Solvent-induced structural distortions of horse metmyoglobin

Formation of Myoglobin Corona at Polymer Microparticles

Adsorption of myoglobin molecules at negatively charged polystyrene microparticles was studied using the dynamic light scattering (DLS), electrophoresis (LDV) and the solution depletion method involving atomic force microscopy (AFM). The measurements were carried out at pH 3.5 and NaCl concentration of 10−2 and 0.15 M. Initially, the stability of myoglobin solutions and the particle suspensions as a function of pH were determined. Afterward, the formation of myoglobin molecule corona was investigated via the direct electrophoretic mobility measurements, which were converted to the zeta potential. The experimental results were quantitatively interpreted in terms of the general electrokinetic model. This approach yielded the myoglobin corona coverage under in situ conditions. The maximum hard corona coverage was determined using the AFM concentration depletion method. It was equal to 0.9 mg m−2 for the NaCl concentration in the range 0.01 to 0.15 M and pH 3.5. The electrokinetic properties of the corona were investigated using the electrophoretic mobility measurements for a broad pH range. The obtained results confirmed that thorough physicochemical characteristics of myoglobin molecules can be acquired using nM amounts of the protein. It was also argued that this method can be used for performing electrokinetic characteristics of other proteins such as the SARS-Cov-2 spike protein exhibiting, analogously to myoglobin, a positive charge at acidic pHs.

Mechanism of Myoglobin Molecule Adsorption on Silica: QCM, OWLS and AFM Investigations

Adsorption kinetics of myoglobin on silica was investigated using the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and the optical waveguide light-mode spectroscopy (OWLS). Measurements were carried out for the NaCl concentration of 0.01 M and 0.15 M. A quantitative analysis of the kinetic adsorption and desorption runs acquired from QCM allowed to determine the maximum coverage of irreversibly bound myoglobin molecules. At a pH of 3.5-4 this was equal to 0.60 mg m^-2 and 1.3 mg m^-2 for a NaCl concentration of 0.01 M and 0.15 M, respectively, which agrees with the OWLS measurements. The latter value corresponds to the closely packed monolayer of molecules predicted from the random sequential adsorption approach. The fraction of reversibly bound protein molecules and their biding energy were also determined. It is observed that at larger pHs, the myoglobin adsorption kinetics was much slower. This behavior was attributed to the vanishing net charge that decreased the binding energy of molecules with the substrate. These results can be exploited to develop procedures for preparing myoglobin layers at silica substrates of well-controlled coverage useful for biosensing purposes.

Adsorption kinetic of myoglobin on mica and silica - Role of electrostatic interactions

Adsorption kinetics of myoglobin molecules on mica and silica was studied using the atomic force microscopy (AFM), the colloid enhancement and the quartz microbalance (QCM) methods. Measurements were carried out for the NaCl concentration of 0.01 and 0.15 M as a function of pH comprising pH 7.4 stabilized by the PBS buffer. The electrophoretic mobility measurements enabled to derive the molecules zeta potential as a function of pH. The isoelectric point appearing at pH 5, is lower than that predicted from the theoretical calculations of the nominal dissociation charge. The AFM investigations confirmed that myoglobin molecules irreversibly adsorb at pH 3.5 yielding well-defined layers of single molecules. These layers were characterized using the colloid enhancement method involving polymer microparticles for pH range 3-9. The microparticle deposition kinetics was adequately interpreted in terms of a hybrid random sequential adsorption model. It is confirmed that the myoglobin layers exhibit a negligible zeta potential at pH equal to 5 in accordance with the electrophoretic mobility measurements. Analogous adsorption kinetic measurements were performed for the silica substrate using QCM and AFM. It is observed that myoglobin molecules irreversibly adsorb at pH 3.5 forming stable layers of single molecules. On the other hand, its adsorption kinetics at larger pHs was much slower exhibiting a poorly defined maximum coverage. This was attributed to aggregation of the myoglobin solutions due to their vanishing charge. The kinetic QCM runs were adequately interpreted in terms of a theoretical model combining the Smoluchowski aggregation theory with the convective diffusion mass transfer theory.

Myoglobin on silica: a case study of the impact of adsorption on protein structure and dynamics

If protein structure and function changes upon adsorption are well documented, modification of adsorbed protein dynamics remains a blind spot, despite its importance in biological processes. The adsorption of metmyoglobin on a silica surface was studied by isotherm measurements, microcalorimetry, circular dichroïsm, and UV-visible spectroscopy to determine the thermodynamic parameters of protein adsorption and consequent structure modifications. The mean square displacement and the vibrational densities of states of the adsorbed protein were measured by elastic and inelastic neutron scattering experiments. A decrease of protein flexibility and depletion in low frequency modes of myoglobin after adsorption on silica was observed. Our results suggest that the structure loss itself is not the entropic driving force of adsorption.

