Zinc-containing enzymes functional models

It is important to understand the mechanism of the cleavage of the (3-lactam ring catalyzed by 3-lactamase involving a zinc atom as an active site, because the zinc-containing enzyme is a factor in bacterial resistance to the 0-lactam antibiotics such as penicillin, cephalosporin, and so on. The first functional model for (3-lactamase was reported by Kimura and coworkers. " They demonstrated that the zinc complex involving 1,4,7,10-tetra-azacyclododecane ([12]aneN4) forms the [Zn—OH]" species under neutral conditions, and it accelerated the hydrolysis of benzylpenicillin in aqueous solution. In contrast, the native P-lactamase has two zinc atoms in the active site. From the three-dimensional structure infor-... 

The system illustrated by (272) forms the basis of a model for the zinc-containing metalloenzyme, carbonic anhydrase (Tabushi Kuroda, 1984). It contains Zn(n) bound to imidazole groups at the end of a hydrophobic pocket, as well as basic (amine) groups which are favourably placed to interact with a substrate carbon dioxide molecule. These are both features for the natural enzyme whose function is to catalyze the reversible hydration of carbon dioxide. The synthetic system is able to mimic the action of the enzyme (although side reactions also occur). Nevertheless, the formation of bicarbonate is still many orders of magnitude slower than occurs for the enzyme. 

We have already seen a number of models for the zinc(II) containing enzymes such as carbonic anhydrase in Section 11.3.2. Zinc is an essential component in biochemistry, and forms part of the active site of more then 100 enzymes, of which hydrolases (such as alkaline phosphatase and carboxypeptidase A), transferases (e.g. DNA and RNA polymerase), oxidoreductases (e.g. alcohol dehydrogenase and superoxide dismutase) and lysases (carbonic anhydrase) are the most common. In addition, the non-enzyme zinc finger proteins have an important regulatory function. In many of these systems, the non-redox-active Zn2+ ion is present as a Fewis acidic centre at which substrates are coordinated, polarised and hence activated. Other roles of zinc include acting as a template and playing a structural or regulatory role. 

The fundamental knowledge derived from the study of Zn macrocyclic polyamine complexes as zinc(II) enzyme models has been successfully developed to a new aspect of the molecular recognition of nucleic acid bases that contain an imide function in the heteroaromatic ring... 

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. 

Pyridyl functionalized tris(pyrazolyl)borate ligands show some interesting properties including the formation of polynuclear zinc complexes.23,1 Some of these contain extensive H bonding and have potential as models for multinuclear zinc enzymes such as phospholipase C or PI nuclease.235 A bis-ligand complex of the hydrotris(5-methyl-3-(3-pyridyl)pyrazolyl)borate ligand (23) shows octahedral coordination of all six pyrazole nitrogen donors despite the steric bulk. 

The NAD+-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase from horse liver contains one catalytically essential zinc ion at each of its two active sites. An essential feature of the enzymic catalysis appears to involve direct coordination of the enzyme-bound zinc by the carbonyl and hydroxyl groups of the aldehyde and alcohol substrates. Polarization of the carbonyl group by the metal ion should assist nucleophilic attack by hydride ion. A number of studies have confirmed this view. Zinc(II) catalyzes the reduction of l,10-phenanthroline-2-carbaldehyde by lV-propyl-l,4-dihy-dronicotinamide in acetonitrile,526 and provides an interesting model reaction for alcohol dehydrogenase (Scheme 45). The model reaction proceeds by direct hydrogen transfer and is absolutely dependent on the presence of zinc(II). The zinc(II) ion also catalyzes the reduction of 2- and 4-pyridinecarbaldehyde by Et4N BH4-.526 The zinc complex of the 2-aldehyde is reduced at least 7 x 105 times faster than the free aldehyde, whereas the zinc complex of the 4-aldehyde is reduced only 102 times faster than the free aldehyde. A direct interaction of zinc(II) with the carbonyl function is clearly required for marked catalytic effects to be observed. 

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