This work demonstrates, for the first time, the feasibility of applying pulsed electron-electron double resonance (PELDOR/DEER) to determine the interspin distance between a photoexcited porphyrin triplet state (S = 1) and a nitroxide spin label chemically incorporated into a small helical peptide. The PELDOR trace shows deep envelope modulation induced by electron-electron dipole interaction between the partners in the pair, providing an accurate distance measurement. This new labeling approach has a high potential for measuring nanometer distances in more complex biological systems due to the sensitivity acquired from the spin polarization of the photoexcited triplet state spectrum.

We present a novel pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopic ruler to test the performance of a recently developed spin-labeling method based on the photoexcited triplet state (S=1). Four-pulse electron double resonance (PELDOR) experiments are carried out on a series of helical peptides, labeled at the N-terminal end with the porphyrin moiety, which can be excited to the triplet state, and with the nitroxide at various sequence positions, spanning distances in the range 1.8-8 nm. The PELDOR traces provide accurate distance measurements for all the ruler series, showing deep envelope modulations at frequencies varying in a progressive way according to the increasing distance between the spin labels. The upper limit is evaluated and found to be around 8 nm. The PELDOR-derived distances are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. We demonstrate that high sensitivity is acquired using the triplet state as a spin label by comparison with Cu(II)-porphyrin analogues. The new labeling approach has a high potential for measuring nanometer distances in more complex biological systems due to the properties of the porphyrin triplet state.

Knowledge of the mechanisms of assembly of amyloid proteins into aggregates is of central importance in building an understanding of neurodegenerative disease. Given that oligomeric intermediates formed during the aggregation reaction are believed to be the major toxic species, methods to track such intermediates are clearly needed. Here we present a method, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), by which the amount of intermediates can be measured over the course of the aggregation, directly in the reacting solution, without the need for separation. We use this approach to investigate the aggregation of α-synuclein (αS), a synaptic protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease and find a large population of oligomeric species. Our results show that these are primary oligomers, formed directly from monomeric species, rather than oligomers formed by secondary nucleation processes, and that they are short-lived, the majority of them dissociates rather than converts to fibrils. As demonstrated here, EPR offers the means to detect such short-lived intermediate species directly in situ. As it relies only on the change in size of the detected species, it will be applicable to a wide range of self-assembling systems, making accessible the kinetics of intermediates and thus allowing the determination of their rates of formation and conversion, key processes in the self-assembly reaction.