1H detection and dynamic nuclear polarization-enhanced NMR of Aβ1-42 fibrils

Spiers Memorial Lecture: NMR crystallography

Chemical function is directly related to the spatial arrangement of atoms. Consequently, the determination of atomic-level three-dimensional structures has transformed molecular and materials science over the past 60 years. In this context, solid-state NMR has emerged to become the method of choice for atomic-level characterization of complex materials in powder form. In the following we present an overview of current methods for chemical shift driven NMR crystallography, illustrated with applications to complex materials.

Solid Effect Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Enhancement of >500 at 9.4 T

Efficient polarizing agents for dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) enhanced magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy are of high current interest due to the potential to significantly boost NMR sensitivity. While most efforts have centered on cross-effect (CE) or Overhauser effect (OE) mechanisms, yielding enhancement factors up to ∼300 at 9.4 T, radicals yielding solid effect (SE) DNP have seen less development. Here we model the comparative performance of OE and SE mechanisms and then measure 1H enhancement factors up to 500 from 1,3-bisdiphenylene-2-phenylallyl (BDPA) in an ortho-terphenyl (OTP) matrix at 9.4 T, 100 K, achieved via increased microwave power across the sample volume. The measured SE and OE performances are in good agreement with the predictions. We note that both the experimental and theoretical analyses indicate that SE DNP remains saturation limited, particularly at elevated temperatures, and we envisage that further improvements in microwave power will further increase SE DNP enhancement factors.

Dipolar Recoupling in Rotating Solids

Magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has evolved significantly over the past three decades and established itself as a vital tool for the structural analysis of biological macromolecules and materials. This review delves into the development and application of dipolar recoupling techniques in MAS NMR, which are crucial for obtaining detailed structural and dynamic information. We discuss a variety of homonuclear and heteronuclear recoupling methods which are essential for measuring spatial restraints and explain in detail the spin dynamics that these sequences generate. We also explore recent developments in high spinning frequency MAS, proton detection, and dynamic nuclear polarization, underscoring their importance in advancing biomolecular NMR. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive account of contemporary dipolar recoupling methods, their principles, and their application to structural biology and materials, highlighting significant contributions to the field and emerging techniques that enhance resolution and sensitivity in MAS NMR spectroscopy.

Structural context modulates the conformational ensemble of the intrinsically disordered amino terminus of α-synuclein

Regions of intrinsic disorder play crucial roles in biological systems, yet they often elude characterization by conventional biophysical techniques. To capture conformational distributions across different timescales, we employed a freezing approach coupled with solid-state NMR analysis. Using segmentally isotopically labeled α-synuclein (α-syn), we investigated the conformational preferences of the six alanines, three glycines, and a single site (L8) in the disordered amino terminus under three distinct conditions: in 8 M urea, as a frozen monomer in buffer, and within the disordered regions flanking the amyloid core. The experimental spectra varied significantly among these conditions and deviated from those of a statistical coil. In 8 M urea, monomeric α-syn exhibited the most restricted conformational sampling, rarely accessing chemical shifts characteristic of α-helices or β-strands. In buffer, monomeric α-syn showed broader conformational sampling, favoring α-helical conformations and, to a lesser extent, random coil states. Notably, amino acids in the disordered regions flanking the amyloid core demonstrated the most extensive conformational sampling, with broad peaks encompassing the entire range of possible chemical shifts and a marked preference for highly extended β-strand conformations. Collectively, this work demonstrates that intrinsically disordered regions exhibit distinct conformational preferences, which are influenced not only by the chemical environment but also by the conformations of adjacent protein sequences. The differences in the conformational ensembles of the disordered amino terminus may explain why the monomer and the amyloid form of α-syn interact with different biomolecules inside cells.

In cell NMR reveals cells selectively amplify and structurally remodel amyloid fibrils

Amyloid forms of α-synuclein adopt different conformations depending on environmental conditions. Advances in structural biology have accelerated fibril characterization. However, it remains unclear which conformations predominate in biological settings because current methods typically not only require isolating fibrils from their native environments, but they also do not provide insight about flexible regions. To address this, we characterized α-syn amyloid seeds and used sensitivity enhanced nuclear magnetic resonance to investigate the amyloid fibrils resulting from seeded amyloid propagation in different settings. We found that the amyloid fold and conformational preferences of flexible regions are faithfully propagated in vitro and in cellular lysates. However, seeded propagation of amyloids inside cells led to the minority conformation in the seeding population becoming predominant and more ordered, and altered the conformational preferences of flexible regions. The examination of the entire ensemble of protein conformations in biological settings that is made possible with this approach may advance our understanding of protein misfolding disorders and facilitate structure-based drug design efforts.

