Probing the binding of Cu(2+) ions to a fragment of the Aß(1-42) polypeptide using fluorescence spectroscopy, isothermal titration calorimetry and molecular dynamics simulations.

Steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence quenching measurements supported by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and molecular dynamics simulations (MD), with the NMR-derived restraints, were used to investigate the interactions of Cu(2+) ions with a fragment of the Aß(1-42) polypeptide, Aß(5-16) with the following sequence: Ac-Arg-His-Asp-Ser-Gly-Tyr-Glu-Val-His-His-Gln-Lys-NH2, denoted as HZ1. The studies presented in this paper, when compared with our previous results (Makowska et al., Spectrochim. Acta A 153: 451-456), show that the affinity of the peptide to metal ions is conformation-dependent. All the measurements were carried out in 20mM 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid (MES) buffer solution, pH6.0. The Stern-Volmer equations, along with spectroscopic observations, were used to determine the quenching and binding parameters. The obtained results unequivocally suggest that Cu(2+) ions quench the fluorescence of HZ1 only through a static quenching mechanism, in contrast to the fragment from the N-terminal part of the FPB28 protein, with sequence Ac-Tyr-Lys-Thr-Ala-Asp-Gly-Lys-Thr-Tyr- NH2 (D9) and its derivative with a single point mutation: Ac-Tyr-Lys-Thr-Ala-Asn-Gly-Lys-Thr-Tyr- NH2 (D9_M), where dynamic quenching occurred. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔITCH, ΔITCS) for the interactions between Cu(2+) ions and the HZ1 peptide were determined from the calorimetric data. The conditional thermodynamic parameters suggest that, under the experimental conditions, the formation of the Cu(2+)-HZ1 complex is both an enthalpy and entropy driven process.

Binding of Cu(II) ions to peptides studied by fluorescence spectroscopy and isothermal titration calorimetry.

Steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence quenching measurements supported by Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC) were used to study the interactions of Cu(2+) with four peptides. Two of them were taken from the N-terminal part of the FBP28 protein (formin binding protein) WW domain: Tyr-Lys-Thr-Ala-Asp-Gly-Lys-Thr-Tyr-NH2 (D9) and its mutant Tyr-Lys-Thr-Ala-Asn-Gly-Lys-Thr-Tyr-NH2 (D9_M) as well as two mutated peptides from the B3 domain of the immunoglobulin binding protein G derived from Streptococcus: Asp-Val-Ala-Thr-Tyr-Thr-NH2 (J1) and Glu-Val-Ala-Thr-Tyr-Thr-NH2 (J2). The measurements were carried out at 298.15K in 20mM 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid (MES) buffer solution with a pH of 6. The fluorescence of all peptides was quenched by Cu(2+) ions. The stoichiometry, conditional stability constants and thermodynamic parameters for the interactions of the Cu(2+) ions with D9 and D9_M were determined from the calorimetric data. The values of the conditional stability constants were additionally determined from fluorescence quenching measurements and compared with those obtained from calorimetric studies. There was a good correlation between data obtained from the two techniques. On the other hand, the studies revealed that J1 and J2 do not exhibit an affinity towards metal ions. The obtained results prove that fluorescence quenching experiments may be successfully used in order to determine stability constants of complexes with fluorescent ligands. Finally, based on the obtained results, the coordinating properties of the peptides towards the Cu(2+) ions are discussed.

A study of the influence of charged residues on ß-hairpin formation by nuclear magnetic resonance and molecular dynamics.

Chain reversals are often nucleation sites in protein folding. The ß-hairpins of FBP28 WW domain and IgG are stable and have been proved to initiate the folding and are, therefore, suitable for studying the influence of charged residues on ß-hairpin conformation. In this paper, we carried out NMR examination of the conformations in solution of two fragments from the FPB28 protein (PDB code: 1E0L) (N-terminal part) namely KTADGKT-NH2 (1E0L 12-18, D7) and YKTADGKTY-NH2 (1E0L 11-19, D9), one from the B3 domain of the protein G (PDB code: 1IGD), namely DDATKT-NH2 (1IGD 51-56) (Dag1), and three variants of Dag1 peptide: DVATKT-NH2 (Dag2), OVATKT-NH2 (Dag3) and KVATKT-NH2 (Dag4), respectively, in which the original charged residue were replaced with non-polar residues or modified charged residues. It was found that both the D7 and D9 peptides form a large fraction bent conformations. However, no hydrophobic contacts between the terminal Tyr residues of D9 occur, which suggests that the presence of a pair of like-charged residues stabilizes chain reversal. Conversely, only the Dag1 and Dag2 peptides exhibit some chain reversal; replacing the second aspartic-acid residue with a valine and the first one with a basic residue results in a nearly extended conformation. These results suggest that basic residues farther away in sequence can result in stabilization of chain reversal owing to screening of the non-polar core. Conversely, smaller distance in sequence prohibits this screening, while the presence oppositely-charged residues can stabilize a turn because of salt-bridge formation.

Thermodynamics of the protonation equilibria of two fragments of N-terminal ß-hairpin of FPB28 WW domain.

The pK(a) values of two peptides derived from the formin-binding protein 28 WW domain [Ac-Lys-Thr-Ala-Asp-Gly-Lys-Thr-NH(2) (D7), Ac-Tyr-Lys-Thr-Ala-Asp-Gly-Lys-Thr-Tyr-NH(2) (D9)] were determined by potentiometric titration in the temperature range from 25 to 60 °C, and their heat capacities were determined, by differential scanning calorimetry, in the temperature range from 10 to 90 °C. For both peptides, heat capacity has a maximum at t ≈ 50 °C, with height about 0.1 kcal/(mol × deg), suggesting that a modest unfolding transition occurs. The first two pK(a)'s are low at temperatures below 50 °C, suggesting that the two lysine residues are close to each other and the peptides have bent shapes at lower temperatures; this effect is greater for D7 compared with D9. With increasing temperature beyond 50 °C (i.e., that of the thermodynamic unfolding transition), pK(a1) and pK(a2) increase rapidly for D9, whereas their temperature variation is less significant for D7. This observation, and the fact that the enthalpies and entropies of the dissociation of the two first protons (determined from the temperature dependence of the respective pK(a)'s) decrease significantly near the transition temperature, suggest that the peptide undergoes a transition from a bent to an amorphous shape and that the presence of charged lysine residues stabilizes the folded state.