Quinones coenzyme

In mitochondria there are two types of mechanisms for coupling the electron transport to the movement of protons across the membrane. The first is based on anisotropic reduction and oxidation of a lipid-soluble quinone inside the membrane. The quinone, coenzyme Q, becomes protonated upon reduction and diffuses to an oxidation site on the other side of the membrane where removal of electrons leads to proton release. This is essentially a proton carrier system with the hydroquinone acting as the proton carrier in the lipid phase of the membrane. A further refinement of this system in mitochondria provides for a coenzyme Q redox cycle where the movement of one electron through the chain allows for two protons to cross the... 

Park, J., and Churchich, J. E., 1992, Pyrroloquinoline quinone coenzyme PQQ, and the xida-tion of SH residues in proteins Biofactors 3 2579260. 

This chapter describes model studies of hydride transfer entirely with respect to nicotinamide coenzymes, flavin coenzymes and quinone coenzymes. Other coenzymes/cofactors may be alluded to but are not reviewed in detail. Some coenzymes involved either in hydride transfer or the transfer of other hydrogen species have been treated elsewhere in these volumes (thiamin diphosphate is treated by Hiibner et al., pyridoxal phosphate by Spies and Toney, folic acid by Benkovic... 

The flow of electrons from reduced coenzyme Q to the other components of the complex does not take a simple, direct path. It is becoming clear that a cyclic flow of electrons involves coenzyme Q twice. This behavior depends on the fact that, as a quinone, coenzyme Q can exist in three forms (Figure 20.9). The semiquinone form, which is intermediate between the oxidized and reduced forms, is of crucial importance here. Because of the crucial involvement of coenzyme Q, this portion of the pathway is called the Q cycle. 

Two and twelve moles of ATP are produced, respectively, per mole of glucose consumed in the glycolytic pathway and each turn of the Krebs (citrate) cycle. In fat metaboHsm, many high energy bonds are produced per mole of fatty ester oxidized. Eor example, 129 high energy phosphate bonds are produced per mole of palmitate. Oxidative phosphorylation has a remarkable 75% efficiency. Three moles of ATP are utilized per transfer of two electrons, compared to the theoretical four. The process occurs via a series of reactions involving flavoproteins, quinones such as coenzyme Q, and cytochromes. 

The decline in immune function may pardy depend on a deficiency of coenzyme Q, a group of closely related quinone compounds (ubiquinones) that participate in the mitochondrial electron transport chain (49). Concentrations of coenzyme Q (specifically coenzyme Q q) appear to decline with age in several organs, most notably the thymus. 

Coenzyme Qo (2,3-Dimethoxy-5-methyl-l,4-benzoquinone, 3,4-dimethoxy-2,5-tolu-quinone, fumigatin methyl ether), colchicine and colchicoside see entries in Chapter 6. 

Coenzyme Qq (2,3-Dimetboxy-5-methyl-l,4-benzoquinone, 3,4-dimetboxy-2,5-tolu-quinone, fumigatin methyl ether) [605-94-7] M 182.2, m 56-58 , 58-60 , 59 . It crystallises in red needles from pet ether (b 40-60 ) and can be sublimed in high vacuum with a bath temperature of 46-48 [Ashley, Anslow and Raistrick J Chem Soc 441 1938 UV in EtOH Vischer J Chem Soc 815 1953 UV in cyclohexane Morton et al. Helv Chim Acta 41 2343 1858 Aghoramurthy et al. Chem Ind (London) 1327 1954]. 

The ready reversibility of this reaction is essential to the role that quinones play in cellular respiration, the process by which an organism uses molecular- oxygen to convert its food to carbon dioxide, water, and energy. Electrons are not transfened directly from the substrate molecule to oxygen but instead are transfened by way of an electron transport chain involving a succession of oxidation-reduction reactions. A key component of this electron transport chain is the substance known as ubiquinone, or coenzyme Q ... 

Coenzyme Q (Section 24.14) Naturally occurring group of related quinones involved in the chemistry of cellular respiration. Also known as ubiquinone. 

The redox properties of quinones are crucial to the functioning of living cells, where compounds called ubiquinones act as biochemical oxidizing agents to mediate the electron-transfer processes involved in energy production. Ubiquinones, also called coenzymes Q, are components of the cells of all aerobic organisms, from the simplest bacterium to humans. They are so named because of their ubiquitous occurrence in nature. 

Since carotenoids are isoprenoids, they share a common early pathway with other biologically important isoprenoids such as sterols, gibberellins, phytol and the terpenoid quinones (Fig. 13.3). In all cases, these compounds are derived from the C5 isoprenoid, isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP). Until a few years ago it was believed that a single pathway from the Cg precursor mevalonic acid (MVA) formed IPP, which itself was synthesised from hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA) by the action of HMG... 

