Epoxide hydrolase substrates

D. C. Zeldin, S. Wei, J. R. Falck, B. D. Hammock, J. P. Snapper, J. H. Capdevilla, Metabolism of Epoxyeicosatrienoic Acids by Cytosolic Epoxide Hydrolase Substrate Structural Determinants of Asymmetric Catalysis , Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 1995, 316, 443 - 451. 

This chapter begins, thus, with a short introduction to the chemical reactivity of epoxides. We continue with a description of the epoxides hydrolases and their biochemistry, and devote most of its length to a systematic discussion of the substrates hydrated by these enzymes. Arene oxides and diol epoxides will be presented first, followed by a large variety of alkene and cy-cloalkene oxides. 

According to biochemical separation, location, and substrate specificity, epoxide hydrolases (EH) have been divided into a number of groups. In mammals, the insoluble microsomal epoxide hydrolases and the soluble cytosolic epoxide hydrolases are enzymes of broad and complementary substrate specificity. 

The human cytosolic epoxide hydrolase (cytosolic EH, cEH, also known as soluble EH) has 554 amino acids (Mr 62.3 kDa) and is the product of the EPHX2 gene [49]. Its specific substrate is trans-stilbene oxide, and it appears... 

In addition to these broadly acting enzymes, there exist epoxide hydrolases with narrow substrate specificities [20][48][53], namely ... 

The overall reaction catalyzed by epoxide hydrolases is the addition of a H20 molecule to an epoxide. Alkene oxides, thus, yield diols (Fig. 10.5), whereas arene oxides yield dihydrodiols (cf. Fig. 10.8). In earlier studies, it had been postulated that epoxide hydrolases act by enhancing the nucleo-philicity of a H20 molecule and directing it to attack an epoxide, as pictured in Fig. 10.5, a [59] [60], Further evidence such as the lack of incorporation of 180 from H2180 into the substrate, the isolation of an ester intermediate, and the effects of group-selective reagents and carefully designed inhibitors led to a more-elaborate model [59][61 - 67]. As pictured in Fig. 10.5,b, nucleophilic attack of the substrate is mediated by a carboxylate group in the catalytic site to form an ester intermediate. In a second step, an activated H20... 

Fig. 10.5. Catalytic models of epoxide hydrolase (modified from [59]). a) In an earlier model, a basic group in the enzyme activates a H20 molecule during nucleophilic attack on the epoxide, b) A more-elaborate model showing a carboxylate group in the catalytic site that carries out the nucleophilic attack on the substrate to form an ester intermediate. Only in the second step is the intermediate hydrolyzed by an activated H20 molecule, leading to enzyme reactivation and product liberation. 

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... 

Together with glutathione conjugation, hydration is a major pathway in the inactivation and detoxification of arene oxides. Exceptions to this rule will be treated when discussing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Arene oxides are good substrates for microsomal EH, as evidenced in Table 10.1, where hydration of selected arene oxides, alkene oxides, and cy-cloalkene oxides by purified rat liver epoxide hydrolase is compared. The hy- ... 

Like for benzene, the cytotoxicity of naphthalene is not due to the epoxide but to the quinone metabolites, namely 1,2-naphthoquinone and 1,4-naphthoquinone [85], As shown in Table 10.1, naphthalene 1,2-oxide (10.2) is a better substrate than benzene oxide for epoxide hydrolase. Its rapid isomerization to naphthalen-l-ol, facile enzymatic hydration to the dihydrodiol and lack of reactivity toward nucleophiles such as glutathione may explain its absence of direct toxicity [85],... 

Turning to enzymatic hydration, we see from the data in Table 10.1 that phenanthrene 9,10-oxide Fig. 10.10, 10.29) is an excellent substrate for epoxide hydrolase. Comparison of enzymatic hydration of the three isomeric phenanthrene oxides shows that the Vmax with the 9,10-oxide is greater than with the 1,2- or the 3,4-oxide the affinity was higher as well, as assessed by the tenfold lower Km value [90]. Furthermore, phenanthrene 9,10-oxide has a plane of symmetry and is, thus, an achiral molecule, but hydration gives rise to a chiral metabolite with high product enantioselectivity. Indeed, nucleophilic attack by epoxide hydrolase occurs at C(9) with inversion of configuration i.e., from below the oxirane ring as shown in Fig. 10.10) to yield the C-H9.S, 10.S )-9,10-dihydro-9,10-diol (10.30) [91],... 

The data in Table 10.1 suggest that the reactivity of epoxide hydrolase toward alkene oxides is highly variable and appears to depend, among other things, on the size of the substrate (compare epoxybutane to epoxyoctane), steric features (compare epoxyoctane to cycloalkene oxides), and electronic factors (see the chlorinated epoxides). In fact, comprehensive structure-metabolism relationships have not been reported for substrates of EH, in contrast to some narrow relationships that are valid for closely related series of substrates. A group of arene oxides, along with two alkene oxides to be discussed below (epoxyoctane and styrene oxide), are compared as substrates of human liver EH in Table 10.2 [119]. Clearly, the two alkene oxides are among the better substrates for the human enzyme, as they are for the rat enzyme (Table 10.1). 

