Pyridoxal-dependent transamination

One of the earliest published attempts to create antibodies with catalytic activity had as its goal the generation of a transaminase. Raso and Stollar prepared V-(5-phosphopyridoxyl)-3 -amino-L-tyrosine 154 as a mimic of the Schiff s base intermediate that is formed during the pyridoxal-dependent transamination of tyrosine and showed that it was a site-directed inhibitor of the enzymes tyrosine transaminase and tyrosine decarboxylase.132 Partially purified polyclonal antibodies, elicited against y-globulin conjugates of the hapten, recognized both the... 

Inhibition of enzymatic breakdown of GABA GABA transaminase catalyzes pyridoxal-dependent transamination of GABA to succinic semialdehyde. The enzyme can be inhibited by a variety of compounds [e.g., y-vinyl GABA (Vigabatrin)]. 

Mechanistically, transamination by the free coenzyme proceeds through a number of discrete steps as illustrated in Fig. 3. The first step of the process, aldi-mine formation (Fig. 3, Step I), is common to all pyridoxal-dependent reactions. The rate and extent of this reaction are influenced by factors including reactant concentrations, the nature of the amino acid, pH, and solvent. However, it is important to realize that the coenzyme itself facilitates Schiff base formation in... 

Fig. 2. Catalytic cycle of pyridoxal/pyridoxamine-dependent transamination...

Decarboxylation of an amino acid is an important reaction, catalyzed by a pyridoxal-dependent decarboxylase, that affords an amine as product (Scheme 2.6). It is very attractive to learn how to mimic this process to generate various amines from a-amino acids. Unfortunately, our previous studies established that treatment of a-alkyl amino acids with pyridoxal afforded only ketone and pyridoxamine as products, by a transamination-dependent oxidative decarboxylation process (pathway b in Scheme 2.5) [41]. Consequently, non-oxidative decarboxylation, using pyridoxals to generate amines, remains elusive. 

Pyridoxal or its phosphate is known to catalyze as imine forms 57 a number of enzymatic transformations of a-amino acids (e.g., transamination). It is suggested that 1,3-dipolar species 58, tautomers of imines 57 (or their metal chelates), are involved in some pyridoxal-dependent enzymatic reactions (78TL2823). Thus, pyridoxal imines 57 react as N-unsubstituted azomethine ylide 1,3-dipoles 58 with iV-phenylmaleimide in boiling toluene or xylene to give the cycloadducts 59. 

In vitro studies have been conducted to determine the effect of estrogens on kynurenine aminotransferase, which catalyzes the B(,-dependent transamination of kynurenine to ky-nurenic acid. Some estrogen conjugates (e.g.. c.stradiol disulfate and diethylstilbestrol sulfate) interfere with this transamination, apparently hy reversible inhibition of the aminotransfera.se apoenzyme. Apparently, the estrogen sulfate competes with pyridoxal S-phosphate for interaction with the apoenzyme. In conuast. free estradiol and estrone do not pos.sess this inhibitory property. 

Indolmydn.—Previous evidence on the biosynthesis of indolmycin (88) in Strepto-myces griseus cultures accords with the pathway shown in Scheme 4. The first two steps in the pathway have been carried out using cell-free extracts of 5. griseus - and recent work has led to the isolation of two enzymes which can effect these transformations. The first, tryptophan transaminase, catalysed the pyridoxal phosphate-dependent transamination of L-tryptophan, but not D-trptophan, and in common with some other microbial transaminases, a-ketoglutarate was an efficient amino-group acceptor. L-Phenylalanine, tyrosine, and 3-methyltryptophan (this compound inhibited enzyme function) also underwent transamination. 

Aspartate 4-semialdehyde, seen, for example, in Scheme 12.13, which provided a pathway for the biosynthesis of the essential amino acid methionine (Met, M) and in Scheme 12.14, which holds a representation of the biosynthesis of threonine (Thr, T), is also a place to begin to describe a pathway to lysine (Lys, K). As shown in Scheme 12.19, aspartate 4-semialdehyde undergoes an aldol-type reaction with pyruvate (CHsCOCO ") in the presence of dihydropicoUnate synthase (EC 4.2.1.52) to produce a series of intermediates that, it is presumed, lead to (5)-23-dihydropyridine-2,6-dicarboxylate. Then, dihydrodipicolinate reductase (EC 1.3.1.26) working with NADPH produces the tetrahydropyridine, (S)-2,3,4,5-tetrahydropyridine-2,6-dicarboxylate.This heterocycle, in the presence of glutamate (Glu, E) and water, is capable of transamination directly to 2-oxoglutarate and (2S, 6S)-2,3-diaminopimelate in the presence of LL-diaminopimelate aminotransferase (EC 2.6.1.83), while the latter, in the presence of the pyridoxal dependent racemase... 

The terminology vitamin Bg covers a number of structurally related compounds, including pyridoxal and pyridoxamine and their 5 -phosphates. Pyridoxal 5 -phosphate (PLP), in particular, acts as a coenzyme for a large number of important enzymic reactions, especially those involved in amino acid metabolism. We shall meet some of these in more detail later, e.g. transamination (see Section 15.6) and amino acid decarboxylation (see Section 15.7), but it is worth noting at this point that the biological role of PLP is absolutely dependent upon imine formation and hydrolysis. Vitamin Bg deficiency may lead to anaemia, weakness, eye, mouth, and nose lesions, and neurological changes. 

