α-chymotrypsin in water-acetone and water-dimethyl sulfoxide mixtures: Effect of preferential solvation and hydration

We investigated water/organic solvent sorption and residual enzyme activity to simultaneously monitor preferential solvation/hydration of protein macromolecules in the entire range of water content at 25°C. We applied this approach to estimate protein destabilization/stabilization due to the preferential interactions of bovine pancreatic α-chymotrypsin with water-acetone (moderate-strength H-bond acceptor) and water-DMSO (strong H-bond acceptor) mixtures. There are three concentration regimes for the dried α-chymotrypsin. α-Chymotrypsin is preferentially hydrated at high water content. The residual enzyme activity values are close to 100%. At intermediate water content, the dehydrated α-chymotrypsin has a higher affinity for acetone/DMSO than for water. Residual enzyme activity is minimal in this concentration range. The acetone/DMSO molecules are preferentially excluded from the protein surface at the lowest water content, resulting in preferential hydration. The residual catalytic activity in the water-poor acetone is ∼80%, compared with that observed after incubation in pure water. This effect is very small for the water-poor DMSO. Two different schemes are operative for the hydrated enzyme. At high and intermediate water content, α-chymotrypsin exhibits preferential hydration. However, at intermediate water content, in contrast to the dried enzyme, the initially hydrated α-chymotrypsin possesses increased preferential hydration parameters. At low water content, no residual enzyme activity was observed. Preferential binding of DMSO/acetone to α-chymotrypsin was detected. Our data clearly demonstrate that the hydrogen bond accepting ability of organic solvents and the protein hydration level constitute key factors in determining the stability of protein-water-organic solvent systems.