In order to stabilise an enzyme against irreversible thermoinactivation, it is important to know what mechanisms cause destabilization of the enzyme and what structural features actually contribute to the inherent stability of the enzyme. Features responsible for stabilising dimeric creatine kinase from bovine heart (EC 2.7.3.2.) were examined by initially modifying the enzyme with crosslinking and other specific group modifying reagents. Crosslinking the enzyme with dimethyl suberirnidate (2rng DMS/mg enzyme in 0.1M phosphate buffer, pH 8.0 for 3hr) resulted in a vastly increased thermostable enzyme at 55°C [l]. In this reaction, the positive charge of the original amino groups of creatine kinase are retained. However, crosslinking with N-hydroxysuccinimide esters [2] at a concentration of Img/mg of enzyme in 0.1M phosphate buffer, pH 10 (a process whereby the positive charge of the original amino groups is lost), resulted in a very dramatic loss of activity upon heating at 55°C. Similarly, when reductive alkylation of the enzyme was performed [3] using a p r o t e i n c o n c e n t r a t i o n of 1.6mg/ml, t h e resu l t ing carboxyrnethylated amino groups also gave rise to a destabilised enzyme at 5 5 ~ From these results it was obvious that the type of reagent used to modify creatine kinase was extremely important and could give valuable clues as to the identity of groups needed to maintain enzyme structure and to stabilise the protein. The role of lysine residues was therefore thought to play an important part in stabilising creatine kinase through electrostatic interactions. To determine if salt bridges were responsible for maintaining some degree of enzyme structure in creatine kinase, the effect of a concentrated inorganic salt, which is known to weaken electrostastic forces [4] on the thermal inactivation of the enzyme was examined. The rates of inactivation of the enzyme in the resence and absence of 1M KCL were 1.82min-' and 0.6minrespectively, at 55OC. This 3-fold difference in the rates implies that salt bridges are involved as stabilising forces in native creatine kinase and may explain why modification leading to the removal of the positive charge on the amino groups resulted in destabilisation of the enzyme. The second part of this work was concerned with determining whether irreversible inactivation of the enzyme was caused by conformational or covalent processes. The following approach was adopted [5]. Concentrated solutions of strong denaturants disrupt non-covalent interactions in proteins [6]. These agents should maintain the enzyme molecules in a highly unfolded form and thereby prevent formation of incorrectly folded structures. Hence, heating enzymes in the presence of denaturants should stabilise them against irreversible thermoinactivation due to conformational processes. This procedure was performed on creatine kinase (0.2mg/ml) at pH 4.0, 6.7 (Fig.1.) and 8.0. In all cases, the presence of 6M guanidine-HCI significantly reduced the rate of irreversible thermoinactivation at 55OC, indicating that conformational processes were involved and that incorrect structure formation was responsible for the inactivation of the enzyme. Further investigation revealed that the presence of copper ions ( 1 0 m M ) a t p H 6.7 acce lera ted t h e thermoinactivation of the enzyme. It is known that copper ions catalyse 0 2 oxidation of thiols [7] allowing disulphide bond formation to occur. It seems therefore, that this process may be P 4 0 2 4 6 8 10
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