Measuring Biomolecular DSC Profiles with Thermolabile Ligands to Rapidly Characterize Folding and Binding Interactions
Summary
We present a protocol for rapid characterization of biomolecular folding and binding interactions with thermolabile ligands using differential scanning calorimetry.
Abstract
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is a powerful technique for quantifying thermodynamic parameters governing biomolecular folding and binding interactions. This information is critical in the design of new pharmaceutical compounds. However, many pharmaceutically relevant ligands are chemically unstable at the high temperatures used in DSC analyses. Thus, measuring binding interactions is challenging because the concentrations of ligands and thermally-converted products are constantly changing within the calorimeter cell. Here, we present a protocol using thermolabile ligands and DSC for rapidly obtaining thermodynamic and kinetic information on the folding, binding, and ligand conversion processes. We have applied our method to the DNA aptamer MN4 that binds to the thermolabile ligand cocaine. Using a new global fitting analysis that accounts for thermolabile ligand conversion, the complete set of folding and binding parameters are obtained from a pair of DSC experiments. In addition, we show that the rate constant for thermolabile ligand conversion may be obtained with only one supplementary DSC dataset. The guidelines for identifying and analyzing data from several more complicated scenarios are presented, including irreversible aggregation of the biomolecule, slow folding, slow binding, and rapid depletion of the thermolabile ligand.
Introduction
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is a powerful method for quantitating biomolecular binding and folding interactions1,2,3. The strengths of DSC include its ability to elucidate binding and folding mechanisms, and to yield the corresponding thermodynamic parameters2,3. Furthermore, DSC can be performed in solution under near-physiological conditions and does not require labeling of the biomolecule or ligand, e.g., with fluorophores, spin-labels or nuclear isotopes4. The instrument scans in temperature, measuring the amount of heat required to denature the biomolecule in the presence and absence of ligand. The resulting thermograms are used to extract the thermodynamic parameters governing the ligand binding and folding processes. The information provided by DSC or other thermodynamic techniques is critical to guiding the design of drugs targeting biomolecules1,5,6,7,8. However, the repeated scanning to high temperatures (~ 60 – 100 °C) can be problematic. For example, many pharmaceutically important compounds undergo rearrangement or decomposition upon sustained exposure to high temperatures9,10,11, i.e., they are thermolabile. Examination of binding interactions by DSC typically requires multiple forward and reverse scans in order to verify the reproducibility of the thermogram for thermodynamic analyses12. Thermal conversion of an initial ligand to a secondary form with altered binding characteristics leads to pronounced differences in the shape and position of successive thermograms, since the concentration of the initial ligand decreases with each scan while the thermal conversion products accumulate. These datasets are not amenable to traditional analyses.
We have recently developed a global fitting method for thermolabile ligand DSC datasets that yields the complete set of thermodynamic parameters governing the biomolecular folding and binding interactions from a single ligand-bound experiment referenced to the requisite thermogram for the free biomolecule4. The analysis reduces the experimental time and sample required by ~ 10-fold compared to standard DSC approaches. We have accounted for ligand thermal conversion by assuming this happens during the high temperature portion of each scan where the thermogram does not depend on ligand concentration. Therefore, the ligand concentration is a constant within the portion of the thermogram that is used to extract thermodynamic parameters. We additionally demonstrated how the rate constant for ligand thermal conversion can be obtained by performing one supplementary experiment with a longer high temperature equilibration period. For systems where ligand thermal conversion is less temperature-dependent (i.e., occurring appreciably at all temperatures), the analysis can be modified to include variable ligand concentrations. Here we demonstrate this procedure for the DNA aptamer MN4 in the presence of the thermolabile ligand cocaine, which rapidly converts to benzoylecgonine at high temperatures (>60 °C). Quinine is used as a negative control for ligand thermolability since it does not undergo conversion at these experimental temperatures and also binds to MN4. We describe the acquisition of thermolabile ligand DSC datasets and their analysis yielding thermodynamic and kinetic parameters of the folding, binding, and ligand conversion processes.
Protocol
Representative Results
Discussion
Modifications and troubleshooting
The details of the global fitting analysis used in Figure 1 and Figure 2 have been described previously4. Here, we outline practical aspects of performing and analyzing DSC binding experiments with thermolabile ligands. Note that a DSC baseline obtained for the thermolabile ligand alone is subtracted from the ligand + biomolecule dataset, effectively cancelling ou…
Disclosures
The authors have nothing to disclose.
Acknowledgements
R. W. H. V was supported by the McGill Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Training Program in Bionanomachines. A. K. M. and P. E. J. were supported by NSERC grants 327028-09 (A. K. M) and 238562 (P. E. J.).
Materials
| Sodium chloride | Chem Impex | #00829 | |
| Sodium phosphate monobasic dihydrate | Sigma Aldrich | 71502 | |
| Sodium phosphate dibasic | Sigma Aldrich | S9763 | |
| Deioinized water for molecular biology | Millipore | H20MB1001 | |
| 0.2 micron sterile syringe filters | VWR | CA28145-477 | |
| 3 kDa centrifugal filters | Millipore | UFC900324 | |
| Dialysis tubing 0.5-1.0 kDa cutoff | Spectrum Laboratories | 131048 | |
| Silicon tubing | VWR | 89068-474 | |
| Plastic DSC flange caps | TA Instruments | 6111 | |
| DNA aptamer MN4 | Integrated DNA Technologies | https://www.idtdna.com/site/order/menu | |
| Cocaine | Sigma Aldrich | C008 | |
| Quinine | Sigma Aldrich | 22620 | |
| NanoDSC-III microcalorimeter | TA Instruments | http://www.tainstruments.com/nanodsc/ | |
| DSCRun software | TA Instruments | http://www.tainstruments.com/support/software-downloads-support/instruments-by-software/ | |
| NanoAnalyze software | TA Instruments | http://www.tainstruments.com/support/software-downloads-support/instruments-by-software/ | |
| Contrad-70 | VWR | 89233-152 |
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