Combining in-situ proteolysis and microseed matrix screening to promote crystallization of PrPc-nanobody complexes

Protein Eng Des Sel. 2011 Sep;24(9):737-41. doi: 10.1093/protein/gzr017. Epub 2011 May 1.

Abstract

Prion proteins (PrPs) are difficult to crystallize, probably due to their inherent flexibility. Several PrPs structures have been solved by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques; however, only three structures were solved by X-ray crystallography. Here we combined in-situ proteolysis with automated microseed matrix screening (MMS) to crystallize two different PrP(C)-nanobody (Nb) complexes. Nanobodies are single-domain antibodies derived from heavy-chain-only antibodies of camelids. Initial crystallization screening conditions using in-situ proteolysis of mouse prion (23-230) in complex with a nanobody (Nb_PrP_01) gave thin needle aggregates, which were of poor diffraction quality. Next, we used these microcrystals as nucleants for automated MMS. Good-quality crystals were obtained from mouse PrP (89-230)/Nb_PrP_01, belonged to the monoclinic space group P 1 21 1, with unit-cell parameters a = 59.13, b = 63.80, c = 69.79 Å, β = 101.96° and diffracted to 2.1 Å resolution using synchrotron radiation. Human PrP (90-231)/Nb_PrP_01 crystals belonged to the monoclinic space group C2, with unit-cell parameters a = 131.86, b = 45.78, c = 45.09 Å, β = 96.23° and diffracted to 1.5 Å resolution. This combined strategy benefits from the power of the MMS technique without suffering from the drawbacks of the in-situ proteolysis. It proved to be a successful strategy to crystallize PrP-nanobodies complexes and could be exploited for the crystallization of other difficult antigen-antibody complexes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antigen-Antibody Complex / chemistry*
  • Antigen-Antibody Complex / metabolism
  • Crystallization / methods*
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Peptide Fragments / chemistry
  • Peptide Fragments / metabolism
  • Prions / chemistry*
  • Prions / metabolism
  • Proteolysis

Substances

  • Antigen-Antibody Complex
  • Peptide Fragments
  • Prions