Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Vol.285, No.4, 857-862, 2001
Relationship between kinetic and equilibrium folding intermediates of creatine kinase
Creatine kinase (CK) is a dimeric enzyme important in ATP regeneration in cells where energy demands are high. The folding of CK under equilibrium and transient conditions has been studied in detail and is found to be complex. At equilibrium in 0.8 M GuHCl, 90% of CK molecules are in the form of a partially structured, monomeric intermediate. We exploit this property to measure kinetics of refolding and unfolding to and from this equilibrium intermediate (El), using far-UV circular dichroism and intrinsic fluorescence as structural probes. We are thus able to compare the properties of El and the kinetic intermediate formed during the burst phase in refolding. Native CK and El unfold with rate constants in seconds and milliseconds, respectively. As is observed for refolding of fully-denatured CK, refolding from EI to the native state shows a burst phase followed by two exponential phases. The burst phase refolding intermediate is inferred to have more structure and greater stability than the equilibrium intermediate. When refolding from the fully-denatured state in 0.8 M GuHCI, the equilibrium intermediate is formed within the deadtime of mixing in the stopped-flow apparatus. The equilibrium intermediate may thus represent a kinetic intermediate formed early during folding.
Keywords:creatine kinase;equilibrium intermediate;kinetic intermediate;molten globule;premolten globule