Structure zinc enzymes

Uncovering of the three dimentional structure of catalytic groups at the active site of an enzyme allows to theorize the catalytic mechanism, and the theory accelerates the designing of model systems. Examples of such enzymes are zinc ion containing carboxypeptidase A 1-5) and carbonic anhydrase6-11. There are many other zinc enzymes with a variety of catalytic functions. For example, alcohol dehydrogenase is also a zinc enzyme and the subject of intensive model studies. However, the topics of this review will be confined to the model studies of the former hydrolytic metallo-enzymes. 

Vallee, B. L. and Auld, D. S., Zinc coordination, function, and structure of zinc enzymes and other proteins, Biochemistry, 29, 5647, 1990. 

As an illustration, we briefly discuss the SCC-DFTB/MM simulations of carbonic anhydrase II (CAII), which is a zinc-enzyme that catalyzes the interconversion of CO2 and HCO [86], The rate-limiting step of the catalytic cycle is a proton transfer between a zinc-bound water/hydroxide and the neutral/protonated His64 residue close to the protein/solvent interface. Since this proton transfer spans at least 8-10 A depending on the orientation of the His 64 sidechain ( in vs. out , both observed in the X-ray study [87]), the transfer is believed to be mediated by the water molecules in the active site (see Figure 7-1). To carry out meaningful simulations for the proton transfer in CAII, therefore, it is crucial to be able to describe the water structure in the active site and the sidechain flexibility of His 64 in a satisfactory manner. 

The introduction of redox activity through a Co11 center in place of redox-inactive Zn11 can be revealing. Carboxypeptidase B (another Zn enzyme) and its Co-substituted derivative were oxidized by the active-site-selective m-chloroperbenzoic acid.1209 In the Co-substituted oxidized (Co111) enzyme there was a decrease in both the peptidase and the esterase activities, whereas in the zinc enzyme only the peptidase activity decreased. Oxidation of the native enzyme resulted in modification of a methionine residue instead. These studies indicate that the two metal ions impose different structural and functional properties on the active site, leading to differing reactivities of specific amino acid residues. Replacement of zinc(II) in the methyltransferase enzyme MT2-A by cobalt(II) yields an enzyme with enhanced activity, where spectroscopy also indicates coordination by two thiolates and two histidines, supported by EXAFS analysis of the zinc coordination sphere.1210... 

Bis(pyrazolylethyl)ether derivatives (106) have been coordinated to zinc providing an N20 donor set. The structural data shows that the ligand coordinates in a meridional rather than facial geometry limiting the application for the modeling of N20 zinc enzyme sites, (derivatives R = i-Pr or Me).161... 

The first zinc enzyme to be discovered was carbonic anhydrase in 1940, followed by car-boxypeptidase A some 14 years later. They both represent the archetype of mono-zinc enzymes, with a central catalytically active Zn2+ atom bound to three protein ligands, and the fourth site occupied by a water molecule. Yet, despite the overall similarity of catalytic zinc sites with regard to their common tetrahedral [(XYZ)Zn2+-OH2] structure, these mononuclear zinc enzymes catalyse a wide variety of reactions, as pointed out above. The mechanism of action of the majority of zinc enzymes centres around the zinc-bound water molecule,... 

It was clear for some time that a number of zinc enzymes required two or more metal ions for full activity, but in the absence of X-ray structural data the location of these metal centres with regard to one another was often uncertain. When the first 3-D structures began to appear, it became clear that the metals were in close proximity. A particular feature of many of these enzymes was the presence of a bridging ligand between two of the metal sites, usually an Asp residue of the protein, which is occasionally replaced by a water molecule. While some of the sites contain only Zn ions, several contain Zn in combination with Cu (in cytosolic superoxide dismutases) Fe (in purple acid phosphatases) or Mg (in alkaline phosphatase and the aminopeptidase of lens). 

