ABSTRACT
CRM-197 is a mutated diphtheria toxin (63000 Da) widely used as a carrier protein of conjugated vaccines. Among the 14 histidines of CRM-197, His-21 was found to be modified selectively with iodoacetamide based reagents. This finding suggests a simplified method for the preparation of conjugate vaccines crosslinked to CRM-197. A bifunctional iodoacetamide, N,N'-(2-hydroxy-1,3-propanediyl)-bis-12-iodoacetamidel (I-CH2-CONH-CH2-CH(OH)-CH2-NHCO-CH2-I) (HPBIA), was synthesized and allowed to react with CRM-197. In the alkaline buffer of pH 8.0-8.4, HPBIA was shown to react and intra-bridge His-21 and Lys-24 of CRM-197 sequentially. At lower pH (7.1-7.5) in the phosphate buffer, the reactivity of Lys-24 toward HPBIA was suppressed drastically. Under these conditions, His-21 could be specifically labeled with HPBIA. Initial experiments have demonstrated that HPBIA modified CRM-197 is able to crosslink to a cysteine-containing peptide. These results offer a potential route for improving the homogeneity of CRM-197 based protein-peptide as well as protein-polysaccharide conjugates.
Subject(s)
Bacterial Proteins/chemistry , Diphtheria Toxin/chemistry , Histidine/chemistry , Acetamides/chemical synthesis , Acetamides/chemistry , Amino Acid Sequence , Azo Compounds/chemistry , Benzenesulfonates/chemistry , Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid , Cross-Linking Reagents/chemical synthesis , Cross-Linking Reagents/chemistry , Hydrogen-Ion Concentration , Lysine/chemistry , Molecular Sequence Data , Oligopeptides/chemistry , Propanolamines/chemical synthesis , Propanolamines/chemistryABSTRACT
Human epidermal growth factor (EGF) contains three disulfides and 53 amino acids. Reduced/denatured EGF refolds spontaneously in vitro to acquire its native structure. The mechanism of this folding process has been elucidated by structural analysis of both acid and iodoacetate trapped intermediates. The results reveal that the folding is accompanied by a sequential flow of unfolded EGF (0-disulfide) through three groups of folding intermediates, namely 1-disulfide, 2-disulfide, and 3-disulfide (scrambled) EGF isomers, to reach the native structure. Equilibrium occurs among isomers of each class of disulfide species, and the composition of intermediates appears to be highly heterogeneous. Together, at least 27 fractions of folding intermediates have been identified, but there exist only limited numbers of well populated species which constitute more than 80% of the total intermediates found during EGF folding. Six species of such well populated intermediates have been isolated, which included two 1-S-S, two 2-S-S, and two 3-S-S scrambled species. Their disulfide structures have been identified here. Both 1-S-S isomers are found to contain non-native disulfides. One of the 2-S-S species consists of two non-native disulfides and the other admits two native disulfides. Among the six disulfides of the two scrambled species, only one is native. Together, native disulfides constitute 25% of the total disulfides found in these six well populated intermediates. These results contrast sharply to those observed with bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor, which has shown that well populated folding intermediates consist of exclusively native disulfides (Weissman, J. S., and Kim, P. S. (1991) Science 253, 1386-1393). We propose that well populated folding intermediates, regardless of whether they contain native or non-native disulfides, do not necessarily represent the productive species and specify the folding pathway. Furthermore, conditions influencing the efficiency of EGF folding have been investigated. It is demonstrated here that under optimized compositions of redox agents, including the use of cysteine/cystine and protein disulfide isomerase, the in vitro folding of EGF could be achieved quantitatively within 1 min.
Subject(s)
Epidermal Growth Factor/chemistry , Protein Folding , Amino Acid Sequence , Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid , Disulfides , Hirudins/chemistry , Molecular Sequence Data , Oxidation-Reduction , Protein Denaturation , Trypsin Inhibitors/chemistryABSTRACT
Cysteine residues derivatized with N-methyl iodoacetamide (MIAA) can be analyzed by the Edman sequencing with a high degree of reliability. By HPLC, the phenylthiohydantoin (PTH) derivative of MIAA-modified cysteine eluted between dimethylphenylthiourea and PTH-Ala--a wide gap which is not occupied or interfered with by any other by-products or PTH amino acids. During extended Edman degradation, the recovery of PTH derivative of MIAA-modified Cys was as quantitative and reproducible as that of other stable PTH derivatives such as Ala, Val, and Leu.
