Circular dichroism adsorbed proteins

The influence of adsorption on the structure of a -chymotrypsin is shown in Fig. 10, where the circular dichroism (CD) spectrum of the protein in solution is compared with that of the protein adsorbed on Teflon and silica. Because of absorbance in the far UV by the aromatic styrene, it is impossible to obtain reliable CD spectra of proteins adsorbed on PS and PS- (EO)8. The CD spectrum of a protein reflects its composition of secondary structural elements (a -helices, / -sheets). The spectrum of dissolved a-chymotrypsin is indicative of a low content of or-helices and a high content of //-sheets. After adsorption at the silica surface, the CD spectrum is shifted, but the shift is much more pronounced when the protein was adsorbed at the Teflon surface. The shifts are in opposite directions for the hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces, respectively. The spectrum of the protein on the hydrophilic surface of silica indicates a decrease in ordered secondary structure, i.e., the polypeptide chain in the protein has an increased random structure and, hence, a larger conformational entropy. Adsorption on the hydrophobic Teflon surface induces the formation of ordered structural elements, notably an increase in the content of O -helices (cfi, the discussion in Sect. 3.1.4). 

The enzymatic activities of O -chymotrypsin in solution and adsorbed at the different surfaces are presented in Fig. 11, where the specific enzymatic activity (defined as activity per unit mass of protein) is plotted as a function of temperature. The enzyme loses activity due to adsorption. On the hydrophobic Teflon and PS surfaces, the activity is completely gone, whereas on the hydrophilic silica surface, or-chymotrypsin has retained most of its biological function. These differences are in agreement with the adsorption isotherms and the circular dichroism spectra. The influence of the hydrophobicity of the sorbent surface on the affinity of the protein for the sorbent surface, as judged from the rising parts of the adsorption isotherms (Fig. 8), suggests that the proteins are more perturbed and, hence, less biologically active when adsorbed at hydrophobic surfaces. Also, the CD spectra indicate that adsorption-induced structural perturbations are more severe at hydrophobic surfaces. 

Although X-ray crystallography, NMR, and circular dichroism are extremely valuable techniques for determining the structure of crystalline proteins or proteins in solution, they cannot be used to study proteins adsorbed on surfaces. Vibrational spectroscopy (infrared and Raman) appears to be the best approach available for bridging the gap between adsorbed proteins and proteins in solution. 

Information about the secondary structures (a-helices, /5-sheets, random coil) can be useful for understanding conformation changes of proteins upon the immobilization process. More specifically, circular dichroism (CD) [70] and FT-IR spectroscopy [56, 58, 61, 71-73] have been applied to study the structural characteristics of various proteins adsorbed on mineral surfaces. Kondo and coworkers [70] have studied the modification in a-helix content of proteins adsorbed on ultrafine silica particles with CD and found a decrease upon immobilization. Circular dichroism is not usually used because this technique is applicable only for the study of enzymes immobilized on nano-sized mineral particles due to problems arising from light scattering effects. On the other hand, infrared spectroscopy does not suffer from light scattering perturbations and has thus been used for the study of the conformation of proteins when they are immobilized on solid supports [57, 58]. 

Adsorption of proteins onto surfaces involves a complex interplay of reversibility, exchange, conformational change, irreversible attachment, and denaturation. Several of these processes may be followed by measurement of the circular dichroism of adsorbed species and of desorbed material. The profile of chromatographically adsorbed material also contains, in principle, the details of the complex kinetics. Some aspects of each of these processes are examined. 

Problems Associated with Circular Dichroism of Adsorbed Proteins... 

We can now examine the behavior of albumin adsorbed on quartz. Albumin was coated onto the four surfaces of a double compartment cell allowed to incubate for about 15 min, rinsed, filled with doubly distilled water, and then examined by accumulation circular dichroism spectroscopy. The spectra are shown in Figure 4. Although the protein cannot definitely be... 

Due to the fundamental importance of the adsorbed protein film, many methods have been used to characterize its nature. These methods include ellipsometry (3,A), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) (5,6), multiple attenuated internal reflection spectroscopy (MAIR) (7,8) immunological labeling techniques (9), radioisotope labeled binding studies (j ), calorimetric adsorption studies (jj ), circular dichroism spectroscopy (CDS) (12), electrophoresis (j ), electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) (1 ), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (15,16,9), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) (17-19). 

The stmctural and conformational analysis of proteins adsorbed to solid surfaces is difficult because most common analytical methods are not compatible with the presence of the interacting solids. With recent developments in instrumentation and techniques, our understanding of protein adsorption behavior has improved considerably [4, 14]. The most commonly used techniques include attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), radiolabeling techniques, immunofluorescence enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), ellipsometry, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and amide HX with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning... 

Sivaraman, B., Fears, K.P., Latour, R.A. Investigation of the effects of surface chemistry and solution concentration on the conformation of adsorbed proteins using an improved circular dichroism method. Langmuir 25(5), 3050-3056 (2009)... 

Especially for the application to biological relevant surfaces (e.g., adsorbed proteins) the sensitivity of polarized SHG to the chirality of the molecules (the "handedness" of their structures) is important (Verbiest et al. 1998). Recently, the second-order nonlinear optical analog to circular dichroism and optical rotatory dispersion spectroscopy has been successfully developed (Yee et al. 1994 Byers et al. 1994). 

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