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Bacterial 5'-methylthioadenosine/S-adenosylhomocysteine nucleosidase (MTAN) hydrolyzes adenine from its substrates to form S-methyl-5-thioribose and S-ribosyl-L-homocysteine. MTANs are involved in quorum sensing, menaquinone synthesis, and 5'-methylthioadenosine recycling to S-adenosylmethionine. Helicobacter pylori uses MTAN in its unusual menaquinone pathway, making H. pylori MTAN a target for antibiotic development. Human 5'-methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP), a reported anticancer target, catalyzes phosphorolysis of 5'-methylthioadenosine to salvage S-adenosylmethionine. Transition-state analogues designed for HpMTAN and MTAP show significant overlap in specificity. Fifteen unique transition-state analogues are described here and are used to explore inhibitor specificity. We report several analogues of HpMTAN bind in the picomolar range while inhibiting humanmore » MTAP with orders of magnitude weaker affinity. Structural analysis of HpMTAN shows inhibitors extending through a hydrophobic channel to the protein surface. The more enclosed catalytic sites of human MTAP require the inhibitors to adopt a folded structure, displacing the phosphate nucleophile from the catalytic site.« less

Phosphoribosyl transferases (PRTs) are essential in nucleotide synthesis and salvage, amino acid, and vitamin synthesis. Transition state analysis of several PRTs has demonstrated ribocation-like transition states with a partial positive charge residing on the pentose ring. Core chemistry for synthesis of transition state analogues related to the 5-phospho-α-d-ribosyl 1-pyrophosphate (PRPP) reactant of these enzymes could be developed by stereospecific placement of bis-phosphate groups on an iminoaltritol ring. Cationic character is provided by the imino group and the bis-phosphates anchor both the 1- and 5-phosphate binding sites. We provide a facile synthetic path to these molecules. Cyclic-nitrone redox methodology was appliedmore » to the stereocontrolled synthesis of three stereoisomers of a selectively monoprotected diol relevant to the synthesis of transition-state analogue inhibitors. These polyhydroxylated pyrrolidine natural product analogues were bis-phosphorylated to generate analogues of the ribocationic form of 5-phosphoribosyl 1-phosphate. A safe, high yielding synthesis of the key intermediate represents a new route to these transition state mimics. An enantiomeric pair of iminoaltritol bis-phosphates (L-DIAB and D-DIAB) was prepared and shown to display inhibition of Plasmodium falciparum orotate phosphoribosyltransferase and Saccharomyces cerevisiae adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (ScAPRT). As a result, the crystallographic inhibitor binding analysis of L- and D-DIAB bound to the catalytic sites of ScAPRT demonstrates accommodation of both enantiomers by altered ring geometry and bis-phosphate catalytic site contacts.« less

MTAN (5'-methylthioadenosine nucleosidase) catalyzes the hydrolysis of the N-ribosidic bond of a variety of adenosine-containing metabolites. The Helicobacter pylori MTAN (HpMTAN) hydrolyzes 6-amino-6-deoxyfutalosine in the second step of the alternative menaquinone biosynthetic pathway. Substrate binding of the adenine moiety is mediated almost exclusively by hydrogen bonds, and the proposed catalytic mechanism requires multiple proton-transfer events. Of particular interest is the protonation state of residue D198, which possesses a pK_a above 8 and functions as a general acid to initiate the enzymatic reaction. In this study we present three corefined neutron/X-ray crystal structures of wild-type HpMTAN cocrystallized with S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH), Formycinmore » A (FMA), and (3R,4S)-4-(4-Chlorophenylthiomethyl)-1-[(9-deaza-adenin-9-yl)methyl]-3-hydroxypyrrolidine (p-ClPh-Thio-DADMe-ImmA) as well as one neutron/X-ray crystal structure of an inactive variant (HpMTAN-D198N) cocrystallized with SAH. These results support a mechanism of D198 pKa elevation through the unexpected sharing of a proton with atom N7 of the adenine moiety possessing unconventional hydrogen-bond geometry. Additionally, the neutron structures also highlight active site features that promote the stabilization of the transition state and slight variations in these interactions that result in 100-fold difference in binding affinities between the DADMe-ImmA and ImmA analogs.« less