George E. Tranter

Rapid and noninvasive diagnosis of the presence and severity of coronary heart disease using 1H-NMR-based metabonomics.

Although a wide range of risk factors for coronary heart disease have been identified from population studies, these measures, singly or in combination, are insufficiently powerful to provide a reliable, noninvasive diagnosis of the presence of coronary heart disease. Here we show that pattern-recognition techniques applied to proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectra of human serum can correctly diagnose not only the presence, but also the severity, of coronary heart disease. Application of supervised partial least squares-discriminant analysis to orthogonal signal-corrected data sets allows >90% of subjects with stenosis of all three major coronary vessels to be distinguished from subjects with angiographically normal coronary arteries, with a specificity of >90%. Our studies show for the first time a technique capable of providing an accurate, noninvasive and rapid diagnosis of coronary heart disease that can be used clinically, either in population screening or to allow effective targeting of treatments such as statins.

Residual structure in disordered peptides and unfolded proteins from multivariate analysis and ab initio simulation of Raman optical activity data

Vibrational Raman optical activity (ROA), measured as a small difference in the intensity of Raman scattering from chiral molecules in right‐ and left‐circularly polarized incident light, or as the intensity of a small circularly polarized component in the scattered light, is a powerful probe of the aqueous solution structure of proteins. The large number of structure‐sensitive bands in protein ROA spectra makes multivariate analysis techniques such as nonlinear mapping (NLM) especially favorable for determining structural relationships between different proteins. We have previously used NLM to map a large dataset of peptide, protein, and virus ROA spectra into a readily visualizable two‐dimensional space in which points close to or distant from each other, respectively, represent similar or dissimilar structures. As well as folded proteins, our dataset contains ROA spectra from many natively unfolded proteins, proteins containing both folded and unfolded domains, denatured partially structured molten globule and reduced protein states, together with folded proteins containing little or no α‐helix or β‐sheet. In this article, the relative positions of these systems in the NLM plot are used to obtain information about any residual structure that they may contain. The striking differences between the structural propensities of proteins that are unfolded in their native states and those that are unfolded due to denaturation may be responsible for their often very different behavior, especially with regard to aggregation. An ab initio simulation of the Raman and ROA spectra of an alanine oligopeptide in the poly(L‐proline) II‐helical conformation confirms previous suggestions that this conformation is a significant structural element in disordered peptides and natively unfolded proteins. The use of ROA to identify and characterize proteins containing significant amounts of unfolded structure will, inter alia, be valuable in structural genomics/proteomics since unfolded sequences often inhibit crystallization. Proteins 2008.

Raman Optical Activity and Circular Dichroism Reveal Dramatic Differences in the Influence of Divalent Copper and Manganese Ions on Prion Protein Folding

The binding of divalent copper ions to the full-length recombinant murine prion protein PrP23-231 at neutral pH was studied using vibrational Raman optical activity (ROA) and ultraviolet circular dichroism (UV CD). The effect of the Cu2+ ions on PrP structure depends on whether they are added after refolding of the protein in water or are present during the refolding process. In the first case ROA reveals that the hydrated alpha-helix is lost, with UV CD revealing a drop from approximately 25% to approximately 18% in the total alpha-helix content. The lost alpha-helix could be that comprising residues 145-156, located within the region associated with scrapie PrP formation. In the second case, ROA reveals the proteins structure to be almost completely disordered/irregular, with UV CD revealing a drop in total alpha-helix content to approximately 5%. Hence, although Cu2+ binding takes place exclusively within the unfolded/disordered N-terminal region, it can profoundly affect the structure of the folded/alpha-helical C-terminal region. This is supported by the finding that refolding in the presence of Cu2+ of a mutant in which the first six histidines associated with copper binding to the N-terminal region are replaced by alanine has a similar alpha-helix content to the metal-free protein. In contrast, when the protein is refolded in the presence of divalent manganese ions, ROA indicates the alpha-helix is reinforced, with UV CD revealing an increase in total alpha-helix content to approximately 30%. The very different influence of Cu2+ and Mn2+ ions on prion protein structure may originate in the different stability constants and geometries of their complexes.

Homochirality as the signature of life: the SETH Cigar

A characteristic hallmark of life is its homochirality: all biomolecules are usually of one hand, e.g. on Earth life uses only L-amino acids for protein synthesis and not their D mirror images. It is therefore suggested that a search for extra-terrestrial life can be approached as a Search for Extra-Terrestrial Homochirality (SETH). A novel miniaturized space polarimeter, called the SETH Cigar, is described which could he used to detect optical rotation as the homochiral signature of life on other planets. Moving parts are avoided by replacing the normal rotating polarizer by multiple fixed polarizers at different angles as in the eye of the bee. It is believed that homochirality will be found in the subsurface layers on Mars as a relic of extinct life.

