Thermodynamic Study of the Binding of Mercury Ion to Human Growth Hormone at Different Temperatures

Stabilization challenges and aggregation in protein-based therapeutics in the pharmaceutical industry

Protein-based therapeutics have revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry and become vital components in the development of future therapeutics. They offer several advantages over traditional small molecule drugs, including high affinity, potency and specificity, while demonstrating low toxicity and minimal adverse effects. However, the development and manufacturing processes of protein-based therapeutics presents challenges related to protein folding, purification, stability and immunogenicity that should be addressed. These proteins, like other biological molecules, are prone to chemical and physical instabilities. The stability of protein-based drugs throughout the entire manufacturing, storage and delivery process is essential. The occurrence of structural instability resulting from misfolding, unfolding, and modifications, as well as aggregation, poses a significant risk to the efficacy of these drugs, overshadowing their promising attributes. Gaining insight into structural alterations caused by aggregation and their impact on immunogenicity is vital for the advancement and refinement of protein therapeutics. Hence, in this review, we have discussed some features of protein aggregation during production, formulation and storage as well as stabilization strategies in protein engineering and computational methods to prevent aggregation.

Binding Free Energy and the structural changes determination in hGH protein with different concentrations of copper ions (A molecular dynamics simulation study)

In this study, we estimated the optimum concentration of copper ions that are effective in the stability and the structural changes of human growth hormone (hGH) protein in the combination of different concentrations of these ions at the molecular level using molecular dynamics simulation by Gromacs 4.6.5 software. Moreover, to estimate the binding affinity of copper ions to hGH protein, binding free energies is calculated by the molecular mechanics Poisson–Boltzmann Surface Area (MM-PBSA). The analysis of molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories as dictionary of the secondary structure of protein (DSSP), solvent accessible surface area (SASA) and binding free energy calculations show that hGH protein structure is more stabilized by increasing a limited concentration of copper ions. These findings align with our previous experimental studies.

A Comparative Study on the Interaction of Sulfonamide and Nanosulfonamide with Human Serum Albumin

Binding parameters of the N-phenyl benzene sulfonyl hydrazide, sulfonamide, and nanosulfonamide interaction with human serum albumin were determined by calorimetry method. The obtained binding parameters indicated that sulfonamide in the second binding sites has higher affinity for binding than the first binding sites. The binding process of sulfonamide to HSA is both enthalpy and entropy driven. The associated equilibrium constants confirm that sulfonamide binds to HSA with high affinity (2.2×106and 3.86105 M−1for first and second sets of binding sites, resp.). The obtained results indicate that sulfonamide increases the HSA antioxidant property. Nanosulfonamide has much more affinity for HSA (3.6×106 M−1) than sulfonamide.