The interaction of nucleotides with F1-ATPase inactivated with 4-chloro-7-nitrobenzofurazan

ATP synthase and the actions of inhibitors utilized to study its roles in human health, disease, and other scientific areas

ATP synthase, a double-motor enzyme, plays various roles in the cell, participating not only in ATP synthesis but in ATP hydrolysis-dependent processes and in the regulation of a proton gradient across some membrane-dependent systems. Recent studies of ATP synthase as a potential molecular target for the treatment of some human diseases have displayed promising results, and this enzyme is now emerging as an attractive molecular target for the development of new therapies for a variety of diseases. Significantly, ATP synthase, because of its complex structure, is inhibited by a number of different inhibitors and provides diverse possibilities in the development of new ATP synthase-directed agents. In this review, we classify over 250 natural and synthetic inhibitors of ATP synthase reported to date and present their inhibitory sites and their known or proposed modes of action. The rich source of ATP synthase inhibitors and their known or purported sites of action presented in this review should provide valuable insights into their applications as potential scaffolds for new therapeutics for human and animal diseases as well as for the discovery of new pesticides and herbicides to help protect the world's food supply. Finally, as ATP synthase is now known to consist of two unique nanomotors involved in making ATP from ADP and P(i), the information provided in this review may greatly assist those investigators entering the emerging field of nanotechnology.

[Use of chemical probes in the study of F1-ATPases]

The purpose of the present review is to discuss in brief the use of chemical probes for the study of the structure and the function of F1-ATPases. Special focus is brought on probes that bind covalently to the proteins.

Pre-steady-state properties of bovine heart mitochondrial ATPase: a nucleotide-dependent H+ burst

The transient kinetics of bovine heart mitochondrial ATPase (F1) depleted of loosely bound nucleotides were observed. The activation process which was shown as a lag time before steady-state hydrolysis observed previously (Clark et al. (1984) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 233, 378-392) was preceded by a proton burst when F1 was stripped of its loose nucleotides. 5'-Adenylylimidodiphosphate (Ado PP[NH]P) or MgATP binding is shown to cause proton release. maximum proton release per F1 free of loosely bound nucleotides is observed with MgATP. Modification with NBD-CL of F1 that was nucleotide-depleted eliminated the proton burst, which suggests that the modified tyrosine (i.e., in the catalytic subunit) is directly involved in the release of protons.