Higher temperatures lead to easier diffusion of the crucial cysteine amino acid

Cysteine is an amino acid that contains a sulfur atom within it. As it is transported throughout the body, the amino acid performs crucial functions, such as neurological disorder repair and the protection of tissues and organs. By studying the transportation and factors affecting cysteine, scientists can learn how it is diffused throughout the body and, in turn, how to better design drugs.

Koirala et al. used molecular dynamics simulations to study the effect of temperature on the movement of cysteine through an aqueous solution.

By focusing their research on the diffusion coefficient and coefficient of the viscosity of cysteine molecule in water -- two pieces of information that had not previously been studied – the authors were able to quantitively measure the efficiency of the molecule’s movement through the water.

They discovered the rate of transportation and diffusion of the cysteine molecule increased as temperature rose. The rise in temperature caused the molecule to gain kinetic energy, which made it easier for it to travel through an aqueous solution.

“The transportation of a cysteine molecule throughout different part of our body is very important for internal metabolism and cell repair mechanisms. This molecule provides the important stability of the tertiary and quaternary structure of protein,” said author Narayan Prasad Adhikari.

The authors intend on continuing this research computationally by producing a comparative study of transport properties of cysteine dimers linked with disulfide and dipeptide bonding.

Source: “Effect of temperature on transport properties of cysteine in water,” by Rajendra Prasad Koirala, Hem Prasad Bhusal, Shyam P. Khanal, and Narayan Prasad Adhikari, AIP Advances (2020). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5132777 .