Protein response to electric field stress

Proteins can change conformation under stress, which can lead to disruption of their biological function and result in a number of diseases[1]. In an effort to understand the effect of external stresses on protein conformation, we have performed long term molecular dynamics simulations of insulin chain ß in several different environments. The conformational behaviour of the protein under thermal and electric field stresses was compared to the reference system under ambient conditions. We found the system under electric field stress to behave similarly to the system under thermal stress, both adopting conformations rarely seen under ambient conditions.