Regulation of the Inhibitory Function of $\alpha_1$-Antitrypsin by Native Metastability

The native forms of some proteins such as inhibitory serpins (serine protease inhibitors) and viral membrane fusion proteins are metastable, which is critical to their functions. To understand the mechanism of how native metastability regulates the inhibitory function of serpins, we characterized stabilizing mutations of $\alpha$$_1$-antitrypsin, a prototype serpin, in which Gly 117 was replaced by a series of larger hydrophobic residues.(omitted)