein. We applied LTMS to cell division to illustrate the technique. We chose this process because membranes regulate their lipid composition as they undergo major changes during cytokinesis, and many cytokinetic proteins, including RACGAP1 and ESCRT-III components CHMP4B and CHMP2A, are membrane-associated. Using LTMS, we found that RACGAP1 and CHMP4B associate with specific lipid species in dividing compared with non-dividing cells. We expand our understanding of lipid diversity during cell division and present a general approach to explore lipid–protein interactions to further our knowledge of the roles of lipids in mammalian cells.

DOI: 10.1038/s41556-026-01928-6

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-026-01928-6