title: Copper binding to octarepeat peptides of the prion protein monitored by mass spectrometry.
abstract: Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) was used to measure the binding of Cu2+ ions to synthetic peptides corresponding to sections of the sequence of the mature prion protein (PrP). ESI-MS demonstrates that Cu2+ is unique among divalent metal ions in binding to PrP and defines the location of the major Cu2+ binding site as the octarepeat region in the N-terminal domain, containing multiple copies of the repeat ProHisGlyGlyGlyTrpGlyGln. The stoichiometries of the complexes measured directly by ESI-MS are pH dependent: a peptide containing four octarepeats chelates two Cu2+ ions at pH 6 but four at pH 7.4. At the higher pH, the binding of multiple Cu2+ ions occurs with a high degree of cooperativity for peptides C-terminally extended to incorporate a fifth histidine. Dissociation constants for each Cu2+ ion binding to the octarepeat peptides, reported here for the first time, are mostly in the low micromolar range; for the addition of the third and fourth Cu2+ ions to the extended peptides at pH 7.4, K(D)'s are <100 nM. N-terminal acetylation of the peptides caused some reduction in the stoichiometry of binding at both pH's. Cu2+ also binds to a peptide corresponding to the extreme N-terminus of PrP that precedes the octarepeats, arguing that this region of the sequence may also make a contribution to the Cu2+ complexation. Although the structure of the four-octarepeat peptide is not affected by pH changes in the absence of Cu2+, as judged by circular dichroism, Cu2+ binding induces a modest change at pH 6 and a major structural perturbation at pH 7.4. It is possible that PrP functions as a Cu2+ transporter by binding Cu2+ ions from the extracellular medium under physiologic conditions and then releasing some or all of this metal upon exposure to acidic pH in endosomes or secondary lysosomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California San Francisco, 94143-0446, USA.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Whittal
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Ball
authors.forename: F E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Burlingame
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Prusiner
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Baldwin
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites / Q000235:genetics; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006224:Cricetinae; D004563:Electrochemistry; D006639:Histidine / Q000737:chemistry; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007700:Kinetics; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011328:Prions / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D020449:Repetitive Sequences, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D010446:Peptide Fragments; D011328:Prions; D006639:Histidine; D003300:Copper