Uwe Fink

Characterization of Membrane Proteins in Isolated Native Cellular Membranes by Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Solid‐State NMR Spectroscopy without Purification and Reconstitution

Membrane proteins in their native cellular membranes are accessible by dynamic nuclear polarization magic angle spinning solid-state NMR spectroscopy without the need of purification and reconstitution (see picture). Dynamic nuclear polarization is essential to achieve the required gain in sensitivity to observe the membrane protein of interest.

Structure Calculation from Unambiguous Long-Range Amide and Methyl 1H−1H Distance Restraints for a Microcrystalline Protein with MAS Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy

Magic-angle spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR becomes an increasingly important tool for the determination of structures of membrane proteins and amyloid fibrils. Extensive deuteration of the protein allows multidimensional experiments with exceptionally high sensitivity and resolution to be obtained. Here we present an experimental strategy to measure highly unambiguous spatial correlations for distances up to 13 Å. Two complementary three-dimensional experiments, or alternatively a four-dimensional experiment, yield highly unambiguous cross-peak assignments, which rely on four encoded chemical shift dimensions. Correlations to residual aliphatic protons are accessible via synchronous evolution of the (15)N and (13)C chemical shifts, which encode valuable amide-methyl distance restraints. On average, we obtain six restraints per residue. Importantly, 50% of all restraints correspond to long-range distances between residues i and j with |i - j| > 5, which are of particular importance in structure calculations. Using ARIA, we calculate a high-resolution structure for the microcrystalline 7.2 kDa α-spectrin SH3 domain with a backbone precision of ∼1.1 Å.

Structural properties of EGCG-induced, nontoxic Alzheimer's disease Aβ oligomers.

The green tea compound epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) inhibits Alzheimers disease β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) neurotoxicity. Solution-state NMR allows probing initial EGCG-Aβ interactions. We show that EGCG-induced Aβ oligomers adopt a well-defined structure and are amenable for magic angle spinning solid-state NMR investigations. We find that EGCG interferes with the aromatic hydrophobic core of Aβ. The C-terminal part of the Aβ peptide (residues 22-39) adopts a β-sheet conformation, whereas the N-terminus (residues 1-20) is unstructured. The characteristic salt bridge involving residues D23 and K28 is present in the structure of these oligomeric Aβ aggregates as well. The structural analysis of small-molecule-induced amyloid aggregates will open new perspectives for Alzheimers disease drug development.

Proton-detected scalar coupling based assignment strategies in MAS solid-state NMR spectroscopy applied to perdeuterated proteins.

Assignment of proteins in MAS (magic angle spinning) solid-state NMR relies so far on correlations among heteronuclei. This strategy is based on well dispersed resonances in the (15)N dimension. In many complex cases like membrane proteins or amyloid fibrils, an additional frequency dimension is desirable in order to spread the amide resonances. We show here that proton detected HNCO, HNCA, and HNCACB type experiments can successfully be implemented in the solid-state. Coherences are sufficiently long lived to allow pulse schemes of a duration greater than 70 ms before incrementation of the first indirect dimension. The achieved resolution is comparable to the resolution obtained in solution-state NMR experiments. We demonstrate the experiments using a triply labeled sample of the SH3 domain of chicken alpha-spectrin, which was re-crystallized in H(2)O/D(2)O using a ratio of 1/9. We employ paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) using EDTA chelated Cu(II) to enable rapid data acquisition.

Bacterial Inclusion Bodies of Alzheimer's Disease β-Amyloid Peptides Can Be Employed To Study Native-Like Aggregation Intermediate States

The structures of oligomeric intermediate states in the aggregation process of Alzheimers disease β‐amyloid peptides have been the subject of debate for many years. Bacterial inclusion bodies contain large amounts of small heat shock proteins (sHSPs), which are highly homologous to those found in the plaques of the brains of Alzheimers disease patients. sHSPs break down amyloid fibril structure in vitro and induce oligomeric assemblies. Prokaryotic protein overexpression thus mimics the conditions encountered in the cell under stress and allows the structures of Aβ aggregation intermediate states to be investigated under native‐like conditions, which is not otherwise technically possible. We show that IB40/IB42 fulfil all the requirements to be classified as amyloids: they seed fibril growth, are Congo red positive and show characteristic β‐sheet‐rich CD spectra. However, IB40 and IB42 are much less stable than fibrils formed in vitro and contain significant amounts of non‐β‐sheet regions, as seen from FTIR studies. Quantitative analyses of solution‐state NMR H/D exchange rates show that the hydrophobic cores involving residues V18‐F19‐F20 adopt β‐sheet conformations, whereas the C termini adopt α‐helical coiled‐coil structures. In the past, an α‐helical intermediate‐state structure has been postulated, but could not be verified experimentally. In agreement with the current literature, in which Aβ oligomers are described as the most toxic state of the peptides, we find that IB42 contains SDS‐resistant oligomers that are more neurotoxic than Aβ42 fibrils. E. coli inclusion bodies formed by the Alzheimers disease β‐amyloid peptides Aβ40 and Aβ42 thus behave structurally like amyloid aggregation intermediate states and open the possibility of studying amyloids in a native‐like, cellular environment.

