Chemical reactivity of the active site of myoglobin. Advances in Inorganic Chemistry Volume 51. Elsevier; 2000. pp. 1-50. [DOI: 10.1016/s0898-8838(00)51000-9]

Second Sphere Effects on Oxygen Reduction and Peroxide Activation by Mononuclear Iron Porphyrins and Related Systems

Activation and reduction of O₂ and H₂O₂ by synthetic and biosynthetic iron porphyrin models have proved to be a versatile platform for evaluating second-sphere effects deemed important in naturally occurring heme active sites. Advances in synthetic techniques have made it possible to install different functional groups around the porphyrin ligand, recreating artificial analogues of the proximal and distal sites encountered in the heme proteins. Using judicious choices of these substituents, several of the elegant second-sphere effects that are proposed to be important in the reactivity of key heme proteins have been evaluated under controlled environments, adding fundamental insight into the roles played by these weak interactions in nature. This review presents a detailed description of these efforts and how these have not only demystified these second-sphere effects but also how the knowledge obtained resulted in functional mimics of these heme enzymes.

An enzymatic method for precise oxygen affinity measurements over nanomolar-to-millimolar concentration regime

Oxygen affinity is an important property of metalloproteins that helps elucidate their reactivity profile and mechanism. Heretofore, oxygen affinity values were determined either using flash photolysis and polarography techniques that require expensive instrumentation, or using oxygen titration methods which are erroneous at low nanomolar and at high millimolar oxygen concentrations. Here, we describe an inexpensive, easy-to-setup, and a one-pot method for oxygen affinity measurements that uses the enzyme chlorite dismutase (Cld) as a precise in situ oxygen source. Using this method, we measure thermodynamic and kinetic oxygen affinities (K_d and K_M) of different classes of heme and non-heme metalloproteins involved in oxygen transport, sensing, and catalysis. The method enables oxygen affinity measurements over a wide concentration range from 10 nM to 5 mM which is unattainable by simply diluting oxygen-saturated buffers. In turn, we were able to precisely measure oxygen affinities of a model set of eight different metalloproteins with affinities ranging from 48 ± 3 nM to 1.18 ± 0.03 mM. Overall, the Cld method is easy and inexpensive to set up, requires significantly lower quantities of protein, enables precise oxygen affinity measurements, and is applicable for proteins exhibiting nanomolar-to-millimolar affinity values.

Identification of Surface-Exposed Protein Radicals and A Substrate Oxidation Site in A-Class Dye-Decolorizing Peroxidase from Thermomonospora curvata

Dye-decolorizing peroxidases (DyPs) are a family of heme peroxidases, in which a catalytic distal aspartate is involved in H₂O₂ activation to catalyze oxidations in acidic conditions. They have received much attention due to their potential applications in lignin compound degradation and biofuel production from biomass. However, the mode of oxidation in bacterial DyPs remains unknown. We have recently reported that the bacterial TcDyP from Thermomonospora curvata is among the most active DyPs and shows activity toward phenolic lignin model compounds (J. Biol. Chem.2015, 290, 23447). Based on the X-ray crystal structure solved at 1.75 Å, sigmoidal steady-state kinetics with Reactive Blue 19 (RB19), and formation of compound II-like product in the absence of reducing substrates observed with stopped-flow spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), we hypothesized that the TcDyP catalyzes oxidation of large-size substrates via multiple surface-exposed protein radicals. Among 7 tryptophans and 3 tyrosines in TcDyP consisting of 376 residues for the matured protein, W263, W376, and Y332 were identified as surface-exposed protein radicals. Only the W263 was also characterized as one of surface-exposed oxidation sites. SDS-PAGE and size-exclusion chromatography demonstrated that W376 represents an off-pathway destination for electron transfer, resulting in the crosslinking of proteins in the absence of substrates. Mutation of W376 improved compound I stability and overall catalytic efficiency toward RB19. While Y332 is highly conserved across all four classes of DyPs, its catalytic function in A-class TcDyP is minimal possibly due to its extremely small solvent accessible areas. Identification of surface-exposed protein radicals and substrate oxidation sites is important for understanding DyP mechanism and modulating its catalytic functions for improved activity on phenolic lignin.

