We first evaluated the performance of the most common water suppression schemes implemented in the 2D [1H,1H] NOESY pulse sequences in the Bruker library: Grad-3919-Grad, WATERGATE (Grad-Sel90-Hard180-Sel90-Grad), WATERGATE with flip-back pulses (Sel90-Hard90-Grad-Sel90-Hard180-Sel90-Grad)35, and ES pulses (Grad1-Sel180-Hard180-Grad1- Grad2-Sel180-Hard180-Grad2)25. Figure 1 shows the schematics of these pulse sequences and the resulting operators for both water and protein magnetization. We simulated the responses of the transverse magnetization (Mx or My) to the different water-suppression schemes for a bandwidth of 20 kHz varying the RF offset and amplitude (B1 ± 20%, Fig. 2). As expected, the Grad-3919-Grad sequence shows a periodic response of Mx within the bandwidth considered. Using an interpulse delay of 200 ms, we obtained an excitation bandwidth relatively narrow (see the areas with fidelity levels of 0.5, Figs. 2A). Note that the bandwidth covered by the Grad-3919-Grad sequence can be tailored by changing the interpulse delay, as shown in Fig. 2B, though a trade-off is necessary between the bandwidth irradiated and water selectivity. We then analyzed the responses of the transverse components of the magnetization for the WATERGATE and the WATERGATE with water flip-back pulse sequences (Figs. 2C and 2D. Unlike the 3919 sequences, the WATERGATE sequences display improved water selectivity and broader irradiation regions with a fidelity level of 0.95. Finally, we tested the ES sequence, which showed a better water selectivity. However, the high-fidelity area is somewhat reduced for the ES sequence (Fig. 2E). Overall, the fidelity of the magnetization response for all the water suppression schemes considered has a limited bandwidth, spanning approximately 10 ppm with no scaling of the B1 field.
With this in mind, we programmed GENETICS-AI30 to create high-fidelity constant-amplitude pulses that elude water irradiation and achieve broader bandwidths than the classical water-suppression schemes. GENETICS-AI utilizes an evolutionary algorithm to generate a library of optimal phase shapes (OPS) to train an artificial intelligence (AI) module of MatLab® and create optimal solutions to a specific problem30. The WADE pulses designed by GENETICS-AI excite a significantly broader bandwidth with a higher level of fidelity relative to the previous pulse schemes and do not irradiate the water signal31. The response of the transverse magnetization to the WADE pulse scheme is reported in Fig. 2F. For clarity, we also present the 1D profiles of the simulated magnetization responses by changing RF offset (Fig. 3) and amplitude (Fig. 4). Note that the sign of the My response for WADE-p pulse is inverted to obtain null irradiation on resonance (water signal), leaving the z-component of the water signal virtually unperturbed (Figs. 3F). As a result, the spectrum will display resonances with a positive sign for values of chemical shifts greater than 4.7 ppm and a negative sign for values less than 4.7 ppm.
We then implemented the WADE-p/2 and WADE-p pulses into the 2D [1H,1H] NOESY pulse sequence (Fig. 5). The general scheme was taken from the noesygpph19 code available in the Bruker sequence library. We did not change the first two hard p/2 pulses that excite the entire 1H bandwidth, including the water signal. We substituted, however, the hard p/2 pulse after the mixing time with a WADE-p/2 pulse (red) and the water-suppression scheme with a WADE-p pulse (blue), which is flanked with two gradient pulses along the z-direction to remove spurious magnetization. The WADE-p/2 pulse excites the left and right sides of the bandwidth with high fidelity, leaving a null excitation on-resonance. The My component of the magnetization as a function of the RF offset follows a sigmoidal behavior, with an on-resonance point of inversion. The latter is accomplished by modulating the phase shape, as indicated in Fig. 5B. The WADE-p pulse for the coherence detection is the same utilized for our previously published [1H,15N] TROSY-HSQC sequence31. The WADE-p pulse does not affect the Mx component of the magnetization and operates an inversion operation on both sides of the bandwidth, avoiding water irradiation.
