Despite being most active at relatively high concentrations, osmolytes don’t display any effects on normal cellular processes – for this reason, they are also commonly referred to as “compatible solutes”. Examples of these include glycerol, trehalose, trimethylamine n-oxide (TMAO), and glycine. Osmolytes are diverse in chemical structure, and include polyols, sugars, methylamines, and free amino acids and their derivatives. Osmolytes Ĭellular osmolytes are polar small molecules that are synthesized or taken up by cells to maintain the integrity of cellular components during periods of osmotic or other forms of stress. For example, the free amino acid arginine is not classically defined as a chemical chaperone, but it has a well-documented anti-aggregation effect. The parameters that define these groups are not strictly defined, and many small molecules that exert a chemical chaperoning effect do not readily fall into one of these categories. There are many different small molecules that can function to enhance protein stability and folding, many of them can be broadly grouped into large classes based both on their structure and their proposed mechanism of action. Chemical chaperones are used for a range of applications, from production of recombinant proteins to treatment of protein misfolding in vivo. Chemical chaperones are a broad and diverse group of molecules, and they can influence protein stability and polypeptide organization through a variety of mechanisms. Chemical chaperones are a class of small molecules that function to enhance the folding and/or stability of proteins.
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