A docking model of human ribonucleotide reductase with flavin and phenosafranine

Ribonucleotide Reductase (RNR) is an enzyme responsible for the reduction of ribonucleotides to their corresponding Deoxyribonucleotides (DNA), which is a building block for DNA replication and repair mechanisms. The key role of RNR in DNA synthesis and control in cell growth has made this an important target for anticancer therapy. Increased RNR activity has been associated with malignant transformation and tumor cell growth. In recent years, several RNR inhibitors, including Triapine, Gemcitabine and GTI-2040, have entered the clinical trials. Our current work focuses on an attempted to dock this inhibitors Flavin and Phenosafranine to curtail the action of human RNR2. The docked inhibitor Flavin and Phenosafranine binds at the active site with THR176, which are essential for free radical formation. The inhibitor must be a radical scavenger to destroy the tyrosyl radical or iron metal scavenger. The iron or radical site of R2 protein can react with one-electron reductants, whereby the tyrosyl radical is converted to a normal tyrosine residue. However, compounds such as Flavin and Phenosafranine were used in most of the cases to reduce the radical activity. The docking study was performed for the crystal structure of human RNR with the radical scavengers Flavin and Phenosafranine to inhibit the human RNR2. This helps to understand the functional aspects and also aids in the development of novel inhibitors for the human RNR2.     

Thioredoxin and glutaredoxin-mediated redox regulation of ribonucleotide reductase Sengupta R,Holmgren A简

Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), the rate-limiting enzyme in DNA synthesis, catalyzes reduction of the different ribonucleotides to their corresponding deoxyribonucleotides. The crucial role of RNR in DNA synthesis has made it an important target for the development of antiviral and anticancer drugs. Taking account of the recent developments in this field of research, this review focuses on the role of thioredoxin and glutaredoxin systems in the redox reactions of the RNR catalysis.     

Ribonucleotide reductase and the regulation of DNA replication: an old story and an ancient heritage

All organisms that synthesize their own DNA have evolved mechanisms for maintaining a constant DNA/cell mass ratio independent of growth rate. The DNA/cell mass ratio is a central parameter in the processes controlling the cell cycle. The co-ordination of DNA replication with cell growth involves multiple levels of regulation. DNA synthesis is initiated at specific sites on the chromosome termed origins of replication, and proceeds bidirectionally to elongate and duplicate the chromosome. These two processes, initiation and elongation, therefore determine the total rate of DNA synthesis in the cell. In Escherichia coli, initiation depends on the DnaA protein while elongation depends on a multiprotein replication factory that incorporates deoxyribonucleotides (dNTPs) into the growing DNA chain. The enzyme ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is universally responsible for synthesizing the necessary dNTPs. In this review we examine the role RNR plays in regulating the total rate of DNA synthesis in E. coli and, hence, in maintaining constant DNA/cell mass ratios during normal growth and under conditions of DNA stress.     

Novel mutator mutants of E. coli nrdAB ribonucleotide reductase: insight into allosteric regulation and control of mutation rates

Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is the enzyme critically responsible for the production of the 5'-deoxynucleoside-triphosphates (dNTPs), the direct precursors for DNA synthesis. The dNTP levels are tightly controlled to permit high efficiency and fidelity of DNA synthesis. Much of this control occurs at the level of the RNR by feedback processes, but a detailed understanding of these mechanisms is still lacking. Using a genetic approach in the bacterium Escherichia coli, a paradigm for the class Ia RNRs, we isolated 23 novel RNR mutants displaying elevated mutation rates along with altered dNTP levels. The responsible amino-acid substitutions in RNR reside in three different regions: (i) the (d)ATP-binding activity domain, (ii) a novel region in the small subunit adjacent to the activity domain, and (iii) the dNTP-binding specificity site, several of which are associated with different dNTP pool alterations and different mutational outcomes. These mutants provide new insight into the precise mechanisms by which RNR is regulated and how dNTP pool disturbances resulting from defects in RNR can lead to increased mutation.     

