Institute of Chemistry and The Fritz Haber Research Center, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
Faraday Discuss. 2013;160:225-37; discussion 311-27. doi: 10.1039/c2fd20101a.
Numerous cellular cosolutes significantly impact the way that proteins and other biomacromolecules act and interact. We have followed the thermodynamic effect of several cosolute classes, including polymers, cellular osmolytes, and inorganic salts, on the stability of biomolecular folding and complexation. By comparing changes in free energy, enthalpy, and entropy upon cosolutes addition for these processes, we identify several thermodynamically distinct mechanisms. Surprisingly, even while many cosolutes display similar scaling of the change in stabilizing free energy with their concentration, a breakdown of this free energy into enthalpic and entropic contributions distinguishes different families of cosolutes. We discuss how these "thermodynamic fingerprints" can direct towards possible underlying mechanisms that govern the cosolute effect.
许多细胞共溶剂显著影响蛋白质和其他生物大分子的作用和相互作用方式。我们研究了几种共溶剂类别（包括聚合物、细胞渗透剂和无机盐）对生物分子折叠和复合稳定性的热力学效应。通过比较这些过程中添加共溶剂后自由能、焓和熵的变化，我们确定了几种热力学上不同的机制。令人惊讶的是，即使许多共溶剂在改变稳定自由能与浓度的关系上表现出相似的变化，但是将自由能分解为焓和熵的贡献可以区分不同的共溶剂家族。我们讨论了这些“热力学指纹”如何指导可能控制共溶剂效应的潜在机制。
