Yiwen Sun, Zexuan Zhu, Siping Chen, Jega Balakrishnan, Derek Abbott, Anil T. Ahuja, Emma Pickwell-MacPherson

The GP2 peptide is derived from the Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 (HER2/nue), a marker protein for breast cancer present in saliva. In this paper we study the temperature dependent behavior of hydrated GP2 at terahertz frequencies and find that the peptide undergoes a dynamic transition between 200 and 220 K. By fitting suitable molecular models to the frequency response we determine the molecular processes involved above and below the transition temperature (T(D)). In particular, we show that below T(D) the dynamic transition is dominated by a simple harmonic vibration with a slow and temperature dependent relaxation time constant and that above T(D), the dynamic behavior is governed by two oscillators, one of which has a fast and temperature independent relaxation time constant and the other of which is a heavily damped oscillator with a slow and temperature dependent time constant. Furthermore a red shifting of the characteristic frequency of the damped oscillator was observed, confirming the presence of a non-harmonic vibration potential. Our measurements and modeling of GP2 highlight the unique capabilities of THz spectroscopy for protein characterization.