Conformation and stability of two recombinant human interferon-alpha analogs

Structural features of a recombinant E. coli derived interferon-alpha analog, interferon consensus1, was studied by circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy. Circular dichroic spectra of the purified protein showed that it has about 70% alpha-helix and a distinct tertiary structure. These structural features are similar to those for a natural interferon-alpha subtype, interferon-alpha 2, indicating that the amino acid substitutions in interferon consensus1 apparently did not alter the protein structure. Another analog, interferon consensus5, which has Ser instead of Cys at residues 1 and 99 but is otherwise identical to interferon consensus1, was prepared to study the role of the disulfide bond between Cys 1 and 99. Circular dichroic and fluorescence spectra indicated similarity in the structure of these two analogs. However, interferon consensus1 was significantly more stable than interferon consensus5 against denaturation. pH unfolding experiments indicated that the former protein is more stable in the transition region by about 1.6 kcal/mol, which was interpreted in terms of the increased free energy of the denatured state due to an extra disulfide bond in interferon consensus1.