Models for biological trinuclear copper clusters. Characterization and enantioselective catalytic oxidation of catechols by the copper(II) complexes of a chiral ligand derived from (S)-(-)-1,1'-binaphthyl-2,2'-diamine.

The dinuclear and trinuclear Cu(II) complexes of an octadentate ligand derived from (S)-1,1'-binaphthyl-2,2'-diamine have been prepared and characterized by UV/Vis, CD, EPR and NMR spectroscopy. The ligand contains two tridentate aminobis(benzimidazole) donor arms connected to a central bidentate diaminobinaphthyl linker, which hosts the chiral unit. In the dinuclear Cu complex the ligation occurs essentially within the tridentate arms of the ligand. The two Cu centers are EPR nonequivalent and noninteracting. The EPR data suggests that one of the Cu ions additionally interacts with one of the tertiary aminonaphthyl donors. In the trinuclear complex the two aminonaphthyl donors bind the third Cu ion. The EPR spectrum of this complex shows the signal for a mononuclear Cu(II) center bound to a tridentate arm, while the remaining two Cu(II) centers are coupled through hydroxo groups. The CD spectrum shows that in the free ligand a severe reduction of the dihedral angle between the naphthyl groups from the strain free range occurs. This conformation is stabilized by ring stacking interactions with the benzimidazole groups. On complex formation this interaction is removed because the benzimidazole groups are involved in metal binding. In the dinuclear Cu complex the conformation of the binaphthyl chromophore probably approaches the strain free range, while in the trinuclear Cu complex a marked flattening of the dihedral angle between the two naphthyl rings occurs. Both complexes are active catalysts in the oxidation of L-/D-Dopa derivatives to quinones. High enantioselectivity is observed in the oxidation of L-/D-Dopa methyl ester catalyzed by the dinuclear Cu complex, which exhibits strong preference for the d enantiomer. The enantioselectivity is largely lost for the trinuclear Cu complex.

Engineering peroxidase activity in myoglobin: the haem cavity structure and peroxide activation in the T67R/S92D mutant and its derivative reconstituted with protohaemin-l-histidine.

Atomic co-ordinates and structure factors for the T67R/S92D metMbCN mutant have been deposited with the Protein Data Bank, under accession codes 1h1x and r1h1xsf, respectively. Protein engineering and cofactor replacement have been employed as tools to introduce/modulate peroxidase activity in sperm whale Mb (myoglobin). Based on the rationale that haem peroxidase active sites are characterized by specific charged residues, the Mb haem crevice has been modified to host a haem-distalpropionate Arg residue and a proximal Asp, yielding the T67R/S92D Mb mutant. To code extra conformational mobility around the haem, and to increase the peroxidase catalytic efficiency, the T67R/S92D Mb mutant has been subsequently reconstituted with protohaem-L-histidine methyl ester, yielding a stable derivative, T67R/S92D Mb-H. The crystal structure of T67R/S92D cyano-metMb (1.4 A resolution; R factor, 0.12) highlights a regular haem-cyanide binding mode, and the role for the mutated residues in affecting the haem propionates as well as the neighbouring water structure. The conformational disorder of the haem propionate-7 is evidenced by the NMR spectrum of the mutant. Ligand-binding studies show that the iron(III) centres of T67R/S92D Mb, and especially of T67R/S92D Mb-H, exhibit higher affinity for azide and imidazole than wild-type Mb. In addition, both protein derivatives react faster than wild-type Mb with hydrogen peroxide, showing higher peroxidase-like activity towards phenolic substrates. The catalytic efficiency of T67R/S92D Mb-H in these reactions is the highest so far reported for Mb derivatives. A model for the protein-substrate interaction is deduced based on the crystal structure and on the NMR spectra of protein-phenol complexes.

The magnetic properties of myoglobin as studied by NMR spectroscopy.

Deoxymyoglobin has been investigated by NMR spectroscopy to determine the magnetic anisotropy through pseudocontact shifts and the total magnetic susceptibility through Evans measurements. The magnetic anisotropy values were found to be Deltachi(ax)=-2.03+/-0.08 x 10(-32) m(3) and Deltachi(rh)=-1.02+/-0.09 x 10(-32) m(3). The negative value of the axial susceptibility anisotropy originates from the z tensor axis lying in the heme plane, unlike all other heme systems investigated so far. This magnetic axis is almost exactly orthogonal to the axial histidine plane. The other two axes lie essentially in the histidine plane, the closest to the heme normal being tilted by about 36 degrees from it, towards pyrrole A on the side of the proximal histidine. From the comparison with cytochrome c' it clearly appears that the position of the one axis lying in the heme plane is related to the axial histidine orientation. Irrespective of the directions, the magnetic anisotropy is smaller than that of the analogous reduced cytochrome c' and of the order of that of low-spin iron(III). The magnetic anisotropy of the system permits the measurement of residual dipolar couplings, which, together with pseudocontact shifts, prove that the solution structure is very similar to that in the crystalline state. Magnetic measurements, at variance with previous data, demonstrate that there is an orbital contribution to the magnetic moment, micro(eff)=5.5 micro(B). Finally, from the magnetic anisotropy data, the hyperfine shifts of iron ligands could be separated in pseudocontact and contact components, and hints are provided to understand the spin-delocalisation mechanism in S=2 systems by keeping in mind the delocalisation patterns in low-spin S=1/2 and high-spin S= 5/2 iron(III) systems.