Characterization of dielectric properties and their impact on MAS-DNP NMR applications

The dielectric properties of materials play a crucial role in the propagation and absorption of microwave beams employed in Magic Angle Spinning - Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (MAS-DNP) NMR experiments. Despite ongoing optimization efforts in sample preparation, routine MAS-DNP NMR applications often fall short of theoretical sensitivity limits. Offering a different perspective, we report the refractive indices and extinction coefficients of diverse materials used in MAS-DNP NMR experiments, spanning a frequency range from 70 to 960 GHz. Knowledge of their dielectric properties enables the accurate simulation of electron nutation frequencies, thereby guiding the design of more efficient hardware and sample preparation of biological or material samples. This is illustrated experimentally for four different rotor materials (sapphire, yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), aluminum nitride (AlN), and SiAlON ceramics) used for DNP at 395 GHz/1H 600 MHz. Finally, electromagnetic simulations and state-of-the-art MAS-DNP numerical simulations provide a rational explanation for the observed magnetic field dependence of the enhancement when using nitroxide biradicals, offering insights that will improve MAS-DNP NMR at high magnetic fields.

Structural characterization of E22G Aβ1-42 fibrils via1H detected MAS NMR

Amyloid fibrils have been implicated in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative diseases, the most prevalent example being Alzheimer's disease (AD). Despite the prevalence of AD, relatively little is known about the structure of the associated amyloid fibrils. This has motivated our studies of fibril structures, extended here to the familial Arctic mutant of Aβ1-42, E22G-Aβ1-42. We found E22G-AβM0,1-42 is toxic to Escherichia coli, thus we expressed E22G-Aβ1-42 fused to the self-cleavable tag NPro in the form of its EDDIE mutant. Since the high surface activity of E22G-Aβ1-42 makes it difficult to obtain more than sparse quantities of fibrils, we employed 1H detected magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments to characterize the protein. The 1H detected 13C-13C methods were first validated by application to fully protonated amyloidogenic nanocrystals of GNNQQNY, and then applied to fibrils of the Arctic mutant of Aβ, E22G-Aβ1-42. The MAS NMR spectra indicate that the biosynthetic samples of E22G-Aβ1-42 fibrils comprise a single conformation with 13C chemical shifts extracted from hCH, hNH, and hCCH spectra that are very similar to those of wild type Aβ1-42 fibrils. These results suggest that E22G-Aβ1-42 fibrils have a structure similar to that of wild type Aβ1-42.

Exploring the Higher Order Structure and Conformational Transitions in Insulin Microcrystalline Biopharmaceuticals by Proton-Detected Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance at Natural Abundance

The integrity of a higher order structure (HOS) is an essential requirement to ensure the efficacy, stability, and safety of protein therapeutics. Solution-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) occupies a unique niche as one of the most promising methods to access atomic-level structural information on soluble biopharmaceutical formulations. Another major class of drugs is poorly soluble, such as microcrystalline suspensions, which poses significant challenges for the characterization of the active ingredient in its native state. Here, we have demonstrated a solid-state NMR method for HOS characterization of biopharmaceutical suspensions employing a selective excitation scheme under fast magic angle spinning (MAS). The applicability of the method is shown on commercial insulin suspensions at natural isotopic abundance. Selective excitation aided with proton detection and non-uniform sampling (NUS) provides improved sensitivity and resolution. The enhanced resolution enabled us to demonstrate the first experimental evidence of a phenol-escaping pathway in insulin, leading to conformational transitions to different hexameric states. This approach has the potential to serve as a valuable means for meticulously examining microcrystalline biopharmaceutical suspensions, which was previously not attainable in their native formulation states and can be seamlessly extended to other classes of biopharmaceuticals such as mAbs and other microcrystalline proteins.

Rational Design of Dinitroxide Polarizing Agents for Dynamic Nuclear Polarization to Enhance Overall NMR Sensitivity

We evaluate the overall sensitivity gains provided by a series of eighteen nitroxide biradicals for dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) solid-state NMR at 9.4 T and 100 K, including eight new biradicals. We find that in the best performing group the factors contributing to the overall sensitivity gains, namely the DNP enhancement, the build-up time, and the contribution factor, often compete with each other leading to very similar overall sensitivity across a range of biradicals. NaphPol and HydroPol are found to provide the best overall sensitivity factors, in organic and aqueous solvents respectively. One of the new biradicals, AMUPolCbm, provides high sensitivity for all three solvent formulations measured here, and can be considered to be a "universal" polarizing agent.

