Determination of RNase A/2'-cytidine monophosphate binding affinity and enthalpy by a global fit of thermal unfolding curves

Biophysical Approaches for the Characterization of Protein-Metabolite Interactions

With an estimate of hundred thousands of protein molecules per cell and the number of metabolites several orders of magnitude higher, protein-metabolite interactions are omnipresent. In vitro analyses are one of the main pillars on the way to establish a solid understanding of how these interactions contribute to maintaining cellular homeostasis. A repertoire of biophysical techniques is available by which protein-metabolite interactions can be quantitatively characterized in terms of affinity, specificity, and kinetics in a broad variety of solution environments. Several of those provide information on local or global conformational changes of the protein partner in response to ligand binding. This review chapter gives an overview of the state-of-the-art biophysical toolbox for the study of protein-metabolite interactions. It briefly introduces basic principles, highlights recent examples from the literature, and pinpoints promising future directions.

Isothermal Analysis of ThermoFluor Data can readily provide Quantitative Binding Affinities

Differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF), also known as ThermoFluor or Thermal Shift Assay, has become a commonly-used approach for detecting protein-ligand interactions, particularly in the context of fragment screening. Upon binding to a folded protein, most ligands stabilize the protein; thus, observing an increase in the temperature at which the protein unfolds as a function of ligand concentration can serve as evidence of a direct interaction. While experimental protocols for this assay are well-developed, it is not straightforward to extract binding constants from the resulting data. Because of this, DSF is often used to probe for an interaction, but not to quantify the corresponding binding constant (Kd). Here, we propose a new approach for analyzing DSF data. Using unfolding curves at varying ligand concentrations, our "isothermal" approach collects from these the fraction of protein that is folded at a single temperature (chosen to be temperature near the unfolding transition). This greatly simplifies the subsequent analysis, because it circumvents the complicating temperature dependence of the binding constant; the resulting constant-temperature system can then be described as a pair of coupled equilibria (protein folding/unfolding and ligand binding/unbinding). The temperature at which the binding constants are determined can also be tuned, by adding chemical denaturants that shift the protein unfolding temperature. We demonstrate the application of this isothermal analysis using experimental data for maltose binding protein binding to maltose, and for two carbonic anhydrase isoforms binding to each of four inhibitors. To facilitate adoption of this new approach, we provide a free and easy-to-use Python program that analyzes thermal unfolding data and implements the isothermal approach described herein ( https://sourceforge.net/projects/dsf-fitting ).

Chip-based nanoelectrospray mass spectrometry for protein characterization

In the last several years, significant progress has been made in the development of microfluidic-based analytical technologies for proteomic and drug discovery applications. Chip-based nanoelectrospray coupled to a mass spectrometer detector is one of the recently developed analytical microscale technologies. This technology offers unique advantages for automated nanoelectrospray including reduced sample consumption, improved detection sensitivity and enhanced data quality for proteomic studies. This review presents an overview and introduction of recent developments in chip devices coupled to electrospray mass spectrometers including the development of the automated nanoelectrospray ionization chip device for protein characterization. Applications using automated chip-based nanoelectrospray ionization technology in proteomic and bioanalytical studies are also extensively reviewed in the fields of high-throughput protein identification, protein post-translational modification studies, top-down proteomics, biomarker screening by pattern recognition, noncovalent protein-ligand binding for drug discovery and lipid analysis. Additionally, future trends in chip-based nanoelectrospray technology are discussed.

Effects of pH and ionic strength on the thermodynamics of human serum albumin-photosensitizer binding

Fluorescence spectroscopy was used to measure the effects of pH and ionic strength on thermodynamic parameters governing the interaction of human serum albumin with zinc phthalocyanine tetrasulfonic acid. Fluorescence emission of zinc phthalocyanine increases at 686 nm with increasing concentrations of the protein. The non-linear correlation between protein concentration and emission of the photosensitizer was fitted using Chipman's analysis to calculate the binding affinities. The standard enthalpy and entropy changes were estimated from van't Hoff analysis of data that were acquired from temperature ramping studies. Results show that reaction is primarily driven by solution dynamics and that the change in enthalpy for the system becomes increasingly unfavorable with increasing pH and ionic strength. The effect of ionic strength on the entropy change for binding is shown to be significantly greater than the effects of pH. The interplay between entropy and enthalpy changes is demonstrated.

Improved accuracy of low affinity protein-ligand equilibrium dissociation constants directly determined by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

There is continued interest in the determination by ESI-MS of equilibrium dissociation constants (K(D)) that accurately reflect the affinity of a protein-ligand complex in solution. Issues in the measurement of K(D) are compounded in the case of low affinity complexes. Here we present a K(D) measurement method and corresponding mathematical model dealing with both gas-phase dissociation (GPD) and aggregation. To this end, a rational mathematical correction of GPD (f(sat)) is combined with the development of an experimental protocol to deal with gas-phase aggregation. A guide to apply the method to noncovalent protein-ligand systems according to their kinetic behavior is provided. The approach is validated by comparing the K(D) values determined by this method with in-solution K(D) literature values. The influence of the type of molecular interactions and instrumental setup on f(sat) is examined as a first step towards a fine dissection of factors affecting GPD. The method can be reliably applied to a wide array of low affinity systems without the need for a reference ligand or protein.

Analysis of the stability of cytochrome c6 with an improved stopped-flow protocol

This work presents an improved stopped-flow protocol for the simultaneous measurement of thermodynamic and kinetic protein stability data from a single experiment, along with a formalism for the global analysis of the data. The method was applied to the comparison of the stabilities of cytochrome c(6) from Anabaena sp. PCC 7119 and one of its mutants (D72K). Compared to the wild type the mutant was found to have a significantly reduced thermodynamic (deltadeltaG(U0)=2.7 kJ mol(-1)) and kinetic stability, as well as a more pronounced shift in transition state structure upon destabilization.

Quantitative determination of noncovalent binding interactions using automated nanoelectrospray mass spectrometry

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) has proven to be an extremely powerful tool for studying biomolecular structures and noncovalent interactions. Here we report a method using a fully automated, chip-based nanoESI-MS system to determine the dissociation constants (Kd) for the complexes of two different proteins with their ligands. The automated nanoelectrospray system, consisting of the NanoMate and ESI chip, serves functionally as a combination of autosampler and nanoelectrospray ionization source. This system provides all the advantages of conventional nanoelectrospray plus automated, high-throughput analyses without carryover. The automated nanoESI system was used to investigate quantitative noncovalent interactions between ribonuclease A (RNase A) and cytidylic acid ligands (2'-CMP, CTP), a well-characterized model protein-ligand complex, and between an inactive endocellulase mutant (Thermobifida fusca Cel6A D117Acd) and four oligosaccharide ligands (cellotriose, cellotetraose, cellopentaose, cellohexaose). Both titration and competitive binding approaches were performed prior to automated nanoESI-MS analysis with a Q-TOF mass spectrometer. Dissociation constants for each complex were calculated from the sum of ion peak areas of free and complexed proteins during the titration and competition experiments. The measured Kd values for the RNase A-CMP and Cel6A D117Acd-G3 complexes were found to be in excellent agreement with the available published values obtained by standard spectroscopic titration techniques. To our knowledge, this is the first report of using an ESI-MS approach to study the interactions between a cellulase and oligosaccharides. The results provide new insights for understanding the nature of cellulase-cellulose interactions.