Reactions involving flavin coenzymes

How the stereospecificity arises (a) Reactions involving flavin coenzymes (i) Glutathione reductase (EC 1.6.4.2)... 

Figure 14.8 Oxidation and reduction reactions involving flavin coenzymes. 

Since the initial observation of flavin radical species by Michaelis and coworkers the involvement of flavins in one-electron oxidation-reduction processes in biological systems has occupied the attention of workers in the field of redox enzymology up to the present time. Flavin coenzymes occupy a unique role in biological oxidations in that they are capable of functioning in either one-electron or two-electron transfer reactions. Due to this amphibolic reactivity, they have been termed in a recent review to be at the crossroads of biological redox processes. 

All the internal monooxygenases that have so far been purified and characterized contain flavin coenzymes. The external hydrogen donors include reduced NAD, reduced NADP, ascorbic acid and sulfhydryl compounds. Cofactors required for the external monooxygenases are flavin, pteridine, copper, nonheme iron and heme as cytochrome P-450. In some monooxygenase reactions, enzymes and/or electron carrier systems other than monooxygenase itself are involved in the transfer of an electron or hydrogen from the external hydrogen donor to the cofactor involved. 

Like the nicotinamide coenzymes (Fig. 13-15), the flavin nucleotides undergo a shift in a major absorption band on reduction. Flavoproteins that are fully reduced (two electrons accepted) generally have an absorption maximum near 360 nm. When partially reduced (one electron), they acquire another absorption maximum at about 450 nm when fully oxidized, the flavin has maxima at 370 and 440 nm. The intermediate radical form, reduced by one electron, has absorption maxima at 380, 480, 580, and 625 nm. These changes can be used to assay reactions involving a flavoprotein. 

Three facts account for the need of cells for both the flavin and pyridine nucleotide coenzymes (1) Flavins are usually stronger oxidizing agents than is NAD+. This property fits them for a role in the electron transport chains of mitochondria where a sequence of increasingly more powerful oxidants is needed and makes them ideal oxidants in a variety of other dehydrogenations. (2) Flavins can be reduced either by one- or two-electron processes. This enables them to participate in oxidation reactions involving free radicals and in reactions with metal ions. (3) Reduced flavins... 

PQQ and the other quinone prosthetic groups described here all function in reactions that would be possible for pyridine nucleotide or flavin coenzymes. All of them, like the flavins, can exist in oxidized, half-reduced semiquinone and fully reduced dihydro forms. The questions to be asked are the same as we asked for flavins. How do the substrates react How is the reduced cofactor reoxidized In nonenzymatic reactions alcohols, amines, and enolate anions all add at C-5 of PQQ to give adducts such as that shown for methanol in Eq. 15-51, step a 444,449,449a Although many additional reactions are possible, this addition is a reasonable first step in the mechanism shown in Eq. 15-51. An enzymatic base could remove a proton as is indicated in step b to give PQQH2. The pathway for reoxidation (step c) might involve a cytochrome b, cytochrome c, or bound ubiquinone.445 446... 

The catalytic effect of metal ions such as Mg2+ and Zn2+ on the reduction of carbonyl compounds has extensively been studied in connection with the involvement of metal ions in the oxidation-reduction reactions of nicotinamide coenzymes [144-149]. Acceleration effects of Mg2+ on hydride transfer from NADH model compounds to carbonyl compounds have been shown to be ascribed to the catalysis on the initial electron transfer process, which is the rate-determining step of the overall hydride transfer reactions [16,87,149]. The Mg2+ ion has also been shown to accelerate electron transfer from cis-dialkylcobalt(III) complexes to p-ben-zoquinone derivatives [150,151]. In this context, a remarkable catalytic effect of Mg2+ was also found on photoinduced electron transfer reactions from various electron donors to flavin analogs in 1984 [152], The Mg2+ (or Zn2+) ion forms complexes with a flavin analog la and 5-deazaflavins 2a-c with a 1 1 stoichiometry in dry MeCN at 298 K [153] ... 

Pyridoxal-5 -Phosphate Is Required for a Variety of Reactions with a-Amino Acids Nicotinamide Coenzymes Are Used in Reactions Involving Hydride Transfers Flavins Arq Used in Reactions Involving One or Two Electron Transfers... 

