L-Enantiomers of transition state analogue inhibitors bound to human purine nucleoside phosphorylase

Human purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) was crystallized with transition-state analogue inhibitors Immucillin-H and DADMe-Immucillin-H synthesized with ribosyl mimics of l-stereochemistry. The inhibitors demonstrate that major driving forces for tight binding of these analogues are the leaving group interaction and the cationic mimicry of the transition state, even though large geometric changes occur with d-Immucillins and l-Immucillins bound to human PNP.     

Binding causes the remote [5'-3H]thymidine kinetic isotope effect in human thymidine phosphorylase

The remote 5'-3H V/K kinetic isotope effect (KIE) observed in human thymidine phosphorylase (6.1%) is significantly larger than can be explained by the reaction chemistry. One hypothesis connects the 5'-3H KIE in purine nucleoside phosphorylase to that enzyme's SN1 transition state. The transition state of thymidine phosphorylase, however, is an SN2 nucleophilic displacement. Here we report equilibrium binding isotope effects sufficiently large to explain the presence of this substantial KIE in thymidine phosphorylase.     

Nucleophilic participation in the solvolysis of the t-butyldimethylsulfonium ion

Studies with the $\text{t}$-butyldimethylsulfonium ion give evidence for nucleophilic participation in the solvolyses of $\text{t}$-butyl compounds but electrophilic assistance would be the dominant factor for $\text{t}$-butyl chloride solvolysis.     

Synthesis of a transition state analogue inhibitor of purine nucleoside phosphorylase via the Mannich reaction

[reaction: see text] The expeditious convergent synthesis of the potent human purine nucleoside phosphorylase inhibitor DADMe-Immucillin-G (3) was achieved via the Mannich reaction. The Mannich chemistry of a series of deazapurines and amine hydrochlorides was also investigated.     

Experimental transition state for the Corey-Bakshi-Shibata reduction

Asymmetric reductions of prochiral ketones are important transformations in the syntheses of natural products, pharmaceuticals, and fine chemicals. The Corey-Bakshi-Shibata reduction is unique among hydride transfer reductions in its tremendous substrate range and catalytic nature. Here, a coordinated computational and experimental approach is taken toward understanding the origins of the high selectivity and broad substrate range, which are hallmarks of this reduction.     

Phosphate activation in the ground state of purine nucleoside phosphorylase

Phosphate and ribose 1-phosphate (R1P) bound to human purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) have been studied by FTIR spectroscopy for comparison with phosphate bound with a transition state analogue. Bound phosphate is dianionic but exists in two distinct binding modes with similar binding affinities. The phosphate of bound R1P is also dianionic. Bound R1P slowly hydrolyzes to ribose and phosphate even in the absence of nucleobase. The C-OP bond is cleaved in bound R1P, the same as in the PNP-catalyzed reaction. Free R1P undergoes both C-OP and CO-P solvolysis. A hydrogen bond to one P-O group is stronger than those to the other two P-O groups in both the PNP.R1P complex and in one form of the PNP.PO4 complex. The average hydrogen bond strength to the PO bonds in the PNP.R1P complex is less than that in water but stronger than that in the PNP.PO4 complex. Hydrolysis of bound R1P may be initiated by distortion of the phosphate moiety in bound R1P. The unfavorable interactions on the phosphate moiety of bound R1P are relieved by dissociation of R1P from PNP or by hydrolysis to ribose and phosphate. The two forms of bound phosphate in the PNP.PO4 complex are interpreted to be phosphate positioned as the product in the nucleoside synthesis direction and as the reactant in the phosphorolysis reaction; their interconversion can occur by the transfer of a proton from one PO bond to another. The electronic structure of phosphate bound with a transition state analogue differs substantially from that in the Michaelis complexes.     

Quantum theory for transition state absorption

A time-dependent quantum model involving two wave packets on two excited-state surfaces is presented to describe absorption (or emission) from the transition state of a chemical reaction. The connection between the quantum result and existing classical theories is shown. The model ia applied to the direct dissociation of ICN* and gives results in good agreement with experiment. The dissociation time - the time to half-maximal absorption - is almost invariant with the pulse width but is dependent on the probe wavelength. A lower absorption plateau and a longer dissociation time is predicted for probe energies above the asymptotic resonance energy.     

