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Translocator Protein (18 kDa) (TSPO) is a mitochondrial transmembrane protein commonly used as a biomarker for neuroinflammation and is also a potential therapeutic target in neurodegenerative diseases. Despite intensive research efforts, the function of TSPO is still largely enigmatic. Deciphering TSPO structure in the native lipid environment is essential to gain insight into its cellular activities and to design improved diagnostic and therapeutic ligands. Here, we discuss the influence of lipid composition on the structure of mammalian TSPO embedded into lipid bilayers on the basis of solid-state NMR experiments. We further highlight that cholesterol can influence both the tertiary and quaternary TSPO structure and also influence TSPO localization in mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membranes.

The consequences of crowding derived from relatively small and intrinsically disordered proteins are not clear yet. We report the effect of ficoll-70 on the structure and stability of native and partially folded states of the 29 kDa alpha subunit of tryptophan synthase (αTS). Overall, combining the changes in the circular dichroism and fluorescence spectra, in conjunction with the gradual loss of cooperativity under urea denaturation in the presence of increasing amounts of ficoll, it may be concluded that the crowding agent perturbs not only the native state but also the partially folded state of αTS. Importantly, NMR data indicate that ficoll interacts with the residues that constitute the stable core of the protein thus shedding light on the origin of the observed perturbation.

Cholesterol is an essential component of animal cell membranes and impacts the structure and function of membrane proteins. But how cholesterol exerts its functions remains often enigmatic. Here, high-resolution solid-state NMR in combination with paramagnetic cholesterol analogues was shown to be a powerful approach to study the interaction of membrane proteins with cholesterol. Application of the method to the 169-residue translocator protein TSPO provides residue-specific information about its interaction with cholesterol. Comparison with NMR signal perturbations induced by diamagnetic cholesterol furthermore supports changes in the structure of mammalian TSPO caused by cholesterol binding.

Plasmodium falciparum apical membrane antigen 1 (PfAMA1) plays an important role in the invasion by merozoites of human red blood cells during a malaria infection. A key region of PfAMA1 is a conserved hydrophobic cleft formed by 12 hydrophobic residues. As anti-apical membrane antigen 1 antibodies and other inhibitory molecules that target this hydrophobic cleft are able to block the invasion process, PfAMA1 is an attractive target for the development of strain-transcending antimalarial agents. As solution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a valuable technique for the rapid characterization of protein-ligand interactions, we have determined the sequence-specific backbone assignments for PfAMA1 from two P. falciparum strains, FVO and 3D7. Both selective labelling and unlabelling strategies were used to complement triple-resonance experiments in order to facilitate the assignment process. We have then used these assignments for mapping the binding sites for small molecules, including benzimidazoles, pyrazoles and 2-aminothiazoles, which were selected on the basis of their affinities measured from surface plasmon resonance binding experiments. Among the compounds tested, benzimidazoles showed binding to a similar region on both FVO and 3D7 PfAMA1, suggesting that these compounds are promising scaffolds for the development of novel PfAMA1 inhibitors. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cholesterol is an important regulator of membrane protein function. However, the exact mechanisms involved in this process are still not fully understood. Here we study how the tertiary and quaternary structure of the mitochondrial translocator protein TSPO, which binds cholesterol with nanomolar affinity, is affected by this sterol. Residue-specific analysis of TSPO by solid-state NMR spectroscopy reveals a dynamic monomer–dimer equilibrium of TSPO in the membrane. Binding of cholesterol to TSPO's cholesterol-recognition motif leads to structural changes across the protein that shifts the dynamic equilibrium towards the translocator monomer. Consistent with an allosteric mechanism, a mutation within the oligomerization interface perturbs transmembrane regions located up to 35 Å away from the interface, reaching TSPO's cholesterol-binding motif. The lower structural stability of the intervening transmembrane regions provides a mechanistic basis for signal transmission. Our study thus reveals an allosteric signal pathway that connects membrane protein tertiary and quaternary structure with cholesterol binding., The outer mitochondrial membrane translocator protein (TSPO) mediates several mitochondrial functions and binds cholesterol with a high affinity. Here the authors use solid-state NMR to show that cholesterol binding to TSPO results in allosteric changes that modulate TSPO oligomerization.

