Studies on Aggregation Interaction between Reduced Denatured Egg White Lysozymes during Refolding Procedure in Urea Solution

The aggregation interaction between reduced-denatured egg white lysozymes during refolding procedure in urea solution was studied by means of reducing and non-reducing protein electrophoreses. Results of non-reducing sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis （SDS-PAGE） of the supernatant and aggregate precipitate formed in refolding process show that except being refolded to native egg white lysozymes, the reduced-denatured lysozymes can also form the aggregates with molecular weights （MW） being separately about 30.0 and 35.0 kD, while the reducing SDS-PAGE and the refolding results in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate show that these aggregates are formed chiefly through the misconnection of disulfide bonds between the reduced-denatured lysozymes, and the aggregate precipitates are formed through the non-covalent interactions between the aggregates with molecular weight being about 30.0 kD. From the results of electrophoresis and size-exclusion chromatographic analyses, it can be inferred that the aggregates with molecular weights being about 30.0 and 35.0 kD are bi-molecular and tri-molecular egg white lysozyme aggregates, respectively. And finally, a suggested refolding mechanism of reduced-denatured egg white lysozymes in urea solution was presented.     

溶液中变性剂浓度对蛋白溶菌酶复性的影响

Based on three-state renaturation process of denatured proteins, an equation describing the effect of denaturant concentration on renaturation yield of denatured proteins was presented. By this equation, two parameters n（m1 -m2） and Ka can be obtained. The former indicates the difference in the number of denaturant molecules between the renaturation process of n number of refolding intermediates from refolding intermediate state to native state and their aggregate process from refolding intermediate state to aggregate state, the latter denotes the apparent aggregate equilibrium constant for protein molecules aggregated from native state to aggregate state, and from them, the characteristics of the renaturation process of denatured proteins in denaturant solution can be identified. This equation was tested by the renaturation processes of denatured egg white lysozyme in guanidine hydrochloride and urea solutions, with the results to show that when guanidine hydrochloride and urea concentrations were separately higher than 1.25 and 3.00 mol/L or separately lower than 1.00 and 3.00 mol/L, the refolding intermediates of egg white lysozymes were more easily aggregated to aggregate state or more easily renatured to native state, respectively. Under different initial total egg white lysozyme concentrations in urea solution, the refolding egg white lysozyme intermediates could be deduced to have a tendency to form a bimolecular intermediate aggregate, and this inference was further confirmed by their nonreducing SDS-PAGE and size exclusion chromatography.     

Refolding of Denatured／Reduced Lysozyme Using Weak－Cation Exchange Chromatography

Oxidative refolding of the denatured/reduced lysozyme was investigated by using weak-cation exchange chromatography (WCX). The stationary phase of WCX binds to the reduced lysozyme and prevented it from forming intermolecular aggregates. At the same time urea and ammonium sulfate were added to the mobile phase to increase the elution strength for lysozyme. Ammonium sulfate can more stabilize the native protein than a common eluting agent,sodium chloride. Refolding of lysozyme by using this WCX is successfully. It was simply carried out to obtain a completely and correctly refolding of the denatured lysozyme at high concentration of 20.0 mg/mL.     

Enhanced refolding of lysozyme with imidazolium-based room temperature ionic liquids: Effect of hydrophobicity and sulfur residue

The expression of recombinant proteins in microorganism frequently leads to the formation of insoluble aggregates, inclusion bodies (IBs). Thus, the additional in vitro protein refolding process is required to convert inactive IBs into water-soluble active proteins. This study investigated the effect of sulfur residue and hydrophobicity of imidazolium-based room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) on the refolding of lysozyme as a model protein in the batch dilution method which is the most commonly used refolding method. When lysozyme was refolded in the refolding buffer containing [BF4]-based RTILs with a systematic variety of alkyl chain on cations varying from two to eight, less hydrophobic imidazolium cations having shorter alkyl chains were effective to facilitate lysozyme refolding. Compared to the conventional refolding buffer, 2 times higher lysozyme refolding yield was obtained in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([EMIM][BF4]) containing refolding buffer. The refolding yield of lysozyme was even more increased by 2.5 times when 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methylsulfate ([BMIM][MS]) containing sulfur residue on anion was used. The sulfur residue in [BMIM][MS] is supposed to improve the refolding yield of lysozyme which has 4 intramolecular disulfide bonds. For dilution-based refolding of lysozyme, the optimum concentrations of RTILs in refolding buffer were found to be 1.0 M [EMIM][BF4] and 0.5 M [BMIM][MS], respectively. The optimum temperate for dilution-based refolding of lysozyme with RTILs was 4 °C.     

