Fluorine labelling for in situ 19F NMR in oriented systems.

The focus of this project is to take advantage of the large NMR chemical shift anisotropy of 19F to determine the orientation of fluorine labeled biomolecules in situ in oriented biological systems such as muscle. The difficulty with a single fluorine atom is that the orientation determined from a chemical shift is not singlevalued in the case of a fully anisotropic chemical shift tensor. The utility of a labeling approach with two fluorine labels in a fixed molecular framework where one of the labels has an axially symmetric chemical shift anisotropy such as a CF3 group and the other has a fully asymmetric chemical shift anisotropy such as 5-fluorotryptophan is evaluated. The result is that the orientation of the label can be determined straightforwardly from a single one-dimensional 19F NMR spectrum. The potential applications are widespread and not limited to biological applications.

Conversion of a Cardiac Muscle Modulator from an Inhibitor to an Activator.

The binding of calcium to cardiac troponin C (cTnC) enhances the binding of troponin I (cTnI) switch region to the regulatory domain of cTnC (cNTnC) and triggers muscle contraction. Several molecules alter the response of the sarcomere by targeting this interface; virtually all have an aromatic core that binds to the hydrophobic pocket of cNTnC and an aliphatic tail that interacts with the switch region of cTnI. W7 has been extensively studied, and the positively charged tail has been shown to be important for its inhibitory action. Herein we investigate the importance of the aromatic core of W7 by synthesizing compounds that have the core region of calcium activator dfbp-o with various lengths of the same tail (D-series). These compounds all bind more tightly to cNTnC-cTnI chimera (cChimera) than the analogous W-series compounds and show increased calcium sensitivity of force generation and ATPase activity, demonstrating that the cardiovascular system is tightly balanced.

Drugging the Sarcomere, a Delicate Balance: Position of N-Terminal Charge of the Inhibitor W7.

W7 is a sarcomere inhibitor that decreases the calcium sensitivity of force development in cardiac muscle. W7 binds to the interface of the regulatory domain of cardiac troponin C (cNTnC) and the switch region of troponin I (cTnI), decreasing the binding of cTnI to cNTnC, presumably by electrostatic repulsion between the -NH3+ group of W7 and basic amino acids in cTnI. W7 analogs with a -CO2- tail are inactive. To evaluate the importance of the location of the charged -NH3+, we used a series of compounds W4, W6, W8, and W9, which have three less, one less, one more, and two more methylene groups in the tail region than W7. W6, W8, and W9 all bind tighter to cNTnC-cTnI chimera (cChimera) than W7, while W4 binds weaker. W4 and, strikingly, W6 have no effect on calcium sensitivity of force generation, while W8 and W9 decrease calcium sensitivity, but less than W7. The structures of the cChimera-W6 and cChimera-W8 complexes reveal that W6 and W8 bind to the same hydrophobic cleft as W7, with the aliphatic tail taking a similar route to the surface. NMR relaxation data show that internal flexibility in the tail of W7 is very limited. Alignment of the cChimera-W7 structure with the recent cryoEM structures of the cardiac sarcomere in the diastolic and systolic states reveals the critical location of the amino group. Small molecule induced structural changes can therefore affect the tightly balanced equilibrium between tethered components required for rapid contraction.