Source: University Of Pennsylvania Medical Center (http://www.med.upenn.edu/)
Date: Posted 5/12/99
Designer Molecules: Largest Protein Ever Created From Scratch Has
Implications For Novel Drug Delivery And Diagnostics
For the last decade, scientists have been trying to accurately synthesize
substances with shapes that mimic biological molecules, specifically
proteins that drive important biochemical pathways in humans. So far, these
attempts have made moderate strides, both in terms of size of the designed
protein and the precision with which it folds from a string of amino acids
to its final three-dimensional structure. Now, researchers at the University
of Pennsylvania Medical Center have created the largest protein from
scratch, with both a stable and predictable shape.
"The ability to do this really takes us out of the realm of tinkering with
existing proteins to engineering entirely new proteins and polymers," says
senior author William F. DeGrado, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and
biophysics. "We have shown that it is now possible to design a protein with
a well-defined three-dimensional structure." The Penn group's findings
appear in the May 11 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
DeGrado notes that implications of this advance in protein design could be as broad as those for natural proteins -- from manufacturing entirely new polymers for industrial catalysts to creating new pharmaceuticals.
To design a protein, scientists generally work backwards from nature in a two-step process. They first choose an existing three-dimensional protein structure and then, using complex computer programs, find a new sequence of amino acids that folds into the same shape as the natural protein. The Penn team's approach is one step removed from that. "We asked: Can we generate proteins that are inspired by nature but have no direct natural equivalent?," explains DeGrado.
The protein -- called alpha-3D -- was designed, produced, and characterized by Scott Walsh, a doctoral student in DeGrado's lab. Alpha-3D is a bundle of three counterclockwise-coiling helices whose general shape was inspired by a protein found in the common household bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. Alpha-3D is also three times larger than previously synthesized proteins.
"By designing larger proteins, we can make them more stable and thus easier
to manipulate," says Walsh. The next step will be to build a specific
function into the protein's structure. Currently, Walsh is retooling the
surface of alpha-3D to cause it to bind to a variety of hormonal receptors.
Natural proteins that do this are expensive to produce and suffer from
limited shelf lives. Novel mimics of these proteins may have enhanced
stability and potency.
This work was conducted in the Johnson Research Foundation, a funding and research organization within Penn's Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics that concentrates on the study of physics as it applies to medicine.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University Of Pennsylvania Medical Center for journalists and other members of the public. If you wish to quote from any part of this story, please credit University Of Pennsylvania Medical Center as the original source. You may also wish to include the following link in any citation:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/05/990512080142.htm
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