Acetoacetate decarboxylase mechanism

In 1962 too, Fridovich showed that the addition of sodium borohydride to a mixture of acetoacetate decarboxylase and acetoacetate inactivates the enzyme, whereas the addition of borohydride to a buffered solution of the enzyme alone has no effect on the rate at which it can promote the decarboxylation of acetoacetate (Fridovich and Westheimer, 1962) this work confirmed the ketimine mechanism that had previously been advanced for the decarboxylation. Subsequent work (beyond the scope of this review) showed that the reaction product, on hydrolysis, yielded e-isopropyllysine [8], formed by the reduction of the ketimine of acetone (11), and control experiments showed that this ketimine was actually an intermediate in the enzymic pathway, as had been postulated (Warren et al., 1966). 

Highbarger, L.A., Gerlt, J.A. and Kenyon, G.L. (1996) Mechanism of the reaction catalyzed by acetoacetate decarboxylase. Importance of lysine 116 in determining the pFQ of active-site lysine 115. Biochemistry, 35, 41. 

Shemin, 1972 Horecker et al., 1972). In these enzymatic reactions, the mechanism involves initial SchifFs base (imine) formation and subsequent tautomerisation leading to the enamine (C02 elimination in the process of acetoacetate decarboxylase). 

The imine mechanism for both acetoacetate decarboxylase and class I aldolases is also supported by the finding that the substrates that have 0 in their keto groups that undergo the putative Schiff base reaction lose this oxygen to solvent and introduce 0 from solvent water at the corresponding positions in the products. 

The enzymes described above that convert oxaloacetate to pyruvate and CO2 appear to use metal chelation to stabilize the enolate formed by decarboxylation. Many other /3-ketoacid decarboxylases use a similar mechanism. However, there are a few decarboxylations of /3-keto acids or their functional equivalents in which no metal ion is involved. One is the case of acetoacetate decarboxylase, which functions by means of a Schiif base mechanism. A few additional examples are described below. All these cases involve particularly stable enolates. 

The decarboxylation of acetoacetate is acid catalyzed (20). Metals do not catalyze the spontaneous decarboxylation of acetoacetate, presumably because the substrate and the product acetone enol are poor ligands for the metal (27). Primary amines catalyze the decarboxylation of acetoacetate by a Schiff base mechanism (Scheme VII), and this provides the best model for acetoacetate decarboxylase (94). 

Paracatalytic enzyme modification is a new type of catalysis-linked and, hence, substrate-dependent enzyme modification. In all instances in which the substrate promotes inactivation of an enzyme by a chemical reagent, particularly by an oxidant, paracatalsrtic modification should he considered to be the underlying mechanism. In contrast to ligand-induced and syncatalytic modifications, paracatalytic modification involves a direct chemical interaction between enzyme-activated substrate and extrinsic reagent. In this respect, it is similar to the chemical trapping of covalent enzyme-substrate intermediates, e.g., the reduction of enzyme-substrate Schiff bases by sodium borohydride in class I fructose-l,6-bis-phosphate aldolases - or in acetoacetate decarboxylase. ... 

This enzyme catalyses the decarboxylation of the ) -ketoacid oxaloacetate, with the same stoichiometry as acetoacetate decarboxylase. The former however, requires a Mn ion for activity and is insensitive to the action of sodium borohydride. This duality of mechanism is not unlike the one observed for enzymatic aldol condensation, where enzymes of Class 1 react by forming Schiff-base intermediates, whereas enzymes of Class II show metal ion requirements [47]. Oxaloacetate decarboxylase from cod also catalyses the reduction by borohydride of the enzymatic reaction product pyruvate. This is evidenced by the accumulation of D-lactate in presence of enzyme, reducing agent, and manganous ions. It has been proposed that both reduction and decarboxylation occur by way of an enzyme-metal ion-substrate complex in which the metal ion acts as an electron sink, thereby stabilizing the enolate ion formed in the decarboxylation reaction [48] ... 

Another example where mechanism and model have been developed is that for the decarboxylation of acetoacetic acid here no coenzyme is required, and the chemistry involves the enzyme itself. The mechanism for the enzymic decarboxylation with crystalline decarboxylase from Clostridium acetobutylicum has been worked out in some detail it is presented below (20, 21). The initial work, carried out in the author s laboratory by G. Hamilton (22) and I. Fridovich (23, 24) proved that the essential intermediate is a ketimine much of the subsequent development of the enzymic system resulted from the researches of W. Tagaki (25). 

Acetoacetate Metabolism. An active deacylase in liver is responsible for the formation of free acetoacetate from its CoA derivative. The j8-hydroxybutyric dehydrogenase mentioned above and a decarboxylase are capable of converting acetoacetate into the other ketone bodies, /3-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone. liver does not contain a mechanism for activating acetoacetate. Heart muscle has been found to contain a specific thiophorase that forms acetoacetyl CoA at the expense of suc-cinyl CoA. Acetoacetate is thus used by peripheral tissues by activation through transfer, then reaction with either the enzymes of fatty acid synthesis or jS-ketothiolase and the enzymes that use acetyl CoA. 

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