We next focus on the use of fixed-site cofactors and coenzymes. We note that much of this coenzyme chemistry is now linked to very local two-electron chemistry (H, CH3", CH3CO-, -NH2,0 transfer) in enzymes. Additionally, one-electron changes of coenzymes, quinones, flavins and metal ions especially in membranes are used very much in very fast intermediates of twice the one-electron switches over considerable electron transfer distances. At certain points, the chains of catalysis revert to a two-electron reaction (see Figure 5.2), and the whole complex linkage of diffusion and carriers is part of energy transduction (see also proton transfer and Williams in Further Reading). There is a variety of additional coenzymes which are fixed and which we believe came later in evolution, and there are the very important metal ion cofactors which are separately considered below. 

Substitution products of the carbon-bonded hydrogen were obtained. A synthesis of coenzyme Q, was achieved in this way (example 6, Table IV). The site of attack in quinones is highly specific and corresponds to the noncarbonyl ring site of highest spin density of the quinone radical anion (lOg, 127). 

NADH-coenzyme Q (CoQ) oxidoreductase, transfers electrons stepwise from NADH, through a flavoprotein (containing FMN as cofactor) to a series of iron-sulfur clusters (which will be discussed in Chapter 13) and ultimately to CoQ, a lipid-soluble quinone, which transfers its electrons to Complex III. A If, for the couple NADH/CoQ is 0.36 V, corresponding to a AG° of —69.5 kJ/mol and in the process of electron transfer, protons are exported into the intermembrane space (between the mitochondrial inner and outer membranes). 

Most coenzymes have aromatic heterocycles as major constituents. While enzymes possess purely protein structures, coenzymes incorporate non-amino acid moieties, most of them aromatic nitrogen het-erocycles. Coenzymes are essential for the redox biochemical transformations, e.g., nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD, 13) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD, 14) (Scheme 5). Both are hydrogen transporters through their tautomeric forms that allow hydrogen uptake at the termini of the quinon-oid chain. Thiamine pyrophosphate (15) is a coenzyme that assists the decarboxylation of pyruvic acid, a very important biologic reaction (Scheme 6). 

The first of these new, electron transferring components was coenzyme Q (CoQ). Festenstein in R.A. Morton s laboratory in Liverpool had isolated crude preparations from intestinal mucosa in 1955. Purer material was obtained the next year from rat liver by Morton. The material was lipid soluble, widely distributed, and had the properties of a quinone and so was initially called ubiquinone. Its function was unclear. At the same time Crane, Hatefi and Lester in Wisconsin were trying to identify the substances in the electron transport chain acting between NADH and cytochrome b. Using lipid extractants they isolated a new quininoid coenzyme which showed redox changes in respiration. They called it coenzyme Q (CoQ). CoQ was later shown to be identical to ubiquinone. 

The role of ubiquinone (coenzyme Q, 4) in transferring reducing equivalents in the respiratory chain is discussed on p. 140. During reduction, the quinone is converted into the hydroquinone (ubiquinol). The isoprenoid side chain of ubiquinone can have various lengths. It holds the molecule in the membrane, where it is freely mobile. Similar coenzymes are also found in photosynthesis (plastoquinone see p. 132). Vitamins E and K (see p. 52) also belong to the quinone/hydroquinone systems. 

Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) (or methoxatin) 6 is a coenzyme, responsible for the oxidation of methanol [7]. It has been found that cyclopropanol 4 inactivates the enzyme from M. methanica [8], the dimeric methanol dehydrogenase and the monomeric enzyme from a Pseudomonas PQQ-dependent methanol dehydrogenase [9] by forming adducts such as 7, through a one-electron oxidation process and the ready ring opening of a cyclopropyloxonium radical, Eq. (3) [8,9]. 

Primaquine is the least toxic and most effective of the 8-aminoquinoline antimalarial compounds. The mechanism by which 8-aminoquinolines exert their antimalarial effects is thought to be through a quinoline-quinone metabolite that inhibits the coenzyme Q-mediated respiratory chain of the exoerythrocytic parasite. 

The characterization of the semiquinone radical anion species of PQQ in aprotic solvents was undertaken to provide information about the electrochemistry of coenzyme PQQ and to give valuable insight into the redox function of this coenzyme in living systems <1998JA7271>. The trimethyl ester of PQQ and its 1-methylated derivative were examined in aprotic organic solvents by cyclic voltammetry, electron spin resonance (ESR), and thin-layer UV-Vis techniques. The polar solvent CH3CN was found to effectively solvate the radical anion species at the quinone moiety, where the spin is more localized, whereas the spin is delocalized into the whole molecule in the nonpolar solvent CH2CI2. 

The half-wave potential for the electrochemical oxidation of NADH to NAD is ca. -bO.6 V vj. SCE at pH 7. The formal potential for the NADH/NAD couple, however, is only —0.56 V. The overpotential therefore is about 1.2 V. As NAD acts as coenzyme in many enzyme-catalyzed oxidations of practical importance, it would be of interest to regenerate NAD electrochemically. For this purpose it is necessary to find a mediator system which is able to lower the overpotential. Mediator systems accepting two electrons or a hydride atom are most effective. Therefore, dopaquinone electro-generated from dopamine 2" and quinone diimines derived from diaminobenzenes applied successfully. 

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