In situ cyclization of proteins

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The in situ cyclization of proteins (INCYPRO) is a protein engineering technology that increases the durability of proteins and enzymes for biotechnological and biomedical applications. [1] [2] For such applications, it is essential that the used proteins maintain their structural integrity. [3] This is, however, often challenged due to the conditions required for these applications which necessitates protein engineering to stabilize the protein structure. [4] The INCYPRO technology involves the attachment of molecular claps (crosslinks) to a protein, thereby reducing the tendency of the protein to unfold. The resulting INCYPRO-crosslinked proteins are more stable at elevated temperature and in presence of chemical denaturants. [5]

Contents

Technology

The INCYPRO technology utilizes tris-reactive molecules to crosslink three defined positions within a protein [1] or protein complex. [6] For example, INCYPRO can involve the introduction of three spatially aligned and solvent-accessible cysteines into the protein that are then reacted with a tris-electrophilic agent. The resulting crosslinked proteins or protein complexes have been shown to exhibit increased stability towards thermal and chemical stress and a lower tendency towards aggregation. [1] [6] So far, the melting temperature of proteins was increased by up to 39°C in a single design step. [6]

Examples

An early example, involved the stabilization of the transpeptidase Sortase A which resulted in INCYPRO-stabilized variants with activity under elevated temperature and in the presence of guanidinium chloride. [1] [5] INCYPRO has also been applied to stabilize the human adaptor KIX domain utilizing different crosslinker molecules. Here, a dependency of protein stability on the hydrophilicity of the crosslink was observed. [2] In addition, a number of homo-trimeric protein complexes was stabilized including the Pseudomonas fluorescens esterase (PFE) and an Enoyl-CoA hydratase. [6] In these cases, enzyme conjugates with overall bicyclic topology were generated.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denaturation (biochemistry)</span> Loss of structure in proteins and nucleic acids due to external stress

In biochemistry, denaturation is a process in which proteins or nucleic acids lose the quaternary structure, tertiary structure, and secondary structure which is present in their native state, by application of some external stress or compound such as a strong acid or base, a concentrated inorganic salt, an organic solvent, agitation and radiation or heat. If proteins in a living cell are denatured, this results in disruption of cell activity and possibly cell death. Protein denaturation is also a consequence of cell death. Denatured proteins can exhibit a wide range of characteristics, from conformational change and loss of solubility to aggregation due to the exposure of hydrophobic groups. The loss of solubility as a result of denaturation is called coagulation. Denatured proteins lose their 3D structure and therefore cannot function.

In chemistry, a disulfide is a compound containing a R−S−S−R′ functional group or the S2−
2
anion. The linkage is also called an SS-bond or sometimes a disulfide bridge and usually derived from two thiol groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aspartate carbamoyltransferase</span> Protein family

Aspartate carbamoyltransferase catalyzes the first step in the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protein complex</span> Type of stable macromolecular complex

A protein complex or multiprotein complex is a group of two or more associated polypeptide chains. Protein complexes are distinct from multidomain enzymes, in which multiple catalytic domains are found in a single polypeptide chain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protein structure</span> Three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in an amino acid-chain molecule

Protein structure is the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in an amino acid-chain molecule. Proteins are polymers – specifically polypeptides – formed from sequences of amino acids, which are the monomers of the polymer. A single amino acid monomer may also be called a residue, which indicates a repeating unit of a polymer. Proteins form by amino acids undergoing condensation reactions, in which the amino acids lose one water molecule per reaction in order to attach to one another with a peptide bond. By convention, a chain under 30 amino acids is often identified as a peptide, rather than a protein. To be able to perform their biological function, proteins fold into one or more specific spatial conformations driven by a number of non-covalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, ionic interactions, Van der Waals forces, and hydrophobic packing. To understand the functions of proteins at a molecular level, it is often necessary to determine their three-dimensional structure. This is the topic of the scientific field of structural biology, which employs techniques such as X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and dual polarisation interferometry, to determine the structure of proteins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cross-link</span> Bonds linking one polymer chain to another

In chemistry and biology a cross-link is a bond or a short sequence of bonds that links one polymer chain to another. These links may take the form of covalent bonds or ionic bonds and the polymers can be either synthetic polymers or natural polymers.

A tetrameric protein is a protein with a quaternary structure of four subunits (tetrameric). Homotetramers have four identical subunits, and heterotetramers are complexes of different subunits. A tetramer can be assembled as dimer of dimers with two homodimer subunits, or two heterodimer subunits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thermostability</span> Ability of a substance to resist changes in structure under high temperatures

In materials science and molecular biology, thermostability is the ability of a substance to resist irreversible change in its chemical or physical structure, often by resisting decomposition or polymerization, at a high relative temperature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tissue transglutaminase</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Tissue transglutaminase is a 78-kDa, calcium-dependent enzyme of the protein-glutamine γ-glutamyltransferases family. Like other transglutaminases, it crosslinks proteins between an ε-amino group of a lysine residue and a γ-carboxamide group of glutamine residue, creating an inter- or intramolecular bond that is highly resistant to proteolysis. Aside from its crosslinking function, tTG catalyzes other types of reactions including deamidation, GTP-binding/hydrolyzing, and isopeptidase activities. Unlike other members of the transglutaminase family, tTG can be found both in the intracellular and the extracellular spaces of various types of tissues and is found in many different organs including the heart, the liver, and the small intestine. Intracellular tTG is abundant in the cytosol but smaller amounts can also be found in the nucleus and the mitochondria. Intracellular tTG is thought to play an important role in apoptosis. In the extracellular space, tTG binds to proteins of the extracellular matrix (ECM), binding particularly tightly to fibronectin. Extracellular tTG has been linked to cell adhesion, ECM stabilization, wound healing, receptor signaling, cellular proliferation, and cellular motility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyclol</span> Structural model of a folded, globular protein