Accurate determination of order parameters from 1H,15N dipolar couplings in MAS solid-state NMR experiments.

A reliable site-specific estimate of the individual N-H bond lengths in the protein backbone is the fundamental basis of any relaxation experiment in solution and in the solid-state NMR. The N-H bond length can in principle be influenced by hydrogen bonding, which would result in an increased N-H distance. At the same time, dynamics in the backbone induces a reduction of the experimental dipolar coupling due to motional averaging. We present a 3D dipolar recoupling experiment in which the (1)H,(15)N dipolar coupling is reintroduced in the indirect dimension using phase-inverted CP to eliminate effects from rf inhomogeneity. We find no variation of the N-H dipolar coupling as a function of hydrogen bonding. Instead, variations in the (1)H,(15)N dipolar coupling seem to be due to dynamics of the protein backbone. This is supported by the observed correlation between the H(N)-N dipolar coupling and the amide proton chemical shift. The experiment is demonstrated for a perdeuterated sample of the alpha-spectrin SH3 domain. Perdeuteration is a prerequisite to achieve high accuracy. The average error in the analysis of the H-N dipolar couplings is on the order of +/-370 Hz (+/-0.012 A) and can be as small as 150 Hz, corresponding to a variation of the bond length of +/-0.005 A.

Probing surface accessibility of proteins using paramagnetic relaxation in solid-state NMR spectroscopy.

Paramagnetic Relaxation Enhancement (PRE) can be used to accelerate NMR data acquisition by reducing the longitudinal proton relaxation time T(1) in the solid state. We show that the presence of paramagnetic compounds in the bulk solvent induces a site-specific relaxation in addition to local dynamics, which is dependent on the surface accessibility of the respective amide proton in the protein. Differentiation between paramagnetic relaxation and dynamics was achieved by a comparison of (1)H T(1) times obtained from microcrystalline protein samples prepared with different concentrations of the Cu(II)(edta) chelate. We find that relaxation can in addition be mediated by hydroxyl groups, which transfer relaxation by their ability to exchange with the quickly relaxing bulk solvent. Furthermore, relaxation seems to be transferred by water molecules which diffuse into the protein structure and yield an efficient difference PRE in flexible regions of the protein. The experiments are demonstrated using a perdeuterated sample of the alpha-spectrin SH3 domain, which was microcrystallized from a buffer containing 90% D(2)O. Deuteration is a prerequisite to avoid spin diffusion which would otherwise compromise site specific resolution.

Assignment of dynamic regions in biological solids enabled by spin-state selective NMR experiments.

Structural investigations are a prerequisite to understand protein function. Intermediate time scale motional processes (ns-micros) are deleterious for NMR of biological solids and obscure the detection of amide moieties in traditional CP based solid-state NMR approaches as well as in regular scalar coupling based experiments. We show that this obstacle can be overcome by using TROSY type techniques in triple resonance experiments, which enable the assignment of resonances in loop regions of a microcrystalline protein. The presented approach provides an exemplified solution for the analysis of secondary structure elements undergoing slow dynamics that might be particularly crucial for understanding protein function.

Identification of Hydroxyl Protons, Determination of Their Exchange Dynamics, and Characterization of Hydrogen Bonding in a Microcrystallin Protein

Heteronuclear correlation experiments employing perdeuterated proteins enable the observation of all hydroxyl protons in a microcrystalline protein by MAS solid-state NMR. Dipolar-based sequences allow magnetization transfers that are >50 times faster compared to scalar-coupling-based sequences, which significantly facilitates their assignment. Hydroxyl exchange rates were measured using EXSY-type experiments. We find a biexponential decay behavior for those hydroxyl groups that are involved in side chain-side chain C-O-H...O horizontal lineC hydrogen bonds. The quantification of the distances between the hydroxyl proton and the carbon atoms in the hydrogen-bonding donor as well as acceptor group is achieved via a REDOR experiment. In combination with X-ray data and isotropic proton chemical shifts, availability of (1)H,(13)C distance information can aid in the quantitative description of the geometry of these hydrogen bonds. Similarly, correlations between backbone amide proton and carbonyl atoms are observed, which will be useful in the analysis of the registry of beta-strand arrangement in amyloid fibrils.

The mechanism of denaturation and the unfolded state of the α-helical membrane-associated protein Mistic.

In vitro protein-folding studies using chemical denaturants such as urea are indispensible in elucidating the forces and mechanisms determining the stability, structure, and dynamics of water-soluble proteins. By contrast, α-helical membrane-associated proteins largely evade such approaches because they are resilient to extensive unfolding. We have used optical and NMR spectroscopy to provide an atomistic-level dissection of the effects of urea on the structure and dynamics of the α-helical membrane-associated protein Mistic as well as its interactions with detergent and solvent molecules. In the presence of the zwitterionic detergent lauryl dimethylamine oxide, increasing concentrations of urea result in a complex sequence of conformational changes that go beyond simple two-state unfolding. Exploiting this finding, we report the first high-resolution structural models of the urea denaturation process of an α-helical membrane-associated protein and its completely unfolded state, which contains almost no regular secondary structure but nevertheless retains a topology close to that of the folded state.