Site-directed reactions

Quaternary Ammonium Catechols in Acetylcholine Receptor Site-Directed Reactions... 

Additional results were interpreted to indicate that the inactivation was A -3-ketosteroid dependent and was probably active site-directed. Cyclohexeneone which possesses the same chromphore as A -3-keto-steroids but is not a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme, stimulated photoinactivation only to a small extent even when present at more than ten times the concentration of compounds that markedly stimulated photoinactivation. It was noted that the first-order rate constant for photoinactivation increases with increasing affinity of the enzyme for the particular steroid, a pattern to be expected if the photoinactivation is active site-directed. In addition, the rate of photoinactivation promoted by 19-nortesto8terone acetate was decreased approximately 2-fold in the presence of 21 juM 3j8-hydroxy-5-androstene-17j8-carboxylic acid, a competitive inhibitor that does not support photoinactivation of the enzyme. This protective effect further strengthens the conclusion that photoinactivation is a catalytic site-directed reaction. 

The best-known equation of the type mentioned is, of course, Hammett s equation. It correlates, with considerable precision, rate and equilibrium constants for a large number of reactions occurring in the side chains of m- and p-substituted aromatic compounds, but fails badly for electrophilic substitution into the aromatic ring (except at wi-positions) and for certain reactions in side chains in which there is considerable mesomeric interaction between the side chain and the ring during the course of reaction. This failure arises because Hammett s original model reaction (the ionization of substituted benzoic acids) does not take account of the direct resonance interactions between a substituent and the site of reaction. This sort of interaction in the electrophilic substitutions of anisole is depicted in the following resonance structures, which show the transition state to be stabilized by direct resonance with the substituent ... 

The more extensive problem of correlating substituent effects in electrophilic substitution by a two-parameter equation has been examined by Brown and his co-workers. In order to define a new set of substituent constants. Brown chose as a model reaction the solvolysis of substituted dimethylphenylcarbinyl chlorides in 90% aq. acetone. In the case ofp-substituted compounds, the transition state, represented by the following resonance structures, is stabilized by direct resonance interaction between the substituent and the site of reaction. 

The suitability of the model reaction chosen by Brown has been criticised. There are many side-chain reactions in which, during reaction, electron deficiencies arise at the site of reaction. The values of the substituent constants obtainable from these reactions would not agree with the values chosen for cr+. At worst, if the solvolysis of substituted benzyl chlorides in 50% aq. acetone had been chosen as the model reaction, crJ-Me would have been —0-82 instead of the adopted value of —0-28. It is difficult to see how the choice of reaction was defended, save by pointing out that the variation in the values of the substituent constants, derivable from different reactions, were not systematically related to the values of the reaction constants such a relationship would have been expected if the importance of the stabilization of the transition-state by direct resonance increased with increasing values of the reaction constant. 

Because the reaction takes place in the Hquid, the amount of Hquid held in the contacting vessel is important, as are the Hquid physical properties such as viscosity, density, and surface tension. These properties affect gas bubble size and therefore phase boundary area and diffusion properties for rate considerations. Chemically, the oxidation rate is also dependent on the concentration of the anthrahydroquinone, the actual oxygen concentration in the Hquid, and the system temperature (64). The oxidation reaction is also exothermic, releasing the remaining 45% of the heat of formation from the elements. Temperature can be controUed by the various options described under hydrogenation. Added heat release can result from decomposition of hydrogen peroxide or direct reaction of H2O2 and hydroquinone (HQ) at a catalytic site (eq. 19). 

Fig. 6. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) mediated site-directed mutagenesis. The 5 and 3 ends of the nucleotide strands are indicated. The four arrows surrounding the DNA template represent oligonucleotide primers 1—4. See text for discussion.

As noted above, the steroid nucleus has been a favorite for the design for site directed alkylating antitumor drugs. Thus reaction of prednisolone (62) with anhydride 63 affords the 21 acylated derivative, prednimustine (64). ... 

The nonstructural region of the precursor, harboring the viral replication machinery, is cut into its mature components in a maturation reaction in which two viral proteases (NS2-pro and NS3/4A-pro) cooperate. Site-directed mutagenesis of an other wise infectious cDNA has shown that both HCV-encoded proteases are necessary for viral infectivity, but most of the attention has so far been focused on one of them a member of the serine protease family (EC 3.4.21) located in the N-terminal region of the viral NS3 protein. 

Information relevant to the mechanism of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction can, in general, only be obtained from irreversible inhibitors which react specifically at the active site and thereby inactivate the enzyme. As active-site-directed inhibition is treated in detail in Ref. 142 general aspects will be discussed here only briefly. In order to be suitable as an active-site-directed inhibitor, a compound must fulfil the following requirements. 

The principle of active-site-directed inactivation of glycosidases by gly-con-related epoxides can be extended to compounds having an exocyclic oxirane ring, either directly attached to the six-membered ring (32) or at some distance (33,34). Studies with -o-glucosidase from sweet almonds and intestinal sucrase-isomaltase revealed that, in spite of the higher intrinsic reactivity of these epoxides, this shift of the position of the epoxide function causes a 10- to 30-fold decrease of kj(max)/Ki, an effect which probably reflects the limited flexibility of the catalytic groups involved in the epoxide reaction. 

---