Renaturation studies of aggregate proteins using high hydrostatic pressure

Author(s)

Natália Malavasi Vallejo

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN/BT)
• Defense date: 2013-03-05

Examining board members

Ligia Ely Morganti Ferreira Dias; Paolo Bartolini; Carlos Francisco Sampaio Bonafé; Patrick Jack Spencer; Eric Kinnosuke Martins Ueda

• Advisor: Ligia Ely Morganti Ferreira Dias

Abstract

In the present work we studied the refolding under high hydrostatic pressure of a mutant form of the green fluorescent protein (eGFP), which only emits the green characteristic fluorescence when in the native folded state. The approach of the present study was focused on controlling the bioactivity of the recombinant protein, the fluorescence, as an alternative for the determination of protein solubility, which is not an ideal indicator of proper protein folding. We studied the action of high pressure in the solubilization of the inclusion bodies (IB) of eGFP produced in bacteria E. coli and in the folding of this protein. The compression of a suspension of eGFP IB at 2.4 kbar for 30 minutes promoted dissociation of aggregates. However, the eGFP folding, monitored by the fluorescence at 509 nm, does not occur in this pressure level. The process of eGFP refolding was evaluated under various decompression conditions after dissociation of the IB at 2.4 kbar. During the gradual decompression, the increase in fluorescence was achieved at pressures ranging between atmospheric pressure and 1.38 kbar. The higher levels of eGFP fluorescence were obtained by incubation for several hours at pressure levels between 0.35 and 0.69 kbar. It is possible that the pressure condition that proved favorable for refolding of eGFP can also be used to favor the folding of other monomeric proteins. Using eGFP as a model, we also found that the IB produced by bacteria grown in a relatively low temperature (37ºC) is more fluorescent, presenting a higher amount of recombinant protein with the characteristic fluorescence at 509 nm, i.e., in its native form, than the IB expressed at higher temperatures (42ºC and 47ºC). The analysis by infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) also demonstrated that the IB produced at milder temperatures have a higher degree of secondary structure similar to the protein in its native form. Furthermore, the IB produced at 37ºC are also more readily solubilized by the action of high pressure than those produced at the higher temperatures. As expected, the folding of eGFP from IB produced at 37ºC was 25 times more efficient than that obtained using IB produced at 47ºC. In this study we demonstrated that the dissociation of aggregates exerted by the action of high pressure (2.4 kbar) can be amplified by combination with incubation at low temperature (-9ºC) and the association of these two physical properties can be used to increase the solubilization of the aggregates in IB, with a consequent increase in the yield of eGFP refolding. In the present study we also showed that the kinetics of refolding of eGFP is proportional to temperature (10ºC 50ºC). The higher level of fluorescence was obtained when the refolding of eGFP was performed at 20°C. The rate of maturation of the eGFP chromophore is more strongly affected by temperature than the rate of folding of the protein. In conclusion, the temperature of production of IB, the temperature of dissociation of aggregates and the folding temperature can greatly affect the yield and kinetics of refolding of eGFP at high pressure. The results of this study may open new perspectives for improvements in the process of protein folding from IB using high pressure. In this paper we also describe the refolding of the proteins of Xac, PilB and the gene products XAC2810 and XAC3272, which have never before been achieved in soluble form. The yields of solubilization/refolding of these three proteins were very high, between 75% and 89%. The protein PilB refolded at high pressure presented high ATPase activity, which has never been shown for the PilB of Xac. (AU)