Ribonucleotide reductase as a target to control apicomplexan diseases

Malaria is caused by species in the apicomplexan genus Plasmodium, which infect hundreds of millions of people each year and kill close to one million. While malaria is the most notorious of the apicomplexan-caused diseases, other members of eukaryotic phylum Apicomplexa are responsible for additional, albeit less well-known, diseases in humans, economically important livestock, and a variety of other vertebrates. Diseases such as babesiosis (hemolytic anemia), theileriosis and East Coast Fever, cryptosporidiosis, and toxoplasmosis are caused by the apicomplexans Babesia, Theileria, Cryptosporidium and Toxoplasma, respectively. In addition to the loss of human life, these diseases are responsible for losses of billions of dollars annually. Hence, the research into new drug targets remains a high priority. Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is an essential enzyme found in all domains of life. It is the only means by which de novo synthesis of deoxyribonucleotides occurs, without which DNA replication and repair cannot proceed. RNR has long been the target of antiviral, antibacterial and anti-cancer therapeutics. Herein, we review the chemotherapeutic methods used to inhibit RNR, with particular emphasis on the role of RNR inhibition in Apicomplexa, and in light of the novel RNR R2_e2 subunit recently identified in apicomplexan parasites.     

Structure, function, and mechanism of ribonucleotide reductases

Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is the enzyme responsible for the conversion of ribonucleotides to 2'-deoxyribonucleotides and thereby provides the precursors needed for both synthesis and repair of DNA. In the recent years, many new crystal structures have been obtained of the protein subunits of all three classes of RNR. This review will focus upon recent structural and spectroscopic studies, which have offered deeper insight to the mechanistic properties as well as evolutionary relationship and diversity among the different classes of RNR. Although the three different classes of RNR enzymes depend on different metal cofactors for the catalytic activity, all three classes have a conserved cysteine residue at the active site located on the tip of a protein loop in the centre of an alpha/beta-barrel structural motif. This cysteine residue is believed to be converted into a thiyl radical that initiates the substrate turnover in all three classes of RNR. The functional and structural similarities suggest that the present-day RNRs have all evolved from a common ancestral reductase. Nevertheless, the different cofactors found in the three classes of RNR make the RNR proteins into interesting model systems for quite diverse protein families, such as diiron-oxygen proteins, cobalamin-dependent proteins, and SAM-dependent iron-sulfur proteins. There are also significant variations within each of the three classes of RNR. With new structures available of the R2 protein of class I RNR, we have made a comparison of the diiron centres in R2 from mouse and Escherichia coli. The R2 protein shows dynamic carboxylate, radical, and water shifts in different redox forms, and new radical forms are different from non-radical forms. In mouse R2, the binding of iron(II) or cobalt(II) to the four metal sites shows high cooperativity. A unique situation is found in RNR from baker's yeast, which is made up of heterodimers, in contrast to homodimers, which is the normal case for class I RNR. Since the reduction of ribonucleotides is the rate-limiting step of DNA synthesis, RNR is an important target for cell growth control, and the recent finding of a p53-induced isoform of the R2 protein in mammalian cells has increased the interest for the role of RNR during the different phases of the cell cycle.     

Regulation of ribonucleotide reductase in response to iron deficiency

Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is an essential enzyme required for DNA synthesis and repair. Although iron is necessary for class Ia RNR activity, little is known about the mechanisms that control RNR in response to iron deficiency. In this work, we demonstrate that yeast cells control RNR function during iron deficiency by redistributing the Rnr2-Rnr4 small subunit from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Our data support a Mec1/Rad53-independent mechanism in which the iron-regulated Cth1/Cth2 mRNA-binding proteins specifically interact with the WTM1 mRNA in response to iron scarcity and promote its degradation. The resulting decrease in the nuclear-anchoring Wtm1 protein levels leads to the redistribution of the Rnr2-Rnr4 heterodimer to the cytoplasm, where it assembles as an active RNR complex and increases deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate levels. When iron is scarce, yeast selectively optimizes RNR function at the expense of other non-essential iron-dependent processes that are repressed, to allow DNA synthesis and repair.     

dNTP pools determine fork progression and origin usage under replication stress

Intracellular deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) pools must be tightly regulated to preserve genome integrity. Indeed, alterations in dNTP pools are associated with increased mutagenesis, genomic instability and tumourigenesis. However, the mechanisms by which altered or imbalanced dNTP pools affect DNA synthesis remain poorly understood. Here, we show that changes in intracellular dNTP levels affect replication dynamics in budding yeast in different ways. Upregulation of the activity of ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) increases elongation, indicating that dNTP pools are limiting for normal DNA replication. In contrast, inhibition of RNR activity with hydroxyurea (HU) induces a sharp transition to a slow-replication mode within minutes after S-phase entry. Upregulation of RNR activity delays this transition and modulates both fork speed and origin usage under replication stress. Interestingly, we also observed that chromosomal instability (CIN) mutants have increased dNTP pools and show enhanced DNA synthesis in the presence of HU. Since upregulation of RNR promotes fork progression in the presence of DNA lesions, we propose that CIN mutants adapt to chronic replication stress by upregulating dNTP pools.     

