Effects of Cosolvents and Macromolecular Crowding on the Phase Transitions and Temperature-Pressure Stability of Chiral and Racemic Poly-Lysine

Abstract

Abstract FTIR spectroscopy has been used to reveal the effects of different types of cosolvents (TMAO, urea) as well as macromolecular crowding (using the crowding agent Ficoll) on the temperature and pressure dependent structure of poly-L-lysine, poly-D-lysine and their racemic mixture. Compared to the effects of cosolvents on the unfolding transition of proteins, their effects on the α-helix to aggregated β-sheet transition of polylysine are quite small. High hydrostatic pressure has been found to favor the α-helical state over the aggregated β-sheet structure which is reflected in a volume decrease of ΔV=−32 mL mol−1, indicating that the packing mode is more efficient in the α-helical structure. Both, addition of urea and TMAO lead to a decrease in pressure stability of the aggregated β-sheet structure, which is accompanied by a three-fold decrease in ΔV, whereas the macromolecular crowder has little effect on the β-to-α transition. The more than 3 kbar higher β-to-α transition pressure of the racemic mixture compared with PLL confirms the drastic stabilization of β-sheet aggregates if the stereoisomers PLL and PDL are combined. Changes in hydration and packing of the polypeptide occurs upon interaction and fine packing of the polypeptide’s chains of opposed chirality, which are slightly modulated by the properties of cosolute and crowding, only. The underlying solvational and packing mechanisms observed here may be decisive factors responsible for the spontaneous protein aggregation in general and, as such, may shed additional light on the molecular basis of amyloid-associated diseases.