Structure and mechanism of NOV1, a resveratrol-cleaving dioxygenase.

Stilbenes are diphenyl ethene compounds produced naturally in a wide variety of plant species and some bacteria. Stilbenes are also derived from lignin during kraft pulping. Stilbene cleavage oxygenases (SCOs) cleave the central double bond of stilbenes, forming two phenolic aldehydes. Here, we report the structure of an SCO. The X-ray structure of NOV1 from Novosphingobium aromaticivorans was determined in complex with its substrate resveratrol (1.89 Å), its product vanillin (1.75 Å), and without any bound ligand (1.61 Å). The enzyme is a seven-bladed ß-propeller with an iron cofactor coordinated by four histidines. In all three structures, dioxygen is observed bound to the iron in a side-on fashion. These structures, along with EPR analysis, allow us to propose a mechanism in which a ferric-superoxide reacts with substrate activated by deprotonation of a phenol group at position 4 of the substrate, which allows movement of electron density toward the central double bond and thus facilitates reaction with the ferric superoxide electrophile. Correspondingly, NOV1 cleaves a wide range of other stilbene-like compounds with a 4'-OH group, offering potential in processing some solubilized fragments of lignin into monomer aromatic compounds.

Nuclear Resonance Vibrational Spectroscopy Definition of O2 Intermediates in an Extradiol Dioxygenase: Correlation to Crystallography and Reactivity.

The extradiol dioxygenases are a large subclass of mononuclear nonheme Fe enzymes that catalyze the oxidative cleavage of catechols distal to their OH groups. These enzymes are important in bioremediation, and there has been significant interest in understanding how they activate O2. The extradiol dioxygenase homoprotocatechuate 2,3-dioxygenase (HPCD) provides an opportunity to study this process, as two O2 intermediates have been trapped and crystallographically defined using the slow substrate 4-nitrocatechol (4NC): a side-on Fe-O2-4NC species and a Fe-O2-4NC peroxy bridged species. Also with 4NC, two solution intermediates have been trapped in the H200N variant, where H200 provides a second-sphere hydrogen bond in the wild-type enzyme. While the electronic structure of these solution intermediates has been defined previously as FeIII-superoxo-catecholate and FeIII-peroxy-semiquinone, their geometric structures are unknown. Nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy (NRVS) is an important tool for structural definition of nonheme Fe-O2 intermediates, as all normal modes with Fe displacement have intensity in the NRVS spectrum. In this study, NRVS is used to define the geometric structure of the H200N-4NC solution intermediates in HPCD as an end-on FeIII-superoxo-catecholate and an end-on FeIII-hydroperoxo-semiquinone. Parallel calculations are performed to define the electronic structures and protonation states of the crystallographically defined wild-type HPCD-4NC intermediates, where the side-on intermediate is found to be a FeIII-hydroperoxo-semiquinone. The assignment of this crystallographic intermediate is validated by correlation to the NRVS data through computational removal of H200. While the side-on hydroperoxo semiquinone intermediate is computationally found to be nonreactive in peroxide bridge formation, it is isoenergetic with a superoxo catecholate species that is competent in performing this reaction. This study provides insight into the relative reactivities of FeIII-superoxo and FeIII-hydroperoxo intermediates in nonheme Fe enzymes and into the role H200 plays in facilitating extradiol catalysis.

Iatrogenic thyrotoxicosis and the role of therapeutic plasma exchange.

Thyroid storm or severe thyrotoxicosis results from extreme thyroid hormone elevation. Therapy includes medical management to prevent hormone production, release, recycling, and peripheral conversion while stabilizing adrenergic tone. Thyroid dysfunction is the usual cause but it can be due to excessive thyroid hormone ingestion. Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) has been used to rapidly remove protein-bound thyroid hormone. American Society for Apheresis guidelines make a weak recommendation to perform TPE in selected patients in the treatment of thyrotoxicosis based on low quality evidence. We present a case of excessive thyroid replacement hormone ingestion treated by TPE. The patient presented with the clinical picture of thyroid storm, including cardiovascular compromise and massively elevated total and free T3 (525 ng/dL, nl 80-200 ng/dL and 28 pg/mL, nl 2.0-3.5 11 pg/mL), which failed medical therapy. A single, one plasma volume TPE was performed. Both total and free T3 demonstrated substantial declines immediately after TPE with the patient's mental status returning to near-normal. Thyroid hormone extraction efficiency and collection efficacy were calculated as 37.1% and 40.8%, respectively. Prior to discharge on day 6, the patient's compounding pharmacy indicated that a "bad batch" of bovine thyroid gland derived replacement hormone had been produced. TPE appears to be effective in removing protein bound thyroid hormone in extreme iatrogenic thyrotoxicosis.