Crystal structure of the di-iron/radical protein of ribonucleotide reductase from Corynebacterium ammoniagenes.

Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is the enzyme performing de novo production of the four deoxyribonucleotides needed for DNA synthesis. All mammals as well as some prokaryotes express the class I enzyme which is an alpha(2)beta(2) protein. The smaller of the homodimers, denoted R2, contains a di-iron carboxylate site which, upon reaction with molecular oxygen, generates a stable tyrosyl radical needed for catalysis. The three-dimensional structure of the oxidized class Ib RNR R2 from Corynebacterium ammoniagenes has been determined at 1.85 A resolution and refined to an R-value of 15.8% (R(free) = 21.3%). In addition, structures of both the reduced iron-containing, and manganese-substituted protein have been solved. The C. ammoniagenes R2 has been proposed to be manganese-dependent. The present structure provides evidence that manganese is not oxidized by the protein, in agreement with recent biochemical data, and that no obvious structural abnormalities are seen in the oxidized and reduced iron-containing forms, giving further support that the protein is indeed an iron-dependent RNR R2. The di-manganese structure also provides an explanation for the magnetic properties of this site. The structure of the oxidized C. ammoniagenes R2 also reveals an additional water molecule bridging the radical and the iron site, which has not previously been seen in any other R2 structure and which might have important mechanistic implications.     

Mechanism of inhibition of ribonucleotide reductase with motexafin gadolinium (MGd)

Motexafin gadolinium (MGd) is an expanded porphyrin anticancer agent which selectively targets tumor cells and works as a radiation enhancer, with promising results in clinical trials. Its mechanism of action is oxidation of intracellular reducing molecules and acting as a direct inhibitor of mammalian ribonucleotide reductase (RNR). This paper focuses on the mechanism of inhibition of RNR by MGd. Our experimental data present at least two pathways for inhibition of RNR; one precluding subunits oligomerization and the other direct inhibition of the large catalytic subunit of the enzyme. Co-localization of MGd and RNR in the cytoplasm particularly in the S-phase may account for its inhibitory properties. These data can elucidate an important effect of MGd on the cancer cells with overproduction of RNR and its efficacy as an anticancer agent and not only as a general radiosensitizer.     

Ribonucleotide reductase inhibition enhances chemoradiosensitivity of human cervical cancers

For repair of damaged DNA, cells increase de novo synthesis of deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates through the rate-limiting, p53-regulated ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) enzyme. In this study we investigated whether pharmacological inhibition of RNR by 3-aminopyridine-2-carboxaldehyde thiosemicarbazone (3-AP, NSC #663249) enhanced chemoradiation sensitivity through a mechanism involving sustained DNA damage. RNR inactivation by 3-AP and resulting chemoradiosensitization were evaluated in human cervical (CaSki, C33-a) cancer cells through study of DNA damage (γ-H2AX signal) by flow cytometry, RNR subunit p53R2 and p21 protein steady-state levels by Western blot analysis and laser scanning imaging cytometry, and cell survival by colony formation assays. 3-AP treatment led to sustained radiation- and cisplatin-induced DNA damage (i.e. increased γ-H2AX signal) in both cell lines through a mechanism of inhibited RNR activity. Radiation, cisplatin and 3-AP exposure resulted in significantly elevated numbers and persistence of γ-H2AX foci that were associated with reduced clonogenic survival. DNA damage was associated with a rise in p53R2 but not p21 protein levels 6 h after treatment with radiation and/or cisplatin plus 3-AP. We conclude that blockage of RNR activity by 3-AP impairs DNA damage responses that rely on deoxyribonucleotide production and thereby may substantially increase chemoradiosensitivity of human cervical cancers.