Molecular Determinants of S100B Oligomer Formation

Background: S100B is a dimeric protein that can form tetramers, hexamers and higher order oligomers. These forms have been suggested to play a role in RAGE activation. Methodology/Principal Findings: Oligomerization was found to require a low molecular weight trigger/cofactor and could not be detected for highly pure dimer, irrespective of handling. Imidazol was identified as a substance that can serve this role. Oligomerization is dependent on both the imidazol concentration and pH, with optima around 90 mM imidazol and pH 7, respectively. No oligomerization was observed above pH 8, thus the protonated form of imidazol is the active species in promoting assembly of dimers to higher species. However, disulfide bonds are not involved and the process is independent of redox potential. The process was also found to be independent of whether Ca 2+ is bound to the protein or not. Tetramers that are purified from dimers and imidazol by gel filtration are kinetically stable, but dissociate into dimers upon heating. Dimers do not revert to tetramer and higher oligomer unless imidazol is again added. Both tetramers and hexamers bind the target peptide from p53 with retained stoichiometry of one peptide per S100B monomer, and with high affinity (lgK = 7.360.2 and 7.260.2, respectively in 10 mM BisTris, 5 mM CaCl 2, pH 7.0), which is less than one order of magnitude reduced compared to dimer under the same buffer conditions. Conclusion/Significance: S100B oligomerization requires protonated imidazol as a trigger/cofactor. Oligomers ar

Acetylcholinesterase as polyelectrolyte in reaction with cationic substrates

AbstractIt is shown that the salt effect in acetylcholinesterase-catalyzed hydrolysis of 2-(N-methylmorpholinium) -ethylacetate can be quantitatively described by the equation log(k2/KS) = log(k2/KS)° — ψlog[M+Z] following from Manning's polyelectrolyte theory; the ψ values for salts with univalent and bivalent cations at different pH values of the reaction medium were in accordance with the conclusions of the theory. Manning's polyelectrolyte theory seems to be a useful framework for studying salt effects in the reactions of charged substrates with enzymes as globular polyions

Control of cellular respiration in vivo by mitochondrial outer membrane and by creatine kinase. A new speculative hypothesis: possible involvement of mitochondrial-cytoskeleton interactions.

International audienceThe current problems of regulation of myocardial energy metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation in vivo are considered. With this purpose, retarded diffusion of ADP in cardiomyocytes was studied by analysis of elevated apparent Km for this substrate in regulation of respiration of saponin-skinned cardiac fibers, as compared to isolated mitochondria. Recently published data showing the importance of the outer mitochondrial membrane were compared with new experimental results on the proteolysis of skinned fibers and tissue homogenates. In both cases 10 min incubation and 0.125 mg/ml of trypsin resulted in a decrease of apparent Km for ADP from 297 +/- 35 and 228 +/- 16 to 109 +/- 2 and 36 +/- 16, respectively. Thus, the permeability of the outer mitochondrial membrane for ADP may be controlled by some unknown cytoplasmic protein(s), probably related to the cytoskeleton, which are separated from mitochondria during their isolation. The extent of expression of this protein(s) depends on the energy state and type of muscle. Activation of mitochondrial creatine kinase reaction coupled to oxidative phosphorylation overcomes the diffusion difficulties of ADP by amplifying the stimulatory effect of ADP on respiration. It is concluded that both cytoplasmic and mitochondrial creatine kinases, adenylate kinase and cytoplasmic factor controlling outer membrane permeability may participate in metabolic feedback regulation of respiration in muscle cells