A Long-Lived Fe(III)-(Hydroperoxo) Intermediate in the Active H200C Variant of Homoprotocatechuate 2,3-Dioxygenase: Characterization by Mössbauer, Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, and Density Functional Theory Methods.

The extradiol-cleaving dioxygenase homoprotocatechuate 2,3-dioxygenase (HPCD) binds substrate homoprotocatechuate (HPCA) and O2 sequentially in adjacent ligand sites of the active site Fe(II). Kinetic and spectroscopic studies of HPCD have elucidated catalytic roles of several active site residues, including the crucial acid-base chemistry of His200. In the present study, reaction of the His200Cys (H200C) variant with native substrate HPCA resulted in a decrease in both kcat and the rate constants for the activation steps following O2 binding by >400 fold. The reaction proceeds to form the correct extradiol product. This slow reaction allowed a long-lived (t1/2 = 1.5 min) intermediate, H200C-HPCAInt1 (Int1), to be trapped. Mössbauer and parallel mode electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies show that Int1 contains an S1 = 5/2 Fe(III) center coupled to an SR = 1/2 radical to give a ground state with total spin S = 2 (J > 40 cm(-1)) in Hexch = JS1·SR. Density functional theory (DFT) property calculations for structural models suggest that Int1 is a (HPCA semiquinone(•))Fe(III)(OOH) complex, in which OOH is protonated at the distal O and the substrate hydroxyls are deprotonated. By combining Mössbauer and EPR data of Int1 with DFT calculations, the orientations of the principal axes of the (57)Fe electric field gradient and the zero-field splitting tensors (D = 1.6 cm(-1), E/D = 0.05) were determined. This information was used to predict hyperfine splittings from bound (17)OOH. DFT reactivity analysis suggests that Int1 can evolve from a ferromagnetically coupled Fe(III)-superoxo precursor by an inner-sphere proton-coupled-electron-transfer process. Our spectroscopic and DFT results suggest that a ferric hydroperoxo species is capable of extradiol catalysis.

Trapping and spectroscopic characterization of an FeIII-superoxo intermediate from a nonheme mononuclear iron-containing enzyme.

Fe(III)-O(2)*(-) intermediates are well known in heme enzymes, but none have been characterized in the nonheme mononuclear Fe(II) enzyme family. Many steps in the O(2) activation and reaction cycle of Fe(II)-containing homoprotocatechuate 2,3-dioxygenase are made detectable by using the alternative substrate 4-nitrocatechol (4NC) and mutation of the active site His200 to Asn (H200N). Here, the first intermediate (Int-1) observed after adding O(2) to the H200N-4NC complex is trapped and characterized using EPR and Mössbauer (MB) spectroscopies. Int-1 is a high-spin (S(1) = 5/2) Fe(III) antiferromagnetically (AF) coupled to an S(2) = 1/2 radical (J ≈ 6 cm(-1) in ). It exhibits parallel-mode EPR signals at g = 8.17 from the S = 2 multiplet, and g = 8.8 and 11.6 from the S = 3 multiplet. These signals are broadened significantly by hyperfine interactions (A((17)O) ≈ 180 MHz). Thus, Int-1 is an AF-coupled species. The experimental observations are supported by density functional theory calculations that show nearly complete transfer of spin density to the bound O(2). Int-1 decays to form a second intermediate (Int-2). MB spectra show that it is also an AF-coupled Fe(III)-radical complex. Int-2 exhibits an EPR signal at g = 8.05 arising from an S = 2 state. The signal is only slightly broadened by (< 3% spin delocalization), suggesting that Int-2 is a peroxo-Fe(III)-4NC semiquinone radical species. Our results demonstrate facile electron transfer between Fe(II), O(2), and the organic ligand, thereby supporting the proposed wild-type enzyme mechanism.