Urea-induced Inactivation and Unfolding of Recombinant Phospholipid Hydroperoxide Glutathione Peroxidase from Oryza sativa

Phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase is an antioxidant enzyme that has the highest capability of reducing membrane-bound hydroperoxy lipids as compared to free organic and inorganic hydroperoxides amongst the glutathione peroxidases.In this study,urea-induced effects on the inactivation and unfolding of a recombinant phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase(PHGPx)from Oryza sativa were investigated by means of circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy.With the increase of urea concentration,the residual activity of OsPHGPx decreases correspondingly.When the urea concentration is above 5.0 mol/L,there was no residual activity.In addition,the observed changes in intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence,the binding of the hydrophobic fluorescence probe ANS,and the far UV CD describe a common dependence on the concentration of urea suggesting that the conformational features of the native OsPHGPx are lost in a highly cooperative single transition.The unfolding process comprises of three zones:the native base-line zone between 0 and 2.5 mol/L urea,the transition zone between 2.5 and 5.5 mol/L urea,and the denatured base-line zone above 5.5 mol/L urea.The transition zone has a midpoint at about 4.0 mol/L urea.     

A novel protein refolding method integrating ion exchange chromatography with artificial molecular chaperone

Artificial molecular chaperone （AMC） and ion exchange chromatography （IEC） were integrated, thus a new refolding method, artificial molecular chaperone-ion exchange chromatography （AMC-IEC） was developed. Compared with AMC and IEC, the activity recovery of lysozyme obtained by AMC-IEC was much higher in the investigated range of initial protein concentrations, and the results show that AMC-IEC is very efficient for protein refolding at high concentrations. When the initial concentration of lysozyme is 180 mg/mL, its activity recovery obtained by AMC-IEC is still as high as 76.6%, while the activity recoveries obtained by AMC and IEC are 45.6% and 42.4%, respectively.     

Evolution of Conformation and Dynamics of Solvents in Hydration Shell along the Urea-induced Unfolding of Ubiquitin

A clear diagram for the unfolding of protein induced by denaturant is a classical but still unsolved challenge. To explore the unfolded conformations of ubiquitin under different urea concentrations, we performed hybrid Monte Carlo-molecular dynamics simulations (MC-MD) guided by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) structural information. Conformational ensembles sampled by the hybrid MC-MD algorithm exhibited typical 3D structures at different urea concentrations. These typical structures suggested that ubiquitin was subjected to a sequential unfolding, where the native contacts between adjacent β-sheets at first were disrupted together with the exposure of hydrophobic core, followed by the conversion of remaining β-strands and helices into random coils. Ubiquitin in 8 mol·L?1 urea is almost a random coil. With the disruption of native structure, urea molecules are enriched at protein hydrated layer to stabilize newly exposed residues. Compared with water, urea molecules prefer to form hydrogen bonds with the backbone of ubiquitin, thus occupying nodes of the hydrogen bonding network that construct the secondary structure of proteins. Meanwhile, we also found that the slow dynamics of urea molecules was almost unchanged while the dynamics of water was accelerated in the hydration shell when more residues were unfolded and exposed. The former was also responsible for the stabilization of unfolded structures.     

Preparation of Medium Cation Exchange Stationary Phase of Polymeric Matrix and Their Chromatographic Properties

Based on the monodisperse poly（glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylenedimethacrylate） beads （PGMA/EDMA） with macropore as a medium, a new hydrophilic medium cation exchange （MCX） stationary phase for HPLC was synthesized by a new chemically modified method. The stationary phase was evaluated with the property of ion exchange, separability, reproducibility, hydrophilicity, effect of salt concentration, salt types, column loading and pH on the separation and retention of proteins in detail. It was found that it follows ion exchange chromatographic （IEC） retention mechanism. The measured bioactivity recovery for lysozyme was （96 ± 5）%. The dynamic protein loading capacity of the synthesized MCX packings was 21.8 mg/g. Five proteins were almost completely separated within 6.0 min at a flow rate of 4 mL/min using the synthesized MCX resin. The MCX resin was also used for the rapid separation and purification of lysozyme from egg white with only one step. The purity and specific bioactivity of the purified lysozyme was found more than 95% and 70345 U/mg, respectively.     

pH-sensitive polymer-assisted refolding of urea-denatured fibroblast growth factor

A pH-responsive polymer Eudragit S-100 has been found to assist in correct folding of FGF-2(fibroblast growth factor-2) denatured with 8 mol/L urea and 10 mmol/L dithiothreitol at pH 7.2.The refolding of FGF-2 was performed by directly diluting denatured FGF-2 into a refolding buffer containing Eudragit S-100.The ability of Eudragit S-100 to enhance protein refolding level was investigated using MTr method,fluorescence emission spectroscopy and reverse phase HPLC.On the other hand,the result shows the ab...     

