Investigation of biomolecular dynamics by sensitivity-enhanced 1H–2H CPMAS NMR using matrix-free dynamic nuclear polarization

Molecular dynamics of functional groups contain valuable information about structural properties and functional activities in biomolecules. NMR spectroscopy is a sensitive tool for the investigation of molecular dynamics over a wide range of timescales and thus may deepen the understanding of the biomolecules of interest. Here, we present an approach to use DNP-enhanced ²H NMR to study dynamics of selectively deuterated methyl groups in insoluble proteins such as amyloid beta (Aβ) fibrils. We adopted and optimized the matrix-free DNP approach by varying the amount of added polarizing agent as well as the rehydration level of model proteins. We show that the DNP enhancement obtained in ¹H–²H cross-polarization (CP) MAS spectra may increase the sensitivity for selectively deuterated Aβ fibril samples by more than one order of magnitude, accelerating the collection of spin-lattice relaxation data in the DNP-accessible temperature range between 100 and 150 K by up to 400-fold. However, below the coalescence temperature, which describes the transition from the fast to the slow exchange regime, the experimentally obtained relaxation time constants suffer from a paramagnetic relaxation enhancement effect due to the presence of the polarizing agent. This seems to be a general effect for biomolecules as it is also confirmed for two other protein model systems. Our demonstration opens the possibility to extend the scope of ²H NMR for dynamics measurements to effective concentrations and/or temperatures below what is currently accessible; however, the observed interplay between paramagnetic relaxation and molecular dynamics also emphasizes the necessity for a better understanding of relaxation effects in DNP-enhanced NMR.