遗传信息传递的晶体学解密

生物大分子(如蛋白质等)在生物体内行使功能必须要保证其立体结构的正确性。作为研究大分子高级结构的主要手段,结晶技术结合X-射线衍射技术、核磁共振技术以及电镜技术被普遍应用于高级结构的数据分析。随着这些技术的进一步完善,目前已经能完成蛋白质与配体的共结晶。遗传信息从最原始的DNA或RNA传递到以蛋白质的形式呈现功能的过程是由众多酶或蛋白质复合体催化的多步骤进程,解析其中重要元件的空间结构推动了对这些酶反应机理的深入研究。主要阐述结晶技术在遗传信息传递过程中关键酶或蛋白质复合体的研究中的应用。     

蛋白质结晶的研究进展

概括了蛋白质结晶的基本过程,阐述了蛋白质结晶的早期发展历程,重点介绍了蛋白质结晶的近期研究状况,主要包括:形核机理的研究、结晶条件的筛选和结晶技术的优化以及基于结构的药物设计技术。特别是对离子液体在蛋白质结晶过程中的应用及发展前景进行了讨论。     

溶菌酶的结晶研究

介绍了溶菌酶结晶的意义,通过对晶核形成、晶体生长和停止生长三个阶段的论述,详细地阐述了溶菌酶的结晶机理;并综述了结晶过程中的各个影响因素:蛋白质浓度、pH值、添加剂、生长温度及重力场、磁场等;展望了溶菌酶结晶研究的发展趋势和发展前景。     

电场中的蛋白质结晶

人们一直致力于寻求提高蛋白质晶体质量的方法,利用电场诱导蛋白质结晶即是诸多方法中的一种。已有文献报道显示,电场对蛋白质结晶的影响是积极的。我们从直流电场、交流电场、内置电场、外置电场对蛋白质结晶的影响及相关结晶设备,电场中生长的蛋白质晶体质量的评估,电场中蛋白质结晶的原理及影响因素等方面,对已报道的电场中的蛋白质结晶研究工作进行了总结。     

制备用于结晶的蛋白质样品

制备高质量蛋白质晶体是通过X射线衍射解析蛋白质分子三维结构的关键环节,是结构生物学领域中的瓶颈问题之一。蛋白质的结晶受多因素控制,其中蛋白质样品自身的质量是影响蛋白质能否结晶及晶体质量好坏的关键因素。我们从蛋白质纯度、可溶性、均一性及表面修饰等方面介绍了如何获得适于结晶的蛋白质样品,以及如何借助相关仪器检测蛋白质样品的质量,预测蛋白质的可结晶性。     

NaCl溶液体系溶菌酶结晶相图的测定

溶液相图测定是研究蛋白质晶体生长的一重要方法。使用微量配液（Ｍｉｃｒｏｂａｔｃｈ）自动化结晶技术,对鸡蛋清溶菌酶－ＮａＣｌ溶液体系的相图进行了较精细的测定,获得该体系的精细相图。该结果反映了蛋白质结晶相图的一般分布规律,并揭示了一些细节特点。实验还表明,微量配液法自动化结晶技术便于这类相图测定,而后者又可提供优化蛋白质结晶条件的有用信息。     

我国第2次空间蛋白质晶体生长实验

1994年7月,在我国返回式卫星FSW-2上进行了第2次空间蛋白质结晶实验.该次实验中的晶体生长状况明显优于首次空间实验结果,参加实验的10种蛋白质中有9种蛋白质在空间长出了晶体,48个样品的单晶产生率达70％以上.其中3种蛋白质在空间长出较大单晶体,能用于X射线衍射实验和收集强度数据.这3种蛋白质中,除了在首次空间实验中长出较大晶体的溶菌酶,还有由于结晶条件优化而结晶效果明显改进的酸性磷脂酶A₂和斑头雁氧合血红蛋白.微重力条件对蛋白质晶体生长的良好效应在本次实验中得到进一步证实.     

一种简便灵活的蛋白质结晶的接种技术

介绍一种简便灵活的蛋白质结晶的微量接种技术,描述了接种容器的特点、硅化方法、实验技巧及其在蛋白质单晶培养中的应用。     

植物蛋白质S-亚硝基化修饰的检测与分析

S-亚硝基化是一种重要的蛋白质翻译后修饰方式, 是指一氧化氮(NO)基团共价连接至靶蛋白特定半胱氨酸残基的自由巯基, 从而形成S-亚硝基硫醇(SNO)的过程。S-亚硝基化修饰广泛存在于各有机体中, 通过改变蛋白质生化活性、稳定性、亚细胞定位以及蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用等机制而调控不同的生物学过程或信号通路。在蛋白质S-亚硝基化检测分析方法中, 最为广泛使用的是生物素转化法(biotin switch assay), 其基本原理是首先封闭未被修饰的自由巯基, 进而将被修饰的SNO基团特异地还原为自由巯基并使用生物素将其特异标记。被生物素标记的半胱氨酸残基(即被修饰位点)可进一步通过蛋白质免疫印迹和/或质谱等方法进行检测分析。该文详细描述了植物蛋白质样品的体内和体外生物素转化法的实验流程, 并对实验过程中的注意事项进行了讨论。     