Kinetic Studies on Interactions of Ferreous-porphyrins with Hydrogen Peroxide

In an alkali-methanol solution, both 1- and 2-naphthol can be converted into 2-hydroxy-l,4-naphtho-quinone (HNQ) with selectivity more than 95% by H2O2 over metalloporphyrin catalyst. The UV-Vis spectra indicate that a high valence oxygen-ferreous porphyrin intermediate has been produced by addition of an aqueous solution of H2O2 into the catalytic system. This intermediate formation rate is influenced by the concentrations of low valence ferrous porphyrin H2O2, and NaOH existing in the system. With the aid of the UVVis spectrum varieties, the rate equations and formation rate constants of the intermediate at different temperatures can be determined by changing the original concentration of each reactant. The formation activation energy of this intermediate was also determined by changing temperature.     

尿素与间甲酚共晶法分离间/对甲酚

Urea was dissolved into mixture of m/p-cresol(m/p = 59.1/40.9) upon heating to 80℃. The resulting solution was cooled spontaneously to 40℃, then further to a designated temperature in an even speed with stirring with even dropping of toluene. Co-crystal of urea and m-cresol was thus formed as white precipitate, which was then isolated by filution. Pure m-cresol was obtained by distillation of oil layer that was the upper layer of hydmlyzed decomposition of filtrating cake. Effects of solvent, material ratio, temperature on the yield and the purity were investigated, m-Cresol with purity of 99.0% and yield of 73.9 % is obtained at an optimized condition at urea/(m/p)-cresol = 23g/50ml,final temperature = - 15℃ ,time = 110min, and dropping of 150ml toluene.The existence of co-crystal of urea and m-cresol was verified by IR spectroscopy. The product purity was assayed by GC.     

Thermal-induced Unfolding of β-Crystallin and Disassembly of its Oligomers Revealed by Temperature-Jump Time-Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy

β-Crystallins are the major structural proteins existing in the vertebrate lens, and their conformational stability is critical in maintaining the life-long transparency and refraction index of the lens. Seven subunits of β-crystallins naturally assemble into various heteroge- neous oligomers with different sizes. Here, we systematically investigated the thermal sta- bility of the different secondary structures present in β-Crystallins and then the dynamic process for the thermal-induced unfolding of β-crystallins by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy-monitored thermal titration and temperature-jump nanosecond time-resolved IR difference absorbance spectra. Our results show that the N-terminal anti-parallel β-sheets in β-crystallin are the most unstable with a transition midpoint temperature at 36.0-2.1℃, leading to the formation of an intermediate consisting vastly of random coil structures. This intermediate structure is temporally assigned to that of the monomer generated by the thermal-induced disassembly of β-crystallin oligomers with a transition midpoint tempera- ture of 40.4-0.7℃. The global unfolding of β-crystallins that leads to denaturation and aggregation indicated by the formation of intermolecular anti-parallel β-sheets has a transi- tion midpoint temperature determined as 72.4-0.2 ℃. Temperature-jump time-resolved IR absorbance difference spectroscopy analysis further reveals that thermal-induced unfolding of β-crystallins occurs firstly in the anti-parallel β-sheets in the N-terminal domains with a time constant of 50 ns.     

Time-resolved ESI-MS Investigation on Reduction and Alkylation in Unfolding Process of Lysozyme

The kinetic procedure of the unfolding of lysozyme induced by the reduction of disulfide was monitored by the time-resolved ESI-MS with a sheath liquid assistant electrospray interface. It was found that the reduction process for the eight disulfides had a less difference in the reaction time after denatured treatment. In addition, the alkylation of the reduced free thiols was much slower than the reduction procedure. An artifact peak produced by the CID fragmentation in the mass spectra was identified and the possible mechanism of the Hofmann elimination reaction was proposed.     

SDS-PAGE study on photooxidation damage of lysozyme induced by riboflavin

The photooxidation damage of lysozyme under 315-375 nm irradiation in the presence of riboflavin was studied by using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis(SDS-PAGE).Indica- tions showed that the mechanisms and products of oxidative damage were relative to the concentra- tion of riboflavin,the time of irradiation and the ambience.The type I process was examined in a nitrogen saturated solution,whereas both type I and type II were observed in an aerobic atmosphere and type II was the dominant process.The study also suggested that antioxidants,such as melatonin, can reduce the damage of lysozyme effectively.     

Refolding of reduced/denatured bovine pancreatic insulin with ion-exchange chromatography coupled with MALDI-TOF MS

The refolding of the reduced/denatured insulin from bovine pancreas as the model protein was investigated with weak anion exchange chromatography(WAX) coupled with MALDI-TOF MS.The results indicated that the disulfide bonds almost cannot be formed correctly with the common mobile phase by WAX.However,with the urea gradient elution and in the presence of GSSG/ Cyst as the ratio 1:6 in the mobile phase employed,the disulfide exchange of reduced/denatured insulin can be accelerated resulting in forming the ...     