To experimentally assess the performance of the WADE pulses, we compared the 2D [1H,1H] NOESY experiment with ES water suppression (Bruker sequence noesyesgpph) with the [1H,1H] WADE-NOESY pulse sequence UbiK48C. A comparison of the 2D NOESY spectra is shown in Fig. 6A. UBIK48C fold comprises a five-stranded β sheet, an α helix, and a short 310 helix; therefore, a significant number of NOEs are expected. The peaks of the [1H,1H] WADE-NOESY spectrum are negative in the range of chemical shifts from − 1.0 to 4.7 ppm and positive from 4.7 to 10 ppm, according to the WADE-p/2 pulse excitation profile of Fig. 5. Overall, the 2D [1H,1H] WADE-NOESY spectrum contains a higher number of NOEs, particularly in the amide region, featuring several HN-HN contacts absent in the [1H,1H] ES-NOESY experiment. Additional NOE correlations are observed for the resonances at both spectrum edges. The higher number of NOEs in the amide region of UbiK48C can be explained by the WADE-p/2 and WADE-p pulses that keep the water magnetization along the z-axis, minimizing the exchange of labile amide protons with water. A closer analysis of the NOE cross-peaks between the amide groups and amide and Ha protons shows that the [1H,1H] WADE-NOESY spectrum has a higher resonance intensity up to 54% relative to the [1H,1H] ES-NOESY spectrum (Fig. 6B). We also observed an enhancement of the resonance intensities for the NOE cross-peaks in the aliphatic region of the protein. In this case, the signal enhancement can be attributed to the higher fidelity of the spin operation for the two WADE pulses, especially for peaks at the edges of the spectrum. Overall, we observe an increase in signal intensity of ~ 50% for these resonances. We then tested the NOE buildup for several resonances as a function of the mixing time (Fig. 6C). From the selected residues, it is possible to appreciate the typical kinetics of the NOE buildup and the significant enhancement of the NOE cross peaks intensities relative to the [1H,1H] ES-NOESY spectra. While the peak intensities are enhanced throughout the spectrum, the peak intensities near the water signal are weaker than the corresponding cross peaks in the [1H,1H] ES-NOESY spectrum. However, the latter can be easily overcome by increasing the water selectivity, i.e., reducing the WADE pulses amplitude. This is demonstrated in Fig. 7, which shows the [1H,1H] WADE-NOESY spectrum obtained by lowering the WADE pulse amplitude to 3.33 kHz. In this case, the peaks near the water signals are significantly more intense than the ES sequence. Also, the broader irradiation bandwidth of the WADE pulses enhances the peak intensities at both edges of the spectrum relative to the ES sequence (see highlighted regions of Fig. 7).
We also compared the performance of the two pulse sequences for RKIP, a well-folded protein involved in kinase signaling33. As for UBIK48C, the number of NOE cross-peaks obtained for RKIP with the [1H,1H] WADE-NOESY experiment is substantially higher than the corresponding [1H,1H] ES-NOESY spectrum (Fig. 8A). The latter is even more apparent for peaks at the two edges of the bandwidth, as illustrated in the cross-sections of Fig. 8B, where some of the cross-peaks are barely detectable with the [1H,1H] ES-NOESY experiment. In addition, a significant increase in the number and intensity of the cross-peaks is noticeable for the HN-HN region.
To determine more quantitatively the improvement of the [1H,1H] WADE-NOESY over the other pulse schemes of Fig. 1, we analyzed the relative gain in sensitivity. Figure 9A shows the amide region of UbiK48C with the HN-HN cross-peaks indicated by random numbers. The histograms in Figs. 9B-D show the differences in the intensities of the cross-peaks relative to the [1H,1H] WADE-NOESY experiment. Compared to the [1H,1H] NOESY with presaturation (presat-NOESY), the [1H,1H] WADE-NOESY shows an average increase of cross-peak intensity of ~ 60%. The highest gain (> 200%) is achieved for labile HN resonances that broaden out partially or entirely due to the exchange with the water signal caused by the weak RF field used in the presaturation sequence. The comparison with ES and 3919 sequences shows an average sensitivity gain of 89% and 30%, respectively. In these latter cases, the higher fidelity of operations for the WADE pulses may explain the signal enhancement.
RF pulse design is fundamental for developing NMR spectroscopy at high and ultra-high magnetic fields36. In the past years, many research groups have contributed to designing and developing new pulses or pulse sequences that enhance NMR signal detection for biological macromolecules37–40. However, NMR spectroscopy at ultra-high magnetic fields calls for RF pulses that irradiate larger bandwidths, with high fidelity of spin operations and compensation for instrumental inhomogeneity. We recently showed that a combination of an evolutionary algorithm with AI enables the design of new RF pulses with a constant amplitude to excite broader bandwidth30. These new pulses can be used for a variety of applications, spanning from spin entanglement to solution30,31 and solid-state41 NMR spectroscopy, as well as magnetic resonance imaging30. The design of the WADE pulses is only an example of the new possibilities that the new software GENETICS-AI opened up.
In conclusion, we presented the implementation of WADE-p/2 and WADE-p pulses in the 2D [1H,1H] NOESY pulse sequences, demonstrating a significant enhancement in the detection of internuclear NOE. The enhancement is due to the broadband nature of the new pulses and a substantially reduced magnetization exchange between water and labile amide protons. Concomitantly, we observed an increase in sensitivity of NOEs for non-exchangeable protons, which is due to the higher fidelity spin operation of the WADE pulses relative to the commonly used water suppression schemes. We anticipate that the WADE pulses will improve the sensitivity of the recently developed L-PROSY experiments42 for labile protons as well as heteronuclear 3D 15N- or 13C-edited NOESY experiments that are more suitable for larger biomacromolecules.