Several zinc enzymes that catalyse the hydrolysis of phosphoesters have catalytic sites, which contain three metal ions in close proximity (3-7 A from each other). These include (Figure 12.11) alkaline phosphatase, phospholipase C and nuclease PI. In phospholipase C and nuclease PI, which hydrolyse phosphatidylcholine and single-stranded RNA (or DNA), respectively, all three metal ions are Zn2+. However, the third Zn2+ ion is not directly associated with the dizinc unit. In phospholipase C, the Zn-Zn distance in the dizinc centre is 3.3 A, whereas the third Zn is 4.7 and 6.0 A from the other two Zn2+ ions. All three Zn2+ ions are penta-coordinate. Alkaline phosphatase, which is a non-specific phos-phomonoesterase, shows structural similarity to phospholipase C and PI nuclease however,... 

Parkin, G. (2004) Synthetic analogues relevant to the structure and function of zinc enzymes, Chem. Rev., 104, 699-767. 

B. L. Vallee, D. S. Auld, Zinc Coordination, Function and Structure of Zinc Enzymes and Other Proteins , Biochemistry 1990, 29, 5647-5659. 

Sharma and Reed, 1976)]. In proteins the coordination number 4 is most common, where the zinc ion is typically coordinated in tetrahedral or distorted tetrahedral fashion. The coordination polyhedron of structural zinc is dominated by cysteine thiolates, and the metal ion is typically sequestered from solvent by its molecular environment the coordination polyhedron of catalytic zinc is dominated by histidine ligands, and the metal ion is exposed to bulk solvent and typically binds a solvent molecule (Vallee and Auld, 1990). The inner-sphere coordination number of catalytic zinc may increase to 5 during the course of enzymatic turnover, and several five-coordinate zinc enzyme—substrate, enzyme product, and enzyme-inhibitor complexes have been studied by high-resolution X-ray crystallographic methods (reviewed by Matthews, 1988 Christianson and Lipscomb, 1989). The coordination polyhedron of zinc in five coordinate examples may tend toward either trigonal bipyramid or octahedral-minus-one geometry. 

Currently, only a handful of examples of unique protein carboxylate-zinc interactions are available in the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank. Each of these entries, however, displays syn coordination stereochemistry, and two are bidentate (Christianson and Alexander, 1989) (Fig. 5). Other protein structures have been reported with iyw-oriented car-boxylate-zinc interactions, but full coordinate sets are not yet available [e.g., DNA polymerase (Ollis etal., 1985) and alkaline phosphatase (Kim and Wyckoff, 1989)]. A survey of all protein-metal ion interactions reveals that jyw-carboxylate—metal ion stereochemistry is preferred (Chakrabarti, 1990a). It is been suggested that potent zinc enzyme inhibition arises from syn-oriented interactions between inhibitor carboxylates and active-site zinc ions (Christianson and Lipscomb, 1988a see also Monzingo and Matthews, 1984), and the structures of such interactions may sample the reaction coordinate for enzymatic catalysis in certain systems (Christianson and Lipscomb, 1987). 

Carboxypeptidase A was the first zinc enzyme to yield a three-dimensional structure to the X-ray crystallographic method, and the structure of an enzyme-pseudosubstrate complex provided a model for a precatalytic zinc-carbonyl interaction (Lipscomb etai, 1968). Comparative studies have been performed between carboxypeptidase A and thermolysin based on the results of X-ray crystallographic experiments (Argosetai, 1978 Kesterand Matthews, 1977 Monzingoand Matthews, 1984 Matthews, 1988 Christianson and Lipscomb, 1988b). Models of peptide-metal interaction have recently been utilized in studies of metal ion participation in hydrolysis (see e.g., Schepartz and Breslow, 1987). In these examples a dipole-ion interaction is achieved by virtue of a chelate interaction involving the labile carbonyl and some other Lewis base (e.g.. 

Another important structural aspect in terms of the reaction mechanisms of zinc enzymes concerns the coordination mode of water and carboxylates, which can bind in a monoden-tate or bidentate fashion to the Zn(II) center, as shown in Figure 4. 

