Dihydrofolate reduction

In Fig. 1 various targets of some important cytostatic agents are depicted. Their main mechanisms of action can be briefly summarized as follows. Pentostatin blocks purine nucleotides by inhibiting adenosine deaminase. 6-Mercaptopurine and 6-thioguanine inhibit purine ring biosynthesis and they inhibit nucleotide interconversions. Methotrexate by inhibiting dihydrofolate reduction blocks thymidine monophosphate and purine synthesis. 5-Fluorouracil also blocks thymidine monophosphate synthesis. Dactinomycin, daunorubicin, doxorubicin and mitoxantrone intercalate with DNA and inhibit RNA synthesis. L-asparaginase deaminates... 

En2ymatic reduction of folic acid leads to the 7,8-dihydrofolic acid (H2 folate) (2), a key substance in biosynthesis. Further reduction, cataly2ed by the en2yme dihydrofohc acid reductase, provides (65)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrofohc acid (H folate) (3). The folate (3) is the key biological intermediate for the formation of other folates (4—8) (Table 2). 

Catalytic reduction of folic acid to 5,6,7,8-tetrahydrofolic acid (225) proceeds fast in trifluoroacetic acid (66HCA875), but a modified method using chemical reductants leads with sodium dithionite to 7,8-dihydrofolic acid (224). Further treatment with sodium borohydride gives (225) which has been converted into 5-formyl-(6i ,S)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-L-folic acid (leucovorin) (226) by reaction with methyl formate (equation 70) (80HCA2554). 

The NAD- and NADP-dependent dehydrogenases catalyze at least six different types of reactions simple hydride transfer, deamination of an amino acid to form an a-keto acid, oxidation of /3-hydroxy acids followed by decarboxylation of the /3-keto acid intermediate, oxidation of aldehydes, reduction of isolated double bonds, and the oxidation of carbon-nitrogen bonds (as with dihydrofolate reductase). 

Folic acid derivatives (folates) are acceptors and donors of one-carbon units for all oxidation levels of carbon except that of CO2 (where biotin is the relevant carrier). The active coenzyme form of folic acid is tetrahydrofolate (THF). THF is formed via two successive reductions of folate by dihydrofolate reductase (Figure 18.35). One-carbon units in three different oxidation states may be bound to tetrahydrofolate at the and/or nitrogens (Table 18.6). These one-carbon units... 

Folic acid antagonist inhibits dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) blocks reduction of folate to tetrahydrofolate inhibits de novo purine synthesis results in arrest of DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis... 

The dihydrofolate reductase enzyme (DHFR) is involved in one-carbon metabolism and is required for the survival of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. The enzyme catalyzes the reduction of dihydrofolate to tetrahydrofolate, which is required for the biosynthesis of serine, methionine, purines, and thymidylate. The mouse dihydrofolate reductase (mDHFR) is a small (21 kD), monomeric enzyme that is highly homologous to the E. coli enzyme (29% identify) (Pelletier et al., 1998). The three-dimensional structure of DHFR indicates that it is comprised of three structural fragments F[l], F[2] andF[3] (Gegg etal., 1997). 

DHFR has been the object of intense research for the last few decades. The enzyme catalyses the NADPH-dependent reduction of 7,8-dihydrofolate to 5,6,7,8 tetrahydrofolate, a chemical which participates in the thymidilate synthesis cycle. Thus, the enzyme is crucial in the synthesis of thymidine monophosphate as well as in various one-carbon unit transfer reactions. 

The reduction of 7,8-dihydrofolate (H2F) to 5,6,7,8-tetrahydrofolate (H4F) has been analyzed extensively14 26-30 and a kinetic scheme for E. Coli DHFR was proposed in which the steady-state kinetic parameters as well as the full time course kinetics under a variety of substrate concentrations and pHs were determined. From these studies, the pKa of Asp27 is 6.5 in the ternary complex between the enzyme, the cofactor NADPH and the substrate dihydrofolate. The second observation is that, contrary to earlier results,27 the rate determining step involves dissociation of the product from the enzyme, rather than hydride ion transfer from the cofactor to the substrate. 

In this study, identification of the critical atomic and molecular determinants pertaining to the mechanism of dihydrofolate to tetrahydrofolate reduction was achieved by (i) ab initio quantum mechanics, (ii) molecular mechanics, and (iii) free energy perturbation techniques. For the first time, the complete free energy profile was calculated for the proton transfer from Asp27 of the enzyme E. Coli DHFR to the N5 position of the dihydropterin moiety of the substrate dihydrofolate. In addition, the free... 

