Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
J Am Chem Soc. 2012 Jan 25;134(3):1454-7. doi: 10.1021/ja210496n. Epub 2012 Jan 12.
Albumin transports both fatty acids and zinc in plasma. Competitive binding studied by isothermal titration calorimetry revealed that physiologically relevant levels of fatty acids modulate the Zn-binding capacity of albumin, with far-reaching implications for biological zinc speciation. The molecular mechanism for this effect is likely due to a large conformational change elicited by fatty acid binding to a high-affinity interdomain site that disrupts at least one Zn site. Albumin may be a molecular device to "translate" certain aspects of the organismal energy state into global zinc signals.
白蛋白在血浆中同时转运脂肪酸和锌。通过等温滴定量热法研究发现，生理相关浓度的脂肪酸调节白蛋白的锌结合能力，这对生物锌形态有深远影响。这种效应的分子机制可能是由于脂肪酸与高亲和力的域间结合位点结合，引起的构象变化较大，从而破坏至少一个锌结合位点。白蛋白可能是一种分子装置，可以将生物体能量状态的某些方面“转化”为全局锌信号。
