The membrane insertion of trichosanthin is membrane-surface-pH dependent.

Trichosanthin (TCS) is the active component extracted from Tianhuafen, a traditional herbal medicine that has been used for abortion in China for centuries. It belongs to the type-I ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) family and can inactivate the eukaryotic ribosome through its RNA N-glycosidase activity. Recent studies have shown TCS to be multifunctional, its pharmacological properties including immunomodulatory, anti-tumour and anti-HIV activities. The membrane-insertion property of TCS is thought to be essential for its physiological effect, for it must get across the membrane before it can enter the cytoplasm and exert its RIP function. In this paper, the membrane-insertion mechanism of TCS was studied. The monolayer experiment revealed that TCS's membrane-insertion ability was dependent on low pH. Fluorescence spectroscopy using 1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulphonic acid as a probe showed that low pH may induce the conformational change of TCS that leads to the hydrophobic-site exposure, and the CD result showed that this conformational change did not alter its secondary structure. Such conformational change leads to an intermediate state, called the 'molten globular state' by previous investigators. The pH-dependent membrane insertion and conformational change were related by the fact that the optimal membrane-surface pH needed was the same for the two events. From these and other results, a membrane-insertion model was proposed.