title: Structure of human alpha1-acid glycoprotein and its high-affinity binding site.
abstract: Secondary and tertiary structures of human blood alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein, a member of the lipocalin family, have been studied for the first time by infrared and Raman spectroscopies. Vibrational spectroscopy confirmed details of the secondary structure and the structure content predicted by homology modeling of the protein moiety, i.e., 15% alpha-helices, 41% beta-sheets, 12% beta-turns, 8% bands, and 24% unordered structure at pH 7.4. Our model shows that the protein folds as a highly symmetrical all-beta protein dominated by a single eight-stranded antiparallel beta-sheet. Thermal dynamics in the range 20-70 degrees C followed by Raman spectroscopy and analyzed by principle component analysis revealed full reversibility of the protein motion upon heating dominated by decreasing of beta-sheets. Raman difference spectroscopy confirmed the proximity of Trp(122) to progesterone binding.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Charles University, Ke Karlovu 5, CZ-12116 Prague 2, Czech Republic. kopecky@karlov.mff.cuni.cz
authors.forename: Vladimír
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kopecký
authors.forename: Rüdiger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ettrich
authors.forename: Katerina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hofbauerová
authors.forename: Vladimír
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Baumruk
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009961:Orosomucoid / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011374:Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014364:Tryptophan / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D009961:Orosomucoid; D011374:Progesterone; D014364:Tryptophan