Nonoxidative cadmium-dependent dimerization of Cd7-metallothionein from rabbit liver.

The effect of free Cd(II) ions on monomeric Cd7-metallothionein-2 (MT) from rabbit liver has been studied. Slow, concentration-dependent dimerization of this protein was observed by gel filtration chromatographic studies. The dimeric MT form, isolated by gel filtration, contains approximately two additional and more weakly bound Cd(II) ions per monomer. The incubation of MT dimers with complexing agents EDTA and 2-mercaptoethanol leads to the dissociation of dimers to monomers. The results of circular dichroism (CD) and electronic absorption studies indicate that the slow dimerization process is preceded by an initial rapid Cd-induced rearrangement of the monomeric Cd7-MT structure. The 113Cd NMR spectrum of the MT dimer revealed only four 113Cd resonances at chemical shift positions similar to those observed for the Cd4 cluster of the well-characterized monomeric 113Cd7-MT. This result suggests that on dimer formation major structural changes occur in the original three-metal cluster domain of Cd7-MT.     

Metal binding to brain-specific metallothionein-3 studied by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

Metallothionein-3 (MT-3) is a brain-specific isoform of metallothioneins, which is down-regulated in Alzheimer's disease (AD), inhibits the growth of neurons in vitro, and differs from common MTs also in gene regulation. To elucidate the differences in structure and function between MT-3 and common MTs, Zn2+ and Cd2+ binding to MT-3 and MT-1 were studied using electrospray ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (ESI TOF MS) at pH values between 7.5 and 2.7. The metal binding properties of MT-3 differ considerably from those of MT-1. After reconstitution with a metal excess, metallated MT-3 exists as a mixture of Zn7MT-3 (or Cd7MT-3, respectively) and several metalloforms with stoichiometries below and above seven. In contrast, MT-1 exists as a single Zn7MT-1 (or Cd7MT-1). Lowering of pH leads to a stepwise release of metals from metallated MT-3, first from extra sites, then from the 3-metal cluster and finally from the 4-metal cluster. At acidic pH values the 4-metal cluster of MT-3 is slightly more stable than that of MT-1. The results demonstrate higher structural plasticity, dynamics and metal binding capacity of MT-3 than of MT-1, which makes MT-3 suitable as a zinc buffer-transfer molecule in zinc-enriched neurons functioning at conditions of fluctuating zinc concentrations.     

Assessment of Blood Contamination in Biological Fluids Using MALDI-TOF MS

Biological fluid sample collection often includes the risk of blood contamination that may alter the proteomic profile of biological fluid. In proteomics studies, exclusion of contaminated samples is usually based on visual inspection and counting of red blood cells in the sample; analysis of specific blood derived proteins is less used. To fill the gap, we developed a fast and sensitive method for ascertainment of blood contamination in crude biological fluids, based on specific blood-derived protein, hemoglobin detection by MALDI-TOF MS. The MALDI-TOF MS based method allows detection of trace hemoglobin with the detection limit of 0.12 nM. UV-spectrometry, which was used as reference method, was found to be less sensitive. The main advantages of the presented method are that it is fast, effective, sensitive, requires very small sample amount and can be applied for detection of blood contamination in various biological fluids collected for proteomics studies. Method applicability was tested on human cerebrospinal and follicular fluid, which proteomes generally do not contain hemoglobin, however, which possess high risk for blood contamination. Present method successfully detected the blood contamination in 12 % of cerebrospinal fluid and 24 % of follicular fluid samples. High percentage of contaminated samples accentuates the need for initial inspection of proteomic samples to avoid incorrect results from blood proteome overlap.     

The effects of physiologically important nonmetallic ligands in the reactivity of metallothionein towards 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid). A new method for the determination of ligand interactions with metallothionein.

