Quantitative Interpretation of Protein Diffusion Coefficients in Mixed Protiated-Deuteriated Aqueous Solvents

Diffusion-ordered nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is widely used for the analysis of mixtures, dispersing the signals of different species in a two-dimensional spectrum according to their diffusion coefficients. However, interpretation of these diffusion coefficients is typically purely qualitative, for example, to deduce which species are bigger or smaller. In studies of proteins in solution, important questions concern the molecular weight of the proteins, the presence or absence of aggregation, and the degree of folding. The Stokes–Einstein Gierer–Wirtz estimation (SEGWE) method has been previously developed to simplify the complex relationship between diffusion coefficient and molecular mass, allowing the prediction of a species’ diffusion coefficient in a pure solvent based on its molecular weight. Here, we show that SEGWE can be extended to successfully predict both peptide and protein diffusion coefficients in mixed protiated–deuteriated water samples and, hence, distinguish effectively between globular and disordered proteins.