A low-barrier hydrogen bond in the catalytic triad of serine proteases? Theory versus experiment.

Cleland and Kreevoy recently advanced the idea that a special type of hydrogen bond (H-bond), termed a low-barrier hydrogen bond (LBHB), may account for the "missing" transition state stabilization underlying the catalytic power of many enzymes, and Frey et al. have proposed that the H-bond between aspartic acid 102 and histidine 57 in the catalytic triad of serine proteases is an example of a catalytically important LBHB. Experimental facts are here considered regarding the aspartic acid-histidine and cis-urocanic H-bonds that are inconsistent with fundamental tenets of the LBHB hypothesis. The inconsistencies between theory and experiment in these paradigm systems cast doubt on the existence of LBHBs, as currently defined, within enzyme active sites.

Crystal versus solution structures of enzymes: NMR spectroscopy of a crystalline serine protease.

The hydrogen-bonding status of His57 in the catalytic triad (Asp-His-Ser) of serine protease has important mechanistic implications for this class of enzymes. Recent nitrogen-15 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies of alpha-lytic protease find His57 and Ser195 to be strongly hydrogen-bonded, a result that conflicts with the corresponding crystallographic studies, thereby suggesting that the crystal and solution structures may differ. This discrepancy is addressed and resolved in a nitrogen-15 NMR study of the enzyme in the crystalline state. The results show that the His-Ser and Asp-His interactions are identical in crystals and solutions, but that in crystals His57 titrates with a pKa of 7.9, nearly one pKa unit higher than in solution. This elevated pKa accounts for the absence of the His-Ser hydrogen bond in previous x-ray studies.

Potentiation of the immune response in HIV-1+ individuals.

T cells from HIV-1+ individuals have a defect in mounting an antigen specific response. HIV-1 Tat has been implicated as the causative agent of this immunosuppression. We have previously shown that HIV-1 Tat inhibits antigen specific proliferation of normal T cells in vitro by binding to the accessory molecule CD26, a dipeptidase expressed on the surface of activated T cells. We now demonstrate that the defective in vitro recall antigen response in HIV-1 infected individuals can be restored by the addition of soluble CD26, probably by serving as a decoy receptor for HIV-1 Tat. The restored response is comparable to that of an HIV-1- individual, suggesting that early in HIV infection there is a block in the memory cell response, rather than deletion of these cells.

Lower serum fibroblast activation protein shows promise in the exclusion of clinically significant liver fibrosis due to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in diabetes and obesity.

UNLABELLED: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is common in diabetes and obesity but few have clinically significant liver fibrosis. Improved risk-assessment is needed as the commonly used clinical-risk algorithm, the NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS), is often inconclusive. AIMS: To determine whether circulating fibroblast activation protein (cFAP), which is elevated in cirrhosis, has value in excluding significant fibrosis, particularly combined with NFS. METHODS: cFAP was measured in 106 with type 2 diabetes who had transient elastography (Cohort 1) and 146 with morbid obesity who had liver biopsy (Cohort 2). RESULTS: In Cohort 1, cFAP (per SD) independently associated with median liver stiffness (LSM) ≥ 10.3 kPa with OR of 2.0 (95% CI 1.2-3.4), p=0.006. There was 0.12 OR (95% CI 0.03-0.61) of LSM ≥ 10.3 kPa for those in the lowest compared with the highest FAP tertile (p=0.010). FAP levels below 730 pmol AMC/min/mL had 95% NPV for LSM ≥ 10.3 kPa and reclassified 41% of 64 subjects from NFS 'indeterminate-risk' to 'low-risk'. In Cohort 2, cFAP (per SD), associated with 1.7 fold (95% CI 1.1-2.8) increased odds of significant fibrosis (F ≥ 2), p=0.021, and low cFAP reclassified 49% of 73 subjects from 'indeterminate-risk' to 'low-risk'. CONCLUSIONS: Lower cFAP, when combined with NFS, may have clinical utility in excluding significant fibrosis in diabetes and obesity.

