Peptides direct carbonyl-0 activation

Carboxypeptidase A"" (CPA, EC 3.4.17.1) is a proteolytic enzyme that cleaves C-terminal amino acid residues with hydrophobic side chains selectively. Several X-ray structures are available" The active site of CPA consists of a hydrophobic pocket (primary substrate recognition site) that is primarily responsible for the substrate specificity, a guanidinium moiety of Argl45 that forms hydrogen bonds to the carboxylate of the substrate, and Glu270, whose carboxylate plays a critical role, functioning either as a nucleophile to attack the scissUe carboxamide carbonyl carbon of the substrate or as a base to activate the zinc-bound water molecule, which in turn attacks the scissile peptide bond ". However, semiempirical calculations had shown that the direct attack of... 

The Gabriel-Cromwell reaction of amines with chiral c/., 3-unsaturated a-bromo carbonyl compounds was exploited for the synthesis of aziridine-2-carboxylic acid derivatives. 79 This procedure was optimized for a solid support synthesis in which the peptide resin was acylated with 2,3-dibromopropanoic acid active ester in the presence of 3 equivalents of NMM to produce directly on resin the a-bromoacrylamide for the addition of amines to produce the aziridine ring. 80 ... 

A variety of N-O-chelated glycine amide and peptide complexes of the type [CoN4(GlyNR R2)]3+ have been prepared and their rates of base hydrolysis studied.169 The kinetics are consistent with Scheme 8. Attack of solvent hydroxide occurs at the carbonyl carbon of the chelated amide or peptide. Amide deprotonation gives an unreactive complex. Rate constants kOH are summarized in Table 16. Direct activation of the carbonyl group by cobalt(III) leads to rate accelerations of ca. 104-106-fold. More recent investigations160-161 have dealt with... 

At acidic to neutral pH, the hydrolysis of a peptide is faster via the attack of a coordinated water or hydroxide relative to that of the directly activated peptide. However, as the pH is raised to 9.0 and above, the hydrolysis of the directly activated peptide becomes the favored route. Also, if the metal binds strongly to the carbonyl oxygen, then the hydrolysis will follow the directly activated mechanism, not the intramolecular mechanism. 

Other proteases employ the same catalytic strategy. Some of these proteases, such as trypsin and elastase, are homologs of chymotrypsin. In other proteases, such as subtilisin, a very similar catalytic triad has arisen by convergent evolution. Active-site structures that differ from the catalytic triad are present in a number of other classes of proteases. These classes employ a range of catalytic strategies but, in each case, a nucleophile is generated that is sufficiently powerful to attack the peptide carbonyl group. In some enzymes, the nucleophile is derived from a side chain whereas, in others, an activated water molecule attacks the peptide carbonyl directly. 

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