Hinge region

The effective moment of inertia / and the friction coefficient / could easily be estimated. The force constant k associated with the relative motion of the lobes was determined from an empirical energy function. To do so, the molecule was opened in a step-wise fashion by manipulating the hinge region and each resulting structure was energy minimized. Then, the interaction energy between the two domains was measured, and plotted versus 0. 

Figure 13.19 Ribbon diagram of the stmcture of the extracellular domain of the human growth hormone. The hormone-binding region is formed by loops (yellow) at the hinge region between two fibronectin type III domains. (Adapted from J. Wells et al., Annu. Rev.

Figure 1S.6 Enzymatic cleavage of immunoglobulin IgG. The enzyme papain splits the molecule in the hinge region, yielding two Fab fragments and one Fc fragment.

Figure 15.17 The three-dimensional structure of an intact IgG. Hinge regions connecting the Fab arms with the Fc stem are relatively flexible, despite the presence of disulfide bonds in this region linking the heavy and light chains. Carbohydrate residues that bridge the two Ch2 domains are not shown. (Courtesy of A. McPherson and L. Harris, Nature 360 369-372, 1992, by copyright permission of Macmillan Magazines Limited.)...

IgG antibody molecules are composed of two light chains and two heavy chains joined together by disulfide bonds. Each light chain has one variable domain and one constant domain, while each heavy chain has one variable and three constant domains. All of the domains have a similar three-dimensional structure known as the immunoglobulin fold. The Fc stem of the molecule is formed by constant domains from each of the heavy chains, while two Fab arms are formed by constant and variable domains from both heavy and light chains. The hinge region between the stem and the arms is flexible and allows the arms to move relative to each other and to the stem. 

The molecular basis for quasi-equivalent packing was revealed by the very first structure determination to high resolution of a spherical virus, tomato bushy stunt virus. The structure of this T = 3 virus was determined to 2.9 A resolution in 1978 by Stephen Harrison and co-workers at Harvard University. The virus shell contains 180 chemically identical polypeptide chains, each of 386 amino acid residues. Each polypeptide chain folds into distinct modules an internal domain R that is disordered in the structure, a region (a) that connects R with the S domain that forms the viral shell, and, finally, a domain P that projects out from the surface. The S and P domains are joined by a hinge region (Figure 16.8). 

When they form the three subunits A, B, and C of the asymmetric unit, the identical polypeptides adopt different three-dimensional structures. The C subunit in particular is distinct from the A and B structures, its hinge region assuming a different conformation so that the S and P domains are... 

SHRs are built in a modular structure with similar structure elements. They contain a DNA-binding domain (DBD), a hinge region with a nuclear location signal (NLS), a ligand-binding domain (LBD) and several transcriptional activation functions (Fig. 1). 

ADP. The hinge regions of myosin (referred to as flexible points at each end of S-2 in the legend to Figure 49-7) permit the large range of movement of S-1 and also allow S-1 to find actin filaments. 

Poorly soluble brickdust compounds are not preferentially selected for by HTS as is the case with greaseballs. However, brickdust compounds are extremely common in certain popular current era targets, e.g. the ATP competitive hinge region binding site in protein kinase inhibitors. 

The use of a 500-fold molar excess of 2-mercaptoethylamine over the concentration of antibody presence was found to result in a partially reduced antibody in which two disulfides were reduced to yield four thiols (Sun et al., 2005). This strategy can be used to retain a biospecific antibody construct for subsequent discrete conjugation at the hinge region between the heavy chains. 

Figure 1.77 Disulfide reducing agents such as 2-mercaptoethylamine can be used to cleave the disulfide bonds in the hinge region of antibody molecules. Either intact IgG molecules or F(ab )2 fragments may be reduced in this manner to yield monofunctional antigen binding fragments.

Add TCEP to a final concentration of 20 mM. For partial reduction of antibody disulfides in the hinge region while maintaining a biospecific IgG molecule, add TCEP in a 2.75-fold molar excess over that of the antibody concentration. 

For complete reduction of all disulfides in the presence of a denaturant, react for 16 hours at 0°C and 2 hours at room temperature. For partial reduction of disulfides, the reaction time may be reduced to 2 hours at 37°C, particularly for antibody thiol reduction, if only partial reduction of thiols in the hinge region is done. 

The following protocol is based on the methods recommended by Thermo Fisher for use of the cyanine dye DyLight 649. Antibody reduction is based on the methods of Sun et al. (2005), which results in partially reduced bispecific immunoglobulin containing available thiols in the hinge region for labeling. 

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