It is known that storage at pH 6 stabilizes thrombin against inactivation. In order to determine whether structural changes accompany this stabilization, the conformation of human α-thrombin at pH 6.0 and 7.5 was investigated by chemical modification, solvent perturbation, UV difference spectroscopy and circular dichroism. It was shown that the CD spectra of α-thrombin at 230-200 nm peptide region were indistinguishable at two pH values indicating no difference in the secondary structure. However, differences were observed in the 320-250 nm aromatic region suggesting some changes in the microenvironment of the aromatic chromophores. Solvent perturbation in 20% ethylene glycol indicated 3.7 ± 0.5 Trp and 7.8 ± 0.5 Tyr were exposed to the solvent at pH 6.0 while 4.3 ± 0.4 Trp and 8.4 ± 0.5 Tyr were exposed at pH 7.5. Chemical modification of tryptophan residue by dimethyl(2-hydroxy- 5-nitrobenzyl)sulfonium bromide in a 100-fold molar excess of the reagent showed 3 reactive residues at pH 6.0 and 6 at pH 7.5. These results suggest that when thrombin is exposed to low pH, structural changes occur that decrease the relative degree of exposure of tryptophan and tyrosine residues. Furthermore, UV difference spectroscopy showed the development of a positive differential spectrum when thrombin at pH 6.0 was exposed to pH 7.5. From this study, it is concluded that the stability of thrombin at pH 6.0 is due to a more compact structure of the enzyme which is probably a result of reduced charge interaction at low pH.
Evidence by chemical modification that tryptophan-104 of the cysteine-proteinase inhibitor chicken cystatin is located in or near the proteinase-binding site
