Distefano, M.D.

J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1997, 119, 11643-11652, 10.1021/JA970820K

In an effort to prepare selective and efficient catalysts for ester and amide hydrolysis, we are designing systems that position a coordinated metal ion within a defined protein cavity. Here, the preparation of a protein-1,10-phenanthroline conjugate and the hydrolytic chemistry catalyzed by this construct are described. Iodoacetamido-1,10-phenanthroline was used to modify a unique cysteine residue in ALBP (adipocyte lipid binding protein) to produce the conjugate ALBP-Phen. The resulting material was characterized by electrospray mass spectrometry, UV/vis and fluorescence spectroscopy, gel filtration chromatography, and thiol titration. The stability of ALBP-Phen was evaluated by guanidine hydrochloride denaturation experiments, and the ability of the conjugate to bind Cu(II) was demonstrated by fluorescence spectroscopy. ALBP-Phen-Cu(II) catalyzes the enantioselective hydrolysis of several unactivated amino acid esters under mild conditions (pH 6.1, 25 °C) at rates 32−280-fold above the background rate in buffered aqueous solution. In 24 h incubations 0.70 to 7.6 turnovers were observed with enantiomeric excesses ranging from 31% ee to 86% ee. ALBP-Phen-Cu(II) also promotes the hydrolysis of an aryl amide substrate under more vigorous conditions (pH 6.1, 37 °C) at a rate 1.6 × 104-fold above the background rate. The kinetics of this amide hydrolysis reaction fit the Michaelis−Menten relationship characteristic of enzymatic processes. The rate enhancements for ester and amide hydrolysis reported here are 102−103 lower than those observed for free Cu(II) but comparable to those previously reported for Cu(II) complexes.

Harada, A.

Inorg. Chem. 1997, 36, 6099-6102, 10.1021/ic9610849

Antibody 03-1, which was prepared by immunization with meso-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP) conjugate, has been found to bind strongly to Mn(III)−TCPP and Fe(III)−TCPP complexes with dissociation constants of 4.1 × 10-7 and 1.5 × 10-7 M, respectively, although other monoclonal antibodies raised against TCPP did not bind to these TCPP−metal complexes. The complexes of antibody 03-1 with Mn(III)−TCPP and Fe(III)−TCPP were found to catalyze oxidation of pyrogallol selectively. A Lineweaver-Burk plot for the oxidation of pyrogallol by the antibody−Fe−TCPP complex showed Km = 4.0 mM and kcat = 50 min-1. Studies on the effect of the molar ratio of the antibody to metalloporphyrin on the catalytic activity showed that a 1:1 complex was the most effective for the reaction. The effect of salt (NaCl) on the reaction showed that electrostatic interaction between the antibody and the metalloporphyrin was important for the reaction. The antibody−metalloporphyrin complexes are stable enough to show catalytic activity in the presence of an excess amount of H2O2.

Imperiali, B.

Prot. Eng. 1997, 10, 691-698, 10.1093/protein/10.6.691

The transaminase activity of two new semisynthetic RNase-S proteins incorporating a pyridoxamine moiety at the active site has been evaluated. A chemically competent derivative of pyridoxamine phosphate was incorporated into the C-peptide fragments of these non-covalent protein complexes in the form of an unnatural coenzyme-amino acid chimera, 'Pam'. The chimeric Pam residue integrates the heterocyclic functionality of pyridoxamine phosphate into the side chain of an alpha-amino acid and was introduced instead of Phe8 into the C-peptide sequence via standard solid phase methodology. The two semisynthetic Pam-RNase constructs were designed to probe whether the native ribonuclease catalytic machinery could be enlisted to modulate a pyridoxamine-dependent transamination reaction. Both RNase complexes, H1SP and S1SP, exhibited modest rate enhancements in the Cu(II)-assisted transamination of pyruvate to alanine under single turnover conditions, relative to 5'-deoxypyridoxamine and the uncomplexed C-peptide fragments. Furthermore, multiple turnovers of substrates were achieved in the presence of added L-phenylalanine due to recycling of the pyridoxamine moiety. The modest chiral inductions observed in the catalytic production of alanine and the differences in reactivity between the two proteins could be rationalized by the participation of a general base (His12) in complex H1SP, and by the increased tolerance for large amino acid substrates by complex S1SP, which contains serine at this position. The pyridoxamine-amino acid chimera will be useful in the future for examining the coenzyme structure/ function relationships in a native-like peptidyl architecture.