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Updated: May 27, 2026

High-Pressure NMR Experiments for Detecting Protein Low-Lying Conformational States
Published on: June 29, 2021
Pressure-induced structural and hydration changes of proteins in aqueous solutions
1State Key Laboratory for Supramolecular Structure and Materials, Jilin University, Changchun, P. R. China.
Abstract:
The effects of elevated hydrostatic pressure on four representative proteins, lysozyme, human serum albumin, ubiquitin and RNase A, were investigated by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, by principal component analysis (PCA) and by moving-window two-dimensional (MW2D) correlation analysis. In addition, we revealed the pressure-induced changes of secondary structure elements using curve fitting. With pressure increase, the amide I band shifted to lower wavenumbers, with a transition at 200 MPa, which was indicative of hydration enhancement. Moreover, the pressure-induced behavior of pure water was studied, similar transition pressure was observed with protein in aqueous solution, suggesting that structure change of water around 200 MPa caused a hydration enhancement of protein. Under pressure higher than 200 MPa, the structural changes of the four proteins were obviously different except for the common features shifting to lower wavenumbers with pressure, basically due to the distinct structural differences among them.
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