The phenol ortho-oxygenation by mononuclear copper(I) complexes requires a dinuclear mu-eta2:eta2-peroxodicopper(II) complex rather than mononuclear CuO2 species.

The mononuclear complex [Cu(L)]+ performs the ortho-oxygenation of an exogeneous phenol through the formation of a dinuclear mu-eta2:eta2-peroxodicopper(II) intermediate, which is so far the only type of copper-dioxygen complex that mediates the tyrosinase monophenolase reaction.

A double arene hydroxylation mediated by dicopper(II)-hydroperoxide species.

The dicopper(II) complex [Cu(2)(L)](4+) (L = alpha,alpha'-bis[bis[2-(1'-methyl-2'-benzimidazolyl)ethyl]amino]-m-xylene) reacts with hydrogen peroxide to give the dicopper(II)-hydroquinone complex in which the xylyl ring of the ligand has undergone a double hydroxylation reaction at ring positions 2 and 5. The dihydroxylated ligand 2,6-bis([bis[2-(3-methyl-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)ethyl]amino]methyl)benzene-1,4-diol was isolated by decomposition of the product complex. The incorporation of two oxygen atoms from H(2)O(2) into the ligand was confirmed by isotope labeling studies using H(2)(18)O(2). The pathway of the unusual double hydroxylation was investigated by preparing the two isomeric phenolic derivatives of L, namely 3,5-bis([bis[2-(1-methyl-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)ethyl]amino]methyl)phenol (6) and 2,6-bis([bis[2-(1-methyl-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)ethyl]amino]methyl)phenol (7), carrying the hydroxyl group in one of the two positions where L is hydroxylated. The dicopper(II) complexes prepared with the new ligands 6 and 7 and containing bridging micro-phenoxo moieties are inactive in the hydroxylation. Though, the dicopper(II) complex 3 derived from 6 and containing a protonated phenol is rapidly hydroxylated by H(2)O(2) and represents the first product formed in the hydroxylation of [Cu(2)(L)](4+). Kinetic studies performed on the reactions of [Cu(2)(L)](4+) and 3 with H(2)O(2) show that the second hydroxylation is faster than the first one at room temperature (0.13 +/- 0.05 s(-1) vs 5.0(+/-0.1) x 10(-3) s(-1)) and both are intramolecular processes. However, the two reactions exhibit different activation parameters (Delta H++ = 39.1 +/- 0.9 kJ mol(-1) and Delta S++ = -115.7 +/- 2.4 J K(-1) mol(-1) for the first hydroxylation; Delta H++ = 77.8 +/- 1.6 kJ mol(-1) and Delta S++ = -14.0 +/- 0.4 J K(-1) mol(-1) for the second hydroxylation). By studying the reaction between [Cu(2)(L)](4+) and H(2)O(2) at low temperature, we were able to characterize the intermediate eta(1):eta(1)-hydroperoxodicopper(II) adduct active in the first hydroxylation step, [Cu(2)(L)(OOH)](3+) [lambda(max) = 342 (epsilon 12,000), 444 (epsilon 1200), and 610 nm (epsilon 800 M(-1)cm(-1)); broad EPR signal in frozen solution indicative of magnetically coupled Cu(II) centers].

Tyrosinase-catalyzed oxidation of fluorophenols.

The activity of the type 3 copper enzyme tyrosinase toward 2-, 3-, and 4-fluorophenol was studied by kinetic methods and (1)H and (19)F NMR spectroscopy. Whereas 3- and 4-fluorophenol react with tyrosinase to give products that undergo a rapid polymerization process, 2-fluorophenol is not reactive and actually acts as a competitive inhibitor in the enzymatic oxidation of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-dopa). The tyrosinase-mediated polymerization of 3- and 4-fluorophenols has been studied in detail. It proceeds through a phenolic coupling pathway in which the common reactive fluoroquinone, produced stereospecifically by tyrosinase, eliminates an inorganic fluorine ion. The enzymatic reaction studied as a function of substrate concentration shows a prominent lag that is completely depleted in the presence of L-dopa. The kinetic parameters of the reactions can be correlated to the electronic and steric effects of the fluorine substituent position. Whereas the fluorine electron withdrawing effect appears to control the binding of the substrates (K(m) for 3- and 4-fluorophenols and K(I) for 2-fluorophenol), the k(cat) parameters do not follow the expected trend, indicating that in the transition state some additional steric effect rules the reactivity.