Heme proteins forms

We have examined the photolysis of heme groups that are incidentally photosensitive. The heme proteins form a special class of proteins yet some rather important results have come from studies from them. Do these results have general validity We will in this section drift a bit from the subject of photolysis (the rupture of a molecular bond by absorbed photon) and discuss briefly other laser excitation techniques that we believe help us understand the concepts of protein rigidity and the... 

Although ferrous heme proteins form stable Fe(II)(Prot)HNO adducts, as described above, isolated porphyrins such as FeTPPS or FeTPP do not, clearly suggesting that, without the protection provided by the protein matrix, the Fe(II)(Prot)HNO (or NO ) adducts are imstable. We wiU describe below the obtention of the first stable Fe(Por)NO porphyrin model, thanks to the presence of strongly electron-withdrawing substituents present in the porphyrin ring. 

Certain other plasma proteins bind heme but not hemoglobin. Hemopexin is a Pj-globuhn that binds free heme. Albumin wiU bind some metheme (ferric heme) to form methemalbumin, which then ttansfets the metheme to hemopexin. 

How does nature prevent the release of hydrogen peroxide during the cytochrome oxidase-mediated four-electron reduction of dioxygen It would appear that cytochrome oxidase behaves in the same manner as other heme proteins which utilize hydrogen peroxide, such as catalase and peroxidase (vide infra), in that once a ferric peroxide complex is formed the oxygen-oxygen bond is broken with the release of water and the formation of an oxo iron(IV) complex which is subsequently reduced to the ferrous aquo state (12). Indeed, this same sequence of events accounts for the means by which oxygen is activated by cytochromes P-450. 

Peroxynitrite reacts with heme proteins such as prostacycline synthase (PGI2), microperoxidase, and the heme thiolate protein P450 to form a ferryl nitrogen dioxide complex as an intermediate [120]. Peroxynitrite also reacts with acetaldehyde with the rate constant of 680 1 mol 1 s" 1 forming a hypothetical adduct, which is decomposed into acetate, formate, and methyl radicals [121]. The oxidation of NADH and NADPH by peroxynitrite most certainly occurs by free radical mechanism [122,123], Kirsch and de Groot [122] concluded that peroxynitrite oxidized NADH by a one-electron transfer mechanism to form NAD and superoxide ... 

Ferri-heme proteins for which krm and koS values have been reported include two forms of nitric oxide synthase eNOS and nNOS as well as several forms of nitrophorin (Table I, Eq. (15)). 

Earlier kinetics studies (20c) of ferro-heme proteins and model compounds have led to the proposal of a mechanism in which an encounter complex, Fen(Por) L, is formed prior to ligand bond formation according to Eq. (16). 

It is quite evident that the ferrous complexes of porphyrins, both natural and synthetic, have extremely high affinities towards NO. A series of iron (II) porphyrin nitrosyls have been synthesized and their structural data [11, 27] revealed non-axial symmetry and the bent form of the Fe-N=0 moiety [112-116]. It has been found that the structure of the Fe-N-O unit in model porphyrin complexes is different from those observed in heme proteins [117]. The heme prosthetic group is chemically very similar, hence the conformational diversity was thought to arise from the steric and electronic interaction of NO with the protein residue. In order to resolve this issue femtosecond infrared polarization spectroscopy was used [118]. The results also provided evidence for the first time that a significant fraction (35%) of NO recombines with the heme-Fe(II) within the first 5 ps after the photolysis, making myoglobin an efficient N O scavenger. 

Given that hydroxylamine reacts rapidly with heme proteins and other oxidants to produce NO [53], the hydrolysis of hydroxyurea to hydroxylamine also provides an alternative mechanism of NO formation from hydroxyurea, potentially compatible with the observed clinical increases in NO metabolites during hydroxyurea therapy. Incubation of hydroxyurea with human blood in the presence of urease results in the formation of HbNO [122]. This reaction also produces metHb and the NO metabolites nitrite and nitrate and time course studies show that the HbNO forms quickly and reaches a peak after 15 min [122]. Consistent with earlier reports, the incubation ofhy-droxyurea (10 mM) and blood in the absence of urease or with heat-denatured urease fails to produce HbNO over 2 h and suggests that HbNO formation occurs through the reactions of hemoglobin and hydroxylamine, formed by the urease-mediated hydrolysis of hydroxyurea [122]. Significantly, these results confirm that the kinetics of HbNO formation from the direct reactions of hydroxyurea with any blood component occur too slowly to account for the observed in vivo increase in HbNO and focus future work on the hydrolytic metabolism of hydroxyurea. 

Heme proteins in their various forms contain mainly the ferrous or ferric porphyrin moieties [6—77] (R some organic side chain of the protein A a small molecule act-ingas a-donor-TT-acceptor ligand, e.g., CO, 02, NO, CH3CN, CH3NC) (7, 20-34). In fact the binding of dioxygen to the pentacoordinate species [6] and [7] — an essential... 

Most of the metal-rich proteins form approximately cylindrical two-layer structures with either an up and down (rubredoxin, cytochrome c) or a Greek key (ferredoxin) topology, but in which the elements forming the cylinder are a mixture of helices, /3 strands, and more or less extended portions of the backbone. Cytochrome c3 is perhaps the ultimate example of an S-M protein, with four hemes in just over a hundred residues, and essentially no secondary structure at all except for one helix. 

In vivo heme is released into the plasma by erythrocyte lysis in the form of hemoglobin and by tissue trauma in the form of myoglobin, and both heme proteins are quickly oxidized to their ferric heme forms (methemoglobin and metmyoglobin) at the oxygen tension found in tissue capillary beds. 

Fig. 1. Overview of intravascular heme catabolism. Hemoglobin, myoglobin, and other heme proteins are released into the circulation upon cellular destruction, and the heme moiety is oxidized by O2 to the ferric form (e.g., methemoglobin and metmyoglobin). Haptoglobin can bind a substantial amount of hemoglobin, but is readily depleted. Ferric heme dissociates from globin and can be bound by albumin or more avidly by hemopexin. Hemopexin removes heme from the circulation by a receptor-mediated transport mechanism, and once inside the ceU heme is transported to heme oxygenase for catabolism.

As in peroxidases, globins, and P450s, HO-1 has a helix over the distal surface of the heme (Figs. 16,18). In other heme proteins side chains from the distal helix provide the primary contacts with the heme as well as side chains that interact with heme ligands. In sharp contrast, the distal helix in HO-1 lies much closer to the heme such that backbone atoms form the primary heme contacts. In addition, there is no neighboring residue that could serve the same fimction as the distal His in the globins and peroxidases for interaction with iron-linked ligands. 

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