Enzymatic transition states: thermodynamics, dynamics and analogue design

Kinetic isotope effects and computational chemistry have defined the transition state structures for several members of the N-ribosyltransferase family. Transition state analogues designed to mimic their cognate transition state structures are among the most powerful enzyme inhibitors. In complexes of N-ribosyltransferases with their transition state analogues, the dynamic nature of the transition state is converted to an ordered, thermodynamic structure closely related to the transition state. This phenomenon is documented by peptide bond H/D exchange, crystallography and computational chemistry. Complexes with substrate, transition state and product analogues reveal reaction coordinate motion and catalytic interactions. Isotope-edited spectroscopic analysis and binding specificity of these complexes provides information about specific enzyme-transition state contacts. In combination with protein dynamic QM/MM models, it is proposed that the transition state is reached by stochastic dynamic excursions of the protein groups near the substrates in the closed conformation. Examples from fully dissociated (D(N) *A(N)), hybrid (D(N)A(N)) and symmetric nucleophilic displacement (A(N)D(N)) transition states are found in the N-ribosyltransferases. The success of transition state analogue inhibitor design based on kinetic isotope effects validates this approach to understanding enzymatic transition states.     

Over-the-barrier transition state analogues and crystal structure with Mycobacterium tuberculosis purine nucleoside phosphorylase

Stable chemical analogues of enzymatic transition states are imperfect mimics since they lack the partial bond character of the transition state. We synthesized structural variants of the Immucillins as transition state analogues for purine nucleoside phosphorylase and characterized them with the enzyme from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtPNP). PNPs form transition states with ribooxacarbenium ion character and catalyze nucleophilic displacement reactions by migration of the cationic ribooxacarbenium carbon between the enzymatically immobilized purine and phosphate nucleophiles. As bond-breaking progresses, carbocation character builds on the ribosyl group, the distance between the purine and the carbocation increases, and the distance between carbocation and phosphate anion decreases. Transition state analogues were produced with carbocation character and increased distance between the ribooxacarbenium ion and the purine mimics by incorporating a methylene bridge between these groups. Immucillin-H (ImmH), DADMe-ImmH, and DADMe-ImmG mimic the transition state of MtPNP and are slow-onset, tight-binding inhibitors of MtPNP with equilibrium dissociation constants of 650, 42, and 24 pM. Crystal structures of MtPNP complexes with ImmH and DADMe-ImmH reveal an ion-pair between the inhibitor cation and the nucleophilic phosphoryl anion. The stronger ion-pair (2.7 A) is found with DADMe-ImmH. The position of bound ImmH resembles the substrate side of the transition state barrier, and DADMe-ImmH more closely resembles the product side of the barrier. The ability to probe both substrate and product sides of the transition state barrier provides expanded opportunities to explore transition state analogue design in N-ribosyltransferases. This approach has resulted in the highest affinity transition state analogues known for MtPNP.     

Atomic motion in enzymatic reaction coordinates

Atomic excursions of reactants in enzymatic catalytic sites can be estimated from high-resolution crystal structures of enzyme complexes with substrates, transition state analog inhibitors and products. Transition state structures, defined from kinetic isotope effect studies, are compared to crystallographic structures to validate the properties of the transition state analog. Atomic excursions in enzymatic catalytic sites can differ from those in solution and define the role of the enzymatic catalyst in directing atomic motion.     

Substrate variants versus transition state analogues as noncovalent reversible enzyme inhibitors

Reversible inhibitors are associated with fewer side effects than covalently binding ones and are, therefore, advantageous for treatment of conditions involving endogenous enzymes. Transition state analogue structures provide one design paradigm for such inhibitors; this paradigm seeks to exploit the capability of an enzyme active site to stabilise a transition state or associated intermediate. In contrast, structures that retain the functionality, and scissile bond of the substrate, can also act as reversible inhibitors; these are referred to here as substrate variants to distinguish them from substrate analogues. Their mode of inhibition depends on destabilisation of a reaction-path transition state or states. As the mode of destabilisation can be quite varied the scope to exploit substrate variants as reversible inhibitors is substantial. The two design paradigms are contrasted here and the case of substrate variants is delineated with a well-defined set of structures. These include the naturally occurring polypeptides BPTI (an inhibitor of a serine-based protease) and cathepsin propeptides (inhibitors of cysteine-based proteases) as well as the synthetic small-molecules cilastatin (an amide inhibitor of a zinc-based protease) and substituted mono- and tripeptides as inhibitors of cathepsins K and L.     