The cyclol hypothesis is the now discredited first structural model of a folded, globular protein, formulated in the 1930s. It was based on the cyclol reaction of peptide bonds proposed by physicist Frederick Frank in 1936, in which two peptide groups are chemically crosslinked. These crosslinks are covalent analogs of the non-covalent hydrogen bonds between peptide groups and have been observed in rare cases, such as the ergopeptides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isopeptide bond</span>

An isopeptide bond is a type of amide bond formed between a carboxyl group of one amino acid and an amino group of another. An isopeptide bond is the linkage between the side chain amino or carboxyl group of one amino acid to the α-carboxyl, α-amino group, or the side chain of another amino acid. In a typical peptide bond, also known as eupeptide bond, the amide bond always forms between the α-carboxyl group of one amino acid and the α-amino group of the second amino acid. Isopeptide bonds are rarer than regular peptide bonds. Isopeptide bonds lead to branching in the primary sequence of a protein. Proteins formed from normal peptide bonds typically have a linear primary sequence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crosslinking of DNA</span> Phenomenon in genetics

In genetics, crosslinking of DNA occurs when various exogenous or endogenous agents react with two nucleotides of DNA, forming a covalent linkage between them. This crosslink can occur within the same strand (intrastrand) or between opposite strands of double-stranded DNA (interstrand). These adducts interfere with cellular metabolism, such as DNA replication and transcription, triggering cell death. These crosslinks can, however, be repaired through excision or recombination pathways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macromolecular crowding</span>

The phenomenon of macromolecular crowding alters the properties of molecules in a solution when high concentrations of macromolecules such as proteins are present. Such conditions occur routinely in living cells; for instance, the cytosol of Escherichia coli contains about 300–400 mg/ml of macromolecules. Crowding occurs since these high concentrations of macromolecules reduce the volume of solvent available for other molecules in the solution, which has the result of increasing their effective concentrations. Crowding can promote formation of a biomolecular condensate by colloidal phase separation.

A nanogel is a polymer-based, crosslinked hydrogel particle on the sub-micron scale. These complex networks of polymers present a unique opportunity in the field of drug delivery at the intersection of nanoparticles and hydrogel synthesis. Nanogels can be natural, synthetic, or a combination of the two and have a high degree of tunability in terms of their size, shape, surface functionalization, and degradation mechanisms. Given these inherent characteristics in addition to their biocompatibility and capacity to encapsulate small drugs and molecules, nanogels are a promising strategy to treat disease and dysfunction by serving as delivery vehicles capable of navigating across challenging physiological barriers within the body. 

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sortase</span> Group of prokaryotic enzymes

Sortase refers to a group of prokaryotic enzymes that modify surface proteins by recognizing and cleaving a carboxyl-terminal sorting signal. For most substrates of sortase enzymes, the recognition signal consists of the motif LPXTG (Leu-Pro-any-Thr-Gly), then a highly hydrophobic transmembrane sequence, followed by a cluster of basic residues such as arginine. Cleavage occurs between the Thr and Gly, with transient attachment through the Thr residue to the active site Cys residue, followed by transpeptidation that attaches the protein covalently to cell wall components. Sortases occur in almost all Gram-positive bacteria and the occasional Gram-negative bacterium or Archaea, where cell wall LPXTG-mediated decoration has not been reported. Although sortase A, the "housekeeping" sortase, typically acts on many protein targets, other forms of sortase recognize variant forms of the cleavage motif, or catalyze the assembly of pilins into pili.

A thermal shift assay (TSA) measures changes in the thermal denaturation temperature and hence stability of a protein under varying conditions such as variations in drug concentration, buffer pH or ionic strength, redox potential, or sequence mutation. The most common method for measuring protein thermal shifts is differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF) or thermofluor, which utilizes specialized fluorogenic dyes.

Sortase A is an enzyme. This enzyme catalyses a cell wall sorting reaction, in which a surface protein with a sorting signal containing a LPXTG motif, is cleaved between the Thr and Gly residue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FAN1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

FANCD2/FANCI-associated nuclease 1 (KIAA1018) is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the FAN1 gene. It is a structure dependent endonuclease. It is thought to play an important role in the Fanconi Anemia (FA) pathway.

Saccharolobus solfataricus is a species of thermophilic archaeon. It was transferred from the genus Sulfolobus to the new genus Saccharolobus with the description of Saccharolobus caldissimus in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PLAC-Seq</span> Proximity ligation assisted chip-seq technology

Proximity ligation-assisted chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (PLAC-seq) is a chromatin conformation capture(3C)-based technique to detect and quantify genomic chromatin structure from a protein-centric approach. PLAC-seq combines in situ Hi-C and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), which allows for the identification of long-range chromatin interactions at a high resolution with low sequencing costs. Mapping long-range 3-dimensional(3D) chromatin interactions is important in identifying transcription enhancers and non-coding variants that can be linked to human diseases.

References

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