Enhanced stability of Cu2+–ATCUN complexes under physiologically relevant conditions by insertion of structurally bulky and hydrophobic amino acid residues into the ATCUN motif

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (23) ◽  
pp. 9436-9445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takaaki Miyamoto ◽  
Yuta Fukino ◽  
Shinichiro Kamino ◽  
Masashi Ueda ◽  
Shuichi Enomoto

The stability of Cu2+–ATCUN complexes under physiologically relevant conditions is enhanced by inserting bulky and hydrophobic residues at positions 1 and 2 of the ATCUN peptide.

Author(s):  
Wei He ◽  
Wenhui Zhang ◽  
Zhenhua Chu ◽  
Yu Li

The aim of this paper is to explore the mechanism of the change in oestrogenic activity of PCBs molecules before and after modification by designing new PCBs derivatives in combination with molecular docking techniques through the constructed model of oestrogenic activity of PCBs molecules. We found that the weakened hydrophobic interaction between the hydrophobic amino acid residues and hydrophobic substituents at the binding site of PCB derivatives and human oestrogen receptor alpha (hERα) was the main reason for the weakened binding force and reduced anti-oestrogenic activity. It was consistent with the information that the hydrophobic field displayed by the 3D contour maps in the constructed oestrogen activity CoMSIA model was one of the main influencing force fields. The hydrophobic interaction between PCB derivatives and oestrogen-active receptors was negatively correlated with the average distance between hydrophobic substituents and hydrophobic amino acid residues at the hERα-binding site, and positively correlated with the number of hydrophobic amino acid residues. In other words, the smaller the average distance between the hydrophobic amino acid residues at the binding sites between the two and the more the number of them, and the stronger the oestrogen activity expression degree of PCBS derivative molecules. Therefore, hydrophobic interactions between PCB derivatives and the oestrogen receptor can be reduced by altering the microenvironmental conditions in humans. This reduces the ability of PCB derivatives to bind to the oestrogen receptor and can effectively modulate the risk of residual PCB derivatives to produce oestrogenic activity in humans.


Synthesis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (05) ◽  
pp. 1273-1283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Baldauf ◽  
Jeffrey Bode

The α-ketoacid–hydroxylamine (KAHA) ligation allows the coupling of unprotected peptide segments. The most widely used variant employs a 5-membered cyclic hydroxylamine that forms a homoserine ester as the primary ligation product. While very effective, monomers that give canonical amino acid residues are in high demand. In order to preserve the stability and reactivity of cyclic hydroxylamines, but form a canonical amino acid residue upon ligation, we sought to prepare cyclic derivatives of serine hydroxylamine. An evaluation of several cyclization strategies led to cyclobutanone ketals as the leading structures. The preparation, stability, and amide-forming ligation of these serine-derived ketals are described.


Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 108 (11) ◽  
pp. 1711-1711
Author(s):  
Rinku Majumder ◽  
Mary Ann Quinn-Allen ◽  
Barry R. Lentz ◽  
William H. Kane

Abstract Tightly associated factors Va and Xa serve as the essential prothrombin-activating complex whose assembly is triggered by occupancy of phosphatidylserine (PS) regulatory sites on both proteins. Factor Va C2 domain contains a binding site for soluble, short chain PS (C6PS) that includes the indole moieties of Trp2063/Trp2064 at the apex of a loop (“spike-1”) (Srivastava A, Quinn-Allen MA, Kim SW, Kane WH, Lentz BR. Biochemistry, 2001, 40(28): 8246–55). Our recent data show that there is a C6PS site in the factor Va2 C1 domain that serves as a regulatory site for assembly and/or activity of the FVa2-FXa complex (Majumder R, Quinn-Allen MA, Kane WH & Lentz BR. Manuscript in Preparation). This C6PS-binding site also involves aromatic and hydrophobic residues (Tyr1956/Tyr1957) located in a homologous loop whose apex is termed “spike 3”. In order to identify the amino acid residues in the C1 domain that contribute to the PS-mediated cofactor activity of factor Va2, charged and hydrophobic residues predicted to be exposed in FVa2-C1 domain were mutated to alanine in clusters of 1–3 mutations per construct. The resultant 20 mutants (R1880A, D1892A, (K1896,E1899)A, (F1900,L1901,Y1903)A, (E1905,R1907)A, Y1917A, (E1923,K1924)A, (K1941,E1942)A, (K1954,H1955)A, (Y1956,L1957)A, Y1956A, L1957A, K1958A, E1964A, K1980A, D1995A, R2019A, (R2023,R2027)A, R2023A, R2027A,) and factor V wild type were expressed in Cos-7 cells followed by activation with thrombin, partial purification and concentration using HiTrap SP HP columns. The specific activities of all factor Va mutants were greater than 70% of wild type, with concentrations in the 1.5-7μM range. Recently it has been shown that two mutants (Y1956, L1957)A and (R2023,R2027)A showed decreased binding to immobilized PS and a selective decrease in prothrombinase activity on membranes containing 5% PS (Saleh M, Peng W, Quinn-Allen MA, Macedo-Ribeiro S, Fuentes-Prior P, Bode W & Kane WH. Thromb. Haemost.2004, 91:16–27). Here we report the rate of prothrombin activation in the presence of 1 nM factor Xa, 5 nM factorVa2 (mutants and wild type) and 400 mM C6PS. Enhancement of cofactor activity (E) of factor Va-C1 wild type and mutants by C6PS was measured using the following equation ( Zhai X, Srivastava A, Drummond DC, Daleke D and Lentz BR. Biochemistry. 2002, 41: 5675–84): \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \[E=\ (r_{Xa.Va.PL}/r_{Xa.PL})/(r_{Xa.Va}/r_{Xa})\] \end{document} Here, rXa·Va·PL is the rate of prothrombin activation measured as the initial slope of the rate of change of normalized DAPA fluorescence with time by enzyme in the presence of factor Va and lipid, and other terms are defined analogously. The cofactor activities of (Y1956, L1957) A, Y1956A and L1957A were drastically reduced (values are 1.1, 4.2 and 5.1 respectively) relative to the cofactor activity of the wild type factor Va2 (15). The cofactor activities of (R2023, R2027) A, E1964A and (K1954, H1955) A were also reduced but to a lesser extent (values are 8, 10.6 and 12 respectively). We plan to monitor the binding of these mutants to C6PS and to factor Xa in the presence of C6PS in order to determine the role of these mutations on the assembly and activity of prothrombinase. Supported by grants from the NHLBI (HL43106 to W. Kane and HL 072827 to BRL).


