Ion-Based Proteome-Integrated Solubility Alteration Assays for Systemwide Profiling of Protein-Molecule Interactions

Unbiased drug target engagement deconvolution and mechanism of action elucidation are major challenges in drug development. Modification-free target engagement methods, such as thermal proteome profiling, have gained increasing popularity in the last several years. However, these methods have limitations, and, in any case, new orthogonal approaches are needed. Here, we present a novel isothermal method for comprehensive characterization of protein solubility alterations using the effect on protein solubility of cations and anions in the Hofmeister series. We combine the ion-based protein precipitation approach with Proteome-Integrated Solubility Alteration (PISA) analysis and use this I-PISA assay to delineate the targets of several anticancer drugs both in cell lysates and intact cells. Finally, we demonstrate that I-PISA can detect solubility changes in minute amounts of sample, opening chemical proteomics applications to small and rare biological material.