N-Acetylaspartate Is an Important Brain Osmolyte
1
Department of Biotechnology, Manipur University, Manipur 795003, India
2
Department of Medical Biotechnology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 38541, Korea
3
Department of Botany, Munshi Singh College, BR Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarpur, Bihar 845401, India
4
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Center for Biomedical Research, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007, India
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Biomolecules 2020, 10(2), 286; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom10020286
Received: 31 December 2019
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Revised: 29 January 2020
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Accepted: 8 February 2020
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Published: 12 February 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Osmolyte System and Neurodegeneration: From Physiology to Therapeutics)
Most of the human diseases related to various proteopathies are confined to the brain, which leads to the development of various forms of neurological disorders. The human brain consists of several osmolytic compounds, such as N-Acetylaspartate (NAA), myo-inositol (mI), glutamate (Glu), glutamine (Gln), creatine (Cr), and choline-containing compounds (Cho). Among these osmolytes, the level of NAA drastically decreases under neurological conditions, and, hence, NAA is considered to be one of the most widely accepted neuronal biomarkers in several human brain disorders. To date, no data are available regarding the effect of NAA on protein stability, and, therefore, the possible effect of NAA under proteopathic conditions has not been fully uncovered. To gain an insight into the effect of NAA on protein stability, thermal denaturation and structural measurements were carried out using two model proteins at different pH values. The results indicate that NAA increases the protein stability with an enhancement of structure formation. We also observed that the stabilizing ability of NAA decreases in a pH-dependent manner. Our study indicates that NAA is an efficient protein stabilizer at a physiological pH.
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Keywords:
protein stability; thermal denaturation; osmolytes; protein unfolding
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MDPI and ACS Style
Warepam, M.; Ahmad, K.; Rahman, S.; Rahaman, H.; Kumari, K.; Singh, L.R. N-Acetylaspartate Is an Important Brain Osmolyte. Biomolecules 2020, 10, 286. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom10020286
AMA Style
Warepam M, Ahmad K, Rahman S, Rahaman H, Kumari K, Singh LR. N-Acetylaspartate Is an Important Brain Osmolyte. Biomolecules. 2020; 10(2):286. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom10020286
Chicago/Turabian StyleWarepam, Marina, Khurshid Ahmad, Safikur Rahman, Hamidur Rahaman, Kritika Kumari, and Laishram R. Singh. 2020. "N-Acetylaspartate Is an Important Brain Osmolyte" Biomolecules 10, no. 2: 286. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom10020286
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