Terahertz Spectroscopic Analysis in Protein Dynamics: Current Status

Proteins play a key role in living organisms. The study of proteins and their dynamics provides information about their functionality, catalysis and potential alterations towards pathological diseases. Several techniques are used for studying protein dynamics, e.g., magnetic resonance, fluorescence...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inRadiation (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 100 - 123
Main Authors Mancini, Tiziana, Mosetti, Rosanna, Marcelli, Augusto, Petrarca, Massimo, Lupi, Stefano, D’Arco, Annalisa
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Munich MDPI AG 07.02.2022
Subjects
Amino acids
Antibodies
Biological products
conformation
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Crystallography
Gene expression
Immunoassay
Metabolism
Microscopy
Nitrogen
peptide
Proteins
Radiation
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
terahertz
terahertz spectroscopy
X-rays
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Proteins play a key role in living organisms. The study of proteins and their dynamics provides information about their functionality, catalysis and potential alterations towards pathological diseases. Several techniques are used for studying protein dynamics, e.g., magnetic resonance, fluorescence imaging techniques, mid-infrared spectroscopy and biochemical assays. Spectroscopic analysis, based on the use of terahertz (THz) radiation with frequencies between 0.1 and 15 THz (3–500 cm−1), was underestimated by the biochemical community. In recent years, however, the potential of THz spectroscopy in the analysis of both simple structures, such as polypeptide molecules, and complex structures, such as protein complexes, has been demonstrated. The THz absorption spectrum provides some information on proteins: for small molecules the THz spectrum is dominated by individual modes related to the presence of hydrogen bonds. For peptides, the spectral information concerns their secondary structure, while for complex proteins such as globular proteins and viral glycoproteins, spectra also provide information on collective modes. In this short review, we discuss the results obtained by THz spectroscopy in the protein dynamics investigations. In particular, we will illustrate advantages and applications of THz spectroscopy, pointing out the complementary information it may provide.
ISSN:2673-592X
2673-592X
DOI:10.3390/radiation2010008