Determination of the backbone torsion psi angle by tensor correlation of chemical shift anisotropy and heteronuclear dipole-dipole interaction

FOXO3-NF-κB RelA Protein Complexes Reduce Proinflammatory Cell Signaling and Function

Tumor-associated myeloid cells, including dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages, are immune suppressive. This study demonstrates a novel mechanism involving FOXO3 and NF-κB RelA that controls myeloid cell signaling and impacts their immune-suppressive nature. We find that FOXO3 binds NF-κB RelA in the cytosol, impacting both proteins by preventing FOXO3 degradation and preventing NF-κB RelA nuclear translocation. The location of protein-protein interaction was determined to be near the FOXO3 transactivation domain. In turn, NF-κB RelA activation was restored upon deletion of the same sequence in FOXO3 containing the DNA binding domain. We have identified for the first time, to our knowledge, a direct protein-protein interaction between FOXO3 and NF-κB RelA in tumor-associated DCs. These detailed biochemical interactions provide the foundation for future studies to use the FOXO3-NF-κB RelA interaction as a target to enhance tumor-associated DC function to support or enhance antitumor immunity.

Constant time tensor correlation experiments by non-gamma-encoded recoupling pulse sequences

Constant-time tensor correlation under magic-angle spinning conditions is an important technique in solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for the measurements of backbone or side-chain torsion angles of polypeptides and proteins. We introduce a general method for the design of constant-time tensor correlation experiments under magic-angle spinning. Our method requires that the amplitude of the average Hamiltonian must depend on all the three Euler angles bringing the principal axis system to the rotor-fixed frame, which is commonly referred to as non-gamma encoding. We abbreviate this novel approach as COrrelation of Non-Gamma-Encoded Experiment (CONGEE), which exploits the orientation-dependence of non-gamma-encoded sequences with respect to the magic-angle rotation axis. By manipulating the relative orientation of the average Hamiltonians created by two non-gamma-encoded sequences, one can obtain a modulation of the detected signal, from which the structural information can be extracted when the tensor orientations relative to the molecular frame are known. CONGEE has a prominent feature that the number of rf pulses and the total pulse sequence duration can be maintained to be constant so that for torsion angle determination the effects of systematic errors owing to the experimental imperfections and/or T(2) effects could be minimized. As a proof of concept, we illustrate the utility of CONGEE in the correlation between the C' chemical shift tensor and the C(α)-H(α) dipolar tensor for the backbone psi angle determination. In addition to a detailed theoretical analysis, numerical simulations and experiments measured for [U-(13)C, (15)N]-L-alanine and N-acetyl-[U-(13)C, (15)N]-D,L-valine are used to validate our approach at a spinning frequency of 20 kHz.

Site-specific ϕ- and ψ-torsion angle determination in a uniformly/extensively 13C- and 15N-labeled peptide

A solid-state rotational-echo double resonance (REDOR) NMR method was introduced to identify the ϕ- and ψ-torsion angle from a (1)H-(15)N or (1)H-(13)C' spin system of alanine-like residues in a selectively, uniformly, or extensively (15)N-/(13)C-labeled peptide. When a C(α)(i) or a (15)N peak is site-specifically obtainable in the NMR spectrum of a uniformly (15)N/(13)C-labeled sample system, the ψ- or ϕ-torsion angle specified by the conformational structure of peptide geometry involving (15)N(i)-(1)H(α)i-(15)N(i+1) or (13)C'(i-1)-(1)H(N)i-(13)C'(i) spin system can be identified based on (13)C(α)- or (15)N-detected (1)H(α)-(15)N or (1)H(N)-(13)C REDOR experiment. This method will conveniently be utilized to identify major secondary motifs, such as α-helix, β-sheet, and β-turn, from a uniformly (15)N-/(13)C-labled peptide sample system. When tested on a (13)C-/(15)N-labeled model system of a three amino acid peptide Gly-[U-(13)C, (15)N]Ala-[U-(13)C, (15)N]Leu, the ψ-angle of alanine obtained experimentally, ψ = -40 ± 30°, agreed reasonably well with the X-ray determined angle, ψ = -39°.

Solid-state NMR techniques for the structural determination of amyloid fibrils

This review discusses the solid-state NMR techniques developed for the study of amyloid fibrils. Literature up to the end of 2010 has been surveyed and the materials are organized according to five categories, viz. homonuclear dipolar recoupling and polarization transfer via J-coupling, heteronuclear dipolar recoupling, correlation spectroscopy, recoupling of chemical shift anisotropy, and tensor correlation. Our emphasis is on the NMR techniques and their practical aspects. The biological implications of the results obtained for amyloid fibrils are only briefly discussed. Our main objective is to showcase the power of NMR in the study of biological unoriented solids.

Determination of chemical shift anisotropies of unresolved carbonyl sites by C-alpha detection under magic-angle spinning

We demonstrate that the static powder pattern line shape of chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) can be obtained for unresolved carbonyl sites of polypeptides under magic-angle spinning. The CSA interaction is first recoupled at the carbonyl site. The phase factors associated with the CSA recoupling are then transferred to the adjacent alpha carbon by an isotropic polarization transfer based on scalar spin-spin coupling. Because alpha carbons of polypeptides are usually better resolved, we can then obtain the CSA static powder pattern line shapes of the carbonyl sites after Fourier transformation in the second dimension. We validate our approach experimentally by measurements on [U-(13)C, (15)N]-l-alanine, [U-(13)C, (15)N]-l-valine and prion fibrils with uniform (13)C and (15)N labels on selected residues.