Multidomain structure of a recombinant streptokinase. A differential scanning calorimetry study.

The temperature dependence of the heat capacity function of a recombinant streptokinase (rSK) has been studied by high-sensitivity differential scanning microcalorimetry and circular dichroism as a function of pH in low- and high-ionic strength buffers. At low ionic strength it is found that this protein, between pH 7 and 10, undergoes four reversible and independent two-state transitions during its unfolding, suggesting the existence of four domains in the native structure of the protein. This result reconciles previous conflicting reports about the number of domains of this protein obtained by differential scanning calorimetry and small-angle X-ray scattering. The number of two-state transitions decreases when the pH of the medium is decreased, without noticeable changes in its circular dichroism spectrum. A plausible localization of the four domains in the streptokinase sequences is proposed and their thermodynamic parameters are given. Increase of ionic strength to 200 mM NaCl affects positively the protein stability and confirms the existence of four reversible two-state transitions. Above 200 mM NaCl the protein stability decreases, resulting in low percentage of reversibility, and even irreversible transitions.

Thermal denaturation of human gamma-interferon. A calorimetric and spectroscopic study.

The thermal denaturation of a recombinant human gamma-interferon has been studied as a function of pH in the range from 2 to 10 and buffer concentration in the range from 5 to 100 mM by differential scanning calorimetry, circular dichroism, fluorescence, 1H NMR, and biological activity measurements. The thermal transitions are irreversible at high buffer concentrations at all pH values studied, although they are reversible between pH 3.5 and 5.4 at low buffer concentrations. The denaturation enthalpy, DeltaH(Tm), at denaturation temperature Tm was a function of both Tm and the buffer concentration, and this resulted in heat capacity changes decreasing with buffer concentration. When the denaturation enthalpies were corrected for Tm dependence, they did not appear to change versus pH. The denaturation entropies, however, appeared to decrease with pH, leading to a small but appreciable increase in the stability of the protein with pH. The difference between the number of moles of protons stoichiometrically bound to a mole of protein in the native and thermally denatured state, was calculated from the variation of Tm versus pH at each buffer concentration. The values obtained appear to depend on pH alone rather than upon temperature or buffer concentration, a result which agrees with the invariance of the denaturation enthalpies with pH. This dependence was fitted to the titration curve of a group with a pK of 5.4.