Structure-activity relationships of boronic acid inhibitors of dipeptidyl peptidase IV. 1. Variation of the P2 position of Xaa-boroPro dipeptides.

A series of prolineboronic acid (boroPro) containing dipeptides were synthesized and assayed for their ability to inhibit the serine protease dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPPIV). Inhibitory activity, which requires the (R)-stereoisomer of boroPro in the P1 position, appears to tolerate a variety of L-amino acids in the P2 position. Substitution at the P2 position which is not tolerated include the D-amino acids, alpha,alpha-disubstituted amino acids, and glycine. Specificity against DPPII and proline specific endopeptidase is reported. A correlation between the ability to inhibit DPPIV in cell culture and in the human mixed lymphocyte reaction is demonstrated. A synthesis of prolineboronic acid is reported as well as conditions for generating the fully unprotected boronic acid dipeptides in either their cyclic or acyclic forms.

Confirmation of the assignment of the low-field proton resonance of serine proteases by using specifically nitrogen-15 labeled enzyme.

Proton NMR spectra of serine proteases in 1H2O solutions typically show a single resonance at very low magnetic field--i.e., 14-18 ppm from dimethylsilylapentanesulfonate. This resonance has been assigned to the proton hydrogen bonded between aspartic acid-102 and histidine-57 (chymotrypsin numbering system) of the "charge-relay system" or catalytic triad of serine proteases [Robillard, G. & Shulman, R. G. (1972) J. Mol. Biol. 71, 507-511]. Since then, there have been a number of reports that have cast doubt on its correctness. In the present work we have tested this assignment using alpha-lytic protease (EC 3.4.21.12, Myxobacter alpha-lytic proteinase), a bacterial serine protease homologous to elastase, which is specifically labeled with nitrogen-15 at N delta 1 of its single histidine residue. The low-field region of the proton spectra of this labeled enzyme shows a single resonance having the properties reported [Robillard, G. & Shulman, R. G. (1974) J. Mol. Biol. 86, 519-540], which, in addition, exhibits spin-spin splitting to the nitrogen-15 label. The observation of this 15N delta 1-H coupling makes the assignment of this resonance to the charge-relay proton unequivocal.

15N NMR spectroscopy of hydrogen-bonding interactions in the active site of serine proteases: evidence for a moving histidine mechanism.

Nitrogen-15 NMR spectroscopy has been used to study the hydrogen-bonding interactions involving the histidyl residue in the catalytic triad of alpha-lytic protease in the resting enzyme and in the transition-state or tetrahedral intermediate analogue complexes formed with phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride and diisopropyl fluorophosphate. The 15N shifts indicate that a strong hydrogen bond links the active site histidine and serine residues in the resting enzyme in solution. This result is at odds with interpretations of the X-ray diffraction data of alpha-lytic protease and of other serine proteases, which indicate that the serine and histidine residues are too far apart and not properly aligned for the formation of a hydrogen bond. In addition, the nitrogen-15 shifts demonstrate that protonation of the histidine imidazole ring at low pH in the transition-state or tetrahedral intermediate analogue complexes formed with phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride and diisopropyl fluorophosphate triggers the disruption of the aspartate-histidine hydrogen bond. These results suggest a catalytic mechanism involving directed movement of the imidazole ring of the active site histidyl residue.

Separation of L-Pro-DL-boroPro into its component diastereomers and kinetic analysis of their inhibition of dipeptidyl peptidase IV. A new method for the analysis of slow, tight-binding inhibition.