Energetic mapping of transition state analogue interactions with human and Plasmodium falciparum purine nucleoside phosphorylases

Human purine nucleoside phosphorylase (huPNP) is essential for human T-cell division by removing deoxyguanosine and preventing dGTP imbalance. Plasmodium falciparum expresses a distinct PNP (PfPNP) with a unique substrate specificity that includes 5'-methylthioinosine. The PfPNP functions both in purine salvage and in recycling purine groups from the polyamine synthetic pathway. Immucillin-H is an inhibitor of both huPNP and PfPNPs. It kills activated human T-cells and induces purine-less death in P. falciparum. Immucillin-H is a transition state analogue designed to mimic the early transition state of bovine PNP. The DADMe-Immucillins are second generation transition state analogues designed to match the fully dissociated transition states of huPNP and PfPNP. Immucillins, DADMe-Immucillins and related analogues are compared for their energetic interactions with human and P. falciparum PNPs. Immucillin-H and DADMe-Immucillin-H are 860 and 500 pM inhibitors against P. falciparum PNP but bind human PNP 15-35 times more tightly. This common pattern is a result of kcat for huPNP being 18-fold greater than kcat for PfPNP. This energetic binding difference between huPNP and PfPNP supports the k(chem)/kcat binding argument for transition state analogues. Preferential PfPNP inhibition is gained in the Immucillins by 5'-methylthio substitution which exploits the unique substrate specificity of PfPNP. Human PNP achieves part of its catalytic potential from 5'-OH neighboring group participation. When PfPNP acts on 5'-methylthioinosine, this interaction is not possible. Compensation for the 5'-OH effect in the P. falciparum enzyme is provided by improved leaving group interactions with Asp206 as a general acid compared with Asn at this position in huPNP. Specific atomic modifications in the transition state analogues cause disproportionate binding differences between huPNP and PfPNPs and pinpoint energetic binding differences despite similar transition states.     

Design of the hapten for the induction of antibodies catalyzing aldol reaction

The transition states of the aldol reaction and their analogues are reported here for the design of the haptens generating catalytic antibodies. The structural and the electrostatic properties were calculated by an ab initio molecular orbital method and were compared using a graphic software. Two transition states that lead to the corresponding stereo isomers of the aldol products were characterized. Also, the suitable transition state analogues were found. It is suggested that the stereo selectivity can be controlled using the catalytic antibodies elicited against the haptens designed here.     

Picomolar inhibitors as transition-state probes of 5'-methylthioadenosine nucleosidases.

Transition states can be predicted from an enzyme's affinity to related transition-state analogues. 5'-Methylthioadenosine nucleosidases (MTANs) are involved in bacterial quorum sensing pathways and thus are targets for antibacterial drug design. The transition-state characteristics of six MTANs are compared by analyzing dissociation constants (K(d)) with a small array of representative transition-state analogues. These inhibitors mimic early or late dissociative transition states with K(d) values in the picomolar range. Our results indicate that the K(d) ratio for mimics of early and late transition states are useful in distinguishing between these states. By this criterion, the transition states of Neisseria meningitides and Helicobacter pylori MTANs are early dissociative, whereas Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Klebsiella pneumoniae MTANs have late dissociative characters. This conclusion is confirmed independently by the characteristic [1'- (3)H] and [1'- (14)C] kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) of these enzymes. Large [1'- (3)H] and unity [1'- (14)C] KIEs are observed for late dissociative transition states, whereas early dissociative states showed close-to-unity [1'- (3)H] and significant [1'- (14)C] KIEs. K d values of various MTANs for individual transition-state analogues provide tentative information about transition-state structures due to varying catalytic efficiencies of enzymes. Comparing K d ratios for mimics of early and late transition states removes limitations inherent to the enzyme and provides a better predictive tool in discriminating between possible transition-state structures.     

Ligand-protein interaction in biomembrane carriers. The induced transition fit of transport catalysis

Carrier-linked transport through biomembranes is treated under the view of catalysis. As in enzymes, substrate-protein interaction yields catalytic energy in overcoming the activation barrier. At variance with enzymes, catalytic energy is concentrated on structural changes of the carrier rather than on the substrate destabilization for facilitating the global protein rearrangements during transport. A transition state is invoked in which the binding site assumes the best fit to the substrate, whereas in the two ground (internal and external) states, the fit is poor. The maximum binding energy released in the transition state provides catalytic energy to enable the large carrier protein transformations associated with transport. This "induced transition fit" (ITF) of carrier catalysis provides a framework of rules, concerning specificity, unidirectional versus exchange type transport, directing inhibitors to the ground state instead of the transition state, and excluding simultaneous chemical and transport catalysis (vectorial group translocation). The possible role of external energy sources (ATP and Deltapsi) in supplementing the catalytic energy is elucidated. The analysis of the structure-function relationship based on new carrier structures may be challenged to account for the workings of the ITF.     

