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  3. Effect of Osmolytes on Water Mobility Correlates with Their Stabilizing Effect on Proteins

Effect of Osmolytes on Water Mobility Correlates with Their Stabilizing Effect on Proteins

  • J Phys Chem B. 2022 Apr 7;126(13):2466-2475. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c10634.
Mafumi Hishida 1,  Rubaiya Anjum 2,  Takahisa Anada 2 3,  Daiki Murakami 2 3,  Masaru Tanaka 2 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8571, Japan.
  • 2 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan.
  • 3 Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan.
PMID: 35349285 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c10634
Abstract

There is a long, ongoing debate on how small molecules (osmolytes) affect the stability of proteins. The present study found that change in collective rotational dynamics of water in osmolyte solutions likely has a dominant effect on protein denaturation. According to THz spectroscopy analysis, osmolytes that stabilize proteins are accompanied by bound hydration water with slow dynamics, while the collective rotational dynamics of water is accelerated in the case of denaturant osmolytes. Among 15 osmolytes studied here, there is a good correlation between the change in mobility in terms of water rotational dynamics and the denaturation temperature of ribonuclease A. The changes in water dynamics due to osmolytes can be regarded as a pseudo-temperature-change, which agrees well with the change in protein denaturation temperature. These results indicate that the molecular dynamics of water around the protein is a key factor for protein denaturation.

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