Addition Mechanisms of Phenol toward Formaldehyde under Acidic Condition： a Theoretical Investigation

The reaction mechanisms of phenol with formaldehyde in the first and second addition at the ortho- and para-position in acid solution were theoretically investigated at the PW91/DNP level with solvent effects included. The reaction of phenol with protonated methanediol firstly forms an adduct intermediate, via a SN2 mechanism with a water molecule as the leaving group. From the adduct intermediate, there are two reaction channels involving a proton transfer to form the addition products. One is that a proton directly transfers via a four-membered ring transition state with a notable energy barrier (Four-member mechanism). Another mechanism involving a water molecule as catalyst to mediate the proton transfer (WCP mechanism), is a barrierless process, indicating that the formation of the adduct intermediate, the first reaction step, is rate-limiting. The reaction products are free hydroxymethyl phenols and/or hydroxybenzy carbocation (HOC6H4CH2+) which plays an important role in the following formation of methylene and methylene ether linkages. The second addition reactions between formaldehyde and hydroxymethyl phenol at all possible reaction sites of the phenol ring in acid solution were also investigated and discussed.     

Study of Cathodic Polarization Curves During Pulse Plating of Chromium

A study has been made of the cathodic polarization curves during the pulse plating of chromium from an aqueous chromic acid bath containing 250 g/L CrO3 and 2. 5 g/L H2SO4 at 22℃ over the range of pulse periods from 1 ms to 50 ms. The duty cycle was kept at 50%. The methods of potentiostatic pulse potential control and galvanostatic pulse current control were used to determine the polarization curves of a platinum and a copper rotating disk electrode in the chromium plating solution. The results indicated that pulse potential and pulse current inhibited the formation of a cathode film and shifted the potential of the hydrogen evolution reaction toward the positive direction by about 500 mV. The potential and current pulses behaved as a depolarter of H reduction reaction. The present results agreed with a previous experimental observation that the coulombic efficiency of the chromium deposition reaction was reduced and the coulombic efficiency of the hydorgen evolution reaction was increased in pulse p     

Affinity switching for lysozyme and dual-responsive microgels by stopped-flow technique: Kinetic control and activity evaluation

The use of proteins as therapeutics in nanomedicine is an emerging research field and has developed rapidly.However,proteins are always vulnerable to renal excretion or digestion by the proteolytic system in vivo,which limits their usage to a large extent.Although biocompatible polymers have been covalently linked to proteins to protect them from recognition by the immune system and prolong their circulation time,the biological activity of them is sometimes decreased.To fill this gap,physical isolation,wrapping,or encapsulation techniques are employed.Up to now,various mature examples were reported,but the whole time scales for guest molecules loading and releasing,especially the initial rapid loading process,were rarely mentioned.Herein,a series of dual-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid)(P(NIPAM-co-MAA)) microgels were synthesized and employed to investigate the kinetics of in situ complexation and release of lysozyme under external stimuli modulation upon a stopped-flow apparatus,which was suitable for rapid dynamic monitoring.Close inspection of the adsorption kinetics during the early stages( 50 s) revealed that the initial microgel collapse occurred within ~1 s,with more rapid transitions being observed when higher lysozyme concentrations were targeted.All the dynamic traces could be well fitted with a double exponential function,suggesting a fast(τ1) and a slow(τ2) relaxation time,respectively.Then,the kinetics of releasing bound lysozyme from microgels was carried on by utilizing the p H-responsive property,and the evaluation of the activity of released lysozyme was synchronously measured in a Micrococcus lysodeikticus(M.lysodeikticus) cell suspension.The corresponding relaxation time(τ) was also calculated by fitting the recorded dynamic traces.We speculate that this work can provide basic dynamics data and theoretical basis for microgels based nanocarriers to be used for protein delivery,controlled release,and possible chemical separation.     

A novel and efficient strategy for the synthesis of various carbamates using carbamoyl chlorides under solvent-free and grinding conditions using microwave irradiation

We present an efficient,fast and simple strategy of generating the intermediate carbamoyl chlorides from secondary amines using stoichiometric amounts of bis(trichloromethyl)carbonate(BTC) in solution and solvent-free conditions with excellent yields.The results obtained showed the yield increasing on whether a base was used.Finally,an efficient and rapid synthesis of variety carbamate derivatives was developed by the reaction with a high variety of different alcohols,phenols,diols and this intermediate at room temperature with grinding and in solvent-free conditions under microwave irradiation.The presence of various safe bases is shown to be effective in reducing the reaction times,increasing the yields and easing purification.The present method does not involve any hazardous phosgene.