The potent dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DP IV) inhibitor [1-(2-pyrrolidinylcarbonyl)-2-pyrrolidinyl]boronic acid (L-Pro-DL-boroPro) [Flentke, G. R., Munoz, E., Huber, B. T., Plaut, A. G., Kettner, C. A., & Bachovchin, W. W. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 88, 1556-1559] was fractionated into its component L-L and L-D diastereomers by C18 HPLC, and the binding of the purified diastereomers to DP IV was analyzed. Inhibition kinetics confirms that the L-L diastereomer is a potent inhibitor of DP IV, having a Ki of 16 pM. The L-D isomer binds at least 1000-fold more weakly than the L-L, if it binds at all, as the approximately 200-fold weaker inhibition observed for the purified L-D isomer is shown here to be due entirely to the presence of a small amount (0.59%) of the L-L diastereomer contaminating the L-D preparation. The instability of Pro-boroPro, together with its very high affinity for DP IV and the time dependence of the inhibition, makes a rigorous kinetic analysis of its binding to DP IV difficult. Here we have developed a method which takes advantage of the slow rate at which the inhibitor dissociates from the enzyme. The method involves preincubating the enzyme and the inhibitor without substrate and then assaying the free enzyme by the addition of substrate and following its hydrolysis for a period of time which is short relative to the dissociation rate of the inhibitor.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Mechanism of action of adenosylcobalamin: 3-fluoro-1,2-propranediol as substrate for propanediol dehydrase--mechanistic implications.

3-Fluro-1,2-propanediol has been found to be a substrate for propanediol dehydrase and has very similar binding and catalytic constants compared to the natural substrate. The only isolable products of the reaction are acrolein and inorganic fluoride; with 3-fluoro-3,3-dideuterio-1,2-propanediol as substrate, only 3,3-dideuterioacrolein is obtained. These results indicate that the primary product of the reaction is 3-fluoropropionaldehyde which spontaneously loses hydrogen fluoride to yield acrolein. The similar kinetic parameters for the fluorinated as compared to the normal substrate suggest that significant charge does not develop on the fluorinated or, by implication, the natural substrate during any rate-limiting steps of the reaction. These results support a radical, as contrasted to an ionic pathway for reactions involving adenosylcobalamin and diol dehydrase.

Kinlsq: a program for fitting kinetics data with numerically integrated rate equations and its application to the analysis of slow, tight-binding inhibition data.

Kinlsq, a Matlab-based computer program for the least-squares fitting of parameters to kinetics data described by numerically integrated rate equations, is described, and three applications to the analysis of enzyme kinetics data are given. The first application was to the analysis of a simple bimolecular enzyme plus inhibitor binding curve. The kinlsq fit to these data was essentially identical to that obtained with the corresponding analytically integrated rate equation, validating kinlsq. The second application was to the fit of a numerically integrated Michaelis-Menten model to the progress curve for dipeptidyl peptidase IV-catalyzed hydrolysis of Ala-Pro-p-nitroanilide as a demonstration of the analysis of steady-state enzyme kinetics data. The results obtained with kinlsq were compared with the results obtained by fitting this time course with the integrated Michaelis-Menten equation, and with the results obtained by fitting the (S,dP/dt) transform of the data with the Michaelis-Menten equation. The third application was to the analysis of the inhibition of chymotrypsin by the slow, tight-binding inhibitor MeOSuc-Ala-Ala-Pro-boroPhe, data not readily amenable to other methods of analysis. These applications demonstrate how kinlsq can be used to fit rate constants, equilibrium constants, steady-state constants, and the stoichiometric relationships between components.

Identification of serine and histidine adducts in complexes of trypsin and trypsinogen with peptide and nonpeptide boronic acid inhibitors by 1H NMR spectroscopy.

