Enzymatic assay after cooling of thermally denatured protein solutions from HSDSC determined if thermal transition reversibility was related to biological activity. HSDSC data showed that molecules from lyophilised lysozyme were able to refold better than the spraydried form. This was confirmed by enzymatic assay. Moreover, enzymatic assay results revealed that lysozyme folding reversibility was related to the native structure of the protein that is essential for the biological activity.Thermal denaturation of DNase I and LDH samples in HSDSC was not reversible upon cooling of thermally denatured proteins (in contrast to lysozyme). Hence, it was decided to identify the effect of protein initial structures on its propensity to thermal denaturation via FT-Raman spectroscopy. In other words, proteins may denature with structural alterations due to stresses such as heat and the protein loses its enzymatic activity. Consequently, FTRaman investigated the effects of spray drying and heating of solid DNase I and LDH samples, from differential scanning calorimetry, on protein conformational integrities. Lyophilised and spray-dried DNase I and LDH solid samples were heated to two temperatures, one before the apparent denaturation temperatures (T m ) and the other after the T m . Samples heated below their T m showed some alterations of the secondary structure and some enzy-
IntroductionProteins fold in three dimensions. Protein structure is organised from primary structure to quaternary structure. primary structure or the amino acid sequence of the peptide chains is the ultimate determinant for the protein native form. The protein secondary structure is the assignment of ␣-helices and -sheets along the main peptide chain; whilst the ter-0928-0987/$ -see front matter