Analysis of protein glycation using phenylboronate acrylamide gel electrophoresis.

The incorporation of the specialized carbohydrate affinity ligand methacrylamido phenylboronic acid in polyacrylamide gels for SDS-PAGE analysis has been successful for the separation of carbohydrates and has here been adapted for the analysis of post-translationally modified proteins. While conventional SDS-PAGE analysis cannot distinguish between glycated and unglycated proteins, methacrylamido phenylboronate acrylamide gel electrophoresis (mP-AGE) in low loading shows dramatic retention of delta-gluconolactone modified proteins, while the mobility of the unmodified proteins remains unchanged. With gels containing 1% methacrylamido phenylboronate, mP-AGE analysis of gluconoylated recombinant protein Sbi results in the retention of the modified protein at a position expected for a protein that has quadrupled its expected molecular size. Subsequently, mP-AGE was tested on HSA, a protein that is known to undergo glycation under physiological conditions. mP-AGE could distinguish between various carbohydrate-protein adducts, using in vitro glycated HSA, and discriminate early from late glycation states of the protein. Enzymatically glycosylated proteins show no altered retention in the phenylboronate-incorporated gels, rendering this method highly selective for glycated proteins. We reveal that a trident interaction between phenylboronate and the Amadori cis 1,2 diol and amine group provides the molecular basis of this specificity. These results epitomize mP-AGE as an important new proteomics tool for the detection, separation, visualization and identification of protein glycation. This method will aid the design of inhibitors of unwanted carbohydrate modifications in recombinant protein production, ageing, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer's disease.

The Walden cycle revisited: a computational study of competitive ring closure to alpha- and beta-lactones.

The text-book Walden cycle which interconverts the stereochemical configurations of chlorosuccinic and malic acids involves a beta-lactone intermediate in preference to an alpha-lactone intermediate because the O(nuc) C Cl angle in the transition structure for the former (174 degrees) is more favourable than that for the latter (139 degrees), as determined by PCM(epsilon = 78.4)/B3LYP/6-31+G* calculations; the smaller ring-strain energy of the beta-lactone contributes little to the reactivity difference.

Confirmation of the D configuration of the 2-substituted arabinitol 1-phosphate residue in the capsular polysaccharide from Streptococcus pneumoniae Type 17F.

The absolute configuration of the 2-substituted arabinitol 1-phosphate residue present in the repeating unit of the capsular polysaccharide (CPS) from Streptococcus pneumoniae Type 17F is confirmed as D, based on a comparison of proton and carbon chemical shifts in a synthetic oligosaccharide and in an oligosaccharide derived from the CPS by degradation.

Dyotropic rearrangement of alpha-lactone to beta-lactone: a computational study of small-ring halolactonisation.

Transition structures have been optimised using the B3LYP/6-31+G* density functional level method, in vacuum and in implicit (PCM) and explicit (DFT/MM) aqueous solvation, for the degenerate rearrangement of the alpha-lactone derived by the formal addition of Cl(+) to acrylate anion and for the dyotropic rearrangement of this to the beta-lactone. Despite being lower in energy than the alpha-lactone, there is no direct pathway to the beta-lactone from the acrylate chloronium zwitterion, which is the transition structure for the degenerate rearrangement. This may be rationalised by consideration of the unfavorable angle of attack by the carboxylate nucleophile on the beta-position; attack on the alpha-position involves a less unfavorable angle. Formation of the beta-lactone may occur by means of a dyotropic rearrangement of the alpha-lactone. This involves a high energy barrier for the acrylate derived alpha-lactone, but dyotropic rearrangement of the beta,beta-dimethyl substituted alpha-lactone to the corresponding beta-lactone involves a much lower barrier, estimated at about 46 kJ mol(-1) in water, and is predicted to be a facile process.

Experimental and computational evidence for alpha-lactone intermediates in the addition of aqueous bromine to disodium dimethyl-maleate and -fumarate.

Structural analysis of the bromo-beta-lactones obtained by addition of bromine to aqueous solutions of disodium 2,3-dimethylmaleate and 2,3-dimethylfumarate reveals stereochemistries opposite to those originally assigned in 1937: cis alkene yields erythro lactone, and trans alkene yields threo lactone. B3LYP/6-31+G(d) calculations using a PCM description of aqueous solvation confirm the validity of our proposed mechanism, in which the first-formed intermediate in each case is an alpha-lactone. The cyclic bromonium species is not an intermediate. An alternative pathway leading directly from cis alkene to cis lactone, via an unusual frontside displacement mechanism, is over 20 kJ mol(-1) higher in free energy. Hydrolysis of the bromo-beta-lactones yields bromohydrins whose stereochemistries as determined by X-ray crystallography indicate stereospecific formation by acyl-oxygen cleavage of the lactone ring, again contrary to the original view.