Modification sulfhydryl modified

This same type of modification strategy also can be used to create highly reactive groups from functionalities of rather low reactivity. For instance, carbohydrate chains on glycoproteins can be modified with sodium periodate to transform their rather unreactive hydroxyl groups into highly reactive aldehydes. Similarly, cystine or disulfide residues in proteins can be selectively reduced to form active sulfhydryls, or 5 -phosphate groups of DNA can be transformed to yield modifiable amines. 

Dissolve the sulfhydryl-containing protein or macromolecule to be modified at a concentration of l-10mg/ml in 50mM Tris, 0.15M NaCl, 5mM EDTA, pH 8.5. EDTA is present to prevent metal-catalyzed oxidation of sulfhydryl groups. The presence of Tris, an amine-containing buffer, should not affect the efficiency of sulfhydryl modification. Not only do amines generally react slower than sulfhydryls, the amine in Tris buffer is of particularly low reactivity. If Tris does pose a problem, however, use 0.1M sodium phosphate, 0.15M NaCl, 5mM EDTA, pH 8.0. 

Ethylenimine may be used to introduce additional sites of tryptic cleavage for protein structural studies. In this case, complete sulfhydryl modification is usually desired. Proteins are treated with ethylenimine under denaturing conditions (6-8 M guanidine hydrochloride) in the presence of a disulfide reductant to reduce any disulfide bonds before modification. Ethylenimine may be added directly to the reducing solution in excess (similar to the procedure for Aminoethyl-8 described previously) to totally modify the —SH groups formed. 

Purify the modified protein from excess Ellman s reagent and reaction by-products by dialysis or gel filtration. A measurement of sulfhydryl content may be done by reading the absorbance of the modification reaction at 412nm (s = 1.36 X 104 M-1cm-1) versus a series of sulfhydryl standards treated in the same manner (e.g., cysteine). 

The addition of a radioactive iodine atom to a protein molecule typically has little effect on the resultant protein activity, unless the active center is modified in the process. The size of an iodine atom is relatively small and does not result in many steric problems with large molecules. The sites of potential protein modification are tyrosine and histidine side chains. Tyrosine may be modified with a total of two iodine atoms per phenolate group, whereas histidine can incorporate one iodine. Sulfhydryl modification at cysteine residues is typically unstable. 

Figure 21.5 SPDP can be used to modify both an antibody and a toxin molecule for conjugation purposes. In this case, the antibody is thiolated to contain a sulfhydryl group by modification with SPDP followed by reduction with DTT. A toxin molecule is then activated with SPDP and reacted with the thiolated antibody to effect the final conjugate through a disulfide bond.

Figure 21.10 Cystamine may be used to make immunotoxin conjugates by a disulfide interchange reaction. Modification of antibody molecules using an EDC-mediated reaction creates a sulfhydryl-reactive derivative. A-chain toxin subunits containing a free thiol can be coupled to the cystamine-modified antibody to form disulfide crosslinks.

Dissolve the protein to be modified with TsT-mPEG in ice-cold 0.1 sodium borate, pH 9.4, at a concentration of 2-10 mg/ml. Other buffers at lower pH values (down to pH 7.2) can be used and still obtain modification, but the yield will be less. Avoid amine-containing buffers such as Tris or the presence of sulfhydryl-containing compounds, such as disulfide reductants. 

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