Online monitoring of horseradish peroxidase structural changes by Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy

The development of online monitoring techniques is of great relevance for understanding the structural changes of proteins under different conditions in order to maximize their catalytic activity. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of the NIR (near-infrared spectroscopy) technique for the monitoring of alterations of secondary and tertiary structures of Horseradish peroxidase (HRP), an oxidoreductase that has several applications in the industrial environment, food industry and bioremediation. The NIR associated to the multivariate calibration, through the PLS (partial least square) method allowed the construction of a robust model for the prediction of the analysis. The values of the correlation coefficient (R²), root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC), root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) and root mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV) for secondary structure analysis using circular dichroism (CD) data as reference (actual values) were 0.9681, 0.647 (mdeg), 0.945 (mdeg), and 1.12 (mdeg), respectively. For tertiary structure analysis, fluorescence spectroscopy (FL) data were used as reference. R², RMSEC, RMSEP and RMSECV were, respectively 0.9999, 1.95 (a.u.), 2.09 (a.u.); and 2.19 (a.u.). NIR combined multivariate calibration showed promising results for sctructural changes monitoring of HRP.