植物蛋白质S-亚硝基化修饰的检测与分析

S-亚硝基化是一种重要的蛋白质翻译后修饰方式, 是指一氧化氮(NO)基团共价连接至靶蛋白特定半胱氨酸残基的自由巯基, 从而形成S-亚硝基硫醇(SNO)的过程。S-亚硝基化修饰广泛存在于各有机体中, 通过改变蛋白质生化活性、稳定性、亚细胞定位以及蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用等机制而调控不同的生物学过程或信号通路。在蛋白质S-亚硝基化检测分析方法中, 最为广泛使用的是生物素转化法(biotin switch assay), 其基本原理是首先封闭未被修饰的自由巯基, 进而将被修饰的SNO基团特异地还原为自由巯基并使用生物素将其特异标记。被生物素标记的半胱氨酸残基(即被修饰位点)可进一步通过蛋白质免疫印迹和/或质谱等方法进行检测分析。该文详细描述了植物蛋白质样品的体内和体外生物素转化法的实验流程, 并对实验过程中的注意事项进行了讨论。     

The effect of protein impurities on lysozyme crystal growth

While bulk crystallization from impure solutions is used industrially as a purification step for a wide variety of materials, it is a technique that has rarely been used for proteins. Proteins have a reputation for being difficult to crystallize and high purity of the initial crystallization solution is considered paramount for success in the crystallization. Although little is written on the purifying capability of protein crystallization or of the effect of impurities on the various aspects of the crystallization process, recent published reports show that crystallization shows promise and feasibility as a purification technique for proteins. To further examine the issue of purity in macromolecule crystallization, this study investigates the effect of the protein impurities, avidin, ovalbumin, and conalbumin at concentrations up to 50%, on the solubility, crystal face growth rates, and crystal purity of the protein lysozyme. Solubility was measured in batch experiments while a computer controlled video microscope system was used to measure the ?110? and ?101? lysozyme crystal face growth rates. While little effect was observed on solubility and high crystal purity was obtained (>99.99%), the effect of the impurities on the face growth rates varied from no effect to a significant face specific effect leading to growth cessation, a phenomenon that is frequently observed in protein crystal growth. The results shed interesting light on the effect of protein impurities on protein crystal growth and strengthen the feasibility of using crystallization as a unit operation for protein purification.     

Randomness in crystallization of proteins from Staphylococcus aureus

Of many factors affecting protein crystallization, randomness in proteins has been given less attention although highly structured proteins would be at low entropy state. The factors, which impact on protein crystallization, are almost exclusively related to non-random amino acid properties such as physiochemical properties of amino acids. In this study, we used logistic regression and neural network to model the success rate of crystallization of 420 proteins from Staphylococcus aureus with each of non-random and random amino acid properties in order to determine whether randomness in a protein plays a role in the crystallization process. The results show that randomness is indeed involved in the crystallization process, and this rationale would enrich our knowledge on crystallization process and enhance our ability to crystallize more important proteins.     

Criteria for the crystallization of polysaccharides

The relationship between crystallization and the annealing process is well established in the synthetic polymer field. This relationship appears to have been somewhat neglected in studies on biopolymers. Results are presented to show the effect of both humidity and temperature in promoting structural changes in polysaccharide system. Three different polysaccharides have been used as examples of how crystallization may be speeded up by annealing at elevated temperatures.     

Attempts to rationalize protein crystallization using relative crystallizability

Protein crystal growth (PCG) remains the bottleneck of crystallography despite many decades of study. The nucleation zone in the two-dimensional-phase diagram has been used to evaluate the relative crystallizability of proteins, which is expressed as a percentage over the phase area delineated by experimental protein and precipitating agent concentration ranges. For protein-salts which are subject to a direct temperature effect on solubility, as represented by Egg Lysozyme, a decrease in temperature augments the nucleation zone percentage whereas for those with retrograde solubility as a function of temperature, for example fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase in the presence and absence of AMP, an increase in temperature can significantly enhance the relative crystallizability. These results have been confirmed by the number of "hits" using PEGs as precipitating agents in Sparse Matrix Screen experiments for different proteins and are in excellent agreement with the relative crystallizability. The relationship between solubility dependence, relative crystallizability and crystallization success, has been evidenced. Such crystallizability can become a guide to identify efficient crystallization regions, providing a rational approach to PCG and structural biology.     