Molecular features of thymidine analogues governing the activity of human thymidine kinase

Modified uridines seem to be able to work as hypoxic tumour cell radiosensitisers. Before they sensitise cells to ionising radiation, they have to be incorporated into the genomic DNA and the latter process has to be preceded by the phosphorylation of the modified uridine, which in human cells is executed by human thymidine kinase 1 (hTK1). In the current study, we present the quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model allowing to identify and understand the molecular features of nucleoside derivatives governing the hTK1 kinase activity. The developed model meets all requirements of a reliable QSAR model and is based on only two molecular properties: the shape of the nucleoside determined by atom substitutions and the ability of the molecule to intermolecular interactions with the enzyme. These results have important implications for the rational designing of new hTK1 substrates and should significantly reduce the time and cost of studies on new radiosensitisers.     

Analysis of PUGNAc and NAG-thiazoline as transition state analogues for human O-GlcNAcase: mechanistic and structural insights into inhibitor selectivity and transition state poise

O-GlcNAcase catalyzes the cleavage of beta-O-linked 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-beta-d-glucopyranoside (O-GlcNAc) from serine and threonine residues of post-translationally modified proteins. Two potent inhibitors of this enzyme are O-(2-acetamido-2-deoxy-d-glucopyranosylidene)amino-N-phenylcarbamate (PUGNAc) and 1,2-dideoxy-2'-methyl-alpha-d-glucopyranoso[2,1-d]-Delta2'-thiazoline (NAG-thiazoline). Derivatives of these inhibitors differ in their selectivity for human O-GlcNAcase over the functionally related human lysosomal beta-hexosamindases, with PUGNAc derivatives showing modest selectivities and NAG-thiazoline derivatives showing high selectivities. The molecular basis for this difference in selectivities is addressed as is how well these inhibitors mimic the O-GlcNAcase-stabilized transition state (TS). Using a series of substrates, ground state (GS) inhibitors, and transition state mimics having analogous structural variations, we describe linear free energy relationships of log(KM/kcat) versus log(KI) for PUGNAc and NAG-thiazoline. These relationships suggest that PUGNAc is a poor transition state analogue, while NAG-thiazoline is revealed as a transition state mimic. Comparative X-ray crystallographic analyses of enzyme-inhibitor complexes reveal subtle molecular differences accounting for the differences in selectivities between these two inhibitors and illustrate key molecular interactions. Computational modeling of species along the reaction coordinate, as well as PUGNAc and NAG-thiazoline, provide insight into the features of NAG-thiazoline that resemble the transition state and reveal where PUGNAc fails to capture significant binding energy. These studies also point to late transition state poise for the O-GlcNAcase catalyzed reaction with significant nucleophilic participation and little involvement of the leaving group. The potency of NAG-thiazoline, its transition state mimicry, and its lack of traditional transition state-like design features suggest that potent rationally designed glycosidase inhibitors can be developed that exploit variation in transition state poise.     

Simulated transition state for the hartree-fock and hartree-fock-slater methods

A simple model based on screening effects is used to calculate ionization and excitation energies of atoms using only ground-state information. The results obtained show better agreement with the experimental values than those obtained through the use of Koopmans' approximation, specially for the inner shells.     

Nucleophilic radioiodination of 6-bromocholesterol via non-isotopic exchange reaction in molten state

A synthetic method for preparing radioiodinated 6-[125 I]iodocholesterol[CL-6-125 I] for adrenal evaluation is described. The radioiodine atom wasincorporated onto the cholesterol molecule via non-isotopic exchange between6-bromocholesterol [CL-6-Br] and radioiodine as iodide ion [ 125 I –]in a molten state. The different parameters affecting the yield of exchange were investigated using 125 I (T 1/2 .60 d) to centralize the different physical and chemical reaction conditions and purification of the final product as pure as 6-[125 I]iodocholesterol. The method was suitable to either 131 I (T 1/2 .8 d) nucleophilic radioiodination which facilitates the scanning of the adrenal for a few days after administration or the use of 124 I (T 1/2 .4.16 d) nucleophilic radioiodination for PET evaluation of the adrenal. TLC as well as HPLC chromatographic analysis is used to determine the efficiency of the exchange reactions under different chemical reaction conditions and to monitor the stability of the final product as pure as CL-6-125 I with radiochemical purity of .99%. This no-carrier-added method improved the speed of the reaction and affords high radiochemical yield of 90 % and suitable specific activity due to the use of CL-6-Br rather than CL-6-I as substrate. Kinetic studies revealed second order iodine-bromine exchange reaction. The activation energy for the exchange reaction in ammonium acetate (m.p. 114 °C) was calculated to be 4.576 kcal/mole.     