This pyridoxal 5-phosphate-dependent enzyme [EC 2.6.1.4] catalyzes the transamination of glyoxylate from L-glutamate to produce glycine and a-ketoglutarate. 

Pyridoxal or PLP, in the complete absence of enzymes, not only undergoes slow transamination with amino acids but also catalyzes many other reactions of amino acids that are identical to those catalyzed by PLP-dependent enzymes. Thus, the coenzyme itself can be regarded as the active site of the enzymes and can be studied in nonenzymatic reactions. The latter can be thought of as models for corresponding enzymatic reactions. From such studies Snell and associates drew the following conclusions.148... 

E. coli (107, 125). The complexes have recently been reviewed (126). It is possible that lipoamide dehydrogenase also functions in the complexes that oxidatively decarboxylate the a-keto acids resulting from the transamination of valine, isoleucine, and leucine but these have proved difficult to resolve (127). Lipoamide dehydrogenase also functions in the pyridoxal phosphate and tetrahydrofolate-dependent oxidative decarboxylation of glycine in the anaerobic bacterium Peptococcus glyci-nophilus. The reaction in which the protein-bound lipoic acid is reduced is very complex and not yet fully understood the ultimate electron acceptor is NAD+ (112,113,128). 

The ring nitrogen of pyridoxal phosphate exerts a strong electron withdrawing effect on the aldimine, and this leads to weakening of all three bonds about the a-carbon of the substrate. In nonenzymic reactions, all the possible pyridoxal-catalyzed reactions are observed - a-decarboxylation, aminotrans-fer, racemization and side-chain elimination, and replacement reactions. By contrast, enzymes show specificity for the reaction pathway followed which bond is cleaved will depend on the orientation of the Schiff base relative to reactive groups of the catalytic site. As discussed in Section 9.3.1.5, reaction specificity is not complete, and a number of decarboxylases also undergo transamination. 

Transamination Reactions of Other Pyridoxal Phosphate Enzymes Inaddition to theirmainreactions, anumberofpyridoxalphosphate-dependent enzymes also catalyze the half-reaction of transamination. Such enzymes include serine hydroxymethyltransferase (Section 10.3.1.1), several decarboxylases, and kynureninase (Section 8.3.3.2). 

The experiments described earlier showed that in liver homogenates and extracts this reaction is brought about by transamination, which is an obligatory first step in the oxidation of tyrosine by such systems. The existence of su( h a transaminating system was already known (133, 134, 393), and the observed pyridoxal phosphate-dependence when transamination was was made rate-controlling (489) was in accordance with the known behavior of transaminases (c/. 482). 

These reactions are carried out by pyridoxal phosphate-dependent transami nases. Transamination reactions are required for the synthesis of most amino acids. 

The first step in the catabolism of most amino acids is the transfer of the o-amino group from the amino acid to a-ketoglutarate (tx-KG). This process is catalyzed by transaminase (aminotransferase) enzymes that require pyridoxal phosphate as a cofactor. The products of this reaction are glutamate (Glu) and the a-ketoacid analog of the amino acid destined for catabolic breakdown. For example, aspartate is converted to its a-keto analog, oxalo-acetate, by the action of aspartate transaminase (AST), which also produces Glu from a-KG. The transamination process is freely reversible, and the direction in which the reaction proceeds is dependent on the concentrations of the reactants and products. These reactions do not effect a net removal of amino nitrogen the amino group is only transferred from one amino acid to another. 

The same scaffold was used to design catalysts for pyridoxal phosphate-dependent deamination of aspartic acid to form oxaloacetate, one half of the transamination reaction [8], and oxaloacetate decarboxylation [14]. Catalysis was due to binding of pyridoxal phosphate in close proximity to His residues capable of rate limiting 1,3 proton transfer. A two-residue catalytic site containing one Arg and one Lys residue was found to be the most efficient decarboxylation agent, more efficient per residue than the Benner catalyst, most likely due to a combination of efficient imine formation, pK depression and transition state stabilization. 

The general arguments about the antiquity of cofactors apply to PLP. The nonenzymatic synthesis of pyridoxal under prebiotic conditions is considered possible, whereas the presence of a 5 phosphate group could hint to an ancestral attachment of the cofactor to RNA molecules. " Furthermore, there are specific grounds to assume that PLP arrived on the evolutionary scene before the emergence of proteins. In fact, in current metabolism, PLP-dependent enzymes play a central role in the synthesis and interconversion of amino acids, and thus they are closely related to protein biosynthesis. In an early phase of biotic evolution, free PLP could have played many of the roles now fulfilled by PLP-dependent enzymes, since the cofactor by itself can catalyze (albeit at a low rate) reactions such as amino acid transaminations, racemizations, decarboxylations, and eliminations. " This suggests that the appearance of PLP may have preceded (and somehow eased) the transition from primitive RNA-based life forms to more modern organisms dependent on proteins. 

In pathway A (Figure 1), observed in Pseudomonas MA-1, pyridoxal (2) is produced either from pyridoxamine (15) by a transamination reaction with pyruvate catalyzed by pyridoxamine pyruvate transaminase,or from pyridoxine (1) by an oxidation reaction catalyzed by the FAD-dependent... 

The pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes catalyze a diverse set of chemical transformations of amino acids. These include transamination, decarboxylation, and racemization reactions [Eqs. (41-43)],... 

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