Trifunctional lipid derivatives: PEs mi-tochondrial interactome

In this study, we employed chemically synthesized trifunctional lipid probes to identify putative protein partners that interact with lipids in HeLa cells. These probes incorporate three distinct chemical functionalities. First, a coumarin-based “caging” moiety is added to the lipid head group, which shields the lipid from metabolic degradation and facilitates its uptake by cells. Second, a diazirine group is embedded within the acyl chain. Upon photoactivation (e.g., exposure to UV light), this diazirine crosslinks the lipid probe to nearby proteins. Finally, an alkyne group is introduced at the tail of the acyl chain, enabling click chemistry conjugation to azide-functionalized beads.This permits the selective enrichment of crosslinked protein complexes for downstream isolation and mass spectrometry–based proteomic analysis. This strategy allows the identification of native lipid–protein interactions while minimally perturbing cellular systems. Using HeLa cells as our experimental model, we were able to detect and enrich candidate lipid-binding proteins for subsequent in-depth proteomic characterization.