We have previously shown, in 15N NMR studies of the enzyme's active site histidine residue, that boronic acid inhibitors can form two distinct types of complexes with alpha-lytic protease. Inhibitors that are structural analogs of good alpha-lytic protease substrates form transition-state-like tetrahedral complexes with the active site serine whereas those that are not form complexes in which N epsilon 2 of the active site histidine is covalently bonded to the boron of the inhibitor. This study also demonstrated that the serine and histidine adduct complexes exhibit quite distinctive and characteristic low-field 1H NMR spectra [Bachovchin, W. W., Wong, W. Y. L., Farr-Jones, S., Shenvi, A. B., & Kettner, C. A. (1988) Biochemistry 27, 7689-7697]. Here we have used low-field 1H NMR diagnostically for a series of boronic acid inhibitor complexes of trypsin and trypsinogen. The results show that H-D-Val-Leu-boroArg and Ac-Gly-boroArg, analogs of good trypsin substrates, form transition-state-like serine adducts with trypsin, whereas the nonsubstrate analog inhibitors boric acid, methane boronic acid, butane boronic acid, and triethanolamine borate all form histidine adducts, thereby paralleling the previous results obtained with alpha-lytic protease. However, with trypsinogen, Ac-Gly-boroArg forms predominantly a histidine adduct while H-D-Val-Leu-boroArg forms both histidine and serine adducts, with the histidine adduct predominating below pH 8.0 and the serine adduct predominating above pH 8.0.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Mechanism of action of adenosylcobalamin: hydrogen transfer in the inactivation of diol dehydratase by glycerol.

We have investigated the kinetic characteristics of the inactivation of the adenosylcobalamin-dependent enzyme propanediol dehydratase by glycerol, (RS)-1,1-dideuterioglycerol, (R)-1,1-dideuterioglycerol, and perdeuterioglycerol in the presence of 1,2-propanediol and 1,1-dideuterio-1,2-propanediol. The results imply that hydrogen (or deuterium) attached to C-1 of 1,2-propanediol participates in the inactivation process and contributes to the expression of a kinetic isotope effect on the rate of inactivation. The mechanism for this inactivation must involve the cofactor as an intermediate hydrogen carrier, presumably in the form of 5'-deoxyadenosine. Moreover, a mechanism involving a rate-determining transfer of hydrogen from an intermediate containing three equivalent hydrogens quantitatively accounts for all of the results. When diol dehydratase holoenzyme is inactivated by [1-3H]glycerol, 5'-deoxyadenosine which is enriched in tritium by a factor of 2.1 over that in glycerol can be isolated from the reaction mixture.

11B NMR spectroscopy of peptide boronic acid inhibitor complexes of alpha-lytic protease. Direct evidence for tetrahedral boron in both boron-histidine and boron-serine adduct complexes.

We have previously shown, using 15N and 1H NMR spectroscopy, that MeOSuc-Ala-Ala-Pro-boroPhe and certain other boronic acid inhibitors form boron-histidine adducts with alpha-lytic protease instead of transition-state-like tetrahedral boron-serine adducts as is generally supposed [Bachovchin, W. W., Wong, W. Y. L., Farr-Jones, S., Shenvi, A. B., & Kettner, C. (1988) Biochemistry 27, 7689-7697]. An X-ray crystallographic study of the MeOSuc-Ala-Ala-Pro-boroPhe complex with alpha-lytic protease [Bone, R., Frank, D., Kettner, C. A., & Agard, D. A. (1989) Biochemistry 28, 7600-7609] has confirmed the existence of the boron-histidine bond but has concluded that the boron atom is trigonal rather than tetrahedral. Here we report a 11B NMR study at 160.46 MHz of this histidine adduct complex and of two other complexes known to be serine adducts: alpha-lytic protease with MeOSuc-Ala-Ala-Pro-boroVal and chymotrypsin with MeOSucAla-Ala-Pro-boroPhe. The 11B NMR chemical shifts demonstrate that the boron atom is tetrahedral in both the histidine and serine adduct complexes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Inhibition of IgA1 proteinases from Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Hemophilus influenzae by peptide prolyl boronic acids.

