Chemical methods and approaches to the regioselective formation of multiple disulfide bonds

Chemical Digestion of the -Asp-Cys- Sequence for Preparation of Post-translationally Modified Proteins

Numerous studies of native proteins have been reported on protein folding in this half century. Recently, post-translationally modified proteins are also focused on protein folding. However, it is still difficult to prepare such types of proteins because it requires not only the chemical but also the recombinant techniques. Native chemical ligation (NCL) is a powerful technique for producing target proteins when combined with recombinant techniques, such as expressed protein ligation (EPL). NCL basically requires an N-terminal peptide with a thioester and a C-terminal peptide which should possess a Cys residue at the N-terminus. Numerous efforts have been made to prepare N-terminal peptides carrying a thioester or a derivative thereof. However, a method for preparing C-terminal Cys-peptides with post-translational modifications has not been well developed, making it difficult to prepare such C-terminal Cys-peptides, except for chemical syntheses or enzymatic digestion. We report here on the development of a convenient technique that involves acid hydrolysis at the -Asp-Cys- sequence, to effectively obtain a C-terminal peptide fragment that can be used for any protein synthesis when combined with EPL, even under denatured conditions. Thus, this chemical digestion strategy permits the NCL strategy to be dramatically accelerated for protein syntheses in which post-translational modifications, such as glycosylation, phosphorylation, etc. are involved. In addition, this method should be useful to prepare the post-translationally modified proteins for protein folding.

Distinct 3-disulfide-bonded isomers of tridegin differentially inhibit coagulation factor XIIIa: The influence of structural stability on bioactivity

Tridegin is a 66mer cysteine-rich coagulation factor XIIIa (FXI-IIa) inhibitor from the giant amazon leech Haementeria ghilianii of yet unknown disulfide connectivity. This study covers the structural and functional characterization of five different 3-disulfide-bonded tridegin isomers. In addition to three previously identified isomers, one isomer containing the inhibitory cystine knot (ICK, knottin) motif, and one isomer with the leech antihemostatic protein (LAP) motif were synthesized in a regioselective manner. A fluorogenic enzyme activity assay revealed a positive correlation between the constriction of conformational flexibility in the N-terminal part of the peptide and the inhibitory potential towards FXI-IIa with clear differences between the isomers. This observation was supported by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and subsequent molecular docking studies. The presented results provide detailed structure-activity relationship studies of different tridegin disulfide isomers towards FXI-IIa and reveal insights into the possibly existing native linkage compared to non-native disulfide tridegin species.

Cellular disulfide bond formation in bioactive peptides and proteins

Bioactive peptides play important roles in metabolic regulation and modulation and many are used as therapeutics. These peptides often possess disulfide bonds, which are important for their structure, function and stability. A systematic network of enzymes--a disulfide bond generating enzyme, a disulfide bond donor enzyme and a redox cofactor--that function inside the cell dictates the formation and maintenance of disulfide bonds. The main pathways that catalyze disulfide bond formation in peptides and proteins in prokaryotes and eukaryotes are remarkably similar and share several mechanistic features. This review summarizes the formation of disulfide bonds in peptides and proteins by cellular and recombinant machinery.