The reaction of Cd5Zn2-metallothionein (MT) with 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (Nbs2) has been studied at different reagent stoichiometries, pH and temperature conditions and in the presence of several ligands. At stoichiometries of Nbs2 to MT from 0.5 to 5, the reaction followed first order kinetics. The first order rate constants obtained were independent from the concentration of Nbs2 but were linearly dependent on the concentration of MT. At higher Nbs2/MT stoichiometries, the reaction deviates from first order kinetics and the observed rate constant increases. The reactivity of MT towards Nbs2 has been probed at 4 microM concentration of both reagents where the reaction is monophasic and is characterized by a linear Arrhenius plot (Ea = 45.8 +/- 2.7 kJ.mol-1). It has been demonstrated that metal release at low pH or subtraction from MT by EDTA substantially increases the reactivity of MT towards Nbs2. At the same time, a number of nonmetallic ligands moderately accelerate the reaction of MT with Nbs2 and hyperbolic dose-response curves were obtained. The data have been interpreted with the binding of ligands to MT and following MT. Ligand binding constants were calculated as follows: ATP, K = 0.31 +/- 0.06 mM; ADP, K = 0.26 +/- 0.07 mM. Several compounds such as AMP, S-methylglutathione, and phosphate had no effect on the reaction, but Zn2+ ions showed an inhibitory effect at micromolar concentrations.     

Redox and metal ion binding properties of human insulin-like growth factor 1 determined by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is a 70-residue hormone containing three intramolecular disulfide bridges. IGF-1 and other growth factors are oxidatively folded in the endoplasmic reticulum and act primarily in the blood, under relatively oxidative conditions. It is known that IGF-1 exists in various intracellular and extracellular compartments in the oxidized form; however, the reduction potential of IGF-1 and the ability of fully reduced IGF-1, which contains six cysteine residues, to bind transition metal ions are not known. In this work, we determine that the redox potential of human IGF-1 is equal to -332 mV and the reduced form of hIGF-1 can bind cooperatively four Cu(+) ions, most probably into a tetracopper-hexathiolate cluster. The Cu(+) binding affinity of hIGF-1 is, however, approximately 3 times lower than that for the copper chaperones; thus, we can conclude that fully reduced hIGF-1 cannot compete with known Cu(+)-binding proteins.     

Interference of low‐molecular substances with the thioflavin‐T fluorescence assay of amyloid fibrils

Abnormal fibrillization of amyloidogenic peptides/proteins has been linked to various neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease as well as with type‐II diabetes mellitus. The kinetics of protein fibrillization is commonly studied by using a fluorescent dye Thioflavin T (ThT) that binds to protein fibrils and exerts increased fluorescence intensity in bound state. Recently, it has been demonstrated that several low‐molecular weight compounds like Basic Blue 41, Basic Blue 12, Azure C, and Tannic acid interfere with the fluorescence of ThT bound to Alzheimers' amyloid‐β fibrils and cause false positive results during the screening of fibrillization inhibitors. In the current study, we demonstrated that the same selected substances also decrease the fluorescence signal of ThT bound to insulin fibrils already at submicromolar or micromolar concentrations. Kinetic experiments show that unlike to true inhibitors, these compounds did neither decrease the fibrillization rate nor increase the lag‐period. Absence of soluble insulin in the end of the experiment confirmed that these compounds do not disaggregate the insulin fibrils and, thus, are not fibrillization inhibitors at concentrations studied. Our results show that interference with ThT test is a general phenomenon and more attention has to be paid to interpretation of kinetic results of protein fibrillization obtained by using fluorescent dyes. Copyright © 2011 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Kinetic analysis of butyrylcholinesterase inhibition with N,N-dimethyl-2-phenylaziridinium ion

The kinetics of the butyrylcholinesterase interaction with N,N-dimethyl-2-phenylaziridinium ion, which probably alkylates the anionic site of the enzyme, was investigated at pH 7.5 and 25°C. It was found that the main product of the spontaneous hydrolysis of the aziridinium compound in water, N,N-dimethyl-2-hydroxy-2-phenylethylamine, binds effectively in the enzyme active center and protects it against alkylation. This binding equilibrium as well as the kinetics of the spontaneous decomposition of the aziridinium inhibitor were taken into consideration in calculating the rate and equilibrium constants for the enzyme alkylation reaction. The kinetics of the formation of the aziridinium compound and of the spontaneous hydrolysis reaction were investigated separately at pH 5.8–7.8, and the rate constants obtained from these experiments agree with the corresponding data calculated from the enzyme inhibition kinetics.