Investigations into the binding of jadomycin DS to human topoisomerase IIß by WaterLOGSY NMR spectroscopy.

The jadomycins are a family of secondary metabolites produced by S. venezuelae ISP5230. Specific jadomycins have been shown to possess a variety of anticancer, antifungal, and antibacterial properties, with different molecular mechanisms of action. Herein we demonstrate qualitative and quantitative direct binding between the validated anticancer target human topoisomerase IIß and jadomycin DS using WaterLOGSY NMR spectroscopy. Additionally, we report for the first time, that jadomycin DS also binds a variety of other proteins, likely in a non-specific manner. Such interactions may rationalize the potential polypharmacology of jadomycin DS.

Enzyme-catalyzed synthesis of furanosyl nucleotides.

A bacterial alpha-d-glucopyranosyl-1-phosphate thymidylyltransferase was found to couple four hexofuranosyl-1-phosphates, as well as a pentofuranosyl-1-phosphate, with deoxythymidine 5'-triphosphate, providing access to furanosyl nucleotides. The enzymatic reaction mixtures were analyzed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy to determine the anomeric stereochemistry of furanosyl nucleotide products. This is the first demonstration of a nucleotidylyltransferase discriminating between diastereomeric mixtures of sugar-1-phosphates to produce stereopure, biologically relevant furanosyl nucleotides.

Stereochemical integrity of oxazolone ring-containing jadomycins.

The jadomycins are a series of natural products produced by Streptomyces venzuelae ISP5230 in response to ethanol shock. A unique structural feature of these angucyclines is the oxazolone ring, the formation of which is catalyzed by condensation of a biosynthetic aldehyde intermediate and an amino acid. The feeding of enantiomeric forms of alpha-amino acids indicates that the amino acid is incorporated by S. venezuelae ISP5230 without isomerization at the alpha-carbon. The characterization of the first two six-membered E-ring-containing jadomycins is reported. These precursor-directed biosynthesis studies indicate flexibility in the acceptor substrate specificity of the glycosyltransferase, JadS. Analysis of cytotoxicity data against two human breast cancer cell lines indicates that the nature of the substitution at the alpha-carbon, rather than the stereochemistry, influences biological activity.

Substrate flexibility of a 2,6-dideoxyglycosyltransferase.

We report the first 2,6-dideoxysugar-O-glycosyltransferase with substrate flexibility at the 2 position, confirm the function of a putative NDP-hexose 2,3-dehydratase in the jadomycin B biosynthetic gene cluster and deduce the substrate flexibility of downstream enzymes in l-digitoxose assembly, enabling reprogramming of biosynthetic gene clusters to modify sugar substituents.

Ring-opening dynamics of jadomycin A and B and dalomycin T.

[structure: see text] A novel oxazolone ring-opening and interconversion process between the two jadomycin diastereomeric forms has been characterized by NMR spectroscopy. An analogue, dalomycin T, has been isolated for the first time and does not undergo interconversion.

1H NMR investigation of the solution structure of substrate-free human heme oxygenase: comparison to the cyanide-inhibited, substrate-bound complex.

1H NMR was used to investigate the molecular structure, and dynamic properties of soluble, recombinant, substrate-free human heme oxygenase (apohHO) on a comparative basis with similar studies on the substrate complex. Limited but crucial sequence-specific assignments identify five conserved secondary structural elements, and the detection of highly characteristic dipolar or H-bond interactions among these elements together with insignificant chemical shift differences confirm a strongly conserved folding topology of helices C-H relative to that of substrate complexes in either solution or the crystal. The correction of the chemical shifts for paramagnetic and porphyrin ring current influences in the paramagnetic substrate complex reveals that the strength of all but one of the numerous relatively robust H-bonds are conserved in apohHO, and similar ordered water molecules are located near these H-bond donors as observed in the substrate complexes. The unique and significant weakening of the Tyr(58) OH hydrogen bond to the catalytically critical Asp(140) carboxylate in apohHO is suggested to arise from the removal of the axial H-bond acceptor ligand rather than the loss of substrate. The interhelical positions of the conserved strong H-bonds argue for a structural role in maintaining a conserved structure for helices C-H upon loss of substrate. While the structure and H-bond network are largely conserved upon loss of substrate, the variably increased rate of NH lability dictates a significant loss of dynamic stability in the conserved structure, particularly near the distal helix F.

Solution 1H, 15N NMR spectroscopic characterization of substrate-bound, cyanide-inhibited human heme oxygenase: water occupation of the distal cavity.