A transition state analogue for an RNA-editing reaction

Deamination at C6 of adenosine in RNA catalyzed by the ADAR enzymes generates inosine at the corresponding position. Because inosine is decoded as guanosine during translation, this modification can lead to codon changes in messenger RNA. Hydration of 8-azanebularine across the C6-N1 double bond generates an excellent mimic of the transition state proposed for the hydrolytic deamination reaction catalyzed by ADARs. Here, we report the synthesis of a phosphoramidite of 8-azanebularine and its use in the preparation of RNAs mimicking the secondary structure found at a known editing site in the glutamate receptor B subunit pre-mRNA. The binding properties of analogue-containing RNAs indicate that a tight binding ligand for an ADAR can be generated by incorporation of 8-azanebularine. The observed high-affinity binding is dependent on a functional active site, the presence of one, but not the other, of ADAR2's two double-stranded RNA-binding motifs (dsRBMs), and the correct placement of the nucleoside analogue into the sequence/structural context of a known editing site. These results advance our understanding of substrate recognition during ADAR-catalyzed RNA editing and are important for structural studies of ADAR.RNA complexes.     

Superlinearly converging dimer method for transition state search

Algorithmic improvements of the dimer method [G. Henkelman and H. Jonsson, J. Chem. Phys. 111, 7010 (1999)] are described in this paper. Using the limited memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (L-BFGS) optimizer for the dimer translation greatly improves the convergence compared to the previously used conjugate gradient algorithm. It also saves one energy and gradient calculation per dimer iteration. Extrapolation of the gradient during repeated dimer rotations reduces the computational cost to one gradient calculation per dimer rotation. The L-BFGS algorithm also improves convergence of the rotation. Thus, three to four energy and gradient evaluations are needed per iteration at the beginning of a transition state search, while only two are required close to convergence. Moreover, we apply the dimer method in internal coordinates to reduce coupling between the degrees of freedom. Weighting the coordinates can be used to apply chemical knowledge about the system and restrict the transition state search to only part of the system while minimizing the remainder. These improvements led to an efficient method for the location of transition states without the need to calculate the Hessian. Thus, it is especially useful in large systems with expensive gradient evaluations.     

A molecular docking and dynamics study to screen phytochemicals that target mutant thymidine phosphorylase for colon cancer therapy

Thymidine phosphorylase (TYPH) is an enzyme involved in pyrimidine catabolism and its mutation is associated with chemoresistance of colon cancer to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) treatment. Here we have analysed the most destabilized mutation of TYPH protein at glycosyltransferase domain where isoleucine alter to alanine at position 214(I214A) that linked to the onset of colon cancer. This study aims to conduct virtual screening of phytochemicals to find novel compounds against mutated TYPH protein. The in silico study aimed to predict the physicochemical properties of phytochemicals and their binding performance with mutated TYPH compared to 5-FU. From the screened phytochemicals, berbamine showed the best binding affinity (?7.2 kcal/mol) with mutant TYPH protein as compared to 5-FU. For further confirmations, the dynamics properties of native, mutant, and docked complex of I214A mutant with berbamine systems were studied through molecular dynamics simulations with a trajectory of 100ns. From root mean square fluctuation, radius of gyration, number of hydrogen bonds, principal component analysis, and free energy landscape, we predicted that the I214A mutant lost its compactness, however, on complex formation with berbamine it gained its compactness. MM/PBSA and molecular docking studies confirmed that berbamine could show potential inhibitory effects against the mutant model of TYPH. Our finding may open the door for its experimental validation and may take as a potential therapeutic against colon cancer treatment in near future.