Site-directed mutagenesis of tobacco anionic peroxidase: Effect of additional aromatic amino acids on stability and activity

Tobacco anionic peroxidase (TOP) is known to effectively catalyze luminol oxidation without enhancers, in contrast to horseradish peroxidase (HRP). To pursue structure-activity relationship studies for TOP, two amino acids have been chosen for mutation, namely Thr151, close to the heme plane, and Phe140 at the entrance to the active site pocket. Three mutant forms TOP F140Y, T151W and F140Y/T151W have been expressed in Escherichia coli, and reactivated to yield active enzymes. Single-point mutations introducing additional aromatic amino acid residues at the surface of TOP exhibit a significant effect on the enzyme catalytic activity and stability as judged by the results of steady-state and transient kinetics studies. TOP T151W is up to 4-fold more active towards a number of aromatic substrates including luminol, whereas TOP F140Y is 2-fold more stable against thermal inactivation and 8-fold more stable in the reaction course. These steady-state observations have been rationalized with the help of transient kinetic studies on the enzyme reaction with hydrogen peroxide in a single turnover regime. The stopped-flow data reveal (a) an increased stability of F140Y Compound I towards hydrogen peroxide, and thus, a higher operational stability as compared to the wild-type enzyme, and (b) a lesser leakage of oxidative equivalents from TOP T151W Compound I resulting in the increased catalytic activity. The results obtained show that TOP unique properties can be further improved for practical applications by site-directed mutagenesis.

Enhancement of enzymatic activity for myoglobins by modification of heme-propionate side chains

The modification of myoglobin is an attractive process not only for understanding its molecular mechanism but also for engineering the protein function. The strategy of myoglobin functionalization can be divided into at least two approaches: site-directed mutagenesis and reconstitution with a non-natural prosthetic group. The former method enables us to mainly modulate the physiological function, while the latter has the advantage of introducing a new function on the protein. Particularly, replacement of the native hemin with an artificially created hemin having hydrophobic moieties at the terminal of the heme-propionate side chains serves as an appropriate substrate-binding site near the heme pocket, and consequently enhances the peroxidase and peroxygenase activities for the reconstituted myoglobin. In addition, the incorporation of the synthetic hemin bearing modified heme-propionates into an appropriate apomyoglobin mutant drastically enhances the peroxidase activity. In contrast, to convert myoglobin into a cytochrome P450 enzyme, a flavin moiety as an electron transfer mediator was introduced at the terminal of the heme-propionate side chain. The flavomyoglobin catalyzes the deformylation of 2-phenylpropanal in the presence of NADH under aerobic conditions through the peroxoanion formation from the oxygenated species. In addition, modification of the heme-propionate side chains has an significant influence on regulating the reactivity of the horseradish peroxidase. Furthermore, the heme-propionate side chain can form a metal binding site with a carboxylate residue in the heme pocket. These studies indicate that modification of the heme-propionate side chains can be a new and effective way to engineer functions for the hemoproteins.

Electron transfer and oxidase activities in reconstituted hemoproteins with chemically modified cofactors

Protoheme IX is a typical iron porphyrin cofactor, showing a variety of reactivities in many hemoproteins under the reaction environments provided by protein matrices. Chemical modification of the protoheme cofactor is expected to be a versatile strategy to design hemoproteins possessing unique functions. This review focuses on the conversion of a hemoprotein, mainly myoglobin (an oxygen-storage hemoprotein), into a protein having different functions from the original ones by replacement of the protoheme cofactor with synthetic cofactors. The myoglobin having anionic patches pended to the heme propionates effectively binds electron-accepting proteins or small cationic organic molecules on the protein surface, resulting in enhanced efficiency of the photoinduced electron transfers from the myoglobin to these electron acceptors. Furthermore, the peroxidase and peroxygenase activities are also enhanced due to the facile substrate accesses. The attachment of the chemically active moiety such as flavin at the heme terminal is also important to give P450-like function to the native myoglobin. The employment of a structural isomer of porphyrin as an artificial cofactor gives rise to remarkably high dioxygen affinity and peroxidase activity in myoglobin, and allows us to easily detect high-valent species of the porphyrin isomer in HRP. These examples provide a clear insight into hemoprotein modifications based on synthetic chemistry as well as genetic amino acid mutations.

Protecting peroxidase activity of multilayer enzyme-polyion films using outer catalase layers

Films constructed layer-by-layer on electrodes with architecture {protein/hyaluronic acid (HA)}n containing myoglobin (Mb) or horseradish peroxidase (HRP) were protected against protein damage by H2O2 by using outer catalase layers. Peroxidase activity for substrate oxidation requires activation by H2O2, but {protein/HA}n films without outer catalase layers are damaged slowly and irreversibly by H2O2. The rate and extent of damage were decreased dramatically by adding outer catalase layers to decompose H2O2. Comparative studies suggest that protection results from catalase decomposing a fraction of the H2O2 as it enters the film, rather than by an in-film diffusion barrier. The outer catalase layers controlled the rate of H2O2 entry into inner regions of the film, and they biased the system to favor electrocatalytic peroxide reduction over enzyme damage. Catalase-protected {protein/HA}n films had an increased linear concentration range for H2O2 detection. This approach offers an effective way to protect biosensors from damage by H2O2.