C-3 branched δ-3,5-cis- and trans-THF sugar amino acids: synthesis of the first generation of branched homooligomers

This article describes the efficient synthesis of the first generation of branched sugar amino acid (SAA) oligomers in solution phase via two main routes: by the use of a standard coupling reagent and via the use of active ester intermediates. Benzyl-protected dimeric carbopeptoid and methyl-protected dimeric and tetrameric, hexameric and octameric carbopeptoids were obtained from a branched δ-3,5-trans-tetrahydrofuran (THF) SAA and methyl-protected dimeric and tetrameric carbopeptoids were synthesised from a branched δ-3,5-cis-THF SAA. These systems are of interest because of their potential to display foldameric properties reminiscent of those observed in α-peptides and proteins. Amongst their many uses, foldamers provide simpler models in the study of the factors which induce the folding and unfolding of proteins and, ultimately, potential insights into their functioning.

Electronic Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy of 1-(R)-Phenylethanol: The “Sector Rule” Revisited and an Exploration of Solvent Effects

The sensitivity of the electronic circular dichroism (ECD) of a chiral molecule to structural and environmental changes has been investigated using 1-(R)-phenylethanol (1-PE) as the benchmark solute and cyclohexane and water as the trial solvents. Rotatory strengths associated with the π π* (1Lb) electronic transition have been calculated ab initio for: (a) isolated 1-PE, as a function of the dihedral angles within its chiral side chain and between the side chain and the aromatic ring: these confirm the validity of the empirical “sector rule” but with the signs reversed; (b) the singly and doubly hydrated clusters of 1-PE, isolated in the gas phase; (c) 1-PE and its singly and doubly hydrated clusters embedded in a polarizable dielectric continuum; and (d) 1-PE in an aqueous solution interacting with the local hydration shell and with the polarizable dielectric continuum, using averaged solute structures computed from the fluctuating solute and solvent configurations generated via molecular dynamics simulations. The ab initio calculations (conducted with GAUSSIAN 98) employed configuration interaction singles (CIS) or time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) procedures using basis sets of double- and triple-zeta quality. The results have been related to experimental observations and discussed in terms of changes in the molecular geometry and solvent-induced perturbations.

Spectroscopic studies of oligomers containing 2,5-trans furanoid sugar amino acids.

Sugar amino acids and their oligomers, known as carbopeptoids, are commonly studied as foldamers. However, study of their conformational preference is often challenging when the adopted conformations are extended and/or disordered. This study is the first to explore the disordered nature of such carbopeptoids by utilizing a family of 2,5-trans carbopeptoids. An array of spectroscopic techniques has been used to investigate the conformational preference of these carbopeptoids. However, using this data alone it has not been possible to assign conformational preference as an ordered extended conformation or as a disordered family of closely related conformations. Computational methods need to be employed to achieve reliable interpretation of the spectroscopic data.

Secondary structure in oligomers of carbohydrate amino acids

Short oligomeric chains of tetrahydrofuran amino acids exhibit a novel repeating β-turn type secondary structure in solution stabilised by hydrogen bonds and provide clear evidence that carbopeptoids will allow control of conformation in peptidomimetics.

Penta­fluoro­phenyl (3R,4R,5S)-5-{[(3R,4R,5S)-5-azido­methyl-3,4-dimeth­oxy-2,3,4,5-tetra­hydro­furan-3-carboxamido]­meth­yl}-3,4-dimeth­oxy-2,3,4,5-tetra­hydro­furan-3-carboxyl­ate

The title compound, C22H25F5N4O9, is a stable pentafluorophenyl ester intermediate in the synthesis of novel homo-oligomeric structures containing branched carbon chains. The structure is epimeric to the previously characterized dimeric pentafluorophenyl ester with stereochemistry (3R,4R,5R), which was synthesized using d-ribose as starting material. The crystal structure of the title molecule removes any ambiguities arising from the relative stereochemistries of the six chiral centres. Two hydrogen bonds, bifurcating from the NH group, stabilize the crystal: one intramolecular and one intermolecular, both involving O atoms of the methoxy groups. The asymmetric unit contains two independent molecules not related by any pseudo-symmetry operators. The major conformational differences are localized, leading to one molecule being extended compared to the other. The collected crystal was twinned (twin ratio is 0.939:0.061), and the azide group is positionally disordered over two positions in one molecule [occupancy ratio 0.511 (18):0.489 (18)].

Pentafluorophenyl (3R,4R,5R)-5-{[(3R,4R,5R)-5-azidomethyl-3,4-dimethoxy-2,3,4,5-tetrahydrofuran-3-carbonylamino]methyl}-3,4-dimethoxy-2,3,4,5-tetrahydrofuran-3-carboxylate

The crystal structure of the title compound, C22H25F5N4O9, an important intermediate in the synthesis of novel biopolymers containing branched carbon chains, establishes the relative stereochemistry at all six chiral centres of the dipeptide. The structure may indicate a predisposition to the organization of secondary structure by novel dipeptide isosteres. An intermolecular hydrogen bond between the NH group and one of the N atoms of the azide group contributes to the stabilization of the packing.