Identification of potential aggregation hotspots on Aβ42 fibrils blocked by the anti-amyloid chaperone-like BRICHOS domain

Protein misfolding can generate toxic intermediates, which underlies several devastating diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). The surface of AD-associated amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) fibrils has been suggested to act as a catalyzer for self-replication and generation of potentially toxic species. Specifically tailored molecular chaperones, such as the BRICHOS protein domain, were shown to bind to amyloid fibrils and break this autocatalytic cycle. Here, we identify a site on the Aβ42 fibril surface, consisting of three C-terminal β-strands and particularly the solvent-exposed β-strand stretching from residues 26-28, which is efficiently sensed by a designed variant of Bri2 BRICHOS. Remarkably, while only a low amount of BRICHOS binds to Aβ42 fibrils, fibril-catalyzed nucleation processes are effectively prevented, suggesting that the identified site acts as a catalytic aggregation hotspot, which can specifically be blocked by BRICHOS. Hence, these findings provide an understanding how toxic nucleation events can be targeted by molecular chaperones.

Resonant Mixing Dynamic Nuclear Polarization

We propose a mechanism for dynamic nuclear polarization that is different from the well-known Overhauser effect, solid effect, cross effect, and thermal mixing processes. We term it Resonant Mixing (RM), and we show that it arises from the evolution of the density matrix for a simple electron-nucleus coupled spin pair subject to weak microwave irradiation, the same interactions as the solid effect. However, the SE is optimal when the microwave field is off-resonance, whereas RM is optimal when the microwave field is on-resonance and involves the mixing of states by the microwave field together with the electron-nuclear coupling. Finally, we argue that this mechanism is responsible for the observed dispersive-shaped DNP field profile for trityl samples near the electron paramagnetic resonance center.

Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Illuminates Key Protein-Lipid Interactions in the Native Bacterial Cell Envelope

Elucidating the structure and interactions of proteins in native environments is a fundamental goal of structural biology. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is well suited for this task but often suffers from low sensitivity, especially in complex biological settings. Here, we use a sensitivity-enhancement technique called dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) to overcome this challenge. We apply DNP to capture the membrane interactions of the outer membrane protein Ail, a key component of the host invasion pathway of Yersinia pestis. We show that the DNP-enhanced NMR spectra of Ail in native bacterial cell envelopes are well resolved and enriched in correlations that are invisible in conventional solid-state NMR experiments. Furthermore, we demonstrate the ability of DNP to capture elusive interactions between the protein and the surrounding lipopolysaccharide layer. Our results support a model where the extracellular loop arginine residues remodel the membrane environment, a process that is crucial for host invasion and pathogenesis.

Frequency-swept dynamic nuclear polarization

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) improves the sensitivity of NMR spectroscopy by the transfer of electron polarization to nuclei via irradiation of electron-nuclear transitions with microwaves at the appropriate frequency. For fields > 5 T and using g ∼ 2 electrons as polarizing agents, this requires the availability of microwave sources operating at >140 GHz. Therefore, microwave sources for DNP have generally been continuous-wave (CW) gyrotrons, and more recently solid state, oscillators operating at a fixed frequency and power. This constraint has limited the DNP mechanisms which can be exploited, and stymied the development of new time domain mechanisms. We report here the incorporation of a microwave source enabling facile modulation of frequency, amplitude, and phase at 9 T (250 GHz microwave frequency), and we have used the source for magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR experiments. The experiments include investigations of CW DNP mechanisms, the advantage of frequency-chirped irradiation, and a demonstration of an Overhauser enhancement of ∼25 with a recently reported water-soluble BDPA radical, highlighting the potential for affordable and compact microwave sources to achieve significant enhancement in aqueous samples, including biological macromolecules. With the development of suitable microwave amplifiers, it should permit exploration of multiple new avenues involving time domain experiments.

