Vitamin B12-dependent enzymes

If our postulates are correct the most interesting feature of P-450 is the manner in which the protein has adjusted the coordination geometry of the iron and then provided near-neighbour reactive groups to take advantage of the activation generated by the curious coordination. Vallee and Williams (68) have observed this situation in zinc, copper and iron enzymes and referred to it as an entatic state of the protein. It is also apparent that some such adjustment of the coordination of cobalt occurs in the vitamin B12 dependent enzymes. As a final example we have looked at the absorption spectra of chlorophyll for its spectrum is in many respects very like that of a metal-porphyrin. This last note is intended to stress the features of chlorophyll chemistry which parallel those of P-450. 

In 1980 Poston (PI) proposed that vitamin B12 was required for the conversion of the branched-chain amino acid p-leucine to leucine. He found circulating P-leucine levels elevated in patients with vitamin B12 deficiency. The concentration of leucine on the other hand was found to be much lower. He suggested that 2,3-aminomutase, which catalyzes the interconversion of P-leucine and leucine, is a vitamin B12-dependent enzyme which is consequently reduced in patients with pernicious anemia. The enzyme has been found in the liver of several animals and in human leucocytes, and in vitro experiments have shown it to be adenosylcobalamin dependent (P2). 

In mammals, there are only three vitamin B12 -dependent enzymes methionine synthetase, methylmalonyl CoA mutase, and leucine aminomutase. The enzymes use different coenzymes methionine synthetase uses methylcobal-amin, and cobalt undergoes oxidation during the reaction methylmalonyl CoA mutase and leucine aminomutase use adenosylcobalamin and catalyze the formation of a 5 -deoxyadenosyl radical as the catalytic intermediate. 

Fatty acids that contain double bonds or odd numbers of carbon atoms require ancillary steps to be degraded. An isomerase and a reductase are required for the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids, whereas propionyl CoA derived from chains with odd numbers of carbon atoms requires a vitamin B12-dependent enzyme to be converted into succinyl CoA ... 

Figure 15.8 (a) Structure and (b) alternative conformations of cobalamine found in B12-dependent enzymes. The functional group R is deoxyadenosine in AdoCbl, methyl in MeCbl and -CN in vitamin B12. (From Bannerjee and Ragsdale, 2003. Reprinted with permission from Annual Reviews.)... 

The penultimate enzyme in the pathway, glycerol dehydratase (E. C. 4.2.1.30), catalyzing the dehydration of glycerol to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde, is a vitamin B12-dependent, cyanocobalamin-containing enzyme, which employs a radical... 

Methyltransferases. The catalysis of the transfer of a methyl group is an important role of enzyme-bound vitamin B12 derivatives in human, animal, and bacterial metabolism (2,3,10,49). B12-dependent, enzyme-controlled methyl group transfer reactions are key steps in the cobamide-dependent methylations of homocysteine to methionine (10,49), in the metabolic formation of methane from other Ci compounds in methanogenic bacteria (56,57), and in the fixation of carbon dioxide via the acetyl coenzyme A pathway (58). 

The metabolic role of many minerals and vitamins is as prosthetic groups or coenzymes in different enzyme systems. Consequently, mineral and vitamin deficiencies can cause a breakdown of the processing system and precipitate metabolic disease. For example, methylmalonyl-CoA isomerase (see p. 203) is an important vitamin Bi2-dependent enzyme in the gluconeogenic pathway. A deficiency of vitamin B12 (or cobalt) may reduce enzyme activity, decrease the efficiency of glucose synthesis and predispose the animal to ketosis. Similarly, ceruloplasmin is a copper-dependent enzyme responsible for releasing iron from cells into blood plasma. A copper deficiency may reduce ceruloplasmin activity, decrease the efficiency of iron utilisation for haemoglobin synthesis and predispose the animal to anaemia. 

