An integrative approach combining ion mobility mass spectrometry, X-ray crystallography, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the conformational dynamics of α1 -antitrypsin upon ligand binding.

Mun Peak Nyon, Tanya Prentice, Jemma Day, John Kirkpatrick, Ganesh N Sivalingam, Geraldine Levy, Imran Haq, James A Irving, David A Lomas, John Christodoulou, Bibek Gooptu, Konstantinos Thalassinos

Index: Protein Sci. 24 , 1301-12, (2015)

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Abstract

Native mass spectrometry (MS) methods permit the study of multiple protein species within solution equilibria, whereas ion mobility (IM)-MS can report on conformational behavior of specific states. We used IM-MS to study a conformationally labile protein (α1 -antitrypsin) that undergoes pathological polymerization in the context of point mutations. The folded, native state of the Z-variant remains highly polymerogenic in physiological conditions despite only minor thermodynamic destabilization relative to the wild-type variant. Various data implicate kinetic instability (conformational lability within a native state ensemble) as the basis of Z α1 -antitrypsin polymerogenicity. We show the ability of IM-MS to track such disease-relevant conformational behavior in detail by studying the effects of peptide binding on α1 -antitrypsin conformation and dynamics. IM-MS is, therefore, an ideal platform for the screening of compounds that result in therapeutically beneficial kinetic stabilization of native α1 -antitrypsin. Our findings are confirmed with high-resolution X-ray crystallographic and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic studies of the same event, which together dissect structural changes from dynamic effects caused by peptide binding at a residue-specific level. IM-MS methods, therefore, have great potential for further study of biologically relevant thermodynamic and kinetic instability of proteins and provide rapid and multidimensional characterization of ligand interactions of therapeutic interest. © 2015 The Authors Protein Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Protein Society.