2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (9) ◽  
pp. 4921-4926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne York ◽  
Jack H. Nunberg

ABSTRACT The interaction between the gp120 and gp41 subunits of the human immunodeficiency virus envelope glycoprotein serves to stabilize the virion form of the complex and to transmit receptor-induced conformational changes in gp120 to trigger the membrane fusion activity of gp41. In this study, we used site-directed mutagenesis to identify amino acid residues in the central ectodomain of gp41 that contribute to the stability of the gp120-gp41 association. We identified alanine mutations at six positions, including four tryptophan residues, which result in mutant envelope glycoprotein complexes that fail to retain gp120 on the cell surface. These envelope glycoproteins readily shed their gp120 and are unable to mediate cell-cell fusion. These findings suggest an important role for the conserved bulky hydrophobic residues in stabilizing the gp120-gp41 complex.


2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 1131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Ping Li ◽  
Alba Phippard ◽  
Jae Pasari ◽  
Krishna K. Niyogi

In land plants, photosystem II subunit S (PsbS) plays a key role in xanthophyll- and pH-dependent non-photochemical quenching (qE) of excess absorbed light energy. Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. npq4 mutants are defective in the psbS gene and have impaired qE. Exactly how the PsbS protein is involved in qE is unclear, but it has been proposed that PsbS binds H+ and/or de-epoxidized xanthophylls in excess light as part of the qE mechanism. To identify amino acid residues that are important for PsbS function, we sequenced the psbS gene from eight npq4 point mutant alleles isolated by forward genetics screening, including two new alleles. In the four transmembrane helices of PsbS, several amino acid residues were found to affect the stability and/or function of the protein. By comparing the predicted amino acid sequences of PsbS from several plant species and studying the proposed topological structure of PsbS, eight possible H+-binding amino acid residues on the lumenal side of the protein were identified and then altered by site-directed mutagenesis in vitro. The mutant psbS genes were transformed into npq4-1, a psbS deletion mutant, to test the stability and function of the mutant PsbS proteins in�vivo. The results demonstrate that two conserved, protonatable amino acids, E122 and E226, are especially critical for the function of PsbS.


1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (7) ◽  
pp. 972-980
Author(s):  
Xiaohong Liu ◽  
Serafin Fraga ◽  
Albin Otter ◽  
George Kotovych ◽  
Paul G. Scott

A detailed NMR study of the peptide NAc-FDEKA-NH2 in aqueous and in CD3OH/H2O solutions as well as the N-acetylpentapeptide amides YDEKA, VDEKA, GDEKA, and the protected tetrapeptide NAc-DEKA-NH2 in methanolic solutions indicates the importance of the first amino acid (at i −1) on stabilizing the type I β-turn. The data illustrate the hydrophobic stabilization of this turn, which is present in FDEKA, YDEKA, and VDEKA. For GDEKA and DEKA, the NMR data indicate that this turn is not present. Molecular mechanics calculations support this conclusion and indicate that for FDEKA and GDEKA the type I β-turn is distorted in both the vacuum and the solvated structures. For the solvated structures, the Cα(i) − Cα(i + 3) distance is 4.87 Å for FDEKA and 6.00 Å for GDEKA, which are to be compared with the value of 4.64 Å for an ideal type I β-turn, i.e., the distortion is far greater in GDEKA than in FDEKA. The calculations can be interpreted to indicate the presence of two major conformations in solution. Keywords: β-turns, FDEKA, pentapeptide.


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