Fig. 10.16. Comparison of the metabolism of A4-valproic acid (10.54), a metabolite of valproic acid, with that of ethyl A4-valproate (10.57), a synthetic analogue. Both compounds undergo cytochrome P450 catalyzed oxygenation to form the corresponding epoxides (10.55 and 10.58, respectively). The former reacts intramolecularly to form the lactone 10.56 and is not detectably a substrate for epoxide hydrolase. Epoxide 10.58, in contrast, is a substrate for epoxide hydrolase, forming the diol 10.59, which, in turn, carries out an intramolecular nucleophilic attack to form lactone 10.56 [136],...

Both the mono- and diepoxides of butadiene are substrates for epoxide hydrolase [163], In rat liver microsomes, (R)- and (S)-butadiene monoepoxides were hydrolyzed to but-3-ene-l,2-diol (10.104, Fig. 10.24) with complete retention of configuration at C(2), indicating attack at C(l) [164], In mouse liver microsomes, in contrast, 15 - 25% inversion of configuration was observed, suggesting partial attack at C(2). Preliminary results indicate that human liver microsomes are more efficient than mouse or rat liver microsomes in hydrolyzing butadiene monoepoxide [165]. The hydrolysis of diepoxybutane (10.103) yields 3,4-epoxybutan-l,2-diol (10.105), which can be further hydrated to erytritol (10.106) [163]. 

The base-catalyzed hydration of 2-phenyloxirane involves nucleophilic attack preferentially at C(3) (0-C(3) cleavage), but with only partial regio-selectivity. Acid-catalyzed hydration is mainly by 0-C(2) cleavage. The hydration of 2-phenyloxirane catalyzed by epoxide hydrolase is characterized by its very high regioselectivity for the less-hindered, unsubstituted C(3) [175] [176], involving retention of configuration at C(2). In other words, (R)-and (5)-2-phenyloxirane are metabolized to (/ )- and (S)-l-phenylethane-l,2-diol (10.118), respectively. Substrate enantioselectivity was also character-... 

F. Muller, M. Arand, H. Frank, A. Seidel, W. Hinz, L. Winkler, K. Hanel, E. Blee, J. K. Beetham, B. D. Hammock, F. Oesch, Visualization of a Covalent Intermediate Between Microsomal Epoxide Hydrolase, but not Cholesterol Epoxide Hydrolase, and Their Substrates , Eur. J. Biochem. 1997, 245, 490 - 496. 

R. N. Armstrong, B. Kedzierski, W. Levin, D. M. Jerina, Enantioselectivity of Microsomal Epoxide Hydrolase toward Arene Oxide Substrates , J. Biol. Chem. 1981, 256, 4726 - 4733. 

G. Bellucci, C. Chiappe, F. Marioni, M. Benetti, Regio- and Enantioselectivity of the Cytosolic Epoxide Hydrolase-Catalysed Hydrolysis of Racemic Monosubstituted Alkyloxiranes ,./. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1 1991, 361 - 363 G. Bellucci, C. Chiappe, L. Conti, F. Marioni, G. Pierini, Substrate Enantioselection in the Microsomal Epoxide Hydrolase Catalyzed Hydrolysis of Monosubstituted Oxiranes. Effects of Branching of Alkyl Chains ,./. Org. Chem. 1989, 54, 5978 - 5983. 

B. Borhan, T. Mebrahtu, S. Nazarian, M. J. Kurth, B. D. Hammock, Improved Radio-labeled Substrates for Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase , Anal. Biochem. 1995,231,188 - 200. 

J. Magdalou, B. D. Hammock, 1,2-Epoxycycloalkanes Substrates and Inhibiors of Microsomal and Cytosolic Epoxide Hydrolases in Mouse Liver , Biochem. Pharmacol. 1988, 37, 2717 - 2722. 

Chart 1. Substrates and non-substrates for bacterial epoxide hydrolases... 

The first two reported studies concern the epoxide hydrolase from Aspergillus niger (ANEH) 95,96). The enzyme had previously been purified to homogeneity, the gene cloned and expressed in E. coli, and the catalytic hydrolysis of epoxides optimized to high substrate concentrations. Initial attempts were made to enhance the enantioselectivity of the ANEH-catalyzed hydrolytic kinetic resolution of glycidyl phenyl ether (rac-33). The WT leads to an E value of only 4.6 in favor of (5)-34 96). 

Generally monosubstituted and dx-l,2-disubstituted epoxides are good substrates for EH while tri-, tetra or tra s-l,2-disubstituted ones are poor or non-substrates. Resolutions of epoxides using microsomal epoxide hydrolases, mEHs show that cis-2-alkyl substituted styrene oxides gave very high E-values when R=Me or Et (Figure 2.18a). A series of cis-... 

Over the past year, racemic 1,2-dialkyl epoxides were resolved enzymatically using soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH), although the outcome of the reaction is characteristically substrate-dependent. In an example of the best enantioselection exhibited, epoxide 65 afforded the (Ji ,4i )-diol 66 upon treatment with sEH at pH 7.4. The course of these reactions is different from those in which the same substrates were treated with microsomal epoxide hydrolase <99T11589>. 

Fish are extremely good biliary concentrators of drugs. Molecular weight and polarity concerns for biliary elimination are basically similar to mammals, but bile formation in fish is nearly 50 times slower than mammals. As a result, fish have the capacity to biotransform a variety of substrates, although the rates generally observed are lower than in many mammalian species. Sufficient evidence exists to indicate that glucuronyl transferase, sulfotransferase, glutathione-S-transferase, and epoxide hydrolase activities in fish are, at least qualitatively, similar to those found in mammals (23, 24). 

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