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Investigating The In Vitro Oxidative Folding Pathways Of Bovine Pancreatic Trypsin Inhibitor (Bpti), Yingsong Wang

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The oxidative folding pathway of the disulfide containing protein bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) was one of the first to be elucidated and has served as a basis for understanding the folding pathways of other proteins. During the oxidative folding of reduced BPTI, two intermediates (N' and N*) accumulate in significant amounts and act as kinetic traps. Both N' and N* bury their two remaining free thiols in their hydrophobic cores, which inhibits further oxidation. Historically, the rate limiting step was considered to be the intramolecular rearrangements of N' and N* to another intermediate with two free thiols, N^{SH …}