Beta-lactoglobulin structure and retinol binding changes in presence of anionic and neutral detergents

Thermodynamics, interfacial pressure isotherms and dilational rheology of mixed protein-surfactant adsorption layers

Proteins and their mixtures with surfactants are widely used in many applications. The knowledge of their solution bulk behavior and its impact on the properties of interfacial layers made great progress in the recent years. Different mechanisms apply to the formation process of protein/surfactant complexes for ionic and non-ionic surfactants, which are governed mainly by electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. The surface activity of these complexes is often remarkably different from that of the individual protein and has to be considered in respective theoretical models. At very low protein concentration, small amounts of added surfactants can change the surface activity of proteins remarkably, even though no strongly interfacial active complexes are observed. Also small added amounts of non-ionic surfactants change the surface activity of proteins in the range of small bulk concentrations or surface coverages. The modeling of the equilibrium adsorption behavior of proteins and their mixtures with surfactants has reached a rather high level. These models are suitable also to describe the high frequency limits of the dilational viscoelasticity of the interfacial layers. Depending on the nature of the protein/surfactant interactions and the changes in the interfacial layer composition rather complex dilational viscoelasticities can be observed and described by the available models. The differences in the interfacial behavior, often observed in literature for studies using different experimental methods, are at least partially explained by a depletion of proteins, surfactants and their complexes in the range of low concentrations. A correction of these depletion effects typically provides good agreement between the data obtained with different methods, such as drop and bubble profile tensiometry.

β-Lactoglobulin mutant Lys69Asn has attenuated IgE and increased retinol binding activity

β-Lactoglobulin (β-LG) is a member of lipocalin superfamily of transporters for small hydrophobic molecules such as retinoids, fatty acids, drugs, and vitamins. β-LG also is one of the major allergens in milk. Despite a lot of research on decreasing cow's milk allergenicity, the effects of mutations of β-LG on recognition by IgE from cow's milk allergy (CMA) patients have not been investigated. We describe here the expression in the yeast Pichia pastoris of a mutant bovine β-LG, in which lysine at position 69, in the main epitopes of the protein, was changed into asparagine (Lys69Asn). The purity and native like folded structure of the recombinant Lys69Asn β-LG was confirmed by HPLC, SDS-PAGE, mass spectrometry and circular dichroism. Lys69Asn β-LG has a fourfold stronger affinity than the wild-type protein for retinol, palmitic acid, and resveratrol, as determined by quenching of the intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence. At the same time the Lys69Asn mutant had a 9 fold attenuated, compared with the wild-type, affinity for IgE of sera from patients suffering from cow's milk allergy, whereas no difference could be detected between mutant and wild-type for binding of the IgGs of four monoclonal antibodies. The results of this study demonstrated the significant role of Lys69 residue on the binding and immuoreactivity properties of β-LG.

Production, characterization and foamability of α-lactalbumin/glycomacropeptide supramolecular structures

The study of protein interactions has generated great interest in the food industry. Therefore, research on new supramolecular structures shows promise. Supramolecular structures of the whey proteins α-lactalbumin and glycomacropeptide were produced under varying heat treatments (25 to 75°C) and acidic conditions (pH3.5 to 6.5). Isothermal titration calorimetry experiments showed protein interactions and demonstrated that this is an enthalpically driven process. Supramolecular protein structures in aqueous solutions were characterized by circular dichroism and intrinsic fluorescence spectroscopy. Additional photon correlation spectroscopy experiments showed that the size distribution of the structures ranged from 4 to 3545nm among the different conditions. At higher temperatures, lower pH increased particle size. The foamability of the supramolecular protein structures was evaluated. Analysis of variance and analysis of regression for foaming properties indicated that the two-factor interactions between pH and temperature exhibited a significant effect on the volume and stability of the foam.