The alpha-aminoboronic acid analog of proline has been synthesized and incorporated into a number of peptides as the COOH-terminal residue. These peptide prolyl boronic acids are potent inhibitors of both the type 1 and type 2 IgA proteinases from Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Hemophilus influenzae, but not of the functionally similar IgA proteinase from Streptococcus sanguis. The best inhibitors synthesized thus far have Ki values in the nanomolar range (4.0 to 60 nM). These results indicate that the N. gonorrhoeae and the H. influenzae enzymes belong to the serine protease family of proteolytic enzymes while that from S. sanguis does not. As a group, the IgA proteinases have been noted for their remarkable specificity; thus, the peptide prolyl boronic acids reported here are the first small synthetic molecules to exhibit a relatively high affinity for the active site of an IgA proteinase and are therefore the first to yield some insight into the active site structure and specificity requirements of these enzymes.

Continuous-flow 13C-filtered 1H NMR spectroscopy of ethanol metabolism in rat liver perfusate.

Using a 188.5-microliters continuous-flow dual probe 1H[13C] spin-echo difference spectra of rat liver perfusate were acquired. The conversion of [1-13C]ethanol to [1-13C]-acetaldehyde was readily monitored as a function of time. In combination with 1-1 water nonexcitation and WALTZ 13C decoupling, this method proved to be superior in sensitivity and selectivity to direct 1H or 13C detection.

High-resolution nitrogen-15 nuclear magnetic resonance studies of alpha-lytic protease in solid state. Direct comparison of enzyme structure in solution and in the solid state.

Histidine enriched in 15N in the imidazole nitrogens was incorporated into the catalytic triad of alpha-lytic protease, and high-resolution solid-state 15N NMR spectra of lyophilized enzyme powders were recorded. The lyophilized powders were prepared from aqueous solutions with pH values ranging from 4.9 to 9.3. The behavior of the 15N resonances as a function of "pH" in these solid samples closely parallels that observed previously in the corresponding solution-state study, with the exception that in the powders proton exchange at His-57 is slow on the NMR time scale whereas in solutions it is fast. Thus, the 15N isotropic shifts demonstrate that the N pi-H tautomer of His-57 predominates in powders prepared at high pH and that N pi(H) participates in a strong hydrogen bond, as the hydrogen-bond donor, in powders prepared at both high pH and low pH. The simplest interpretation of these results is that the active site catalytic triad structure of Asp-His-Ser is maintained in these lyophilized powders. Because Asp-102 and His-57 are sequentially separated, their interaction in these lyophilized powders suggests that the tertiary structures of alpha-lytic protease in the powder and in solution are very similar. The 15N isotropic shifts further indicate that His-57 located within the intact triad in lyophilized enzyme powders has what can be taken as a normal "pKa" for a histidyl residue, undergoing a transition from the protonated to the neutral state with a midpoint between pH 6.0 and 7.0.

Involvement of dipeptidyl peptidase IV in an in vivo immune response.

Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DP IV) is a serine protease that selectively cleaves X-Pro dipeptides from polypeptides and proteins. Among blood cells, this enzyme occurs preferentially on the surface of CD4+ T cells and the amount of enzyme activity increases with T cell activation. In previous work, two potent and specific peptidyl-boronic acid inhibitors of DP IV, Ala-boroPro and Pro-boroPro, were synthesized and Pro-boroPro was shown to suppress antigen-specific proliferative responses of T cells in vitro. In this study, we tested the in vivo effects of these inhibitors. Subcutaneous injection of Ala-boroPro or Pro-boroPro into BALB/c mice inhibited DP IV activity in serum and spleen cell suspensions. Repeated injections of more than 10 micrograms of Ala-boroPro or Pro-boroPro at 12 h intervals maintained in vivo DP IV activity at less than 30% of the normal level. Repeated injections of the inhibitors during the primary, secondary or tertiary immune response to bovine serum albumin (BSA) reduced anti-BSA antibody production. Without inhibitor, immunization with BSA was followed by a temporary decrease in serum DP IV activity and then by enhanced serum enzyme activity after several days. These results provide the first direct evidence that DP IV plays an important role in immune response in vivo.