Oxidation states of flavin coenzymes. The flavin coenzymes exist in three spectrally distinguishable oxidation states that account in part for their catalytic functions. They are the yellow oxidized form, the red or blue one-electron reduced form, and the colorless two-electron reduced form. Groups in red are those which are centrally involved in oxidation-reduction reactions. 

The other classes of flavoproteins in table 10.2 interact with molecular oxygen either as the electron-acceptor substrates in redox reactions catalyzed by oxidases or as the substrate sources of oxygen atoms for oxygenases. Molecular oxygen also serves as an electron acceptor and source of oxygen for metalloflavoproteins and dioxygenases, which are not listed in the table. These enzymes catalyze more complex reactions, involving catalytic redox components, such as metal ions and metal-sulfur clusters in addition to flavin coenzymes. 

Flavin coenzymes act as cocatalysts with enzymes in a large number of redox reactions, many of which involve 02. 

An important aspect of enzymatic oxidation-reduction reactions involves the transfer of hydrogen atoms. This transfer is mediated by coenzymes (substances that act together with enzymes) nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP). These two species pick up H atoms to produce NADH and NADPH, respectively, both of which can function as hydrogen atom donors. Another pair of species involved in oxidation-reduction processes by hydrogen atom transfer consists of flavin adenine triphosphate (FAD) and its hydrogenated form FADH2. The structural formulas of NAD and its cationic form, NAD+, are shown in Figure 4.7. 

Several coenzymes are involved in the biosynthesis of their own precursors. Thus, thiamine is the cofactor of the enzyme that converts 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate (43) (the precursor of thiamine pyrophosphate, pyridoxal 5 -phosphate and of iso-prenoids via the nomnevalonate pathway) into 2 C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (90, Fig. 11). Similarly, two enzymes required for the biosynthesis of GTP, which is the precursor of tetrahydrofolate, require tetrahydrofolate derivatives as cofactors (Fig. 3). When a given coenzyme is involved in its own biosynthesis, we are faced with a hen and egg problem, namely how the biosynthesis could have evolved in the absence of the cmcially required final product. The answers to that question must remain speculative. The final product may have been formed via an alternative biosynthetic pathway that has been abandoned in later phases of evolution or that may persist in certain organisms but remains to be discovered. Alternatively, the coenzyme under study may have been accessible by a prebiotic sequence of spontaneous reactions. An interesting example in this respect is the biosynthesis of flavin coenzymes, in which several reaction steps can proceed without enzyme catalysis despite their mechanistic complexity. 

Catalysts played an important role in the emergence of life on Earth nearly 4 billion years ago. Catalysis by mineral surfaces and small molecules enabled the emergence of a proto-metabolic network that, in turn, enabled the emergence of the RNA world. The first macromolecular catalysts may have been ribozymes, an idea first proposed by Carl Woese that gained credence with the discovery of catalytic RNAs by Cech and Altman. Subsequently, ribozymes generated by in vitro evolution methods have been shown to catalyze a wide range of reactions involved in metabolism, including amino acid activation formation of coenzyme A (CoA), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)... 

Oxidases - Oxidases are enzymes that catalyze the oxidation of a substrate without incorporating oxygen into the product. A two-electron oxidation is usually involved, so the oxygen is converted to H202. Most oxidases utilize either a metal or a flavin coenzyme. D-amino acid oxidases catalyze the following reaction ... 

FIGURE 15.4 The structures of riboflavin, flavin mononucleotide (FMN), and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). Even in organisms that rely on the nicotinamide coenzymes (NADH and NADPH) for many of their oxidation-reduction cycles, the flavin coenzymes fill essential roles. Flavins are stronger oxidizing agents than NAD and NADP. They can be reduced by both one-electron and two-electron pathways and can be reoxidized easily by molecular oxygen. Enzymes that use flavins to carry out their reactions—flavoenzymes—are involved in many kinds of oxidation-reduction reactions. 

Instead, biochemical redox reactions involving the oxidation of alkane to alkene require the participation of a coenzyme such as flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) or flavin mononucleotide (FMN). The reduced forms FADH2 and FMNHj act as hydride donors in the alkene hydrogenation reactions (Figure 1.41). 

