Biochemical approaches to the synthesis of ethyl 5-(s)-hydroxyhexanoate and 5-(s)-hydroxyhexanenitrile.

Three different biochemical approaches were used for the synthesis of ethyl 5-(S)-hydroxyhexanoate 1 and 5-(S)-hydroxyhexanenitrile 2. In the first approach, ethyl 5-oxo-hexanoate 3 and 5-oxo-hexanenitrile 4 were reduced by Pichia methanolica (SC 16116) to the corresponding (S)-alcohols, ethyl (S)-5-hydroxyhexanoate 1 and 5-(S)-hydroxyhexanenitrile 2, with an 80-90% yield and >95% enantiomeric excess (e.e). In the second approach, racemic 5-hydroxyhexanenitrile 5 was resolved by enzymatic succinylation, leading to the formation of (R)-5-hydroxyhexanenitrile hemisuccinate and leaving the desired alcohol 5-(S)-hydroxyhexanenitrile 2 with a yield of 34% (50% maximum yield) and >99% e.e. In the third approach, enzymatic hydrolysis of racemic 5-acetoxy hexanenitrile 6 resulted in the hydrolysis of the R-isomer to provide 5-(R)-hydroxyhexanenitrile, leaving 5-(S)-acetoxyhexanenitrile 7 with a 42% yield (50% maximum yield) and >99% e.e.

Fermentation and isolation of C10-deacetylase for the production of 10-deacetylbaccatin III from baccatin III.

10-Deacetylabaccatin III (10 DAB), an important precursor for paclitaxel semisynthesis, is enhanced in yew extracts using C10-deacetylase and C13-deacylase enzymes.(4) C10-deacetylase is an intracellular enzyme produced by the fermentation of a soil microorganism, Nocardioides luteus (SC 13912). During the fermentation of Nocardioides luteus, the growth of cells reaches a maximum growth at 28 h. C10-deacetylase enzyme activity starts at 26 h and peaks at 38 h of the fermentation. The cells are recovered by centrifugation. The C10-deacetylase enzyme was purified from the Nocardioides luteus cells. The enzyme was purified 190-fold to near homogeneity. The purified enzyme appeared as a single band on 12.5% SDS-PAGE analysis with a molecular weight of 40,000 daltons. (c) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Site-specific enzymatic hydrolysis of taxanes at C-10 and C-13.

The production of large amounts of paclitaxel for use as an anticancer treatment has been a challenging problem because of the low concentration of the compound in yew trees and its occurrence as part of a mixture of other taxanes. Two novel enzymes were isolated to facilitate the production of 10-deacetylbaccatin III, a precursor used for semisynthesis of paclitaxel and analogs. A strain of Nocardioides albus (SC13911) was isolated from soil and found to produce an extracellular enzyme that specifically removed the C-13 side chain from paclitaxel, cephalomannine, 7-beta-xylosyltaxol, 7-beta-xylosyl-10-deacetyltaxol, and 10-deacetyltaxol. The enzyme was purified to near homogeneity to give a polypeptide with 47,000 M(r) on a sodium dodecyl sulfate gel. A strain of Nocardioides luteus (SC13912) isolated from soil was found to produce an intracellular 10-deacetylase that removed the 10-acetate from baccatin III and paclitaxel. The 10-deacetylase was purified to give a polypeptide with 40,000 M(r) on a sodium dodecyl sulfate gel. Treatment of extracts prepared from a variety of yew cultivars with the C-13-deacylase and C-10-deacetylase converted a complex mixture of taxanes primarily to 10-deacetylbaccatin III and increased the amount of this key precursor by 4-24 times.

Molecular characterization of interleukin 12.

