title: The molecular mechanism of the neutral-to-base transition of human serum albumin. Acid/base titration and proton nuclear magnetic resonance studies on a large peptic and a large tryptic fragment of albumin.
abstract: In order to obtain a better understanding of the neutral-to-base (N-B) transition of human serum albumin, we performed acid/base titration experiments and 500-MHz 1H NMR experiments on albumin and on a large peptic (residues 1-387) and large tryptic (residues 198-585) fragment of albumin. The acid/base titration experiments revealed that Ca2+ ions induce a downward pK shift of several histidine residues of the peptic (P46) fragment and of albumin. By contrast, Ca2+ has very little influence on the pK of histidine residues of the tryptic (T45) fragment. In albumin, the pH-dependent His C-2 proton resonances, observed with 1H NMR experiments, have been allotted the numbers 1-17. It proved possible to locate these resonances in the P46 and the T45 fragments. A correspondence was found between the number of histidines detected by the acid/base titration and by the 1H NMR experiments. The results of the experiments lead us to conclude that in domain 1 at least the histidines corresponding to the His C-2 proton resonances 1-5 play a dominant role in the N-B transition. The Cu2+-binding histidine residue 3 (resonance 8) of the albumin molecule is not involved in the N-B transition. In addition, we were able to assign His C-2 proton resonance 9 to histidine 464 of the albumin molecule. The role of the N-B transition in the transport and cellular uptake mechanisms of endogenous and exogenous compounds is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: O J
authors.initials: OJ
authors.lastname: Bos
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Labro
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wilting
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Janssen
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D003300:Copper / Q000378:metabolism; D006639:Histidine; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000378:metabolism; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000378:metabolism*; D014357:Trypsin
chemical_list: D010446:Peptide Fragments; D012709:Serum Albumin; D006639:Histidine; D003300:Copper; D014357:Trypsin