In all these reactions, the flavin nucleotide combines with a protein to form a flavoprotein. In the reactions involved in electron transport, the flavoprotein acts as a hydrogen carrier and plays an important role in the transfer of electrons from pyridine nucleotides to cytochromes. Among the flavoproteins of interest in the electron transport chain are (1) coenzyme 1-diaphorase, (2) the Warburg flavoprotein, (3) NADH cytochrome c reductase, (4) NADPH cytochrome c reductase, (5) NADH cytochrome reductase, (6) NADH 2-methyl-l,4maphthoquinone reductase, and (7) succinic cytochrome c reductase. The most important among these are succinic cytochrome c reductase and NADH cytochrome c reductase. The following discussion of these two flavoproteins may serve as an example for the others. 

Riboflavin is an important constituent of the flavoproteins.The prosthetic group of these compound proteins contains riboflavin in the form of the phosphate (flavin mononucleotide, FMN) or in a more complex form as flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). There are several flavoproteins that function in the animal body they are all concerned with chemical reactions involving the transport of hydrogen. Further details of the importance of flavoproteins in carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism are discussed in Chapter 9. Flavin adenine dinucleotide plays a role in the oxidative phosphorylation system (see Fig. 9.2 on p. 196) and forms the prosthetic group of the enzyme succinic dehydrogenase, which converts succinic acid to fumaric acid in the citric acid cycle. It is also the coenzyme for acyl-CoA dehydrogenase. 

Riboflavin and other flavinoids are found in dairy produce and meat and to a lesser extent in cereals. The RDA is 1.6-2.0 mg. Flavins are stable to heat and acid but destroyed by exposure to light. UV irradiation of riboflavin in acid or neutral solution gives rise to the fluorescent compound lumichrome, whereas in alkaline solutions irradiation produces lumiflavin. Flavins are required in the body as their coenzymes flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide, which are involved in redox reactions involving one- and two-electron transfers and linked to many energy-dependent processes in the body. 

Oxygen radicals may be generated by normal oxidative metabolism, and especially reactions involving the reoxidation of reduced flavin coenzymes (sections 3.3.1.2 and 11.7.2.1). During the reoxidation of flavins a number of radicals are generated as... 

Lanosterol biosynthesis begins with the selective epoxidation of squalene to give (35)-2,3-oxidosqualene, catalyzed by squalene epoxidase. Molecular O2 provides the source of the epoxide oxygen atom, and NADPH is required, along with a flavin coenzyme. The proposed mechanism involves reaction of FADH2 with O2 to produce a flavin hydroperoxide intermediate (ROOH), which transfers an oxygen to squalene in a pathway initiated by nucleophilic... 

Owing to the wide range of reactions in which flavin coenzymes are involved, a unitary mechanism of action appears unlikely. It seems clear that in enzymes where the fully reduced form is reacting with a one-electron acceptor (such as NADH-cytochrome b-reductase, NADPH-cytochrome c-reductase, and ferridoxin NADP reductase), the mechanism involves flavin semiquinones as intermediates. These are free-radical intermediates and can be detected by electron spin resonance (ESR). Flavin semiquinones can be stabilized because of multiple resonance forms, the odd electron being shared throughout the entire isoalloxazine ring. The free-radical intermediate may be further oxidized or reduced, one electron at a time. A number of enzjmies requir-... 

Flavins — Riboflavin is first of all essential as a vitamin for humans and animals. FAD and FMN are coenzymes for more than 150 enzymes. Most of them catalyze redox processes involving transfers of one or two electrons. In addition to these well known and documented functions, FAD is a co-factor of photolyases, enzymes that repair UV-induced lesions of DNA, acting as photoreactivating enzymes that use the blue light as an energy source to initiate the reaction. The active form of FAD in photolyases is their two-electron reduced form, and it is essential for binding to DNA and for catalysis. Photolyases contain a second co-factor, either 8-hydroxy-7,8-didemethyl-5-deazariboflavin or methenyltetrahydrofolate. ... 

The conversion (19) of thiols to disulphides coupled with reduction of flavin (vitamin B2 family) is a topic of import in connection with coenzyme reactivity in flavoenzymes. Since flavin oxidation of thiols involves nucleophilic attack of thiolate ion in the rate-determining step (Loechler and Hollocher, 1975 Yokoe and Bruice, 1975), this biologically important reaction would be markedly affected by hydrophobic environments. 

Riboflavin (vitamin B2) is a component of flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), coenzymes that play a major role in oxidation-reduction reactions (see Section 15.1.1). Many key enzymes involved in metabolic pathways are actually covalently bound to riboflavin, and are thus termed flavoproteins. 

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