Substrate-mediated oxygen activation by homoprotocatechuate 2,3-dioxygenase: intermediates formed by a tyrosine 257 variant.

Homoprotocatechuate (HPCA; 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetate or 4-carboxymethyl catechol) and O(2) bind in adjacent ligand sites of the active site Fe(II) of homoprotocatechuate 2,3-dioxygenase (FeHPCD). We have proposed that electron transfer from the chelated aromatic substrate through the Fe(II) to O(2) gives both substrates radical character. This would promote reaction between the substrates to form an alkylperoxo intermediate as the first step in aromatic ring cleavage. Several active site amino acids are thought to promote these reactions through acid/base chemistry, hydrogen bonding, and electrostatic interactions. Here the role of Tyr257 is explored by using the Tyr257Phe (Y257F) variant, which decreases k(cat) by about 75%. The crystal structure of the FeHPCD-HPCA complex has shown that Tyr257 hydrogen bonds to the deprotonated C2-hydroxyl of HPCA. Stopped-flow studies show that at least two reaction intermediates, termed Y257F(Int1)(HPCA) and Y257F(Int2)(HPCA), accumulate during the Y257F-HPCA + O(2) reaction prior to formation of the ring-cleaved product. Y257F(Int1)(HPCA) is colorless and is formed as O(2) binds reversibly to the HPCA−enzyme complex. Y257F(Int2)(HPCA) forms spontaneously from Y257F(Int1)(HPCA) and displays a chromophore at 425 nm (ε(425) = 10 500 M(−1) cm(−1)). Mössbauer spectra of the intermediates trapped by rapid freeze quench show that both intermediates contain Fe(II). The lack of a chromophore characteristic of a quinone or semiquinone form of HPCA, the presence of Fe(II), and the low O(2) affinity suggest that Y257F(Int1)(HPCA) is an HPCA-Fe(II)-O(2) complex with little electron delocalization onto the O(2). In contrast, the intense spectrum of Y257F(Int2)(HPCA) suggests the intermediate is most likely an HPCA quinone-Fe(II)-(hydro)peroxo species. Steady-state and transient kinetic analyses show that steps of the catalytic cycle are slowed by as much as 100-fold by the mutation. These effects can be rationalized by a failure of Y257F to facilitate the observed distortion of the bound HPCA that is proposed to promote transfer of one electron to O(2).

Comparison of Five Common Analyzers in the Measurement of Chemistry Analytes in an Authentic Cohort of Body Fluid Specimens.

OBJECTIVES: Interpretation of body fluid (BF) results is based on published studies and clinical guidelines. The aim of this study is to determine whether the assays from five common commercial vendors produce similar results in BFs for 12 analytes in a BF cohort. METHODS: BFs (n = 25) and serum (n = 5) were analyzed on five instruments (Roche cobas c501, Ortho 5600, Beckman AU5800 and DXI800, Siemens Vista 1500, and Abbott Architect c8000) to measure albumin, amylase, total bilirubin, cholesterol, creatinine, glucose, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), lipase, total protein, triglycerides, urea nitrogen, and carcinoembryonic antigen. Deming regression and Bland-Altman analysis were used for method comparison to Roche. RESULTS: Results were significantly different from Roche for LDH and lipase on Ortho and lipase on Siemens but similar for both BFs and serum. BF differences were larger than serum differences when measuring creatinine, glucose, and urea nitrogen on Ortho and glucose on Siemens. CONCLUSIONS: Five instruments used to perform BF testing produce results that are not significantly different except for lipase and LDH measurements. Bias of similar magnitude observed in both BF and serum should not affect interpretation. Further investigations into Ortho and Siemens measuring glucose and Ortho measuring creatinine and urea nitrogen are warranted.

Oxy intermediates of homoprotocatechuate 2,3-dioxygenase: facile electron transfer between substrates.

