The focus of this research is to combine both computational as well as experimental methods to study the non-covalent interaction between a selected set of proteins with small molecules. Experimentally, a mass spectrometric technique, recently known as electrospray mass spectrometry together with the computational aspect of this research, in the area of molecular modeling and quantum mechanics would be exercised.Due to the soft ionization nature of this process, electrospray (ES) mass spectrometry (MS) has been employed to study a broad class of large proteins and their non-covalent interaction with small structures, making it possible for the mass of these complexes to _be determined with an error of less than 0.1%. For this research, a set of proteins known as histones and a class of structures known as crown ethers were chosen. The ES technique allows the proteins to be prepared in an acidic medium that protonates the basic amino acids that have been exposed by the solvent. This process leaves the protein with a lot of positive charges thereby making the analysis with a single quadrupole mass spectrometer, Extrel ELQ 400 possible. The non-covalent complexation between the histones and the crown ethers is stabilized by hydrogen bonding therefore the positive charges of the protein remain unchanged. This bonding is made possible by the ability of crown ethers to bind ammonium ion or protonated amino groups. The mass of the protein which is divided by the number of its positive charges can be determined by a new kind of linear plot constructed from the ES data. The ion currents from the electrospray ionization technique is a representation of the non-covalent complexation of the histones and the crown ethers which can be observed in the mass spectra. Other information such as, the binding constants, can be obtained from the mass spectra. / Department of Chemistry
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/185663 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Nkansah, Shadrack Osei |
| Contributors | Ball State University. Dept. of Chemistry., Kruger, Terry L. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | 59 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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