TFIF is formed from the vitamin folate through two reductions catalyzed by dihydrofolate reductase shown in Figure 1-17-4. It picks up a one-carbon unit from a variety of donors and enters the active one-carbon pool. Important pathways lequirii forms of THF from this pool include the synthesis of all purines and thymidine, wfakh in turn are used for DNA and RNA synthesis during cell growth and division. 

In a collaboration between the Abelson and Hecht labs [56b], a series of noncoded amino acids were introduced into dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) to probe substrate binding and the requirement of an aspartic acid residue for catalytic competence. When aspartic acid analogs mono- or disubstituted at the )0-carbon were substituted for the active site aspartic acid residue, the mutant DHFRs were still able to catalyze the NADPH-dependent reduction of dihydrofolate to tetrahydrofolate at 74 - 86 % of the wild-type rate. While hydride transfer from NADPH is not the rate-limiting step for the wild-type enzyme at physiological pH, a kinetic isotope experiment with NADPD indicated that hydride transfer had likely become the rate-limiting step for the mutant containing the )0,)0-dimethylaspartic acid. 

Folic acid becomes sequentially reduced in the body by the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase to give dihydrofolic acid (FH2) and then tetrahydrofolic acid (FFi4). Reduction occurs in the pyrazine ring portion. 

Dihydrofolate reductase acts as an auxiliary enzyme for thymidylate synthase. It is involved in the regeneration of the coenzyme N, N -methylene-THF, initially reducing DHF to THF with NADPH as the reductant (see p. 418). The folic acid analogue methotrexate, a frequently used cytostatic agent, is an extremely effective competitive inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase. It leads to the depletion of N, N -methylene-THF in the cells and thus to cessation of DNA synthesis. 

Thymidylate synthase [EC 2.1.1.45] reductively methylates 2 -deoxyuridine-5 -monophosphate to form 2 -deoxythymidine-5 -monophosphate in the following folate-dependent reaction dUMP + A, A -methylene-tetrahydrofolate dTMP + dihydrofolate. 

The donor coenzyme for the one-carbon transfer is AT, Ar °-methylene tetrahydrofolate (A A °-methylene THF) simultaneous reduction to a methyl group leaves dihydrofolate (DHF) as byproduct. 

I I 3. The answer is c. (Hardman, pp 1243-1247.) Antimetabolites of folic acid such as methotrexate, which is an important cancer chemotherapeutic agent, exert their effect by inhibiting the catalytic activity of the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase. The enzyme functions to keep folic acid in a reduced state. The first step in the reaction is the reduction of folic acid to 7,8-dihydrofolic acid (FH2), which requires the cofactor nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). The second step is the conversion of FH2 to 5,6,7,8-tetrahydrofolic acid (FH ). This part of the reduction reaction requires nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) or NADPH. The reduced forms of folic acid are involved in one-carbon transfer reactions that are required during the synthesis of purines and pyrimidine thymidylate. The affinity of methotrexate for dihydrofolate reductase is much greater than for the substrates of folic acid and FH2. The action of... 

Conversion of dUMP to dTMP is catalyzed by thy-midylate synthase. A one-carbon unit at the hydroxymethyl (—CH2OH) oxidation level (see Fig. 18-17) is transferred from Af5,Af10-methylenetetrahydrofolate to dUMP, then reduced to a methyl group (Fig. 22-44). The reduction occurs at the expense of oxidation of tetrahydrofolate to dihydrofolate, which is unusual in tetrahydrofolate-requiring reactions. (The mechanism of this reaction is shown in Fig. 22-50.) The dihydrofolate is reduced to tetrahydrofolate by dihydrofolate reductase—a regeneration that is essential for the many processes that require tetrahydrofolate. In plants and at least one protist, thymidylate synthase and dihy-drofolate reductase reside on a single bifunctional protein. 

Methotrexate and related compounds inhibit the reduction of dihydrofolate to tetrahydrofolate, catalyzed by dihydrofolate reductase (see p. 371). 

Folic acid and its polyglutamyl derivatives can be reduced to the THF coenzymes in two stages the first step is a slow reduction with NADPH to 7,8-dihydro-folate (step a, Fig. 15-18). The same enzyme that catalyzes this reaction rapidly reduces the dihydrofolates... 

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