Porphyrin heme proteins

The current example illustrates PVDOS formulation as an effective basis for comparison of experimental and theoretical NIS data for ferrous nitrosyl tetraphe-nylporph3Tin Fe(TPP)(NO), which was done [101] along with other ferrous nitrosyl porphyrins. Such compounds are designed to model heme protein active sites. In particular, the elucidation of the vibrational dynamics of the Fe atom provides a unique opportunity to specifically probe the contribution of Fe to the reaction dynamics. The geometrical structure of Fe(TPP)(NO) is shown in Fig. 5.16. 

Heme complexes and heme proteins have also been the subject of NIS studies. Of specific interest have been three features the in-plane vibrations of iron, which have not been reported by Resonance Raman studies [108], the iron-imidazole stretch, which has not been identified in six-coordinated porphyrins before, and the heme-doming mode, which was assumed to be a soft mode. 

The importance of metals has been long known but it is only in the past three decades that some of their specific roles have begun to be elucidated. It is perhaps not surprising that iron, the most naturally abundant of all metals, should play many important roles in nature. We shall present here one small aspect of this rapidly expanding area of inorganic chemistry, namely that of the functioning of iron when coordinated to porphyrins CL, 2, 3). Figure 2 shows the major heme proteins... 

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. 

Simonneaux G, Le Maux P (2006) Carbene Complexes of Heme Proteins and Iron Porphyrin Models. 17 83-122... 

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... 

The intramolecular electron transfer kg, subsequent to the rapid reduction, must occur because the Ru(III)-Fe(II) pairing is the stable one. It is easily monitored using absorbance changes which occur with reduction at the Fe(III) heme center. Both laser-produced Ru(bpy)3 and radicals such as CO (from pulse radiolysis (Prob. 15)) are very effective one-electron reductants for this task (Sec. 3.5).In another approach," the Fe in a heme protein is replaced by Zn. The resultant Zn porphyrin (ZnP) can be electronically excited to a triplet state, ZnP which is relatively long-lived (x = 15 ms) and is a good reducing agent E° = —0.62 V). Its decay via the usual pathways (compare (1.32)) is accelerated by electron transfer to another metal (natural or artificial) site in the protein e. g.. 

The study of the dynamics of spin-state changes is important for the understanding of the kinetics of bimolecular electron transfer reactions ° and racemization and isomerization processes (Sec. 7.5.1). Low spin — high spin equilibria, often attended by changes in coordination numbers, are observed in some porphyrins and heme proteins, although their biological significance is, as yet, uncertain. 

Heme Complex Subunit/Heme-Protein Connection Complex Subunit/Fe Ligands (in Addition to Porphyrin N Atoms) Bond Distance (A)... 

While these complex model heme proteins have a large potential for functionalization, an interesting approach that is very different has been taken by other workers in that the heme itself functions as the template in the formation of folded peptides. In these models peptide-peptide interactions are minimized and the driving force for folding appears to be the interactions between porphyrin and the hydrophobic faces of the amphiphiUc peptides. The amino acid sequences are too small to permit peptide-peptide contacts as they are separated by the tetrapyrrole residue. These peptide heme conjugates show well-re-solved NMR spectra and thus well-defined folds and the relationship between structure and function can probably be determined in great detail when functions have been demonstrated [22,23,77]. They are therefore important model systems that complement the more complex proteins described above. 

The Fe(II)-NO complexes of porphyrins 66-68) and heme proteins 24, 49, 53, 69-76) have been studied in detail by EPR spectroscopy, which allows facile differentiation between five-coordinate heme—NO and six-coordinate heme—NO(L) centers. However, only a few reports of the Mossbauer spectra of such complexes have been published 68, 77-82), and the only Fe(III)-NO species that have been studied by Mossbauer spectroscopy include the isoelectronic nitroprusside ion, [FeCCNlsCNO)] (7S), the five-coordinate complexes [TPPFe(NO)]+ 68) and [OEPFe(NO)]+ 82), and two reports of the nitro, nitrosyl complexes of iron(III) tetraphenylporphjrrins, where the ligand L is NO2 82, 83). 

Cytochromes serve as electron donors and electron acceptors in biological electron transfer chains, and with >75,000 members (53) they provide the bulk of natural heme proteins in biology. Cytochromes may be fixed into place within an extended electron transfer chain, such as the membrane-bound 6l and 6h of the cytochrome bci complex, or may be soluble and act as mobile electron carriers between proteins, for example, cytochrome c (54). In either role, the cytochrome may be classified by the peripheral architecture of the porphyrin macrocycle. Figure 1 shows the dominant heme types in biological systems, which are hemes a, b, c, and d, with cytochomes b and c being most prevalent. The self-association of a protein with heme via two axial ligands is a... 

The use of disulfide linked di-a-helical peptides for the self-assembly of a heme-peptide model compounds has also been explored by Benson et al. (109). Conceptually analogous to the larger heme-protein systems utilized by Dutton and co-workers, to be detailed later, the incorporation of C4 S5mimetric Co(III)-porphyrins, based on coproporphyrin and octaethylporphyrin, resulted in helical induction comparable to that observed in the covalent PSM systems. 

These minimalistic peptide scaffolds potentially provide a biologically relevant laboratory in which to explore the details of heme-peptide interactions and, with development, perhaps approach the observed range of natural heme protein fimction. These heme-peptide systems are more complex than typical small molecule bioinorganic porphyrin model compoimds, and yet are seemingly not as enigmatic as even the smallest natural heme proteins. Thus, in the continuum of heme protein model complexes these heme-peptide systems lie closer to, but certainly not at, the small molecule limit which allows for the effects of single amino acid changes to be directly elucidated. 

Local charge compensation of the formally charged Fe(III) heme, as discussed more fully in a later section, demonstrates a significant modulation (s 210 mV) of the heme reduction potential in a designed heme protein. This scaffold-dependent effect has been shown to be additive to the heme-dependent effect of porphyrin peripheral architecture to demonstrate the modulation of a designed heme protein reduction potential by 450 mV using a single maquette scaffold. 

The energetics of peptide-porphyrin interactions and peptide ligand-metal binding have also been observed in another self-assembly system constructed by Huffman et al. (125). Using monomeric helices binding to iron(III) coproporphyrin I, a fourfold symmetric tetracarboxylate porphyrin, these authors demonstrate a correlation between the hydropho-bicity of the peptide and the affinity for heme as well as the reduction potential of the encapsulated ferric ion, as shown in Fig. 12. These data clearly demonstrate that heme macrocycle-peptide hydrophobic interactions are important for both the stability of ferric heme proteins and the resultant electrochemistry. 

Axial Coordination in Nickel Porphyrins and Nickel-Reconstituted Heme Proteins Investigated by Raman-Difference and Transient-Raman Spectroscopy... 

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