About the Structural Role of Disulfide Bridges in Serum Albumins: Evidence from Protein Simulated Unfolding

International audienceThe role of the 17 disulfide (S-S) bridges in preserving the native conformation of human serum albumin (HSA) is investigated by performing classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on protein structures with intact and, respectively, reduced S-S bridges. The thermal unfolding simulations predict a clear destabilization of the protein secondary structure upon reduction of the S-S bridges as well as a significant distortion of the tertiary structure that is revealed by the changes in the protein native contacts fraction. The effect of the S-S bridges reduction on the protein compactness was tested by calculating Gibbs free energy profiles with respect to the protein gyration radius. The theoretical results obtained using the OPLS-AA and the AMBER ff03 force fields are in agreement with the available experimental data. Further, it is predicted that in the native conformation of the protein the thiol (-SH) groups belonging to the same reduced S-S bridge are located in potential wells that maintain them in contact. The -SH pairs can be dispatched by specific and reversible conformational transitions