The rearrangement described above by Barker using the coenzyme B12-dependent enzyme glutamate mutase is a most remarkable reaction. Until very recently, no analogous chemical reaction was known. In fact, elucidation of the structure of the coenzyme form of vitamin B12 did not clarify its mechanism. Beside this transformation, nine distinct enzymatic reactions requiring coenzyme B12 as cofactor are known. Most of which are without precedent in terms of organic reactions. They are listed in Fig. 6.11. In choosing vitamin B12 derivatives as coenzymes, enzymes appear to have reached a peak of chemical sophistication which would be difficult to mimic by the chemist. 

Photolysis of [Co(CH2R)(L)(Hdmg)2] under oxygen proceeds by insertion of dioxygen into the cobalt carbon bond to provide a solution species for which nmr spectroscopic data is rq)orted. Reduction of this intermediate produces primary alcohols whereas thermolysis produces aldehydes and alcohols. Treatment of [Co oep)] with simple aldehydes and rm-butylhydroperoxide in the presence of sodium borohydride produces cobalt(III) acyls in 65-98% yields. In the absence of the borohydride the yield is reduced. The reaction is proposed to proceed by acyl radical trapping by the Co(n) centre. Methyl transfer in a protein free model of vitamin B12 dependent methyl transf enzymes has been studied. These systems convert homocysteine to methionine in nature. Trimethyl-phenylammonium icm reacts with the CoG) centre in cobalamin producing methylcobalamin. ... 

Vitamin B12 appears in two coenzymatic forms, namely methylcobalamin (cytosol) and 5 -deoxyadenosylcoba-lamin (mitochondria). Vitamin B 12-dependent enzymes are [1]... 

The next five transition metals iron, cobalt, nickel, copper and zinc are of undisputed importance in the living world, as we know it. The multiple roles that iron can play will be presented in more detail later in Chapter 13, but we can already point out that, with very few exceptions, iron is essential for almost all living organisms, most probably because of its role in forming the amino acid radicals required for the conversion of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides in the Fe-dependent ribonucleotide reductases. In those organisms, such as Lactobacilli6, which do not have access to iron, their ribonucleotide reductases use a cobalt-based cofactor, related to vitamin B12. Cobalt is also used in a number of other enzymes, some of which catalyse complex isomerization reactions. Like cobalt, nickel appears to be much more extensively utilized by anaerobic bacteria, in reactions involving chemicals such as CH4, CO and H2, the metabolism of which was important... 

Banerjee, R. and Ragsdale, S.W. (2003) The many faces of vitamin B12 catalysis by cobalamin-dependent enzymes, Annu. Rev. Biochem., 72, 209-247. 

Figure 22.7 Homocysteine formation from methionine and formation of thiolactone from homocysteine. The homocysteine concentration depends upon a balance between the activities of homocysteine methyltransferase (methionine synthase) and cystathionine p-synthase. Both these enzymes require vitamin B12, so a deficiency can lead to an increase in the plasma level of homocysteine. (For details of these reactions, see Chapter 15.) Homocysteine oxidises spontaneously to form thiolactone, which can damage cell membrane.

A second group of ribonucleotide reductases (Class II), found in many bacteria, depend upon the cobalt-containing vitamin B12 coenzyme which is discussed in Section B. These enzymes are monomeric or homodimeric proteins of about the size of the larger a subunits of the Class I enzymes. The radical generating center is the 5 -deoxyadenosyl coenzyme.350 364 365... 

Ribonucleotide reductases are discussed in Chapter 16. Some are iron-tyrosinate enzymes while others depend upon vitamin B12, and reduction is at the nucleoside triphosphate level. Mammalian ribonucleotide reductase, which may be similar to that of E. coli, is regarded as an appropriate target for anticancer drugs. The enzyme is regulated by a complex set of feedback mechanisms, which apparently ensure that DNA precursors are synthesized only in amounts needed for DNA synthesis.273 Because an excess of one deoxyribonucleotide can inhibit reduction of all... 

