Flexibility damps macromolecular crowding effects on protein folding dynamics: Application to the murine prion protein (121–231)

A model of protein folding kinetics is applied to study the combined effects of protein flexibility and macromolecular crowding on protein folding rate and stability. It is found that the increase in stability and folding rate promoted by macromolecular crowding is damped for proteins with highly flexible native structures. The model is applied to the folding dynamics of the murine prion protein (121–231). It is found that the high flexibility of the native isoform of the murine prion protein (121–231) reduces the effects of macromolecular crowding on its folding dynamics. The relevance of these findings for the pathogenic mechanism are discussed.