Hybridization of Modified-Heme Reconstitution and Distal Histidine Mutation to Functionalize Sperm Whale Myoglobin

To modulate the physiological function of a hemoprotein, most approaches have been demonstrated by site-directed mutagenesis. Replacement of the native heme with an artificial prosthetic group is another way to modify a hemoprotein. However, an alternate method, mutation or heme reconstitution, does not always demonstrate sufficient improvement compared with the native heme enzyme. In the present study, to convert a simple oxygen storage hemoprotein, myoglobin, into an active peroxidase, we applied both methods at the same time. The native heme of myoglobin was replaced with a chemically modified heme 2 having two aromatic rings at the heme-propionate termini. The constructed myoglobins were examined for 2-methoxyphenol (guaiacol) oxidation in the presence of H2O2. Compared with native myoglobin, rMb(H64D.2) showed a 430-fold higher kcat/Km value, which is significantly higher than that of cytochrome c peroxidase and only 3-fold less than that of horseradish peroxidase. In addition, myoglobin-catalyzed degradation of bisphenol A was examined by HPLC analysis. The rMb(H64D.2) showed drastic acceleration (>35-fold) of bisphenol A degradation compared with the native myoglobin. In this system, a highly oxidized heme reactive species is smoothly generated and a substrate is effectively bound in the heme pocket, while native myoglobin only reversibly binds dioxygen. The present results indicate that the combination of a modified-heme reconstitution and an amino acid mutation should offer interesting perspectives toward developing a useful biomolecule catalyst from a hemoprotein.

Blue myoglobin reconstituted with an iron porphycene shows extremely high oxygen affinity

Myoglobin will be a good scaffold for engineering a function into proteins. To modulate the physiological function of myoglobin, almost all approaches have been demonstrated by site-directed mutagenesis, however, there are few studies which show a significant improvement in the function. In contrast, we focused on the replacement of heme in the protein with an artificial prosthetic group. Recently, we prepared a novel myoglobin reconstituted with an iron porphycene as a structural isomer of mesoheme. The bluish colored reconstituted myoglobin is relatively stable and the deoxymyoglobin reversibly binds ligands. Interestingly, the O2 affinity of the reconstituted myoglobin, 1.1 x 109 M-1, is a significant 1,400-fold higher than that of the native myoglobin. Furthermore, the unfavorable autoxidation kinetics show 7-fold decrease in rate for the reconstituted myoglobin relative to the native myoglobin, indicating the stable oxy-form against autoxidation. The net results come from the slow dissociation of the O2 ligand in the reconstituted myoglobin, koff = 0.11 s-1, because of the formation of strong hydrogen bond between His64 and negatively charged dioxygen. The present study indicates that the replacement of native heme with an artificially created prosthetic group will give us a unique function into a hemoprotein.

Reaction of human myoglobin and H2O2. Electron transfer between tyrosine 103 phenoxyl radical and cysteine 110 yields a protein-thiyl radical

The sequence of human myoglobin (Mb) is similar to that of other species except for a unique cysteine at position 110 (Cys(110)). Adding hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) to human Mb affords Trp(14)-peroxyl, Tyr(103)-phenoxyl, and Cys(110)-thiyl radicals and coupling of Cys(110)-thiyl radicals yields a homodimer through intermolecular disulfide bond formation (Witting, P. K., Douglas, D. J., and Mauk, A. G. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 20391-20398). Treating a solution of wild type Mb and H(2)O(2) with 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) at DMPO:protein </= 10 mol/mol yields DMPO-Cys(110) adducts as determined by EPR. At DMPO:protein ratios (25-50 mol/mol), both DMPO-Tyr(103) and DMPO-Cys(110) adducts were detected, whereas at DMPO:protein >/= 100 mol/mol only DMPO-Tyr(103) radicals were present. The DMPO-dependent decrease in DMPO-Cys(110) was matched by a near 1:1 stoichiometric increase in DMPO-Tyr(103). In contrast, reaction of the Y103F human Mb with H(2)O(2) gave no DMPO-Cys(110) at DMPO:protein </= 10 mol/mol, and only trace DMPO-Cys(110) at DMPO:protein >/= 100 mol/mol (i.e. conditions that consistently gave DMPO-Tyr(103) in the case of wild type Mb). No detectable homodimer was formed by incubation of the Y103F variant with H(2)O(2). However, the homodimer was detected in a mixture of both the Y103F and C110A variants of human Mb upon treatment with H(2)O(2) (C110A:Y103F:H(2)O(2) 2:1:5 mol/mol/mol); the yield of this homodimer increased with increasing ratios of C110A:Y103F. Together, these data suggest that addition of H(2)O(2) to human Mb can produce Cys(110)-thiyl radicals through an intermolecular electron transfer reaction from Cys(110) to a Tyr(103)-phenoxyl radical.