Electrostatic potential surfaces of the transition state for AMP deaminase and for (R)-coformycin, a transition state inhibitor

Identification of the Formycin A Biosynthetic Gene Cluster from Streptomyces kaniharaensis Illustrates the Interplay between Biological Pyrazolopyrimidine Formation and de Novo Purine Biosynthesis

Formycin A is a potent purine nucleoside antibiotic with a C-glycosidic linkage between the ribosyl moiety and the pyrazolopyrimidine base. Herein, a cosmid is identified from the Streptomyces kaniharaensis genome library that contains the for gene cluster responsible for the biosynthesis of formycin. Subsequent gene deletion experiments and in vitro characterization of the forBCH gene products established their catalytic functions in formycin biosynthesis. Results also demonstrated that PurH from de novo purine biosynthesis plays a key role in pyrazolopyrimidine formation during biosynthesis of formycin A. The participation of PurH in both pathways represents a good example of how primary and secondary metabolism are interlinked.

Interrogating the mechanism of a tight binding inhibitor of AIR carboxylase

The enzyme aminoimidazole ribonucleotide (AIR) carboxylase catalyzes the synthesis of the purine intermediate, 4-carboxy-5-aminoimidazole ribonucleotide (CAIR). Previously, we have shown that the compound 4-nitro-5-aminoimidazole ribonucleotide (NAIR) is a slow, tight binding inhibitor of the enzyme with a Ki of 0.34 nM. The structural attributes and the slow, tight binding characteristics of NAIR implicated this compound as a transition state or reactive intermediate analog. However, it is unclear what molecular features of NAIR contribute to the mimetic properties for either of the two proposed mechanisms of AIR carboxylase. In order to gain additional information regarding the mechanism for the potent inhibition of AIR carboxylase by NAIR, a series of heterocyclic analogs were prepared and evaluated. We find that all compounds are weaker inhibitors than NAIR and that CAIR analogs are not alternative substrates for the enzyme. Surprisingly, rather subtle changes in the structure of NAIR can lead to profound changes in binding affinity. Computational investigations of enzyme intermediates and these inhibitors reveal that NAIR displays an electrostatic potential surface similar to a proposed reaction intermediate. The result indicates that AIR carboxylase is likely sensitive to the electrostatic surface of reaction intermediates and thus compounds which mimic these surfaces should possess tight binding characteristics. Given the evolutionary relationship between AIR carboxylase and N(5)-CAIR mutase, we believe that this concept extends to the mutase enzyme as well. The implications of this hypothesis for the design of selective inhibitors of the N(5)-CAIR mutase are discussed.

15N kinetic isotope effects on uncatalyzed and enzymatic deamination of cytidine

15N isotope effects and solvent deuterium isotope effects have been measured for the hydrolytic deamination of cytidine catalyzed by Escherichia coli cytidine deaminase and for the uncatalyzed reaction proceeding spontaneously in neutral solution at elevated temperatures. The primary (15)(V/K) arising from the exocyclic amino group for wild-type cytidine deaminase acting on its natural substrate, cytidine, is 1.0109 (in H(2)O, pH 7.3), 1.0123 (in H(2)O, pH 4.2), and 1.0086 (in D(2)O, pD 7.3). Increasing solvent D(2)O content has no substantial effect on k(cat) but enhances k(cat)/K(m), with a proton inventory showing that the fractionation factors of at least two protons increase markedly during the reaction. Mutant cytidine deaminases with reduced catalytic activity show more pronounced (15)N isotope effects of 1.0124 (Glu91Ala), 1.0134 (His102Ala), and 1.0158 (His102Asn) at pH 7.3 in H(2)O, as expected for processes in which the chemical transformation of the substrate becomes more rate determining. The isotope effect of mutant His102Asn is 1.033 after correcting for protonation of the -NH(2) group, and represents the intrinsic isotope effect on C-N bond cleavage. This result allows an estimation of the forward commitment of the reaction with the wild-type enzyme. The observed (15)N kinetic isotope effect of the pyrimidine N-3, for wild-type cytidine deaminase acting on cytidine, is 0.9879, which is consistent with protonation and rehybidization of N-3 with hydroxide ion attack on the adjacent carbon to create a tetrahedral intermediate. These results show that enzymatic deamination of cytidine proceeds stepwise through a tetrahedral intermediate with ammonia elimination as the major rate-determining step. The primary (15)N isotope effects observed for the uncatalyzed reaction at pH 7 (1.0021) and pH 12.5 (1.0034) were found to be insensitive to changing temperatures between 100 and 185 degrees C. These results show that the uncatalyzed and the enzymatic deaminations of cytidine proceed by similar mechanisms, although the commitment to C-N bond breaking is greater for the spontaneous reaction.

AMP deaminase inhibitors. 2. Initial discovery of a non-nucleotide transition-state inhibitor series

A series of N3-substituted coformycin aglycon analogues are described that inhibit adenosine 5'-monophosphate deaminase (AMPDA) or adenosine deaminase (ADA). The key steps involved in the preparation of these compounds are (1) treating the sodium salt of 6, 7-dihydroimidazo[4,5-d][1,3]diazepin-8(3H)-one (4) with an alkyl bromide or an alkyl mesylate to generate the N3-alkylated compound 5 and (2) reducing 5 with NaBH(4). Selective inhibition of AMPDA was realized when the N3-substituent contained a carboxylic acid moiety. For example, compound 7b which has a hexanoic acid side chain inhibited AMPDA with a K(i) = 4.2 microM and ADA with a K(i) = 280 microM. Substitution of large lipophilic groups alpha to the carboxylate provided a moderate potency increase with maintained selectivity as exemplified by the alpha-benzyl analogue 7j (AMPDA K(i) = 0.41 microM and ADA K(i) > 1000 microM). These compounds, as well as others described in this series of papers, are the first compounds suitable for testing whether selective inhibition of AMPDA can protect tissue from ischemic damage by increasing local adenosine concentrations at the site of injury and/or by minimizing adenylate loss.

Site-directed mutagenesis of histidine 238 in mouse adenosine deaminase: substitution of histidine 238 does not impede hydroxylate formation

His 238, a conserved amino acid located in hydrogen-bonding distance from C-6 of the substrate in the active site of murine adenosine deaminase (mADA) and postulated to play an important role in catalysis, was altered into an alanine, a glutamate, and an arginine using site-directed mutagenesis. The Ala and Glu substitutions did not result in changes of the secondary or tertiary structure, while the Arg mutation caused local perturbations in tertiary structure and quenched the emission of one or more enzyme tryptophans. Neither the Glu or Arg mutations affected substrate binding affinity. By contrast, the Ala mutation enhanced substrate and inhibitor binding by 20-fold. The most inactive of the mutants, Glu 238, had a kcat/K(m) 4 x 10(-6) lower than the wild-type value, suggesting that a positive charge on His 238 is important for proper catalytic function. The Ala 238 mutant was the most active ADA, with a kcat/K(m) 2 x 10(-3) lower than the wild-type value. NMR spectroscopy and crystallography revealed that this mutant is able to catalyze hydration of purine riboside, a ground-state analog of the reaction. These results collectively show that His 238 is not required for formation of the hydroxylate used in the deamination and may instead have an important electrostatic role.