New probes of the F1-ATPase catalytic transition state reveal that two of the three catalytic sites can assume a transition state conformation simultaneously

MgADP in combination with fluoroscandium (ScFx) is shown to form a potently inhibitory, tightly bound, noncovalent complex at the catalytic sites of F(1)-ATPase. The F(1).MgADP.ScFx complex mimics a catalytic transition state. Notably, ScFx caused large enhancement of MgADP binding affinity at both catalytic sites 1 and 2, with little effect at site 3. These results indicate that sites 1 and 2 may form a transition state conformation. A new direct optical probe of F(1)-ATPase catalytic transition state conformation is also reported, namely, substantial enhancement of fluorescence emission of residue beta-Trp-148 observed upon binding of MgADP.ScFx or MgIDP. ScFx. Using this fluorescence signal, titrations were performed with MgIDP.ScFx which demonstrated that catalytic sites 1 and 2 can both form a transition state conformation but site 3 cannot. Supporting data were obtained using MgIDP-fluoroaluminate. Current models of the MgATP hydrolysis mechanism uniformly make the assumption that only one catalytic site hydrolyzes MgATP at any one time. The fluorometal analogues demonstrate that two sites have the capability to form the transition state simultaneously.     

The magnitude of enzyme transition state analog binding constants

Transition state binding theory utilizes non-enzymic and enzymic rate ratios to predict the ratio of transition state analog dissociation constants to substrate dissociation constants. In this paper we show that enzyme rate accelerations due solely to lessened entropy requirements, arising from the juxtaposition of a catalytic group and a substrate binding site at an enzyme active site, will result in a ratio of transition state and substrate dissociation constants which is different, in general, from the ratio of non-enzymic and enzymic rate constants. The arguments presented in this paper provide a possible explanation for the frequently observed large discrepancy between the measured and predicted values for transition state analog dissociation constants.     

Picomolar transition state analogue inhibitors of human 5'-methylthioadenosine phosphorylase and X-ray structure with MT-immucillin-A

Methythioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP) functions solely in the polyamine pathway of mammals to remove the methylthioadenosine (MTA) product from both spermidine synthase (2.5.1.16) and spermine synthase (2.5.1.22). Inhibition of polyamine synthesis is a validated anticancer target. We designed and synthesized chemically stable analogues for the proposed transition state of human MTAP on the basis of the known ribooxacarbenium character at all reported N-ribosyltransferase transition states [Schramm, V. L. (2003) Acc. Chem. Res. 36, 588-596]. Methylthio-immucillin-A (MT-ImmA) is an iminoribitol tight-binding transition state analogue inhibitor with an equilibrium dissociation constant of 1.0 nM. The immucillins resemble the ribooxacarbenium ion transition states of N-ribosyltransferases and are tightly bound as the N4' cations. An ion pair formed between the iminoribitol cation and phosphate anion mimics the ribooxacarbenium cation-phosphate anion pair formed at the transition state and is confirmed in the crystal structure. The X-ray crystal structure of human MTAP with bound MT-Imm-A also reveals that the 5'-methylthio group lies in a flexible hydrophobic pocket. Substitution of the 5'-methylthio group with a 5'-phenylthio group gives an equilibrium binding constant of 1.0 nM. Methylthio-DADMe-immucillin-A is a pyrrolidine analogue of the transition state with a methylene bridge between the 9-deazaadenine group and the pyrrolidine ribooxacarbenium mimic. It is a slow-onset inhibitor with a dissociation constant of 86 pM. Improved binding energy with DADMe-immucillin-A suggests that the transition state is more closely matched by increasing the distance between leaving group and ribooxacarbenium mimics, consistent with a more dissociative transition state. Increasing the hydrophobic volume near the 5'-position at the catalytic site with 5'-phenylthio-DADMe-immucillin-A gave a dissociation constant of 172 pM, slightly weaker than the 5'-methylthio group. p-Cl-phenylthio-DADMe-immucillin-A binds with a dissociation constant of 10 pM (K(m)/K(i) value of 500000), the tightest binding inhibitor reported for MTAP. These slow-onset, tight-binding transition state analogue inhibitors are the most powerful reported for MTAP and have sufficient affinity to be useful in inhibiting the polyamine pathway.     

