Effect of Oligosaccharides and their Monosaccharide Mixtures on the Stability of Proteins: A Scaled Particle Study

Abstract Experimental results of RNase-A stabilization by sugar osmolytes show that the change in the Gibbs free energy (Δ G D) associated with the equilibrium, N (native) state ↔ D (denatured) state of the protein in the presence of equimolar mixture of monosaccharides is larger than that of the corresponding oligosaccharides at a given temperature and pH. However, at the molar scale, ΔG D obtained in the presence of an oligosaccharide is much higher as compared with ΔG D obtained using individual monosaccharide. We used scaled particle theory (SPT) to explain these experimental observations. The effective length, called Tolman's length that describes the curvature correlations to a surface area or surface tension and in turn contributes to the change in free energy, is discussed. Tolman's length is higher for corresponding monomer mixture than the oligosaccharide molecules. Based on SPT analysis, a geometrical model is proposed for clustering of monosaccharides in the mixture due to high particle density. The cluster is presumed to have weak interaction among them due to larger hydrodynamic radius than that of the bonded molecules of oligosaccharides.