Catalytic relay

FIGURE 7.2. Two alternative mechanisms for the catalytic reaction of serine proteases. Route a corresponds to the electrostatic catalysis mechanism while route b corresponds to the double proton transfer (or the charge relay mechanism), gs ts and ti denote ground state, transition state and tetrahedral intermediate, respectively. 

The considerations presented above were based on the specific assumption that the catalytic reaction of the serine proteases involves mechanism a of Fig. 7.2. However, one can argue that the relevant mechanism is mechanism b (the so-called charge-relay mechanism ). In principle the proper procedure, in case of uncertainty about the actual mechanism, is to perform the calculations for the different alternative mechanisms and to find out which of the calculated activation barriers reproduces the observed one. This procedure, however, can be used with confidence only if the calculations are sufficiently reliable. Fortunately, in many cases one can judge the feasibility of different mechanisms without fully quantitative calculations by a simple conceptual consideration based on the EVB philosophy. To see this point let us consider the feasibility of the charge-relay mechanism (mechanism b) as an alternative to mechanism a. Starting from Fig. 7.2 we note that the energetics of route b can be obtained from the difference between the activation barriers of route b and route a by... 

Catalysis, specific acid, 163 Catalytic triad, 171,173 Cavity radius, of solute, 48-49 Charge-relay mechanism, see Serine proteases, charge-relay mechanism Charging processes, in solutions, 82, 83 Chemical bonding, 1,14 Chemical bonds, see also Valence bond model... 

The mechanism schematized above is a summary of the current knowledge. The role of Asp102 has long been controversial [10], Indeed, the catalytic triad has been depicted as a charge-relay system, meaning that the activation of the serine residue involves a concerted transfer of two protons, i.e., from serine to histidine and then to aspartic acid. More recent studies have shown that aspartic acid remains ionized and serves to stabilize the ionic transition state [6] [14-16],... 

A critical input in unraveling the catalytic mechanism of epoxide hydrolases has come from the identification of essential residues by a variety of techniques such as analysis of amino acid sequence relationships with other hydrolases, functional studies of site-directed mutated enzymes, and X-ray protein crystallography (e.g., [48][53][68 - 74]). As schematized in Fig. 10.6, the reaction mechanism of microsomal EH and cytosolic EH involves a catalytic triad consisting of a nucleophile, a general base, and a charge relay acid, in close analogy to many other hydrolases (see Chapt. 3). 

Fig. 10.6. Simplified representation of the postulated catalytic cycle of microsomal and cytosolic epoxide hydrolases, showing the roles played by the catalytic triad (i.e., nucleophile, general base, and charge relay acid) and some other residues, a) Nucleophilic attack of the substrate to form a /3-hydroxyalkyl ester intermediate, b) Nucleophilic attack of the /Thydroxyal-kyl ester by an activated H20 molecule, c) Tetrahedral transition state in the hydrolysis of the /f-hydroxyalkyl ester, d) Product liberation, with the enzyme poised for a further catalytic... 

The relay compound 1025 required for the synthesis of all of these 7-oxygenated carbazole alkaloids was obtained starting from commercially available 4-bromo-toluene (1023) and m-anisidine (840) in two steps and 72% overall yield. Buchwald-Hartwig amination of 4-bromotoluene (1023) with m-anisidine (840) furnished quantitatively the corresponding diarylamine 1024. Oxidative cyclization of 1024 using catalytic amounts of palladium(ll) acetate afforded 3-methyl-7-methoxycarbazole (1025). Oxidation of 1025 with DDQ led to clauszoline-K (98), which, on cleavage of the methyl ether using boron tribromide, afforded 3-formyl-7-hydroxycarbazole (99) (546) (Scheme 5.149). 

One of the important applications of mono- and multimetallic clusters is to be used as catalysts [186]. Their catalytic properties depend on the nature of metal atoms accessible to the reactants at the surface. The possible control through the radiolytic synthesis of the alloying of various metals, all present at the surface, is therefore particularly important for the catalysis of multistep reactions. The role of the size is twofold. It governs the kinetics by the number of active sites, which increase with the specific area. However, the most crucial role is played by the cluster potential, which depends on the nuclearity and controls the thermodynamics, possibly with a threshold. For example, in the catalysis of electron transfer (Fig. 14), the cluster is able to efficiently relay electrons from a donor to an acceptor, provided the potential value is intermediate between those of the reactants [49]. Below or above these two thresholds, the transfer to or from the cluster, respectively, is thermodynamically inhibited and the cluster is unable to act as a relay. The optimum range is adjustable by the size [63]. 

Figure 14 Mechanism of catalytic electron transfer involving metal clusters as relay. The thermodynamic conditions to be fulfilled are that the cluster redox potential be higher than the donor D and lower than the acceptor A potential, which implies that the cluster itself is a size range that offers the efficient redox potential. (From Ref. 63.)...

Conformational flips can be used to assist catalytic activity. Concerted flips could be used to relay information (e.g., in cytochrome c). Here there are one tyrosine and one phenylalanine that seem to have concerted onset of motion. Such changes begin to look like second-order phase transitions and are obviously important in membranes. 

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