On the reality of transition state dissociation constants

Transition state dissociation constants are currently considered, utilizing stopped flow equipment. The underlying theory is briefly reviewed, relating the ideas to steady state kinetics of enzyme systems. The ideas are further analyzed under the consideration of chemical relaxation. Test conditions are described which would allow an investigation of the concepts of transition state dissociation constants by chemical relaxation techniques. A discussion concerning the way in which the concepts of transition state dissociation constants relate to other theories which assume short-lived, but real, dissociation constants is included. The theory is rigorously analyzed (in a second part), revealing the nature of the assumption of a transition state dissociation constant: While they may be written in a formal manner, they are not based on reality—on kinetic grounds direct interconversions between transition states are practically impossible. This applies also to transition state dissociation constants involving protons.     

Entropy-driven binding of picomolar transition state analogue inhibitors to human 5'-methylthioadenosine phosphorylase

Human 5'-methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP) links the polyamine biosynthetic and S-adenosyl-l-methionine salvage pathways and is a target for anticancer drugs. p-Cl-PhT-DADMe-ImmA is a 10 pM, slow-onset tight-binding transition state analogue inhibitor of the enzyme. Titration of homotrimeric MTAP with this inhibitor established equivalent binding and independent catalytic function of the three catalytic sites. Thermodynamic analysis of MTAP with tight-binding inhibitors revealed entropic-driven interactions with small enthalpic penalties. A large negative heat capacity change of -600 cal/(mol K) upon inhibitor binding to MTAP is consistent with altered hydrophobic interactions and release of water. Crystal structures of apo MTAP and MTAP in complex with p-Cl-PhT-DADMe-ImmA were determined at 1.9 and 2.0 ? resolution, respectively. Inhibitor binding caused condensation of the enzyme active site, reorganization at the trimer interfaces, the release of water from the active sites and subunit interfaces, and compaction of the trimeric structure. These structural changes cause the entropy-favored binding of transition state analogues. Homotrimeric human MTAP is contrasted to the structurally related homotrimeric human purine nucleoside phosphorylase. p-Cl-PhT-DADMe-ImmA binding to MTAP involves a favorable entropy term of -17.6 kcal/mol with unfavorable enthalpy of 2.6 kcal/mol. In contrast, binding of an 8.5 pM transition state analogue to human PNP has been shown to exhibit the opposite behavior, with an unfavorable entropy term of 3.5 kcal/mol and a favorable enthalpy of -18.6 kcal/mol. Transition state analogue interactions reflect protein architecture near the transition state, and the profound thermodynamic differences for MTAP and PNP suggest dramatic differences in contributions to catalysis from protein architecture.     

Achieving the ultimate physiological goal in transition state analogue inhibitors for purine nucleoside phosphorylase

Genetic deficiency of human purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) causes T-cell immunodeficiency. The enzyme is therefore a target for autoimmunity disorders, tissue transplant rejection and T-cell malignancies. Transition state analysis of bovine PNP led to the development of immucillin-H (ImmH), a powerful inhibitor of bovine PNP but less effective for human PNP. The transition state of human PNP differs from that of the bovine enzyme and transition state analogues specific for the human enzyme were synthesized. Three first generation transition state analogues, ImmG (Kd = 42 pM), ImmH (Kd = 56 pM), and 8-aza-ImmH (Kd = 180 pM), are compared with three second generation DADMe compounds (4'-deaza-1'-aza-2'-deoxy-1'-(9-methylene)-immucillins) tailored to the transition state of human PNP. The second generation compounds, DADMe-ImmG (Kd = 7pM), DADMe-ImmH (Kd = 16 pM), and 8-aza-DADMe-ImmH (Kd = 2.0 nM), are superior for inhibition of human PNP by binding up to 6-fold tighter. The DADMe-immucillins are the most powerful PNP inhibitors yet described, with Km/Kd ratios up to 5,400,000. ImmH and DADMe-ImmH are orally available in mice; DADMe-ImmH is more efficient than ImmH. DADMe-ImmH achieves the ultimate goal in transition state inhibitor design in mice. A single oral dose causes inhibition of the target enzyme for the approximate lifetime of circulating erythrocytes.     

Improving profile HMM discrimination by adapting transition probabilities

Profile hidden Markov models (HMMs) are used to model protein families and for detecting evolutionary relationships between proteins. Such a profile HMM is typically constructed from a multiple alignment of a set of related sequences. Transition probability parameters in an HMM are used to model insertions and deletions in the alignment. We show here that taking into account unrelated sequences when estimating the transition probability parameters helps to construct more discriminative models for the global/local alignment mode. After normal HMM training, a simple heuristic is employed that adjusts the transition probabilities between match and delete states according to observed transitions in the training set relative to the unrelated (noise) set. The method is called adaptive transition probabilities (ATP) and is based on the HMMER package implementation. It was benchmarked in two remote homology tests based on the Pfam and the SCOP classifications. Compared to the HMMER default procedure, the rate of misclassification was reduced significantly in both tests and across all levels of error rate.     