S-Methylmalonyl-CoA mutase (EC 5.4.99.2) is a deoxyadenoxyladen-osylcobalamin-dependent enzyme of mitochondria required to catalyze the conversion of methylmalonyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA. A decrease in the activity of methylmalonyl-CoA mutase leads to the urinary excretion of large amounts of methylmalonic acid (C22). The biochemical lesion may be at the mutase level due to an abnormality of apoenzyme protein or an inability to elaborate the required coenzyme form of vitamin B12> i.e., adenosyl-cobalamin. In rare cases the abnormality may be due to an inability to convert the d form of methylmalonyl-CoA mutase to the l form as a result of a defective racemase (EC 5.1.99.1) (Kll). In patients, the nature of the abnormality can be determined by tissue culture studies (D13) and by clinical trial, since patients with a defect in adenosylcobalamin production will show clinical improvement when treated with very large doses of vitamin B12 (Mil). 

Vitamin B12 is required by only two enzymes in human metabolism methionine synthetase and L-methylmalonyl-CoA mutase. Methionine synthetase has an absolute requirement for methylcobalamin and catalyzes the conversion of homocysteine to methionine (Fig. 28-5). 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate is converted to tetrahydrofolate (THF) in this reaction. This vitamin B12-catalyzed reaction is the only means by which THF can be regenerated from 5-methyltetrahydrofolate in humans. Therefore, in vitamin B12 deficiency, folic acid can become trapped in the 5-methyltetrahydrofolate form, and THF is then unavailable for conversion to other coenzyme forms required for purine, pyrimidine, and amino acid synthesis (Fig. 28-6). All folate-dependent reactions are impaired in vitamin B12 deficiency, resulting in indistinguishable hematological abnormalities in both folate and vitamin B12 deficiencies. 

Metalloenzymes or metallocoenzymes are involved in a great deal of enzymatic activity, which depends on the presence of metal ions at the active site of the enzyme or in a key coenzyme. Of the latter, the best known is vitamin B12, which contains cobalt. Important metalloenzymes include carboxypeptidase (Zn), alcohol dehydrogenase (Zn), superoxide dismutase (Cu, Zn), urease (Ni), and cytochrome P-450 (Fe). 

Vitamin B12 is required in humans for several transformations, such as the dependent conversion of (/ )-methylmalonyl co-enzyme A (CoA) into CoA ... 

Whereas tetrahydrobiopterin is biosynthesized from GTP via just three enzyme-catalyzed steps (2), some coenzyme biosynthetic pathways are characterized by enormous complexity. Thus, the biosynthesis of vitamin B12 requires five enzymes for the biosynthesis of the precursor uroporhyrinogen III (16) from succinyl-CoA (10) and glycine (11) that is then converted into vitamin B12 via the sequential action of about 20 enzymes (3). Additional enzymes are involved in the synthesis of the building blocks aminopropanol and dimethylbenzimidazole (4, 5). Vitamin B12 from nutritional sources must then be converted to coenzyme B12 by mammalian enzymes. Ultimately, however, coenzyme B12 is used in humans by only two enzymes, albeit of vital importance, which are involved in fatty acid and amino acid metabolism (6). Notably, because plants do not generate corrinoids, animals depend on bacteria for their supply of vitamin B12 (which may be obtained in recycled form via nutrients such as milk and meat) (7). 

The assay for serum Bj2 levels is a direct test, as it measures the concentration of the vitamin itself. The assay of MMA levels is a functional test of B12 status, as it measures a compoimd whose metabolism is dependent on the correct functioning of vitamin Bi2- The results of the MMA test reflect the activity of methylmalonyl-CoA mutase in the liver. It is thought that the fimctional test is more valuable than the direct test. Serum vitamin B12 levels may not reflect the fimctioning of the Bi2-requiring enzymes of the cell. Serum B12 levels may sometimes be within the normal range despite an increased excretion of MMA. Normal serum B12 values range from 0.2 to 1.0 ng/ml. Normal serum MMA levels range from 20 to 75 ng/ml, and normal urinary MMA levels from 0.8 to 3.0 pg/ml. 

---