Surfactant Poloxamer 188 as a New Crystallizing Agent for Urate Oxidase

Marion Giffard (1, 2) , Vanessa Delfosse (3) , Giuliano Sciara (4, 5) , Claudine Mayer (3) , Christian Cambillau (4, 5) , Mohamed El Hajji (6) , Bertrand Castro (6) , Françoise Bonneté (1, 2)

1 CINaM - Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille
2 AMU - Aix Marseille Université
3 Département de Biologie structurale et Chimie - Department of Structural Biology and Chemistry
4 AFMB - Architecture et fonction des macromolécules biologiques
5 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
6 Sanofi-Aventis R&D

We characterize a new class of crystallizing agent for soluble protein crystallization compatible with both pharmaceutical processes and high-resolution structure determination in biocrystallography. Poloxamers are amphiphilic nonionic multiblock polymers used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Poloxamer P188 (EO75PO31EO75) is generally used as an emulsifier, solubilizer, and dispersing and wetting agent in the preparation of solid dispersions. Here, we divert the surfactant properties of poloxamer P188 at low concentrations into crystallizing properties at high concentrations of poloxamer P188 to crystallize urate oxidase and to control its crystal design.

Mots clés: oxidase; crystallization; high-resolution methods

Mots clés: cristallisation; polymère; protéine soluble; surfactant; haute résolution; propriété tensioactive; oxydase; cristallographie macromoléculaire

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Marion Giffard, Vanessa Delfosse, Giuliano Sciara, Claudine Mayer, Christian Cambillau, et al.. Surfactant Poloxamer 188 as a New Crystallizing Agent for Urate Oxidase. Crystal Growth & Design, 2009, 9 (9), pp.4199-4206. ⟨10.1021/cg900473n⟩. ⟨hal-01617674⟩