Interleukin 12 (IL-12), formerly known as cytotoxic lymphocyte maturation factor and natural killer cell stimulatory factor, is a cytokine secreted by a human B lymphoblastoid (NC-37) cell line when induced in culture with phorbol ester and calcium ionophore. This factor has been purified to homogeneity and shown to synergize with low concentrations of interleukin 2 in causing the induction of lymphokine-activated killer cells. In addition, purified IL-12 stimulated the proliferation of human phytohemagglutinin-activated lymphoblasts by itself and exerted additive effects when used in combination with suboptimal amounts of interleukin 2. The protein is a heterodimer composed of a 40- and a 35-kDa subunit. Amino acid sequence analysis confirmed predicted sequences from the cloned cDNAs of each subunit. Chemical and enzymatic deglycosylation of the heterodimer demonstrated that the 40- and 35-kDa subunits contain 10 and 20% carbohydrate, respectively. Structural analysis of IL-12 using site-specific chemical modification revealed that intact disulfide bonds are essential for bioactivity. The 40-kDa subunit of IL-12 was identified by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and confirmed by immunoblotting as being present in NC-37 cell supernatant solutions in relatively large amounts uncomplexed to the 35-kDa subunit. Previously it had been shown that the 40-kDa subunit alone does not cause the proliferation of activated human T lymphocytes or enhance the cytolytic activity of human natural killer cells. However, results obtained by site-specific chemical modification suggesting that a tryptophan residue is at or near the active site of IL-12 may imply a direct role of the subunit in interacting with the IL-12 receptor. These data may support the recent proposal (D.P. Gearing and D. Cosman (1991) Cell 66, 9-10) that IL-12 consists of a complex of cytokine and soluble receptor.

The role of arginine residues in interleukin 1 receptor binding.

Interleukin 1 (IL-1) is a family of polypeptide cytokines that plays an essential role in modulating immune and inflammatory responses. IL-1 activity is mediated by either of two distinct proteins, IL-1 alpha or IL-1 beta, both of which bind to the same receptor found on T-lymphocytes, fibroblasts and endothelial cells (Type 1 receptor). The effect of specific chemical modification of recombinant IL-1 alpha and IL-1 beta on receptor binding was examined. Modification of the proteins with phenylglyoxal, an arginine-specific reagent, resulted in the loss of Type 1 IL-1 receptor binding activity. The stoichiometry of this modification revealed that a single arginine in either IL-1 alpha or IL-1 beta is responsible for the loss of activity. Cyanogen bromide cleavage of phenylglyoxal modified IL-1 alpha and IL-1 beta, followed by sequencing of the peptides, revealed that arginine-12 in IL-1 alpha and arginine-4 in IL-1 beta, which occupy the same topology in the respective crystallographic structures, are the target of phenylglyoxal. These results suggest that an arginine residue plays an important role in ligand-receptor interaction.

Ferrate oxidation of murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase: identification of the template-primer binding domain.

Treatment of murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase (MuLV RT) with potassium ferrate, an oxidizing agent known to oxidize amino acids involved in phosphate binding domains of proteins, results in the irreversible inactivation of both the DNA polymerase and the RNase H activities. Significant protection from ferrate-mediated inactivation is observed in the presence of template-primer but not in the presence of substrate deoxynucleoside triphosphates. Furthermore, ferrate-treated enzyme loses template-primer binding activity as judged by UV-mediated cross-linking of radiolabeled DNA. Comparative tryptic peptide mapping by reverse-phase HPLC of native and ferrate-oxidized enzyme indicated the presence of two new peptides eluting at 38 and 57 min and a significant loss of a peptide eluting at 74 min. Purification, amino acid composition, and sequencing of these affected peptides revealed that they correspond to amino acid residues 285-295, 630-640, and 586-599, respectively, in the primary amino acid sequence of MuLV RT. These results indicate that the domains constituted by the above peptides are important for the template-primer binding function in MuLV RT. Peptide I is located in the polymerase domain whereas peptides II and III are located in the RNase H domain. Amino acid sequence analysis of peptides I and II suggested Lys-285 and Cys-635 as the probable sites of ferrate action.

Lysine-329 of murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase: possible involvement in the template-primer binding function.

