A Micro-agar Salt Bridge Electrode for Analyzing the Proton Turnover Rate of Recombinant Membrane Proteins

To date, more than 50% of all pharmacological drugs target the transport kinetics of membrane proteins. The electrophysiological characterization of ...

University of Veterinary Medicine

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) associated with severe neurological disability. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondrial dysfunction play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of this disease. Several members of the mitochondrial uncoupling protein subfamily (UCP2-UCP5) were suggested to regulate ROS by diminishing the mitochondrial membrane potential and constitute therefore a promising pharmacological target for MS. To evaluate the role of different uncoupling proteins in neuroinflammation, we have investigated their expression patterns in murine brain and spinal cord (SC) during different stages of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model for MS. At mRNA and protein levels we found that only UCP2 is up-regulated in the SC, but not in brain. The increase in UCP2 expression was antigen-independent, reached its maximum between 14 and 21days in both OVA and MOG immunized animals and correlated with an augmented number of CD3 T-lymphocytes in SC parenchyma. The decrease in abundance of UCP4 was due to neuronal injury and was only detected in CNS of MOG-induced EAE animals. The results provide evidence that the involvement of mitochondrial UCP2 in CNS inflammation during EAE may be mainly explained by the invasion of activated T-lymphocytes. This conclusion coincides with our previous observation that UCP2 is up-regulated in activated and rapidly proliferating T-cells and participates in fast metabolic re-programming of cells during proliferation.

UCP2 up-regulation within the course of autoimmune encephalomyelitis correlates with T-lymphocyte activation.

Mitochondrial membrane uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) is not only expressed in skeletal muscle and heart, but also in brown adipose tissue (BAT) alongside UCP1, which facilitates a proton leak to support non-shivering thermogenesis. In contrast to UCP1, the transport function and molecular mechanism of UCP3 regulation are poorly investigated, although it is generally agreed upon that UCP3, analogous to UCP1, transports protons, is activated by free fatty acids (FFAs) and is inhibited by purine nucleotides (PNs). Because the presence of two similar uncoupling proteins in BAT is surprising, we hypothesized that UCP1 and UCP3 are differently regulated, which may lead to differences in their functions. By combining atomic force microscopy and electrophysiological measurements of recombinant proteins reconstituted in planar bilayer membranes, we compared the level of protein activity with the bond lifetimes between UCPs and PNs. Our data revealed that, in contrast to UCP1, UCP3 can be fully inhibited by all PNs and IC50 increases with a decrease in PN-phosphorylation. Experiments with mutant proteins demonstrated that the conserved arginines in the PN-binding pocket are involved in the inhibition of UCP1 and UCP3 to different extents. Fatty acids compete with all PNs bound to UCP1, but only with ATP bound to UCP3. We identified phosphate as a novel inhibitor of UCP3 and UCP1, which acts independently of PNs. The differences in molecular mechanisms of the inhibition between the highly homologous transporters UCP1 and UCP3 indicate that UCP3 has adapted to fulfill a different role and possibly another transport function in BAT.

Inhibition of mitochondrial UCP1 and UCP3 by purine nucleotides and phosphate.

Long-chain free fatty acids (FFAs) play an important role in several physiological and pathological processes such as lipid fusion, adjustments of membrane permeability and fluidity, and the regulation of enzyme and protein activities. FFA-facilitated membrane proton transport (flip-flop) and FFA-dependent proton transport by membrane proteins (e.g., mitochondrial uncoupling proteins) are governed by the difference between FFA's intrinsic pK value and the pH in the immediate membrane vicinity. Thus far, a quantitative understanding of the process has been hampered, because the pK value shifts upon moving the FFA from the aqueous solution into the membrane. For the same FFA, pK values between 5 and 10.5 were reported. Here, we systematically evaluated the dependence of pK values on chain length and number of double bonds by measuring the ζ-potential of liposomes reconstituted with FFA at different pH values. The experimentally obtained intrinsic pK values (6.25, 6.93, and 7.28 for DOPC membranes) increased with FFA chain length (C16, C18, and C20), indicating that the hydrophobic energy of transfer into the bilayer is an important pK determinant. The observed pK decrease in DOPC with increasing number of FFA double bonds (7.28, 6.49, 6.16, and 6.13 for C20:0, C20:1, C20:2, and C20:4, respectively) is in line with a decrease in transfer energy. Molecular dynamic simulations revealed that the ionized carboxylic group of the FFAs occupied a fixed position in the bilayer independent of chain length, underlining the importance of Born energy. We conclude that pK is determined by the interplay between the energetic costs for 1) burying the charged moiety into the lipid bilayer and 2) transferring the hydrophobic protonated FFA into the bilayer.

Elena E. Pohl

Department of Physiology and Biophysics

University of Veterinary Medicine

A Micro-agar Salt Bridge Electrode for Analyzing the Proton Turnover Rate of Recombinant Membrane Proteins

Elena E. Pohl

.css-o250i3{font-size:18px;font-family:Open Sans,sans-serif;line-height:21.6px;}Department of Physiology and Biophysics

University of Veterinary Medicine

A Micro-agar Salt Bridge Electrode for Analyzing the Proton Turnover Rate of Recombinant Membrane Proteins

Department of Physiology and Biophysics