Chaperone-like activity of α-cyclodextrin via hydrophobic nanocavity to protect native structure of ADH Original Research Article

The chaperone action of α-cyclodextrin (α-CyD), based on providing beneficial microenvironment of hydrophobic nanocavity to form molecular complex with alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) was examined by experimental and computational techniques. The results of UV–vis and dynamic light scattering (DLS) indicated that the chaperone-like activity of α-CyD depends on molecular complex formation between α-CyD and ADH, which caused to decrease the amount and size of polymerized molecules. Computational calculations of molecular dynamic (MD) simulations and blind docking (BD) demonstrated that α-CyD acts as an artificial chaperone because of its high affinity to the region of ADH’s two chains interface. The hydrophobic nanocavity of α-CyD has the ability to form inclusion complex due to the presence of phenyl ring of aromatic phenylalanine (Phe) residue in the dimeric intersection area. Delocalization of ADH subunits, which causes the exposure of Phe110, takes part in the enzyme polymerization and has proven to be beneficial for aggregation inhibition and solubility enhancement within the host α-CyD-nanocavity.