Misfolding of a Single Disulfide Bonded Globular Protein into a Low-Solubility Species Conformationally and Biophysically Distinct from the Native One

In practice and despite Anfinsen’s dogma, the refolding of recombinant multiple SS-bonded proteins is famously difficult because misfolded species with non-native SS-bonds appear upon the oxidization of their cysteine residues. On the other hand, single SS-bond proteins are thought to be simple to refold because their cysteines have only one SS-bond partner. Here, we report that dengue 4 envelope protein domain 3 (DEN4 ED3), a single SS-bonded protein can be irreversibly trapped into a misfolded species through the formation of its sole intramolecular SS-bond. The misfolded species had a much lower solubility than the native one at pHs higher than about 7, and circular dichroism measurements clearly indicated that its secondary structure content was different from the native species. Furthermore, the peaks in the Heteronuclear Single Quantum Correlation spectroscopy (HSQC) spectrum of DEN4 ED3 from the supernatant fraction were sharp and well dispersed, reflecting the beta-sheeted native structure, whereas the spectrum of the precipitated fraction showed broad signals clustered near its center suggesting no or little structure and a strong tendency to aggregate. The two species had distinct biophysical properties and could interconvert into each other only by cleaving and reforming the SS-bond, strongly suggesting that they are topologically different. This phenomenon can potentially happen with any single SS-bonded protein, and our observation emphasizes the need for assessing the conformation and biophysical properties of bacterially produced therapeutic proteins in addition to their chemical purities.