Spectroscopic and computational investigations of Cobalt(II) binding to the innate immune protein human calprotectin.

Human calprotectin (CP) is an innate immune protein that participates in the metal-withholding response to infection by sequestering essential metal nutrients from invading microbial pathogens. CP is comprised of S100A8 (α subunit, 10.8 kDa) and S100A9 (β subunit, 13.2 kDa). Two transition-metal binding sites of CP form at the S100A8/S100A9 dimer interface. Site 1 is a HisAsp motif comprised of His83 and His87 from the S100A8 subunit and His20 and Asp30 from the S100A9 subunit. Site 2 is an unusual hexahistidine motif composed of S100A8 residues His17 and His27 and S100A9 residues His91, His95, His103, and His105. In the present study, the HisAsp and His sites of CP were further characterized by utilizing Co as a spectroscopic probe. Magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy was employed in conjunction with electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and density functional theory computations to characterize the Co-bound S100A8(C42S)/S100A9(C3S) CP-Ser variant and six site variants that allowed the HisAsp and His sites to be further probed. Our results provide new insight into the metal-binding sites of CP-Ser and the effect of amino acid substitutions on the structure of site 2.