Cloud-point temperature and liquid-liquid phase separation of supersaturated lysozyme solution

The detailed understanding of the structure of biological macromolecules reveals their functions, and is thus important in the design of new medicines and for engineering molecules with improved properties for industrial applications. Although techniques used for protein crystallization have been progressing greatly, protein crystallization may still be considered an art rather than a science, and successful crystallization remains largely empirical and operator-dependent. In this work, a microcalorimetric technique has been utilized to investigate liquid-liquid phase separation through measuring cloud-point temperature T(cloud) for supersaturated lysozyme solution. The effects of ionic strength and glycerol on the cloud-point temperature are studied in detail. Over the entire range of salt concentrations studied, the cloud-point temperature increases monotonically with the concentration of sodium chloride. When glycerol is added as additive, the solubility of lysozyme is increased, whereas the cloud-point temperature is decreased.     

Trypsin crystallization by membrane-based techniques

To grow protein crystals is not an easy task; moreover, if we need to grow protein crystals with controlled shape, size, and size distribution, depending on their application, the mission becomes even harder. Membrane crystallization has been recognized as an interesting tool for growing protein crystals with enhanced crystallization kinetics, both in static and in forced solution flow configuration, without detrimental effects on crystal quality. In the present work, we have studied the membrane crystallization process of benzamidine inhibited trypsin from bovine pancreas (BPT), with ammonium sulphate (dissolved in Tris-HCl buffer, 0.1 M, pH 8.5), as precipitant agent. We have demonstrated that, by using the membrane crystallization technique, BPT crystals can be obtained in 24-48 h, in static configuration, and in 4-7 days, in a forced solution flow system, depending on the experimental conditions. Furthermore, the kinetics of BPT crystallization have been modulated, to control the morphological characteristics of the crystals produced, by an accurate selection of the operative parameters involved in the process. The active membrane surface and the flow rate of extraction solvent in quiescent configuration, and the solution velocity in forced convection solution experiments, were the parameters investigated. In this respect, membrane crystallization techniques have been assessed as an interesting way for growing proteins, and more specifically enzyme crystals, with high control on the final properties of the crystalline material produced, with potential fundamental implication in the field of structural biology and biotechnology.     

Selecting temperature for protein crystallization screens using the temperature dependence of the second virial coefficient

Protein crystals usually grow at a preferable temperature which is however not known for a new protein. This paper reports a new approach for determination of favorable crystallization temperature, which can be adopted to facilitate the crystallization screening process. By taking advantage of the correlation between the temperature dependence of the second virial coefficient (B(22)) and the solubility of protein, we measured the temperature dependence of B(22) to predict the temperature dependence of the solubility. Using information about solubility versus temperature, a preferred crystallization temperature can be proposed. If B(22) is a positive function of the temperature, a lower crystallization temperature is recommended; if B(22) shows opposite behavior with respect to the temperature, a higher crystallization temperature is preferred. Otherwise, any temperature in the tested range can be used.     

Drop-on-Demand System for Manufacturing of Melt-based Solid Oral Dosage: Effect of Critical Process Parameters on Product Quality

The features of a drop-on-demand-based system developed for the manufacture of melt-based pharmaceuticals have been previously reported. In this paper, a supervisory control system, which is designed to ensure reproducible production of high quality of melt-based solid oral dosages, is presented. This control system enables the production of individual dosage forms with the desired critical quality attributes: amount of active ingredient and drug morphology by monitoring and controlling critical process parameters, such as drop size and product and process temperatures. The effects of these process parameters on the final product quality are investigated, and the properties of the produced dosage forms characterized using various techniques, such as Raman spectroscopy, optical microscopy, and dissolution testing. A crystallization temperature control strategy, including controlled temperature cycles, is presented to tailor the crystallization behavior of drug deposits and to achieve consistent drug morphology. This control strategy can be used to achieve the desired bioavailability of the drug by mitigating variations in the dissolution profiles. The supervisor control strategy enables the application of the drop-on-demand system to the production of individualized dosage required for personalized drug regimens.     

The protein as a variable in protein crystallization

Strategies for growing protein crystals have for many years been essentially empirical, the protein, once purified to a certain homogeneity, being mixed with a selection of crystallization agents selected in a more or less trial-and-error fashion. Screening for the correct conditions has been made easier through automation and by the introduction of commercially available crystallization kits. Many parameters can be changed in these experiments, such as temperature, pH, and ionic strength, but perhaps the most important variable has been ignored, namely the protein. The crystallization properties of a protein vary greatly: some crystallize readily, whereas others have proven extremely difficult or even impossible to obtain in a crystalline state. The possibility of altering the intrinsic characteristics of a protein for crystallization has become a feasible strategy. Some historical perspectives and advances in this area will be reviewed.