DNA polymerase beta fidelity: halomethylene-modified leaving groups in pre-steady-state kinetic analysis reveal differences at the chemical transition state

The mechanism of DNA polymerase beta-catalyzed nucleotidyl transfer consists of chemical steps involving primer 3' OH deprotonation, nucleophilic attack, and pyrophosphate leaving-group elimination, preceded by dNTP binding which induces a large-amplitude conformational change for Watson-Crick nascent base pairs. Ambiguity in the nature of the rate-limiting step and active-site structural differences between correct and incorrect base-paired transition states remain obstacles to understanding DNA replication fidelity. Analogues of dGTP where the beta-gamma bridging oxygen is replaced with fluorine-substituted methylene groups have been shown to probe the contribution of leaving-group elimination to the overall catalytic rate (Biochemistry 46, 461-471). Here, the analysis is expanded substantially to include a broad range of halogen substituents with disparate steric and electronic properties. Evaluation of linear free energy relationships for incorporation of dGTP analogues opposite either template base C or T reveals a strong correlation of log(kpol) to leaving group pKa. Significantly different kpol behavior is observed with a subset of the analogues, with magnitude dependent on the identity of the nascent base pair. This observation, and the absence of an analogous effect on ground state analogue binding (Kd values), points to active-site structural differences at the chemical transition state. Reduced catalysis with bulky halo-containing substrates is manifested in the fidelity of T-G incorporation, where the CCl2-bridging analogue shows a 27-fold increase in fidelity over the natural dGTP. Solvent pH and deuterium isotope-effect data are also used to evaluate mechanistic differences between correct and mispaired incorporation.     

Catalytic efficiency, kinetic co-operativity of oligomeric enzymes and evolution

The catalytic performance of an enzyme, whether it is monomeric or oligomeric, depends on extra costs of energy in passing from the initial ground state to the various transition states, along the reaction co-ordinate. The improvement, during evolution, of the catalytic performance of individual subunits implies that three structural requirements are met in the course of an enzyme reaction: the unstrained enzyme subunits exist in the ground states under two conformations, one corresponding to the non-liganded state and the other to the liganded state; the inter-subunit strain is relieved in the various transition states; the subunits bound to the various transition states S not equal to, X not equal to and P not equal to have the same conformation. These structural requirements are precisely those which have been used to derive structural rate equations for polymeric enzymes. When subunits are loosely coupled, their arrangement controls the various rate constants, but not the extra costs of energy required to reach the various transition states. Moreover, one cannot expect the rate curve to display any sigmoidicity under these conditions. If subunits are tightly coupled and if the strained non-liganded and half-liganded states are destabilized with respect to the corresponding unstrained states, that is if they contain more conformational energy, the oligomeric enzyme is more catalytically efficient than the ideally isolated subunits. Moreover, if the available conformational energy of the half-liganded state is more than twice that of the non-liganded state, kinetic co-operativity is positive and the rate curve is sigmoidal. It is therefore the extent of inter-subunit strain in the half-liganded state which controls the appearance of sigmoidal kinetic behaviour. If subunits are tightly coupled but if inter-subunit strain is relieved in both the non-liganded and fully-liganded states, the half-liganded state controls both the catalytic efficiency of the enzyme and the sigmoidicity of the rate curve. Sigmoidicity and high catalytic efficiency are to be observed when this half-liganded state is destabilized relative to the corresponding unstrained state.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Do enzymes bind their substrates in the ground state because of a physico-chemical requirement?

Transition state theory has provided no convincing explanation for the nearly universal observation of complexes of enzymes with substrates. Bimolecular catalytic reactions are assumed here to take place through reactive encounter complexes defined as the subset of reactant state species able to proceed directly to low lying energy levels at the transition state. By assessing the probability of these complexes from the maximum efficiency of intramolecular reactions, an upper limit for the rate constants promoted by hypothetical catalysts unable to bind substrates is deduced. This limit, which is below the ordinary range of bimolecular rate constants (k(cat)/K(M)) for enzyme reactions, results from a kinetic limitation in the formation of reactive encounter complexes. Exceeding this limit requires a stabilization of these complexes. Using the terminology of transition state theory, the need for enzymes to form complexes with substrates is then expressed as a necessity to restore Boltzmann distribution at the transition state.