A Technique to Unfold and Refold Proteins through Clathrate Hydrate Formation

首席调查员(PI)建议开发一种新的技术来解开错误折叠的蛋白质，并将它们重新折叠成其天然和活跃的构象。这项技术涉及在含有蛋白质的溶液中形成笼状水合物，变性剂的浓度很低。这种溶液中水合物的形成为原位控制变性剂浓度提供了可能，方法是将部分水相转化为固体晶体形态。期望的目标是通过形成水合物从而增加变性剂水平来展开蛋白质，随后通过解离水合物正确地重新折叠这些蛋白质，从而降低变性剂水平。这项研究本质上是探索性的，基于一项针对全新应用的知名技术。

The Principal Investigator (PI) proposes to develop a new technique to unfold wrongly folded proteins and to refold them to their native and active conformations. The technique involves the formation of clathrate hydrates in protein-containing solutions with low concentrations of denaturants. Hydrate formation in such solutions opens up the possibility of an in-situ control of denaturant concentration by converting part of the aqueous phase to a solid crystalline form. The desired objective is to unfold proteins by forming hydrates and thus increasing denaturant levels, and subsequently refold these proteins correctly by dissociating hydrates and thus reducing denaturant levels. This research is exploratory in its nature, and is based on a well-known technology directed towards a completely new application.