Substrates homoprotocatechuate (HPCA) and O(2) bind to the Fe(II) of homoprotocatechuate 2,3-dioxygenase (FeHPCD) in adjacent coordination sites. Transfer of an electron(s) from HPCA to O(2) via the iron is proposed to activate the substrates for reaction with each other to initiate aromatic ring cleavage. Here, rapid-freeze-quench methods are used to trap and spectroscopically characterize intermediates in the reactions of the HPCA complexes of FeHPCD and the variant His200Asn (FeHPCD−HPCA and H200N−HPCA, respectively) with O(2). A blue intermediate forms within 20 ms of mixing of O(2) with H200N−HPCA (H200N(Int1)(HPCA)). Parallel mode electron paramagnetic resonance and Mössbauer spectroscopies show that this intermediate contains high-spin Fe(III) (S = 5/2) antiferromagnetically coupled to a radical (S(R) = 1/2) to yield an S = 2 state. Together, optical and Mössbauer spectra of the intermediate support assignment of the radical as an HPCA semiquinone, implying that oxygen is bound as a (hydro)peroxo ligand. H200N(Int1)(HPCA) decays over the next 2 s, possibly through an Fe(II) intermediate (H200N(Int2)(HPCA)), to yield the product and the resting Fe(II) enzyme. Reaction of FeHPCD−HPCA with O(2) results in rapid formation of a colorless Fe(II) intermediate (FeHPCD(Int1)(HPCA)). This species decays within 1 s to yield the product and the resting enzyme. The absence of a chromophore from a semiquinone or evidence of a spin-coupled species in FeHPCD(Int1)(HPCA) suggests it is an intermediate occurring after O(2) activation and attack. The similar Mössbauer parameters for FeHPCD(Int1)(HPCA) and H200N(Int2)(HPCA) suggest these are similar intermediates. The results show that transfer of an electron from the substrate to the O(2) via the iron does occur, leading to aromatic ring cleavage.

Volumetric Microsampling of Capillary Blood Spot vs Whole Blood Sampling for Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Tacrolimus and Cyclosporin A: Accuracy and Patient Satisfaction.

BACKGROUND: Immunosuppressant therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) usually requires outpatient travel to hospitals or phlebotomy sites for venous blood collection; however Mitra® Microsampling Device (MSD) sampling could allow self-collection and shipping of samples to a laboratory for analysis. This study examined the feasibility of using volumetric microsampling by MSD for TDM of tacrolimus (TaC) and cyclosporin A (CsA) in transplant patients, along with their feedback on the process. METHODS: MSD was used to collect TaC and CsA from venous (VB) or capillary (CB) blood. The MSDs were rehydrated, extracted, and analyzed using on-line solid phase extraction coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (SPE-MS/MS). We report an abbreviated method validation of the MSD including: accuracy, precision, linearity, carry-over, and stability using residual venous whole blood (VB) samples. Subsequent clinical validation compared serially collected MSD + CB against VB (200 µL) from transplant patients. RESULTS: Accuracy comparing VB vs. MSD+VB showed high clinical concordance (TaC = 89% and CsA = 98%). Inter- and intra-precision was ≤11.5 %CV for TaC and CsA. Samples were stable for up to 7 days at room temperature with an average difference of <10%. Clinical validation with MSD+CB correlated well with VB for CsA (slope = 0.95, r2 = 0.88, n = 47) and TaC (slope = 0.98, r2 = 0.82, n = 49). CB vs. VB gave concordance of 94% for CsA and 79% for TaC. A satisfaction survey showed 82% of patients preferred having the capillary collection option. CONCLUSION: Transplant patients favored having the ability to collect capillary samples at home for TaC/CsA monitoring. Our results demonstrate good concordance between MSD+CB and VB for TaC and CsA TDM, but additional studies are warranted.

Mass Spectrometry Applications for Toxicology.

Toxicology is a multidisciplinary study of poisons, aimed to correlate the quantitative and qualitative relationships between poisons and their physiological and behavioural effects in living systems. Other key aspects of toxicology focus on elucidation of the mechanisms of action of poisons and development of remedies and treatment plans for associated toxic effects. In these endeavours, Mass spectrometry (MS) has become a powerful analytical technique with a wide range of application used in the Toxicological analysis of drugs, poisons, and metabolites of both. To date, MS applications have permeated all fields of toxicology which include; environmental, clinical, and forensic toxicology. While many different analytical applications are used in these fields, MS and its hyphenated applications such as; gas chromatography MS (GC-MS), liquid chromatography MS (LC-MS), inductively coupled plasma ionization MS (ICP-MS), tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS and MSn) have emerged as powerful tools used in toxicology laboratories. This review will focus on these hyphenated MS technologies and their applications for toxicology.