RAMAN BAND-SHAPE ANALYSIS OF UREA-LYSOZYME INTERACTION IN AQUEOUS-SOLUTION

Urea is a well-known agent in the denaturation of proteins, although t he mechanism involved is far from being understood. The present invest igation focuses on the Raman band-shape analysis of the nu(4) mode of urea as a source of information regarding its molecular dynamics and h ow this is affected by the presence of protein. Lysozyme was chosen si nce it is a well-characterized protein. From the available data it is possible to observe that in the presence of lysozyme the anisotropic ( depolarized) correlation function decays faster than the vibrational c orrelation function, which is an indication that the former is the mos t affected, and more specifically that the urea molecules rotate more freely when protein is present. Urea derivatives, namely thiourea and tetramethylurea, have also been studied in order to assess aspects rel ated to hydrogen bonding with water. Guanidinium chloride, a protein d enaturant bearing a close chemical structure to urea, has also been as sayed. The effect of urea, and of the other above-mentioned compounds, on the Raman water band at about 3300 cm(-1) was investigated. A vari ation in the band-shape was detected for systems containing urea and g uanidinium chloride; this was dependent on the denaturant concentratio n, reaching a maximum at the highest concentrations investigated (abou t 8 and 6.7 M for urea and guanidinium chloride, respectively). The oc currence of a high-frequency component in the water stretching band in duced by the denaturants suggests the presence of less hydrogen-bonded species in solution. This conclusion was reinforced by the observatio n of a lower depolarization ratio for the asymmetric species HDO stret ching band in concentrated urea solutions. These observations indicate that the water structure is drastically affected under the conditions where the denaturants have their maximum denaturing effect.