Hydration dynamics optical probes

There are many examples of second-order analyzers that are used in analytical chemistry including many hyphenated spectroscopic tools such as FTIR-TGA, IR-microscopy, as well as GC-MS, or even two-dimensional spectroscopic techniques. Another hyphenated technique that is being developed for the study of solid-state transitions in crystalline materials is dynamic vapor sorption coupled with NIR spectroscopy (DVS-NIR).26 DVS is a water sorption balance by which the weight of a sample is carefully monitored during exposure to defined temperature and humidity. It can be used to study the stability of materials, and in this case has been used to induce solid-state transitions in anhydrous theophylline. By interfacing an NIR spectrometer with a fiber-optic probe to the DVS, the transitions of the theophylline can be monitored spectroscopically. The DVS-NIR has proven to be a useful tool in the study of the solid-state transitions of theophylline. It has been used to identify a transition that exists in the conversion of the anhydrous form to the hydrate during the course of water sorption. 

We recently developed a systematic method that uses the intrinsic tryptophan residue (Trp or W) as a local optical probe [49, 50]. Using site-directed mutagenesis, tryptophan can be mutated into different positions one at a time to scan protein surfaces. With femtosecond temporal and single-residue spatial resolution, the fluorescence Stokes shift of the local excited Trp can be followed in real time, and thus, the location, dynamics, and functional roles of protein-water interactions can be studied directly. With MD simulations, the solvation by water and protein (residues) is differentiated carefully to determine the hydration dynamics. Here, we focus our own work and review our recent systematic studies on hydration dynamics and protein-water fluctuations in a series of biological systems using the powerful intrinsic tryptophan as a local optical probe, and thus reveal the dynamic role of hydrating water molecules around proteins, which is a longstanding unresolved problem and a topic central to protein science. 

With site-directed mutation and femtosecond-resolved fluorescence methods, we have used tryptophan as an excellent local molecular reporter for studies of a series of ultrafast protein dynamics, which include intraprotein electron transfer [64-68] and energy transfer [61, 69], as well as protein hydration dynamics [70-74]. As an optical probe, all these ultrafast measurements require no potential quenching of excited-state tryptophan by neighboring protein residues or peptide bonds on the picosecond time scale. However, it is known that tryptophan fluorescence is readily quenched by various amino acid residues [75] and peptide bonds [76-78]. Intraprotein electron transfer from excited indole moiety to nearby electrophilic residue(s) was proposed to be the quenching... 

Recent progress in X-ray diffraction of protein crystals in the diamond anvil cell will also make it possible to obtain quantitative information on the cavities [42, 43]. Optical spectroscopy [44] and neutron scattering [45] should also be valuable tools to probe the role of cavities. High-pressure molecular dynamics simulations should also allow estimating the contributions of the hydration and the cavities. High-pressure simulations on the small protein, bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor, indicate an increased insertion of water into the protein interior before unfolding starts to occur [46,47]. 

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