In this work the effects of depletion interactions between charged protein molecules were studied with canonical Monte Carlo simulations.
The model solution contained charged colloids, counterions and neutral polymers of polyethylene glycol, which were present either as molecules or as theoretical Asakura-Oosawa (AO) potential.
Simulation results of protein mixture model were compared with simulation results of model which contained theoretical AO potential. It was found that AO theory significantly underestimates the influence of the excluded volume of monomers on protein-protein distribution, which was the main reason for the differences between the models.
It was suggested to solve the problem by expanding radius of gyration. It was found that radius of gyration does not effectively replace excluded volume of monomers.
Effects of polymer chains concentration, radius of gyration, excluded volume and charge of proteins were also investigated. The ability of polymers to destabilize the model solution was measured by protein-protein radial distribution function. The probability of model solution destabilization increased with polymer chains concentration and with radius of gyration.
|