Diamond rotors

The resolution of magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra remains bounded by the spinning frequency, which is limited by the material strength of MAS rotors. Since diamond is capable of withstanding 1.5-2.5x greater MAS frequencies, compared to state-of-the art zirconia, we fabricated rotors from single crystal diamond. When combined with bearings optimized for spinning with helium gas, diamond rotors could achieve the highest MAS frequencies to date. Furthermore, the excellent microwave transmission properties and thermal conductivity of diamond could improve sensitivity enhancements in dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) experiments. The fabrication protocol we report involves novel laser micromachining and produced rotors that presently spin at ωr/2π = 111.000 ± 0.004 kHz, with stable spinning up to 124 kHz, using N2 gas as the driving fluid. We present the first proton-detected 13C/15N MAS spectra recorded using diamond rotors, a critical step towards studying currently inaccessible ex-vivo protein samples with MAS NMR. Previously, the high aspect ratio of MAS rotors (∼10:1) precluded fabrication of MAS rotors from diamond.

Dynamic nuclear polarization illuminates key protein-lipid interactions in the native bacterial cell envelope

Elucidating the structure and interactions of proteins in native environments has become a fundamental goal of structural biology. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is well suited for this task but often suffers from low sensitivity, especially in complex biological settings. Here, we use a sensitivity-enhancement technique called dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) to overcome this challenge. We apply DNP to capture the membrane interactions of the outer membrane protein Ail, a key component of the host invasion pathway of Yersinia pestis . We show that the DNP-enhanced NMR spectra of Ail in native bacterial cell envelopes are well resolved and enriched in correlations that are invisible in conventional solid-state NMR experiments. Furthermore, we demonstrate the ability of DNP to capture elusive interactions between the protein and the surrounding lipopolysaccharide layer. Our results support a model where the extracellular loop arginine residues remodel the membrane environment, a process that is crucial for host invasion and pathogenesis.

Conformational ensembles explain NMR spectra of frozen intrinsically disordered proteins

Protein regions which are intrinsically disordered, exist as an ensemble of rapidly interconverting structures. Cooling proteins to cryogenic temperatures for dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR studies suspends most of the motions, resulting in peaks that are broad but not featureless. To demonstrate that detailed conformational restraints can be retrieved from the peak shapes of frozen proteins alone, we developed and used a simulation framework to assign peak features to conformers in the ensemble. We validated our simulations by comparing them to spectra of α-synuclein acquired under different experimental conditions. Our assignments of peaks to discrete dihedral angle populations suggest that structural constraints are attainable under cryogenic conditions. The ability to infer ensemble populations from peak shapes has important implications for DNP MAS NMR studies of proteins with regions of disorder in living cells because chemical shifts are the most accessible measured parameter.

PyrroTriPol: a semi-rigid trityl-nitroxide for high field dynamic nuclear polarization

Magic angle spinning (MAS) dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) has significantly broadened the scope of solid-state NMR to study biomolecular systems and materials. In recent years, the advent of very high field DNP combined with fast MAS has brought new challenges in the design of polarizing agents (PA) used to enhance nuclear spin polarization. Here, we present a trityl-nitroxide PA family based on a piperazine linker, named PyrroTriPol, for both aqueous and organic solutions. These new radicals have similar properties to that of TEMTriPol-I and can be readily synthesized, and purified in large quantities thereby ensuring widespread application. The family relies on a rigid bridge connecting the trityl and the nitroxide offering a better control of the electron spin-spin interactions thus providing improved performance across a broad range of magnetic fields and MAS frequencies while requiring reduced microwave power compared to bis-nitroxides. We demonstrate the efficiency of the PyrroTriPol family under a magnetic field of 9.4, 14.1 and 18.8 T with respect to TEMTriPol-I. In particular, the superiority of PyrroTriPol was demonstrated on γ-Al2O3 nanoparticles which enabled the acquisition of a high signal-to-noise surface-selective 27Al multiple-quantum MAS experiment at 18.8 T and 40 kHz MAS frequency.

Role of conformational dynamics in pathogenic protein aggregation

The accumulation of pathogenic protein oligomers and aggregates is associated with several devastating amyloid diseases. As protein aggregation is a multi-step nucleation-dependent process beginning with unfolding or misfolding of the native state, it is important to understand how innate protein dynamics influence aggregation propensity. Kinetic intermediates composed of heterogeneous ensembles of oligomers are frequently formed on the aggregation pathway. Characterization of the structure and dynamics of these intermediates is critical to the understanding of amyloid diseases since oligomers appear to be the main cytotoxic agents. In this review, we highlight recent biophysical studies of the roles of protein dynamics in driving pathogenic protein aggregation, yielding new mechanistic insights that can be leveraged for design of aggregation inhibitors.