A solution NMR spectroscopic study of the cyanide-inhibited, substrate-bound complex of uniformly (15)N-labeled human heme oxygenase, hHO, has led to characterization of the active site with respect to the nature and identity of strong hydrogen bonds and the occupation of ordered water molecules within both the hydrogen bonding network and an aromatic cluster on the distal side. [(1)H-(15)N]-HSQC spectra confirm the functionalities of several key donors in particularly robust H-bonds, and [(1)H-(15)N]HSQC-NOESY spectra lead to the identification of three additional robust H-bonds, as well as the detection of two more relatively strong H-bonds whose identities could not be established. The 3D NMR experiments provided only a modest, but important, extension of assignments because of the loss of key TOCSY cross-peaks due to the line broadening from a dynamic heterogeneity in the active site. Steady-state NOEs upon saturating the water signal locate nine ordered water molecules in the immediate vicinity of the H-bond donors, six of which are readily identified in the crystal structure. The additional three are positioned in available spaces to account for the observed NOEs. (15)N-filtered steady-state NOEs upon saturating the water resonances and (15)N-filtered NOESY spectra demonstrate significant negative NOEs between water molecules and the protons of five aromatic rings. Many of the NOEs can be rationalized by water molecules located in the crystal structure, but strong water NOEs, particularly to the rings of Phe47 and Trp96, demand the presence of at least an additional two immobilized water molecules near these rings. The H-bond network appears to function to order water molecules to provide stabilization for the hydroperoxy intermediate and to serve as a conduit to the active site for the nine protons required per HO turnover.

Solution 1H NMR investigation of the active site molecular and electronic structures of substrate-bound, cyanide-inhibited HmuO, a bacterial heme oxygenase from Corynebacterium diphtheriae.

The molecular structure and dynamic properties of the active site environment of HmuO, a heme oxygenase (HO) from the pathogenic bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae, have been investigated by (1)H NMR spectroscopy using the human HO (hHO) complex as a homology model. It is demonstrated that not only the spatial contacts among residues and between residues and heme, but the magnetic axes that can be related to the direction and magnitude of the steric tilt of the FeCN unit are strongly conserved in the two HO complexes. The results indicate that very similar contributions of steric blockage of several meso positions and steric tilt of the attacking ligand are operative. A distal H-bond network that involves numerous very strong H-bonds and immobilized water molecules is identified in HmuO that is analogous to that previously identified in hHO (Li, Y., Syvitski, R. T., Auclair, K., Wilks, A., Ortiz de Montellano, P. R., and La Mar, G. N. (2002) J. Biol. Chem. 277, 33018-33031). The NMR results are completely consistent with the very recent crystal structure of the HmuO.substrate complex. The H-bond network/ordered water molecules are proposed to orient the distal water molecule near the catalytically key Asp(136) (Asp(140) in hHO) that stabilizes the hydroperoxy intermediate. The dynamic stability of this H-bond network in HmuO is significantly greater than in hHO and may account for the slower catalytic rate in bacterial HO compared with mammalian HO.

1H NMR detection of immobilized water molecules within a strong distal hydrogen-bonding network of substrate-bound human heme oxygenase-1.

Solution 1H NMR is used to probe the environments of the donor protons of eight strong hydrogen bonds on the distal side of the heme substrate in the cyanide-inhibited, substrate-bound complex of human heme oxygenase, hHO. It is demonstrated that significant magnetization transfer from the bulk water signal to the eight labile protons does not result from chemical exchange, but from direct nuclear Overhauser effect due to the dipolar interaction of these labile protons with "ordered" water molecules. The enzyme labile proton to water proton distances are estimated at approximately 3 A. It is proposed that the role of the strong hydrogen-bonding network is to immobilize numerous water molecules which both stabilize the activated hydroperoxy species and funnel protons to the active site.

Solution NMR characterization of an unusual distal H-bond network in the active site of the cyanide-inhibited, human heme oxygenase complex of the symmetric substrate, 2,4-dimethyldeuterohemin.

The presence of variable static hemin orientational disorder about the alpha-gamma-meso axis in the substrate complexes of mammalian heme oxygenase, together with the incomplete averaging of a second, dynamic disorder, for each hemin orientation, has led to NMR spectra with severe spectral overlap and loss of key two-dimensional correlations that seriously interfere with structural characterization in solution. We demonstrate that the symmetric substrate, 2,4-dimethyldeuterohemin, yields a single solution species for which the dynamic disorder is sufficiently rapid to allow effective and informative (1)H NMR structural characterization. A much more extensive, effective, and definitive NMR characterization of the cyanide-inhibited, symmetric heme complex of human heme oxygenase shows that the active site structure, with some minor differences, is essentially the same as that for the native protohemin in solution and crystal. A unique distal network that involves particularly strong hydrogen bonds, as well as inter-aromatic contacts, is described that is proposed to stabilize the position of the catalytically critical distal helix Asp-140 carboxylate (Liu, Y., Koenigs Lightning, L., Huang, H., Moënne-Loccoz, P., Schuller, D. J., Poulos, T. L., Loehr, T. M., and Ortiz de Montellano, P. R. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 34501-34507). The potential role of this network in placing a water molecule to stabilize the hydroperoxy species and as a template for the condensation of the distal helix upon substrate binding are discussed.