Effect of SNPs on creatine kinase structure and function: identifying potential molecular mechanisms for possible creatine kinase deficiency diseases

PLoS One. 2012;7(9):e45949. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045949. Epub 2012 Sep 25.

Abstract

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are common genetic material changes that often occur naturally. SNPs can cause amino acid replacements that may lead to severe diseases, such as the well-known sickle-cell anemia. We constructed eight SNP mutants of human brain-type creatine kinase (CKB) based on bioinformatics predictions. The biochemical and biophysical characteristics of these SNP mutants were determined and compared to those of the wild-type creatine kinase to explore the potential molecular mechanisms of possible creatine kinase SNP-induced diseases. While the reactivation of six SNP mutants after heat shock dropped more than 45%, only three of them showed notable increases in ANS fluorescence intensity and decreases in catalytic efficiency. Among them, H26Y and P36T bind substrates as well as the wild-type form does, but the melting temperatures (T(m)) dropped below body temperature, while the T59I mutant exhibited decreased catalytic activity that was most likely due to the much reduced binding affinity of this mutant for substrates. These findings indicate that SNPs such as H26Y, P36T and T59I have the potential to induce genetic diseases by different mechanisms.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biophysics / methods
  • Brain / enzymology
  • Catalysis
  • Chromatography, Gel
  • Computational Biology / methods
  • Creatine Kinase / deficiency*
  • Creatine Kinase / genetics*
  • Dimerization
  • Hot Temperature
  • Humans
  • Models, Statistical
  • Mutation
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide*
  • Spectrometry, Fluorescence / methods
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Creatine Kinase

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Key Basic Research and Development (973) Program of China (No. 2011CB910800 and No. 2012CB917304, http://www.most.gov.cn/), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31170732, http://www.nsfc.gov.cn), Zhejiang Natural Science Foundation (No. LR12C05001, http://www.zjnsf.gov.cn/) and Zhejiang leading team of Science & Technology innovation (Team No. 2010R50019, http://www.zjkjt.gov.cn/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.