Bharadwaj P, Shet SM, Bisht M, Sarkar DK, Franklin G, Nataraj SK, Mondal D, 2023: Suitability of adenosine derivatives in improving the activity and stability of cytochrome c under stress: Insights into the effect of phosphate groups. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c05996. full text

It is well known that adenosine and its phosphate derivatives play a crucial role in biological phenomena such as apoptosis and cell signaling and act as the energy currency of the cell. Although their interactions with various proteins and enzymes have been described, the focus of this work is to demonstrate the effect of the phosphate group on the activity and stability of the native heme metalloprotein cytochrome c (Cyt c), which is important from both biological and industrial aspects. In situ and in silico characterizations are used to correlate the relationship between the binding affinity of adenosine and its phosphate groups with unfolding behavior, corresponding peroxidase activities, and stability factors. Interaction of adenosine (ADN), adenosine monophosphate (AMP), adenosine 5′-diphosphate (ADP), and adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) with Cyt c increases peroxidase-like activity by up to 1.8–6.5-fold compared to native Cyt c. This activity is significantly maintained even after multiple stress conditions such as oxidative stress and the presence of a chaotropic agent such as guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl). With binding affinities on the order of ADN < AMP < ADP < ATP, adenosine derivatives were found to stabilize Cyt c by varying the secondary structural features of the protein. Thus, in addition to being a fundamental study, the current work also proposes a way of stabilizing protein systems to be used for real-time biocatalytic applications.