Merozoite surface protein 2 (MSP2) is an intrinsically disordered antigen that is abundant on the surface of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The two allelic families of MSP2, 3D7 and FC27, differ in their central variable regions, which are flanked by highly conserved C-terminal and N-terminal regions. In a vaccine trial, full-length 3D7 MSP2 induced a strain-specific protective immune response despite the detectable presence of conserved region antibodies. This work focuses on the conserved C-terminal region of MSP2, which includes the only disulphide bond in the protein and encompasses key epitopes recognised by the mouse monoclonal antibodies 4D11 and 9H4. Although the 4D11 and 9H4 epitopes are overlapping, immunofluorescence assays have shown that the mouse monoclonal antibody 4D11 binds to MSP2 on the merozoite surface with a much stronger signal than 9H4. Understanding the structural basis for this antigenic difference between these antibodies will help direct the design of a broad-spectrum and MSP2-based malaria vaccine. 4D11 and 9H4 were reengineered into antibody fragments variable region fragment (Fv) and single-chain Fv (scFv)] and were validated as suitable models for their full-sized IgG counterparts by surface plasmon resonance and isothermal titration calorimetry. An alanine scan of the 13-residue epitope 3D7-MSP2(207-222) identified the minimal binding epitope of 4D11 and the key residues involved in binding. A 2.2-angstrom crystal structure of 4D11 Fv bound to the eight-residue epitope NKENCGAA provided valuable insight into the possible conformation of the C-terminal region of MSP2 on the parasite. This work underpins continued efforts to optimise recombinant MSP2 constructs for evaluation as potential vaccine candidates. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We present reduced dimensionality (RD) 3D HN(CA)NH for efficient sequential assignment in proteins. The experiment correlates the (15)N and (1)H chemical shift of a residue ('i') with those of its immediate N-terminal (i - 1) and C-terminal (i + 1) neighbors and provides four-dimensional chemical shift correlations rapidly with high resolution. An assignment strategy is presented which combines the correlations observed in this experiment with amino acid type information obtained from 3D CBCA(CO)NH. By classifying the 20 amino acid types into seven distinct categories based on (13)C(β) chemical shifts, it is observed that a stretch of five sequentially connected residues is sufficient to map uniquely on to the polypeptide for sequence specific resonance assignments. This method is exemplified by application to three different systems: maltose binding protein (42 kDa), intrinsically disordered domain of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-2 and Ubiquitin. Fast data acquisition is demonstrated using longitudinal (1)H relaxation optimization. Overall, 3D HN(CA)NH is a powerful tool for high throughput resonance assignment, in particular for unfolded or intrinsically disordered polypeptides.

The 3D structure of the 18-kDa transmembrane (TM) protein TSPO (translocator protein)/PBR (peripheral benzodiazepine receptor), which contains a binding site for benzodiazepines, is important to better understand its function and regulation by endogenous and synthetic ligands. We have recently determined the structure of mammalian TSPO/PBR in complex with the diagnostic ligand PK11195 [1-(2-chlorophenyl)-N-methyl-N-(1-methylpropyl)-3-isoquinolinecarboxamide; Jaremko et al. (2014) Science 343, 1363–1366], providing for the first time atomic-level insight into the conformation of this protein, which is up-regulated in various pathological conditions including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Here, we review the studies which have probed the structural properties of mammalian TSPO/PBR as well as the homologues bacterial tryptophan-rich sensory proteins (TspOs) over the years and provide detailed insight into the 3D structure of mouse TSPO (mTSPO)/PBR in complex with PK11195.