Demystifying the catalytic pathway of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isocitrate lyase

Pulmonary tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is one of the most persistent diseases leading to death in humans. As one of the key targets during the latent/dormant stage of M. tuberculosis, isocitrate lyase (ICL) has been a subject of interest for new tuberculosis therapeutics. In this work, the cleavage of the isocitrate by M. tuberculosis ICL was studied using quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics method at M06-2X/6-31+G(d,p): AMBER level of theory. The electronic embedding approach was applied to provide a better depiction of electrostatic interactions between MM and QM regions. Two possible pathways (pathway I that involves Asp108 and pathway II that involves Glu182) that could lead to the metabolism of isocitrate was studied in this study. The results suggested that the core residues involved in isocitrate catalytic cleavage mechanism are Asp108, Cys191 and Arg228. A water molecule bonded to Mg²⁺ acts as the catalytic base for the deprotonation of isocitrate C(2)–OH group, while Cys191 acts as the catalytic acid. Our observation suggests that the shuttle proton from isocitrate hydroxyl group C(2) atom is favourably transferred to Asp108 instead of Glu182 with a lower activation energy of 6.2 kcal/mol. Natural bond analysis also demonstrated that pathway I involving the transfer of proton to Asp108 has a higher intermolecular interaction and charge transfer that were associated with higher stabilization energy. The QM/MM transition state stepwise catalytic mechanism of ICL agrees with the in vitro enzymatic assay whereby Asp108Ala and Cys191Ser ICL mutants lost their isocitrate cleavage activities.

Insights into the catalytic mechanism of N-acetylglucosaminidase glycoside hydrolase from Bacillus subtilis: a QM/MM study

QM/MM calculations on NagZs fromBacillus subtilisfurther confirm NagZs to be glycoside phosphorylases rather than glycoside hydrolases.

Probing the Catalytic Mechanism Involved in the Isocitrate Lyase Superfamily: Hybrid Quantum Mechanical/Molecular Mechanical Calculations on 2,3-Dimethylmalate Lyase

The isocitrate lyase (ICL) superfamily catalyzes the cleavage of the C(2)-C(3) bond of various α-hydroxy acid substrates. Members of the family are found in bacteria, fungi, and plants and include ICL itself, oxaloacetate hydrolase (OAH), 2-methylisocitrate lyase (MICL), and (2R,3S)-dimethylmalate lyase (DMML) among others. ICL and related targets have been the focus of recent studies to treat bacterial and fungal infections, including tuberculosis. The catalytic process by which this family achieves C(2)-C(3) bond breaking is still not clear. Extensive structural studies have been performed on this family, leading to a number of plausible proposals for the catalytic mechanism. In this paper, we have applied quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) methods to the most recently reported family member, DMML, to assess whether any of the mechanistic proposals offers a clear energetic advantage over the others. Our results suggest that Arg161 is the general base in the reaction and Cys124 is the general acid, giving rise to a rate-determining barrier of approximately 10 kcal/mol.