Solid-state NMR studies of amyloids

Amyloids have special structural properties and are involved in many aspects of biological function. In particular, amyloids are the cause or hallmarks of a group of notorious and incurable neurodegenerative diseases. The extraordinary high molecular weight and aggregation states of amyloids have posed a challenge for researchers studying them. Solid-state NMR (SSNMR) has been extensively applied to study the structures and dynamics of amyloids for the past 20 or more years and brought us tremendous progress in understanding their structure and related diseases. These studies, at the same time, helped to push SSNMR technical developments in sensitivity and resolution. In this review, some interesting research studies and important technical developments are highlighted to give the reader an overview of the current state of this field.

Amplified Overhauser DNP with Selective Deuteration: Attenuation of Double-Quantum Cross-Relaxation

We recently used selective ²H labeling of BDPA to investigate the Overhauser Effect (OE) dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) mechanism in insulating solids doped with 1,3-bis(diphenylene)-2-phenylallyl (BDPA), and established that the α and γ ¹H spins on the fluorene rings are responsible for generating a zero quantum (ZQ) mediated positive bulk polarization. Here, we establish that the phenyl ¹H spins relax via double-quantum (DQ) processes and therefore contribute negative enhancements which attenuate the OE-DNP. With measurements at different magnetic field strengths, we show that phenyl-d₅-BDPA offers >50% improvement in OE-DNP enhancement compared to h₂₁-BDPA attaining a maximum of ∼90 at 14.1 T and 5 kHz MAS, the highest observed OE-DNP enhancement to date under these conditions. The approach may be utilized to optimize other polarizing agents exhibiting an OE, an important DNP mechanism with a favorable field and spinning frequency dependence.

Multiple acquisitions in a single scan: exhausting abundant 1H polarization at fast MAS

Proton-detected solid-state NMR spectroscopy is emerging as a unique tool for atomic characterization of organic solids due to the boost of resolution and sensitivity afforded by the combined use of high magnetic field and ultrafast magic angle spinning (MAS). Here, we proposed a new set of proton-detected solid-state NMR sequences that hybrid multi-dimensional ¹H-¹H homonuclear chemical shift correlation (HOMCOR) and two-dimensional ¹H-¹³C heteronuclear chemical shift correlation (HETCOR) sequences into a single experiment, enabling the simultaneous acquisition of multidimensional HOMCOR and HETCOR spectra and thus significant time savings. Based on the core idea of exhausting ¹H polarization in each transient scan, we firstly demonstrated that 3D ¹H multiple-quantum (MQ) HOMCOR sequence can be combined with 2D HETCOR sequence into a single experiment, leading to the simultaneous acquisition of a 3D ¹H MQ HOMCOR and a 2D ¹H-¹³C HETCOR spectrum. Besides, we also showed that 2D ¹H/¹H double-quantum/single-quantum (DQ/SQ) and single-quantum/single-quantum (SQ/SQ) HOMCOR sequence can be simultaneously combined with HETCOR sequence either, and thus three spectra can be simultaneously obtained from one experiment, including 2D ¹H DQ/SQ, 2D ¹H SQ/SQ and 2D ¹H-¹³C HETCOR spectra. Since there is only one recycle delay in each experiment, experimental time is substantially reduced compared to separate acquisition of each multi-dimensional solid-state NMR spectrum. Furthermore, those new sequences can be implemented on any standard solid-state spectrometer with only one receiver. Thus, we foresee that these approaches can be valuable for the study of a broad range of molecular systems, including polymers, pharmaceuticals, covalent-organic frameworks (COF) and so on.

Biradical Polarizing Agents at High Fields

The sensitivity enhancements available from dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) are rapidly reshaping the research landscape and expanding the field of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy as a tool for solving complex chemical and structural problems. The past decade has seen considerable advances in this burgeoning method, while efforts to further improve its capabilities continue along many avenues. In this report, we examine the influence of static magnetic field strength and temperature on the reported ¹H DNP enhancements from three conventional organic biradicals: TOTAPOL, AMUPol, and SPIROPOL. In contrast to the conventional wisdom, our findings show that at liquid nitrogen temperatures and 700 MHz/460.5 GHz, these three bisnitroxides all provide similar ¹H DNP enhancements, ε ≈ 60. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of temperature, microwave power, magnetic field strength, and protein sample deuteration on the NMR experimental results.

