Effect of the structure of the denatured state of lysozyme on the aggregation reaction at the early stages of folding from the reduced form.

We previously demonstrated that the hydrophobic clusters present in hen lysozyme under denaturing conditions were disrupted by the mutation of Trp62 to Gly (W62G). In order to examine the effects of the structure of the denatured state of W62G lysozyme on folding, we analyzed the early events in the folding of reduced W62G lysozyme in detail. From the exchange measurements of disulfide bonds using the variants containing a pair of cysteine residues (1SS), it was found that the formation of disulfide bond in the W62G1SS lysozyme was not accompanied by a prominent interaction between amino acid residues, indicating that the disruption of the hydrophobic core led to the random folding at the early stages in the process of folding of the reduced lysozyme. On the other hand, analyses of the oxidative-renaturation of reduced W62G lysozymes, as well as measurements of the extent of aggregation of the reduced and carboxy amido methylated W62G lysozyme, indicated that the formation of an aggregate is more prominent in the reduced W62G lysozyme than in the reduced wild-type lysozyme. Moreover, a lag phase was detected in the oxidative-renaturation of reduced W62G lysozyme, as based on observations of the recovery of activity. The simulation of the folding process indicated that intermediates were present at the early stages in the folding of the reduced W62G lysozyme. These results suggest that the presence of the intermediates was derived from the random folding at the early stages in the folding process of reduced W62G lysozyme due to the disruption of the structure of the denatured state. Folding thus appears to have been kinetically delayed by these processes, which then led to the significant aggregation of reduced lysozyme. Moreover, from the analysis of amyloid aggregation of the reduced lysozymes, it was suggested that the disruption of the residual structure in denatured state by W62G mutation deterred the formation of the amyloid fibrils of lysozyme.