Probing the existence of non-thermal Terahertz radiation induced changes of the protein solution structure

Autor: Martin A. Schroer, Siawosch Schewa, Andrey Yu. Gruzinov, Christian Rönnau, Janine Mia Lahey-Rudolph, Clement E. Blanchet, Till Zickmantel, Young-Hwa Song, Dmitri I. Svergun, Manfred Roessle
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Scientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-13 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2045-2322
18989640
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-01774-6
Popis: Abstract During the last decades discussions were taking place on the existence of global, non-thermal structural changes in biological macromolecules induced by Terahertz (THz) radiation. Despite numerous studies, a clear experimental proof of this effect for biological particles in solution is still missing. We developed a setup combining THz-irradiation with small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), which is a sensitive method for detecting the expected structural changes. We investigated in detail protein systems with different shape morphologies (bovine serum albumin, microtubules), which have been proposed to be susceptible to THz-radiation, under variable parameters (THz wavelength, THz power densities up to 6.8 mW/cm2, protein concentrations). None of the studied systems and conditions revealed structural changes detectable by SAXS suggesting that the expected non-thermal THz-induced effects do not lead to alterations of the overall structures, which are revealed by scattering from dissolved macromolecules. This leaves us with the conclusion that, if such effects are present, these are either local or outside of the spectrum and power range covered by the present study.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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