The Isoelectric Region of Proteins: A Systematic Analysis

Background: Binding of proteins in ion exchange chromatography is dominated by electrostatic interactions and can be tuned by adjusting pH and ionic strength of the solvent. Therefore, the isoelectric region (IER), the pH region of almost zero charge near the pI, has been used to predict the binding properties of proteins. Principal findings: Usually the IER is small and binding and elution is carried out at pH values near to the pI. However, some proteins with an extended IER have been shown to bind and elute far away from its pI. To analyze factors that mediate the size of the IER and to identify proteins with an extended IER, two protein families consisting of more than 7000 proteins were systematically investigated. Most proteins were found to have a small IER and thus are expected to bind or elute near to their pI, while only a small fraction of less than 2 % had a large IER. Conclusions: Only four factors, the number of histidines, the pI, the number of titratable amino acids and the ratio of acidic to basic residues, are sufficient to reliably classify proteins by their IER based on their sequence only, and thus to predict their binding and elution behaviour in ion exchange chromatography

Calibrative approaches to protein solubility modeling of a mutant series using physicochemical descriptors

A set of physicochemical properties describing a protein of known structure is employed for a calibrative approach to protein solubility. Common hydrodynamic and electrophoretic properties routinely measured in the bio-analytical laboratory such as zeta potential, dipole moment, the second osmotic virial coefficient are first estimated in silico as a function a pH and solution ionic strength starting with the protein crystal structure. The utility of these descriptors in understanding the solubility of a series of ribonuclease Sa mutants is investigated. A simple two parameter model was trained using solubility data of the wild type protein measured at a restricted number of solution pHs. Solubility estimates of the mutants demonstrate that zeta potential and dipole moment may be used to rationalize solubility trends over a wide pH range. Additionally a calibrative model based on the protein’s second osmotic virial coefficient, B22 was developed. A modified DVLO type potential along with a simplified representation of the protein allowed for efficient computation of the second viral coefficient. The standard error of prediction for both models was on the order of 0.3 log S units. These results are very encouraging and demonstrate that these models may be trained with a small number of samples and employed extrapolatively for estimating mutant solubilities

Thermally Responsive Amphiphilic Conetworks and Gels Based on Poly(N‑isopropylacrylamide) and Polyisobutylene

Novel amphiphilic conetworks (APCN) consisting of thermoresponsive poly(N-isoproplyacrylamide) (PNiPAAm) cross-linked by hydrophobic methacrylate-telechelic polyisobutylene (MA-PIB-MA) were successfully synthesized in a broad composition range. The resulting PNiPAAm-l-PIB conetworks (“l” stands for “linked by”) were obtained by radical copolymerization of NiPAAm with MA-PIB-MA in tetrahydrofuran, a cosolvent for all the components. Low amounts of extractables substantiated efficient network formation. The composition dependent two glass transition temperatures (Tg) by DSC analysis indicate microphase separation of the cross-linked components without mixed phases. It was found that the PNiPAAm-l-PIB conetworks are uniformly swellable in both water and n-hexane; i.e., these new materials behave either as hydrogels or as hydrophobic gels in aqueous or nonpolar media, respectively. The uniform swelling in both polar and nonpolar solutes indicates cocontinuous (bicontinuous) phase morphology. The equilibrium swelling degrees (R) depend on composition, that is, the higher the PIB content, the lower the R in water and the higher in n-hexane. The PNiPAAm phase keeps its thermoresponsive behavior in the conetworks as shown by significant decrease of the swelling degree in water between 20 and 35 °C. The lower critical solubility temperature (LCST) values determined by DSC are found to decrease from 34.1 °C (for the pure PNiPAAm homopolymer) to the range of 25–28 °C in the conetworks, and the extent of the LCST decrease is proportional with the PIB content. Deswelling-swelling, i.e., heating–cooling, cycle indicates insignificant hysteresis in these new thermoresponsive materials. This indicates that PNiPAAm-l-PIB conetworks with predetermined and thermoresponsive swelling behavior can be designed and utilized in several advanced applications on the basis of results obtained in the course of this study

Binding of sodium dodecyl sulfate to linear and star homopolymers of the nonionic poly(methoxyhexa(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) and the polycation poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate): Electromotive force, isothermal titration calorimetry, surface tension, and small-angle neutron scattering measurements

We investigated the binding of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) to various linear and star polymers of the nonionic methoxyhexa(ethylene glycol) methacrylate (PMHEGMA) and the ionic 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (PDMAEMA), the latter being a polycation at low pH. The dodecyl sulfate ion selective electrode (EMF), isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), and surface tension (ST) were applied to gain detailed information about interactions. In all cases there is evidence of significant binding of SDS over an extensive SDS concentration range spanning from ca. 10-6 to 0.1 mol dm-3. At pH 3, the polymer PDMAEMA is a strong polycation and here the binding is dominated by electrostatic 1:1 charge neutralization with the anionic surfactant. At their natural pH of 8.6, PMHEGMA and PDMAEMA polymers are essentially nonionic and bind SDS in the form of polymer-bound aggregates in the concentration range of ca. 1 x 10-3 to 3 x 10-2 mol dm-3. All the polymers also bind SDS to a lesser extent at concentrations below 1 x 10-3 mol dm-3 reaching as low as 10-7 mol dm-3. This low concentration binding process involves the polymer and nonassociated SDS monomers. As far as we are aware, this is the first example that such a low concentration noncooperative binding process could be observed in SDS/neutral polymer systems by EMF and ST. We also showed that the nonionic surfactant hexa(ethylene glycol) mono-n-dodecyl ether (C12EO6) and the cationic cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (C16TAB) interact with star PDMAEMA. We believe that the interaction of C12EO6 and CTAB is of similar noncooperative type as the first SDS binding process in the range from ca. 10-5 to 0.3 x 10-3 mol dm-3. At the high concentration binding limit Csat of SDS, the above polymers become fully saturated with bound SDS micelles. We applied small angle neutron scattering (SANS) to determine the structure and aggregation numbers of the star polymer/bound SDS micelles and calculated the stoichiometry of such supramolecular complexes. The SANS data on PDMAEMA star polymers in the presence of C12EO6 showed only a limited monomer binding in contrast to linear PDMAEMA, which showed monomer C12EO6 binding at low concentrations but micellar aggregates at 6 x 10-3 mol dm-3