Chemical modification and inactivation of rat liver microsomal cytochrome P-450c by 2-bromo-4'-nitroacetophenone

Mechanistic basis of electron transfer to cytochromes p450 by natural redox partners and artificial donor constructs

Cytochromes P450 (P450s) are hemoproteins catalyzing oxidative biotransformation of a vast array of natural and xenobiotic compounds. Reducing equivalents required for dioxygen cleavage and substrate hydroxylation originate from different redox partners including diflavin reductases, flavodoxins, ferredoxins and phthalate dioxygenase reductase (PDR)-type proteins. Accordingly, circumstantial analysis of structural and physicochemical features governing donor-acceptor recognition and electron transfer poses an intriguing challenge. Thus, conformational flexibility reflected by togging between closed and open states of solvent exposed patches on the redox components was shown to be instrumental to steered electron transmission. Here, the membrane-interactive tails of the P450 enzymes and donor proteins were recognized to be crucial to proper orientation toward each other of surface sites on the redox modules steering functional coupling. Also, mobile electron shuttling may come into play. While charge-pairing mechanisms are of primary importance in attraction and complexation of the redox partners, hydrophobic and van der Waals cohesion forces play a minor role in docking events. Due to catalytic plasticity of P450 enzymes, there is considerable promise in biotechnological applications. Here, deeper insight into the mechanistic basis of the redox machinery will permit optimization of redox processes via directed evolution and DNA shuffling. Thus, creation of hybrid systems by fusion of the modified heme domain of P450s with proteinaceous electron carriers helps obviate the tedious reconstitution procedure and induces novel activities. Also, P450-based amperometric biosensors may open new vistas in pharmaceutical and clinical implementation and environmental monitoring.

Select acetophenones modulate flagellar motility in chlamydomonas

Acetophenones were screened for activity against positive phototaxis of Chlamydomonas cells, a process that requires co-ordinated flagellar motility. The structure-activity relationships of a series of acetophenones are reported, including acetophenones that affect flagellar motility and cell viability. Notably, 4-methoxyacetophenone, 3,4-dimethoxyacetophenone, and 4-hydroxyacetophenone induced negative phototaxis in Chlamydomonas, suggesting interference with activity of flagellar proteins and control of flagellar dominance.

Acetophenones with selective antimycobacterial activity

AIMS

Mycobacteria are a serious cause of infections in humans, with limited treatment options, as no new antibiotics have been developed against mycobacteria since the 1960s. In this study, the antimycobacterial activity of a small library of acetophenone (AP) compounds was analysed.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Twenty-three AP derivatives were examined for activity against mycobacteria using a microbroth assay. The compounds were bacteriostatic, with the most effective (cyclohexylacetophenone and piperidinoacetophenone) having minimal inhibitory concentrations of 246 microM. Active compounds tended to be more hydrophobic, and may work by alkylation of as yet undetermined intracellular target protein(s). Cytotoxicity against eukaryotic cells was also determined and appears to be unrelated to the bacteriostatic activity.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

AP may serve as a novel group of useful therapeutics against the mycobacteria.

Functional interaction of cytochrome P450 with its redox partners: a critical assessment and update of the topology of predicted contact regions

The problem of donor-acceptor recognition has been the most important and intriguing one in the area of P450 research. The present review outlines the topological background of electron-transfer complex formation, showing that the progress in collaborative investigations, combining physical techniques with chemical-modification and immunolocalization studies as well as site-directed mutagenesis experiments, has increasingly enabled the substantiation of hypothetical work resulting from homology modelling of P450s. Circumstantial analysis reveals the contact regions for redox proteins to cluster on the proximal face of P450s, constituting parts of the highly conserved, heme-binding core fold. However, more variable structural components located in the periphery of the hemoprotein molecules also participate in donor docking. The cross-reactivity of electron carriers, purified from pro- and eukaryotic sources, with a diversity of P450 species points at a possible evolutionary conservation of common anchoring domains. While electrostatic mechanisms appear to dominate orientation toward each other of the redox partners to generate pre-collisional encounter complexes, hydrophobic forces are likely to foster electron transfer events by through-bonding or pi-stacking interactions. Moreover, electron-tunneling pathways seem to be operative as well. The availability of new P450 crystal structures together with improved validation strategies will undoubtedly permit the production of increasingly satisfactory three-dimensional donor-acceptor models serving to better understand the molecular principles governing functional association of the redox proteins.

Oxygen and xenobiotic reductase activities of cytochrome P450

The oxygen reductase and xenobiotic reductase activities of cytochrome P450 (P450) are reviewed. During the oxygen reductase activity of P450, molecular oxygen is reduced to superoxide anion radicals (O2-.) most likely by autooxidation of a P450 ferric-dioxyanion complex. The formation of reactive oxygen species (O2-., hydrogen peroxide, and, notably, hydroxyl free radicals) presents a potential toxication pathway, particularly when effective means of detoxication are lacking. Under anaerobic conditions, P450 may also be involved in the reduction of xenobiotics. During the xenobiotic reductase activity of P450, xenobiotics are reduced by the ferrous xenobiotic complex. After xenobiotic reduction by P450, xenobiotic free radicals are formed that are often capable of reacting directly with tissue macromolecules. Unfortunately, the compounds that are reductively activated by P450 have little structural similarity. The precise molecular mechanism underlying the xenobiotic reductase activity of P450 is, therefore, not yet fully understood. Moreover, description of the molecular mechanisms of xenobiotic and oxygen reduction reactions by P450 is limited by the lack of knowledge of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the mammalian P450 proteins.

Rat brain hexokinase: amino acid sequence at the substrate hexose binding site is homologous to that of yeast hexokinase

A reactive Glc analog, N-(bromoacetyl)-D-glucosamine (GlcNBrAc), has recently been used (D. M. Schirch and J. E. Wilson (1987) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 254, 385-396) to label the Glc binding site of rat brain Type I hexokinase. This site has been located in a 40-kDa domain at the C-terminus of the enzyme previously shown to be the location of the substrate ATP binding site (M. Nemat-Gorgani and J. E. Wilson (1986) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 251, 97-103). In the present study, peptide mapping of hexokinase modified by radiolabeled GlcNBrAc yields three labeled peptides (Peptides I-III). Peptides I and III, as well as catalytic activity, are protected by inclusion of Glc or GlcNAc during reaction with GlcNBrAc. These two peptides show considerable homology to contiguous regions in the sequences of yeast hexokinase isozymes A and B. Peptide III is homologous to a sequence which, based on the X-ray crystallographic work by Steitz and co-workers, is located near the Glc binding site of yeast hexokinase; Peptide I is homologous to an immediately adjacent (toward the C-terminus) region of yeast hexokinase. An essential serine residue implicated in the binding of Glc to the yeast enzyme is also conserved in Peptide III from rat brain hexokinase. These results provide strong support for the view that the "catalytic domain" at the C-terminus of the mammalian Type I hexokinase shares a common ancestry with yeast hexokinase. Peptide II appears to be nonspecifically labeled by GlcNBrAc since labeling is insensitive to the presence of protective ligands such as Glc or GlcNAc; the sequence of Peptide II shows no detectable homology with the yeast isozymes.