HRMAS 1H NMR conformational study of the resin-bound amyloid-forming peptide GNNQQNY from the yeast prion Sup35.

The conversion of soluble proteins to insoluble amyloid fibrils is associated with numerous human diseases. The peptide GNNQQNY is a short segment of the yeast prion protein Sup35 that previously has been found to form amyloid fibrils in a similar manner to the protein itself. The approach taken in this work was to attach this peptide sequence to an insoluble polymer matrix through solid phase peptide synthesis and give it the internal freedom to fold into its local conformation in an organic solvent. Observation of its monomeric structure, free from the effects of aggregation, entropic solvent effects, and neighboring molecules, was possible by two-dimensional high-resolution magic angle spinning (1)H NMR spectroscopy. Analysis of the through-bond correlations and through-space interactions observed in the spectra, combined with global energy minimization via computational studies, led to the observation that the peptide chain adopts a compact beta-like turn at the central hydrophilic residues. The technique of peptide attachment to a polymer resin and observation by NMR may allow for future study of single peptide fragments prone to aggregation.

High-field solid-state (67)Zn NMR spectroscopy of several zinc-amino acid complexes.

We report the results of our solid-state (67)Zn NMR study of the various zinc sites in four zinc-amino acid coordination complexes: bis(glycinato)zinc(II) monohydrate; bis(l-alaninato)zinc(II); bis(l-histidinato)zinc(II) dihydrate; and sodium bis(l-cysteinato)zincate(II) hexahydrate; as well as a related complex, bis(imidazole)zinc(II) chloride. We demonstrate the advantages of using high (21.1 T) applied magnetic fields for detecting (67)Zn directly at ambient temperatures using the quadrupolar Carr-Purcell Meiboom-Gill (QCPMG) pulse sequence. The stepped-frequency technique was employed in cases where the central-transition (CT) (67)Zn NMR spectra were too broad to be uniformly excited. The parameters of the anisotropic zinc tensors were extracted by iterative simulations of the experimental spectra. In all cases, the quadrupolar interaction is found to dominate the central-transition (67)Zn NMR spectra; no convincing effects from chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) on the NMR spectra of the five complexes could be reliably detected at this field strength. Analyses of the experimental NMR spectra reveal that the (67)Zn quadrupolar coupling constants (C(Q)) range from 7.05 to 26.4 MHz, the isotropic chemical shifts (delta(iso)) range from 140 to 265 ppm, and the quadrupolar asymmetry parameters (eta(Q)) range from 0.20 to 0.95. The first report of the NMR spectral features of pentacoordinated zinc sites is included for two complexes. Quantum chemical calculations of the electric field gradient (EFG) and magnetic shielding tensors reproduced the experimental results to a reasonable extent. Moreover, the computationally determined orientations of both tensors permit correlations between NMR tensor properties and zinc local environments to be understood.

Inverse H-C ex situ HRMAS NMR experiments for solid-phase peptide synthesis.

The growing importance of solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) has necessitated the development of spectroscopic experiments that can be used to obtain structural and conformational information on resin-bound peptides. Despite the utility of two-dimensional high-resolution magic angle spinning (HRMAS) NMR experiments that provide homonuclear shift correlations, experiments that provide heteronuclear shift correlations are necessary for complex conformational and structural elucidatory problems. Here we report the optimization and implementation of non-gradient inverse NMR experiments for acquiring the 1H-13C shift correlations of resin-bound peptides. The use of non-gradient experiments is advantageous as many magic angle spinning (MAS) probes do not possess gradient coils. An HRMAS BIRD-HMQC experiment with a reduced 1JCH constant has proven very suitable for obtaining one-bond correlations. Long-range correlations can be interpolated by using a non-gradient HRMAS CT-HMBC-1 experiment where the resulting data is processed with forward linear prediction. It has been shown that removing the effects of 1H-1H J-modulation is crucial in order to view cross peaks that correspond to long-range correlations. Additionally, both experiments prove extremely useful over routine one-dimensional 13C HRMAS experiments for extracting carbon chemical shift data. The non-gradient HRMAS BIRD-HMQC and CT-HMBC-1 experiments can be used to assist in conformational analysis and to identify and deconvolute situations where accidental equivalence and seemingly correlated isochronous signals arise.

Improved quantitation in 3QMAS of spin 5/2 nuclei by RF power modulation of FAM-II.

High-resolution NMR of quadrupolar I = 5/2 nuclei using triple-quantum magic angle spinning (3QMAS) techniques can provide more accurate quantitative information on sites with small quadrupolar coupling constants by changing the pulse strength in addition to the pulse length in the FAM-II multiple-quantum conversion sequence. These effects are illustrated using (27)Al NMR of yttrium aluminium garnet and andalusite.

Experimental and theoretical study of proton spin-lattice relaxation in H2-Ar gas mixtures: critical examination of the XC(fit) potential energy surface.

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance spin-lattice relaxation time measurements have been carried out at 500 MHz proton Larmor frequency on two hydrogen-argon gas mixtures with 1.90% and 3.93% hydrogen at four different temperatures in the range 225 K < T < 337 K and at two different number densities. The results for different hydrogen mole percentages have been extrapolated to infinite dilution to obtain the contributions to the overall relaxation times arising from the hydrogen-argon interaction. The extrapolated relaxation times fall in the reciprocal regime in which relaxation times are inversely proportional to the density. Relaxation times have also been calculated using quantum mechanical close-coupled computations based on the H2-Ar XC(fit) potential energy surface obtained by Bissonnette et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 105, 2639 (1996)]. Significant differences found between the experimental and theoretical results indicate that the short-range anisotropy of the XC(fit) potential surface is too weak. The reciprocal regime is shown to have a much higher sensitivity to changes in the anisotropic component of the intermolecular potential energy surface.