Comparative Study of Eis-like Enzymes from Pathogenic and Nonpathogenic Bacteria.

Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem worldwide. Of particular importance is the resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to currently available antibiotics used in the treatment of infected patients. Up-regulation of an aminoglycoside (AG) acetyltransferase, the enhanced intracellular survival (Eis) protein of Mtb (Eis_Mtb), is responsible for resistance to the second-line injectable drug kanamycin A in a number of Mtb clinical isolates. This acetyltransferase is known to modify AGs, not at a single position, as usual for this type of enzyme, but at multiple amine sites. We identified, using in silico techniques, 22 homologues from a wide variety of bacteria, that we then cloned, purified, and biochemically studied. From the selected Eis homologues, 7 showed the ability to modify AGs to various degrees and displayed both similarities and differences when compared to Eis_Mtb. In addition, an inhibitor proved to be active against all homologues tested. Our findings show that this family of acetyltransferase enzymes exists in both mycobacteria and non-mycobacteria and in both pathogenic and nonpathogenic species. The bacterial strains described herein should be monitored for rising resistance rates to AGs.

Unexpected N-acetylation of capreomycin by mycobacterial Eis enzymes.

OBJECTIVES: The enhanced intracellular survival (Eis) protein from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Eis_Mtb), a regio-versatile N-acetyltransferase active towards many aminoglycosides (AGs), confers resistance to kanamycin A in some cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). We assessed the activity of Eis_Mtb and of its homologue from Mycobacterium smegmatis (Eis_Msm) against a panel of anti-tuberculosis (TB) drugs and lysine-containing compounds. METHODS AND RESULTS: Both enzymes acetylated capreomycin and some lysine-containing compounds, but not other non-AG non-lysine-containing drugs tested. Modelling studies predicted the site of modification on capreomycin to be one of the two primary amines in its ß-lysine side chain. Using Eis_Mtb, we established via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy that acetylation of capreomycin occurs on the ε-amine of the ß-lysine side chain. Using Msm, we also demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge that acetylation of capreomycin results in deactivation of the drug. CONCLUSIONS: Eis is a unique acetyltransferase capable of inactivating the anti-TB drug capreomycin, AGs and other lysine-containing compounds.

Biochemical and structural analysis of aminoglycoside acetyltransferase Eis from Anabaena variabilis.

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis enhanced intracellular survival (Eis_Mtb) protein is a clinically important aminoglycoside (AG) multi-acetylating enzyme. Eis homologues are found in a variety of mycobacterial and non-mycobacterial species. Variation of the residues lining the AG-binding pocket and positions of the loops bearing these residues in the Eis homologues dictates the substrate specificity and, thus, Eis homologues are Nature-made tools for elucidating principles of AG recognition by Eis. Here, we demonstrate that the Eis from Anabaena variabilis (Eis_Ava), the first non-mycobacterial Eis homologue reported, is a multi-acetylating AG-acetyltransferase. Eis_Ava, Eis from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Eis_Mtb), and Eis from Mycobacterium smegmatis (Eis_Msm) have different structures of their AG-binding pockets. We perform comparative analysis of these differences and investigate how they dictate the substrate and cosubstrate recognition and acetylation of AGs by Eis.

Chemoenzymatic reversible immobilization and labeling of proteins without prior purification.

Site-specific chemical modification of proteins is important for many applications in biology and biotechnology. Recently, our laboratory and others have exploited the high specificity of the enzyme protein farnesyltransferase (PFTase) to site-specifically modify proteins through the use of alternative substrates that incorporate bioorthogonal functionality including azides and alkynes. In this study, we evaluate two aldehyde-containing molecules as substrates for PFTase and as reactants in both oxime and hydrazone formation. Using green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a model system, we demonstrate that the purified protein can be enzymatically modified with either analogue to yield aldehyde-functionalized proteins. Oxime or hydrazone formation was then employed to immobilize, fluorescently label, or PEGylate the resulting aldehyde-containing proteins. Immobilization via hydrazone formation was also shown to be reversible via transoximization with a fluorescent alkoxyamine. After characterizing this labeling strategy using pure protein, the specificity of the enzymatic process was used to selectively label GFP present in crude E. coli extract followed by capture of the aldehyde-modified protein using hydrazide-agarose. Subsequent incubation of the immobilized protein using a fluorescently labeled or PEGylated alkoxyamine resulted in the release of pure GFP containing the desired site-specific covalent modifications. This procedure was also employed to produce PEGylated glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), a protein with potential therapeutic activity for diabetes. Given the specificity of the PFTase-catalyzed reaction coupled with the ability to introduce a CAAX-box recognition sequence onto almost any protein, this method shows great potential as a general approach for selective immobilization and labeling of recombinant proteins present in crude cellular extract without prior purification. Beyond generating site-specifically modified proteins, this approach for polypeptide modification could be particularly useful for large-scale production of protein conjugates for therapeutic or industrial applications.