Iron-heme complexes, activation

HRP catalysis, an oxidized iron-heme complex is formed in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. It reacts with the substrate in a one-electron transfer process, which leads to the formation of substrate radicals and the recovery of the iron-heme complex [30]. Monomers such as 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) and pyrrole (PYR) coupled to the active site of the enzyme result in the deactivation of the catalyst. 

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. 

Laverman and coworkers have reported activation parameters for the aqueous solution reactions of NO with the iron(II) and iron(III) complexes of the water soluble porphyrins TPPS andTMPS (21). These studies involved systematic measurements to determine on and kQ as functions of temperature (298—318 K) and hydrostatic pressure (0.1—250 MPa) to determine values of AH, AS and AV for the on and off reactions of the ferri-heme models and for the on reactions of the ferro-heme models (Table II). Figure 2 illustrates hydrostatic pressure effects on kOTL and kQff for Fem(TPPS). 

Measurements of the proximal histidine-iron stretching frequency by Resonance Raman spectroscopy revealed that this bond is very weak in relation to other heme protein systems (vFe.His = 204 cm-1) (130). Formation of the sGC-NO complex labilizes this ligand resulting in the formation of a 5-coordinate high spin iron(II) complex, and the conformational change responsible for the several hundred-fold increase in catalytic activity (126,129,130). 

Iron crosses the luminal membrane of the intestinal mucosal cell by two mechanisms active transport of ferrous iron and absorption of iron complexed with heme (Figure 33-1). The divalent metal transporter, DMT1, efficiently transports ferrous iron across the luminal membrane of the intestinal enterocyte. The rate of iron uptake is regulated by mucosal cell iron stores such that more iron is transported when stores are low. Together with iron split from absorbed heme, the newly absorbed iron can be actively transported into the blood across the basolateral membrane by a transporter known... 

The focus of this chapter is the reaction site of oxygenases (hemo-proteins) having heme as the prosthetic group. We discuss the oxygen activation in tryptophan pyrrolase (TPO) and cytochrome P-450 based on our experimental results using iron-porphyrin complexes as the model for the active site of these enzymes. 

For designing the enzyme model, it is important to consider the functional and structural similarity between the model and the active site of enzyme. With this in mind, we chose the iron(II) complexes of octaethylporphyrin and tetraphenylporphyrin, (OEP Fe(II) py2 and TPP Fe(II) py2), respectively, as models of the heme and benzene as the hydrophobic environment surrounding the heme. 

Because MCD signals can be either positive or negative in sign, considerably more fine structure is seen in MCD spectra than in the corresponding electronic absorption spectra. Furthermore, MCD is a property of the molecular electronic structure of a chromophore, and so the only structural changes that will influence the MCD spectrum are those that modify the electronic structure. Furthermore, the MCD spectrum is relatively insensitive to the environment in which the chromophore is located, whether it is the protein microenvironment for a heme protein center or the solvent for a model complex. Thus, comparisons of the MCD spectra of synthetic heme iron model complexes with those of heme protein active sites are possible and have been shown to be of considerable utility in assigning the coordination structures of the heme protein active sites (I). 

N-substituted iron porphyrins form upon treatment of heme enzymes with many xenobiotics. The formation of these modified hemes is directly related to the mechanism of their enzymatic reactivity. N-alkyl porphyrins may be formed from organometallic iron porphyrin complexes, PFe-R (a-alkyl, o-aryl) or PFe = CR2 (carbene). They are also formed via a branching in the reaction path used in the epoxidation of alkenes. Biomimetic N-alkyl porphyrins are competent catalysts for the epoxidation of olefins, and it has been shown that iron N-alkylporphyrins can form highly oxidized species such as an iron(IV) ferryl, (N-R P)Fe v=0, and porphyrin ir-radicals at the iron(III) or iron(IV) level of metal oxidation. The N-alkylation reaction has been used as a low resolution probe of heme protein active site structure. Modified porphyrins may be used as synthetic catalysts and as models for nonheme and noniron metalloenzymes. 

As part of the work on model heme FeNO complexes, mechanistic studies on the reversible binding of nitric oxide to metmyoglobin and water soluble Fe, Co and Fe porphyrin complexes in aqueous solution, ligand-promoted rapid NO or NO2 dissociation from Fe porphyrins, reductive nitrosylation of water-soluble iron porphyrins, activation of nitrite ions to carry out O-atom transfer by Fe porphyrins, demonstration of the role of scission of the proximal histidine-iron bond in the activation of soluble guanylyl cyclase through metalloporphyrin substitution studies, reactions of peroxynitrite with iron porphyrins, and the first observation of photoinduced nitrosyl linkage isomers of FeNO heme complexes have been reported. 

The reaction sequence at the heme active site starts with the binding of unactivated triplet dioxygen forming the so-called oxy-heme complexes. The iron center in 02-activating heme enz5maes is then thought to be converted into a peroxo anion species. It can be protonated to form a ferric hydroperoxo intermediate usually termed compormd 0 (183), which is a crucial reactive species in catalase and peroxidase enz5nne catalysis (Fig. 21). These hydroperoxo intermediates of hemoproteins are important... 

---