Disulfide bonds are widespread in peptides and proteins where they strengthen conformation and lead to increased rigidity and proteolytic stability. The number of disulfide-rich therapeutics currently available is increasing, such as the FDA-approved peptide drugs Prialt (ziconotide) and Linzess (linaclotide), both of which contain 3 disulfide bonds. In order to prepare disulfide-rich peptides,...

Disulfide bonds are ubiquitous in proteins. According to a recent survey, there are 97 741 disulfide bonds in 121 779 protein structures available in the Protein Data Bank (PDB).1 Native2,3 as well as engineered4-6 disulfide bonds have been shown to control the stability and function of proteins. The redox state of protein disulfide bonds in vivo, governing protein stability and function, depen...

The ionizing radiation sensitivity of ricin, a disulfide-linked heterodimeric protein, was studied as a model to determine the ability of disulfide bonds to transmit destructive energy. The radiation-dependent loss of A chain enzymatic activity after irradiation of either intact ricin or ricin in which the interchain disulfide bond was disrupted gave target sizes corresponding to the molecular ...

Radical induced disulfide bond cleavage in peptides was demonstrated by ultraviolet (UV) radiation of the electrospray ionization (ESI) plume using a low pressure mercury (LP-Hg) lamp. Tandem mass spectrometry and accurate mass measurements confirmed that the primary reaction products were due to disulfide bond cleavage to form thiol (-SH) and sulfinyl radical (-SO˙). Mechanistic studies showed...

The thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase ERp57 is a soluble protein of the endoplasmic reticulum and the closest known homologue of protein disulfide isomerase. The protein interacts with the two lectin chaperones calnexin and calreticulin and thereby promotes the oxidative folding of newly synthesized glycoproteins. Here we have characterized several fundamental structural and functional properties ...

The difficulties in predicting disulfide connectivity from protein sequences lie in the nonlocal properties of the disulfide bridges that involve cysteine pairs at large sequence separation. Though some progress has been recently made in the prediction of disulfide connectivity, the current methods predict less than half of the disulfide patterns for the data set sharing less than 30% sequence ...

Proinsulin folding within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) remains incompletely understood, but it is clear that in mutant INS gene-induced diabetes of youth (MIDY), progression of the (three) native disulfide bonds of proinsulin becomes derailed, causing insulin deficiency, β-cell ER stress, and onset of diabetes. Herein, we have undertaken a molecular dissection of proinsulin disulfide bond for...

The NH(2)-terminal somatomedin B (SMB) domain (residues 1-44) of human vitronectin contains eight Cys residues organized into four disulfide bonds and is required for the binding of type 1 plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1). In the present study, we map the four disulfide bonds in recombinant SMB (rSMB) and evaluate their functional importance. Active rSMB was purified from transformed Esc...

Chromatographically homogeneous egg white lysozyme has been subjected under reduced pressure to 0.67-m.e.v. y-rays. At 37% destruction of enzymic activity, three inactive aggregates and one partially active fraction have been isolated by salt precipitation and chromatographic procedures. The aggregates, upon reduction with 2-mercaptoethanol and reaction with iodoacetic acid, give derivatives wi...

Human serum cholinesterase was digested with pepsin under conditions which left disulfide bonds intact. Peptides were isolated by high pressure liquid chromatography, and those containing disulfide bonds were identified by a color assay. Peptides were characterized by amino acid sequencing and composition analysis. Human serum cholinesterase contains 8 half-cystines in each subunit of 574 amino...