The suggestion that the electrophile is activated by coordination to the zinc ion is prevalent in the experimental literature but usually does not find support in theoretical investigations. The binuclear zinc enzymes can be an exception because one zinc center can coordinate the electrophile while the other is used to generate the nucleophile. A question often raised for binuclear zinc enzymes is whether the nucleophile (usually OH ) is bridged or coordinates to only one of the zinc atoms. This question is often made more difficult by the fact that bridging hydroxides are often found in X-ray structures... 

The active site of LADH contains an Asp-His-Zn triad (see Figure 11). This pattern is quite common in zinc-enzymes. The aspartate affects the structure, electronic properties and energetics of the active site and thus the catalytic activity. Indeed, Asp49 is conserved in all mammalian ADHs . 

Table I lists isomorphous replacements for various metalloproteins. Consider zinc enzymes, most of which contain the metal ion firmly bound. The diamagnetic, colorless zinc atom contributes very little to those physical properties that can be used to study the enzymes. Thus it has become conventional to replace this metal by a different metal that has the required physical properties (see below) and as far as is possible maintains the same activity. Although this aim may be achieved to a high degree of approximation [e.g., replacement of zinc by cobalt(II)], no such replacement is ever exact. This stresses the extreme degree of biological specificity. The action of an enzyme depends precisely on the exact metal it uses, stressing again the peculiarity of biological action associated with the idiosyncratic nature of active sites. (The entatic state of the metal ion is an essential part of this peculiarity.) Despite this specificity, the replacement method has provided a wealth of information about proteins that could not have been obtained by other methods. Clearly, there will often be a compromise in the choice of replacement. Even isomorphous replacement that should retain structure will not necessarily retain activity at all. However, it has become clear that substitutions can be made for structural studies where the substituted protein is inactive (e.g., in the copper proteins and the iron-sulfur proteins). It is also possible to substitute into metal coenzymes. Many studies have been reported of the...

While there have been a considerable number of structural models for these multinuclear zinc enzymes (49), there have only been a few functional models until now. Czamik et al. have reported phosphate hydrolysis with bis(Coni-cyclen) complexes 39 (50) and 40 (51). The flexible binuclear cobalt(III) complex 39 (1 mM) hydrolyzed bis(4-nitro-phenyl)phosphate (BNP-) (0.05 mM) at pH 7 and 25°C with a rate 3.2 times faster than the parent Coni-cyclen (2 mM). The more rigid complex 40 was designed to accommodate inorganic phosphate in the in-temuclear pocket and to prevent formation of an intramolecular ju.-oxo dinuclear complex. The dinuclear cobalt(III) complex 40 (1 mM) indeed hydrolyzed 4-nitrophenyl phosphate (NP2-) (0.025 mM) 10 times faster than Coni-cyclen (2 mM) at pH 7 and 25°C (see Scheme 10). The final product was postulated to be 41 on the basis of 31P NMR analysis. In 40, one cobalt(III) ion probably provides a nucleophilic water molecule, while the second cobalt(III) binds the phosphoryl group in the form of a four-membered ring (see 42). The reaction of the phosphomonoester NP2- can therefore profit from the special placement of the two metal ions. As expected from the weaker interaction of BNP- with cobalt(in), 40 did not show enhanced reactivity toward BNP-. However, in the absence of more quantitative data, a detailed reaction mechanism cannot be drawn. 

The MMP enzyme family is part of the superfamily of metzincins. The metzincin superfamily is distinguished by a conserved zinc binding motif for the catalytic zinc and a Met-turn region [4]. The MMPs are unique in that they also contain a second structural zinc, however this zinc may be absent in the intact full-length enzyme [5]. The presence of one to four structural calcium ions has been detected in the MMPs that have been characterized to date. The importance of the zinc ions and at least one of the structural calcium ions to enzymatic activity has been proven [6]. 

It is now possible to define conditions under which the catalytic or the structural zinc can be specifically replaced.548 549 This allows the preparation of hybrid Co11, Zn11 enzymes, in which the Co11 is at the catalytic (c) or non-catalytic (n) sites.550... 

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