Ligand-bound structures of 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonate 8-phosphate phosphatase fromMoraxella catarrhalisreveal a water channel connecting to the active site for the second step of catalysis

Biochemical and structural basis for Moraxella catarrhalis enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductase (FabI) inhibition by triclosan and estradiol

The enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductase (ENR) is an established drug target and catalyzes the last reduction step of the fatty acid elongation cycle. Here, we report the crystal structures of FabI from Moraxella catarrhalis (McFabI) in the apo form, binary complex with NAD+ and ternary complex with NAD ⁺ -triclosan (TCL) determined at 2.36, 2.12 and 2.22 Å resolutions, respectively. The comparative study of these three structures revealed three different conformational states for the substrate-binding loop (SBL), including an unstructured intermediate, a structured intermediate and a closed conformation in the apo, binary and ternary complex forms, respectively; indicating the flexibility of SBL during the ligand binding. Virtual screening has suggested that estradiol cypionate may be a potential inhibitor of McFabI. Subsequently, estradiol (EST), the natural form of estradiol cypionate, was assessed for its FabI-binding and -inhibition properties. In vitro studies demonstrated that TCL and EST bind to McFabI with high affinity (K_D = 0.038 ± 0.004 and 5 ± 0.06 μM respectively) and inhibit its activity (K_i = 62.93 ± 3.95 nM and 25.97 ± 1.93 μM respectively) and suppress the growth of M. catarrhalis. These findings reveal that TCL and EST inhibit the McFabI activity and thereby affect cell growth. This study suggests that estradiol may be exploited as a novel scaffold for the designing and development of more potential FabI inhibitors.

Structural and thermodynamic characterization of metal binding in Vps29 from Entamoeba histolytica: implication in retromer function

Vps29 is the smallest subunit of retromer complex with metallo-phosphatase fold. Although the role of metal in Vps29 is in quest, its metal binding mutants has been reported to affect the localization of the retromer complex in human cells. In this study, we report the structural and thermodynamic consequences of these mutations in Vps29 from the protozoan parasite, Entamoeba histolytica (EhVps29). EhVps29 is a zinc binding protein as revealed by X-ray crystallography and isothermal titration calorimetry. The metal binding pocket of EhVps29 exhibits marked differences in its 3-dimensional architecture and metal coordination in comparison to its human homologs and other metallo-phosphatases. Alanine substitutions of the metal-coordinating residues showed significant alteration in the binding affinity of EhVps29 for zinc. We also determined the crystal structures of metal binding defective mutants (D62A and D62A/H86A) of EhVps29. Based on our results, we propose that the metal atoms or the bound water molecules in the metal binding site are important for maintaining the structural integrity of the protein. Further cellular studies in the amoebic trophozoites showed that the overexpression of wild type EhVps29 leads to reduction in intracellular cysteine protease activity suggesting its crucial role in secretion of the proteases.