Synchrotron radiation circular dichroism spectroscopy applied to metmyoglobin and a 4-?-helix bundle carboprotein

The novel technique, synchrotron radiation-based circular dichroism (SR-CD), has been applied to the study of metmyoglobin and a carboprotein (carbohydrate-based peptide with protein tertiary structure) with 4-alpha-helix bundle structure, as well as a carbopeptide (carbohydrate-based peptide) with a truncated peptide sequence. The use of synchroton radiation (SR) enabled circular dichroism (CD) measurements in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) down to 168 nm in D(2)O and 160 nm in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE). The band shape in the CD spectra in the low wavelength region was studied, comparing samples with two types of alpha-helical tertiary structure, namely the globin fold and the 4-alpha-helix bundle motif. No significant differences were found between the CD spectra of the alpha-helical samples (metmyoglobin and carboprotein) in D(2)O solution. The use of 2,2,2-TFE (TFE) as solvent clearly alters the VUV CD but the two samples have very similar CD spectra. The solvent-induced denaturing of metmyoglobin in TFE was observed using absorption and CD spectroscopy of the Soret band, with results indicating heme release. The VUV spectrum of TFE-denatured metmyoglobin exhibits dramatic differences in comparison with previous studies of the native enzyme in aqueous solution. The implications of this observation are discussed.

High-pressure effects on horse heart metmyoglobin studied by small-angle neutron scattering

Small-angle neutron scattering experiments were performed on horse azidometmyoglobin (MbN3) at pressures up to 300 MPa. Other spectroscopic techniques have shown that a reorganization of the secondary structure and of the active site occur in this pressure range. The present measurements, performed using various concentrations of MbN3, show that the compactness of the protein is not altered as the value of its radius of gyration remains constant up to 300 MPa. The value of the second virial coefficient of the protein solution indicates that the interactions between the molecules are always strongly repulsive even if their magnitude decreases with increasing pressure. Taking advantage of the pressure-induced contrast variation, these experiments allow the partial specific volume of MbN3 to be determined as a function of pressure. Its value decreases by 5.4% between atmospheric pressure and 300 MPa. In this pressure range the isothermal compressibility of hydrated MbN3 is found to be almost constant. Its value is (1.6 +/- 0.1) 10-4 MPa-1.

Enhanced prediction accuracy of protein secondary structure using hydrogen exchange Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

A novel equilibrium hydrogen exchange Fourier transform IR (HX-FTIR) spectroscopy method for predicting secondary structure content was employed using spectra obtained for a training set of 23 globular proteins. The IR bandshape and frequency changes resulting from controlled levels of H-D exchange were observed to be protein-dependent. Their analysis revealed these variations to be partly correlated to secondary structure. For each protein, a set of 6 spectra was measured with a systematic variation of the solvent H-D ratio and was subjected to factor analysis. The most significant component spectra for each protein, representing independent aspects of the spectral response to deuteration, were each subjected to a second factor analysis over the entire training set. Restricted multiple regression (RMR) analysis using the loadings of the principal components from 19 of these H-D analyses revealed an improvement in prediction accuracy compared with conventional bandshape-based analyses of FTIR data. Nearly a factor of 2 reduction in error for prediction of helix fractions was found using s1, the average spectral response for the H-D set. In some cases, significant error reduction for prediction of minor components was found using higher factors. Using the same analytical methods, prediction errors with this new deuteration-response-FTIR method were shown to be even better than those obtained by use of electronic circular dichroism (ECD) data for helix predictions and to be significantly lower for ECD-based sheet prediction, making these the best secondary structure predictions obtained with the RMR method. Tests of a limited variable selection scheme showed further improvements, consistent with previous results of this approach using ECD data.

Solvent effects on horse apomyoglobin dynamics

The effects of the solvent conditions (buffer pH 9, 8, or 7 or buffer pH 6.5 alone or mixed with 3.2% ethanol or 6.2% formamide) on the protein dynamics of horse apomyoglobin were investigated through tryptophan fluorescence quenching, spectra, and decay properties. Raising the pH (which induces discontinuous protein conformation changes) increases the structural fluctuations inside the hydrophobic A, G, and H helix core. Mixed solutions containing either 3.2% ethanol or 6.2% formamide (which redistribute water molecules on the protein surface) produce protein dynamics changes in the vicinity of the two Trp residues, without inducing particular constraints on these very residues. Formamide increases, in the same way, the polarity and the protein flexibility while ethanol reduces both. The present fluorescence work also shows that, whatever the outside solvent, the two Trp residues W7 and W14, embedded in the A, G, and H helix core, are equally and statistically reached by small molecules diffusing inside the protein matrix. Hydrogen-tritium exchange measurements on the protein in mixed solvents reveal that the dynamics of the A, G, and H helix cluster and of the B and E helixes are greatly influenced by the nature of the outside medium. A small amount of formamide in the buffer increases the protein fluctuations while an ethanol-water mixture reduces them. We suggest that the hydratation state of the protein surface could be the relevant parameter of the protein dynamics.