Treatment of murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase (MuLV RT) with 4-(oxoacetyl)-phenoxyacetic acid (OAPA) results in the loss of DNA polymerase as well as template-primer binding activity but has no effect on the RT-associated RNase-H activity. Binding stoichiometry revealed that approximately 3 mol of OAPA bound per mole of enzyme, when complete enzyme activation occurred. However, in the presence of template-primer, OAPA does not abolish polymerase activity and 2 mol of OAPA remains bound to 1 mol of enzyme. This observation suggests that only one OAPA reactive site is responsible for the loss of polymerase activity. This site was located on a single tryptic peptide by comparing the maps of the native enzyme and the enzyme treated with OAPA in the presence and absence of template-primer. The appearance of a new peptide peak eluting at 125 min from a C-18 reverse-phase column was consistently noted in the tryptic digest of enzyme treated with OAPA. This peak was absent in tryptic peptides made from the control enzyme or the enzyme protein that was treated with OAPA in the presence of activated DNA or synthetic template-primers. Amino acid composition and sequence analyses of this peptide revealed that it spanned residues 312-342 in the primary amino acid sequence of MuLV RT. Since this peptide does not contain arginine residues and Lys-329 exhibited resistance to tryptic digestion, we conclude that Lys-329 is the target of OAPA action.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Substrate binding domain of murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase. Identification of lysine 103 and lysine 421 as binding site residues.

The substrate deoxynucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) binding site of Moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV) reverse transcriptase was labeled with pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP), a substrate binding site-directed reagent for DNA polymerases (Modak, M. J. (1976) Biochemistry 15, 3620-3626). Treatment of M-MuLV reverse transcriptase with PLP results in the loss of RNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity, but has no effect on ribonuclease H activity. Neither template-primer nor substrate dNTP alone shows any protective effect from PLP-mediated inactivation. However, the presence of both template-primer and complementary substrate dNTP significantly protects M-MuLV reverse transcriptase from PLP inhibition. Using tritiated sodium borohydride to label the pyridoxylated enzyme, approximately 4 mol of PLP were incorporated per mol of enzyme. In the presence of template-primer and the complementary dNTP, however, only 2 mol of PLP were incorporated. Comparative tryptic peptide mapping of enzyme, modified in the presence and absence of substrates by PLP reaction on C-18 reverse phase columns, indicated the protection of two peptides from pyridoxylation in the presence of substrate triphosphate. These two peptides were further purified and characterized by amino acid analyses and sequencing and were found to span residues 103 to 110 and 412 to 425 in the primary amino acid sequence of M-MuLV reverse transcriptase. Furthermore, Lys-103 of peptide I and Lys-421 of peptide II were found to be the targets of pyridoxylation, indicating that these 2 lysine residues are involved in substrate dNTP binding in M-MuLV reverse transcriptase.

Synthesis of 3 beta-hydroxy-5 alpha-cholest-8-en-7-one and 3 beta-hydroxy-5 alpha-cholest-8-en-11-one: evaluation as potential hypocholesterolemic agents.

An efficient procedure for the chemical synthesis of 3 beta-hydroxy-5 alpha-cholest-8-en-7-one and 3 beta-hydroxy-5 alpha-cholest-8-en-11-one is described. These ketosterols have been shown to have possible significant hypocholesterolemic effects when fed to normal rats at a level of 0.15% in a laboratory chow diet. The diets containing the steroids caused significant decreases in food consumption which were associated with decreases in the rate of gain in body weight.

Oxysterols: chemical synthesis, biosynthesis and biological activities.

As a class of compounds, oxysterols have demonstrated a wide variety of biological properties. Due to the general interest in these compounds, new methods of chemical synthesis have been developed to provide them for biological investigation. The specific inhibition by oxysterols of cholesterol biosynthesis in mammalian cells has been shown to result primarily from a decrease in cellular levels of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase activity. Recent evidence suggests these cellular responses may be mediated by an oxysterol binding protein found in the cytosol of many lines of cultured cells. In certain instances, oxysterols have been shown to be produced in biological systems. These results support the supposition that oxysterols may regulate sterol biosynthesis at the cellular level. Included herein are the inhibitory effects of 9 alpha, 11 alpha-epoxycholest-7-en-3 beta-ol cholest-8-en-3 beta-ol-7-one and cholest-8-en-3 beta-ol-11-one on HMG-CoA reductase activity and their relative affinities for a cytosolic binding protein.