Iwaoka Michio, Akaboshi Sawa
Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tokai University, Kitakaname, Hiratsuka-shi, Kanagawa, 259-1292, Japan.
Institute of Advanced Biosciences, Tokai University, Kitakaname, Hiratsuka-shi, Kanagawa, 259-1292, Japan.
Chemistry. 2025 Jul 2;31(37):e202500486. doi: 10.1002/chem.202500486. Epub 2025 May 20.
The recently renovated two-chain folding method, in which two native peptide chains without any sidechain protections and interchain scaffolds are just mixed in a buffer solution under optimized conditions, called native chain assembly (NCA), enabled efficient chemical synthesis of α-helix-rich insulin and its analogs, which are stabilized by two interchain disulfide (SS) bridges. Herein, this simple folding method has been successfully applied to the folding of a different-type two-chain protein, that is, bromelain inhibitor VI (BI-VI), which has abundant β-sheet structures and is stabilized by three interchain SS bridges. When the chemically synthesized native heavy (H)- and light (L)-chains of BI-VI were mixed at 4 °C in a pH of 10.0 buffer solution containing 2 mM GSH and 0.4 mM GSSG, native BI-VI was obtained surprisingly in a high isolated yield (53%) after 2 weeks. The obtained BI-VI showed complete inhibitory activity against bromelain, whereas each component chain exhibited essentially non-activity. The rate-limiting step of the two-chain folding was assumed to be the chain coupling between three-SS intermediates of the H-chain (3SS) and one-SS intermediates of the L-chain (1SS). This achievement opens a door to the chemical synthesis of unprecedent multichain proteins with more complicated SS-bond topologies.
最近改良的双链折叠方法,即在优化条件下将两条没有任何侧链保护和链间支架的天然肽链在缓冲溶液中混合,称为天然链组装(NCA),该方法能够高效化学合成富含α-螺旋的胰岛素及其类似物,它们通过两条链间二硫键(SS)桥得到稳定。在此,这种简单的折叠方法已成功应用于另一种不同类型的双链蛋白质——菠萝蛋白酶抑制剂VI(BI-VI)的折叠,该蛋白具有丰富的β-折叠结构,并通过三条链间SS桥得到稳定。当化学合成的BI-VI天然重链(H)和轻链(L)在4℃下于含有2 mM谷胱甘肽(GSH)和0.4 mM氧化型谷胱甘肽(GSSG)的pH为10.0的缓冲溶液中混合时,令人惊讶的是,2周后以高分离产率(53%)获得了天然BI-VI。所获得的BI-VI对菠萝蛋白酶显示出完全的抑制活性,而每条组成链基本上没有活性。双链折叠的限速步骤被认为是H链的三硫键中间体(3SS)和L链的单硫键中间体(1SS)之间的链偶联。这一成果为化学合成具有更复杂SS键拓扑结构的前所未有的多链蛋白质打开了一扇门。