Glycopolymers stabilize protein folding and protein–protein interactions via enthalpic interactions

Macromolecular crowding is ubiquitous in physiological environments, perturbing the thermodynamics and kinetics of proteins via excluded volume and nonspecific chemical interactions. While crowding has been well studied in vitro and in cells, the inert sugar polymers used to simulate crowding lack the chemical characteristics of biomolecules. Emerging studies guide the development of more relevant models of crowding in the cell, but little work has been done to discern crowding effects on proteins at the cell surface. Using ¹⁹F NMR, we measure how protein stability, folding, and intermolecular interactions are modulated by three glycopolymers abundant at the cellular exterior. Biologically relevant glycopolymers including heparin, hyaluronic acid, and mucin significantly stabilize the folding of the N-terminal domain of the Drk-SH3 protein. These interactions are enthalpically stabilizing, emphasizing the importance of chemical interactions for biologically relevant crowders. We further show that these glycopolymers stabilize a homodimer formed by the A34F variant of GB1, demonstrating that biological crowders not only affect isolated proteins, but also influence how proteins interact with one another. Crowding is more complex than simple ideas of volume exclusion suggest, and our work guides a more comprehensive understanding of protein crowding in the context of the glycocalyx, the last frontier of the cell.