X-ray and neutron small-angle scattering from hemoglobin in aqueous solution and in crystal

Interaction of p-benzoquinone with hemoglobin in smoker's blood causes alteration of structure and loss of oxygen binding capacity

Cigarette smoke (CS) is an important source of morbidity and early mortality worldwide. Besides causing various life-threatening diseases, CS is also known to cause hypoxia. Chronic hypoxia would induce early aging and premature death. Continuation of smoking during pregnancy is a known risk for the unborn child. Although carbon monoxide (CO) is considered to be a cause of hypoxia, the effect of other component(s) of CS on hypoxia is not known. Here we show by immunoblots and mass spectra analyses that in smoker's blood p-benzoquinone (p-BQ) derived from CS forms covalent adducts with cysteine 93 residues in both the β chains of hemoglobin (Hb) producing Hb-p-BQ adducts. UV-vis spectra and CD spectra analyses show that upon complexation with p-BQ the structure of Hb is altered. Compared to nonsmoker's Hb, the content of α-helix decreased significantly in smoker's Hb (p = 0.0224). p-BQ also induces aggregation of smoker's Hb as demonstrated by SDS-PAGE, dynamic light scattering and atomic force microscopy. Alteration of Hb structure in smoker's blood is accompanied by reduced oxygen binding capacity. Our results provide the first proof that p-BQ is a cause of hypoxia in smokers. We also show that although both p-BQ and CO are responsible for causing hypoxia in smokers, exposure to CO further affects the function over and above that produced by Hb-p-BQ adduct.

A comparison of X-ray small-angle scattering results to crystal structure analysis and other physical techniques in the field of biological macromolecules

In principle, there exist two ways to contribute to structure determination of macromolecules by X-ray diffraction: (a) by analysing diffraction data obtained from the crystalline state, and (b) by interpretation of X-ray small-angle scattering from particles in solution.

The brilliant achievements of X-ray crystal-structure analysis of macromolecules, initiated by the works of Perutz on heamoglobin and Kendrew on myoglobin, are well known and it is evident that its detailed elution of secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure cannot be matched by any other means. However, a number of necessary prerequisites for a successful application, as, for example, the availability of well-defined crystals and heavy atom labelled derivatives thereof to surmount the problem of phase determination are not always given.

Recent advances and applications of diffuse X-ray small-angle scattering on biopolymers in dilute solutions

In all scattering phenomena the scattering angles are inversely related to the dimensions of the scattering particles. As macromolecules are giant compared with the normally used CuKαwavelength λ = 1·54 Å, we find the scattering of the particle as a whole at Correspondingly small angles.