Optimisation of 1H PMLG homonuclear decoupling at 60 kHz MAS to enable 15N-1H through-bond heteronuclear correlation solid-state NMR spectroscopy

The Lee-Goldburg condition for homonuclear decoupling in 1H magic-angle spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR sets the angle θ, corresponding to arctan of the ratio of the rf nutation frequency, ν1, to the rf offset, to be the magic angle, θm, equal to tan-1(√2) = 54.7°. At 60 kHz MAS, we report enhanced decoupling compared to MAS alone in a 1H spectrum of 15N-glycine with at θ = 30° for a ν1 of ∼100 kHz at a 1H Larmor frequency, ν0, of 500 MHz and 1 GHz, corresponding to a high chemical shift scaling factor (λCS) of 0.82. At 1 GHz, we also demonstrate enhanced decoupling compared to 60 kHz MAS alone for a lower ν1 of 51 kHz, i.e., a case where the nutation frequency is less than the MAS frequency, with θ = 18°, λCS = 0.92. The ratio of the rotor period to the decoupling cycle time, Ψ = τr/τc, is in the range 0.53 to 0.61. Windowed decoupling using the optimised parameters for a ν1 of ∼100 kHz also gives good performance in a 1H spin-echo experiment, enabling implementation in a 1H-detected 15N-1H cross polarisation (CP)-refocused INEPT heteronuclear correlation NMR experiment. Specifically, initial 15N transverse magnetisation as generated by 1H-15N CP is transferred back to 1H using a refocused INEPT pulse sequence employing windowed 1H decoupling. Such an approach ensures the observation of through-bond N-H connectivities. For 15N-glycine, while the CP-refocused INEPT experiment has a lower sensitivity (∼50%) as compared to a double CP experiment (with a 200 μs 15N to 1H CP contact time), there is selectivity for the directly bonded NH3+ moiety, while intensity is observed for the CH21H resonances in the double CP experiment. Two-dimensional 15N-1H correlation MAS NMR spectra are presented for the dipeptide β-AspAla and the pharmaceutical cimetidine at 60 kHz MAS, both at natural isotopic abundance. For the dipeptide β-AspAla, different build-up dependence on the first spin-echo duration is observed for the NH and NH3+ moieties demonstrating that the experiment could be used to distinguish resonances for different NHx groups.

1H-Detected Biomolecular NMR under Fast Magic-Angle Spinning

Since the first pioneering studies on small deuterated peptides dating more than 20 years ago, 1H detection has evolved into the most efficient approach for investigation of biomolecular structure, dynamics, and interactions by solid-state NMR. The development of faster and faster magic-angle spinning (MAS) rates (up to 150 kHz today) at ultrahigh magnetic fields has triggered a real revolution in the field. This new spinning regime reduces the 1H-1H dipolar couplings, so that a direct detection of 1H signals, for long impossible without proton dilution, has become possible at high resolution. The switch from the traditional MAS NMR approaches with 13C and 15N detection to 1H boosts the signal by more than an order of magnitude, accelerating the site-specific analysis and opening the way to more complex immobilized biological systems of higher molecular weight and available in limited amounts. This paper reviews the concepts underlying this recent leap forward in sensitivity and resolution, presents a detailed description of the experimental aspects of acquisition of multidimensional correlation spectra with fast MAS, and summarizes the most successful strategies for the assignment of the resonances and for the elucidation of protein structure and conformational dynamics. It finally outlines the many examples where 1H-detected MAS NMR has contributed to the detailed characterization of a variety of crystalline and noncrystalline biomolecular targets involved in biological processes ranging from catalysis through drug binding, viral infectivity, amyloid fibril formation, to transport across lipid membranes.

Biomolecular and Biological Applications of Solid-State NMR with Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Enhancement

Solid-state NMR spectroscopy (ssNMR) with magic-angle spinning (MAS) enables the investigation of biological systems within their native context, such as lipid membranes, viral capsid assemblies, and cells. However, such ambitious investigations often suffer from low sensitivity due to the presence of significant amounts of other molecular species, which reduces the effective concentration of the biomolecule or interaction of interest. Certain investigations requiring the detection of very low concentration species remain unfeasible even with increasing experimental time for signal averaging. By applying dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) to overcome the sensitivity challenge, the experimental time required can be reduced by orders of magnitude, broadening the feasible scope of applications for biological solid-state NMR. In this review, we outline strategies commonly adopted for biological applications of DNP, indicate ongoing challenges, and present a comprehensive overview of biological investigations where MAS-DNP has led to unique insights.