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1 Advanced Technology and 2 Metabolic Disease Research, Abbott Laboratories, Global Pharmaceutical Research & Development, Abbott Park, Illinois 60064, USA
Reprint requests to: Kenton L. Longenecker, Department of Structural Biology, R46Y, Building AP10, 100 Abbott Park Road, Abbott Park, IL 60064, USA; e-mail: Kenton.Longenecker{at}Abbott.com; fax: (847) 937-2625.
(RECEIVED May 26, 2005; FINAL REVISION September 23, 2005; ACCEPTED September 26, 2005)
| Abstract |
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Keywords: MurF; murein enzymes; peptidoglycan; multidomain structure; proteinligand interaction; X-ray; NMR
Article and publication are at http://www.proteinscience.org/cgi/doi/10.1110/ps.051604805.
| Introduction |
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MurF belongs to a family of functionally related murein enzymes that participate in the biosynthesis of the bacterial cell wall, and other members include MurA, MurB, MurC, MurD, and MurE (Ikeda et al. 1990). The sequential nomenclature denotes the order of enzymatic action within the biosynthetic pathway of the peptidoglycan unit that comprises the cell wall and exhibits commonalities among bacterial strains (Bugg and Walsh 1992; van Heijenoort 2001). As this feature is both essential for bacteria and unique from human biology, the murein enzymes represent attractive targets for pharmaceutical investigation. Consistent with studies of other bacterial organisms, our screening efforts identified MurF as an essential gene product for the growth of S. pneumoniae. MurF utilizes ATP to catalyze the ligation of D-ala-D-ala dipeptide with the UDP-MurNAc-tripeptide to form the peptidoglycan UDP-MurNAc-pentapeptide monomer (Anderson et al. 1996). While MurA and MurB are quite distinct from MurF, there are structural similarities between MurF and the MurC, MurD, and MurE enzymes such that each act as ATP-dependent amino acid ligases in peptidoglycan biosynthesis and share similar enzymatic mechanisms relevant to understanding these proteins as pharmaceutical targets (El Zoeiby et al. 2003).
Our exploration of MurF as a potential pharmaceutical target began with screening the Abbott small molecule library for compounds that bind the S. pneumoniae protein using affinity selection coupled with mass spectrometry, and we report here the structural analysis of two compounds found to specifically inhibit the enzyme (Gu et al. 2004). NMR studies confirmed the specifity of binding to MurF and X-ray crystallography revealed the three-dimensional structure, yielding an observation that the proteininhibitor complex adopts a dramatically different conformation than was found for an apo structure of MurF from Escherichia coli (Yan et al. 2000). These related structures form a comparison that is reminiscent of studies detailing large conformational changes in MurD, where the protein adopts a transition state structure through domain closure (Bertrand et al. 2000). In MurF, domain closure is apparently induced by the compound, which binds at an interface between the domains of the protein, and the structure provides an important basis for guiding the design of more potent inhibitory compounds. The integration of NMR and crystallographic efforts highlights the use of structural biology tools for the efficient exploration of pharmaceutical leads.
| Results and Discussion |
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fold that contacts the larger central domain across a broad hydrophobic interface. The central domain (residues 82302) and the C-terminal domain (309454) adopt mononucleotide and dinucleotide (Rossmann) folds, respectively, and are connected by a short linker peptide that is poorly ordered in the crystal. Although the expression construct encodes an N-terminal His-tag fusion, this feature is not evident in the electron density map and assumed to be disordered within the crystal.
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-carbon atoms, while the C-terminal domains can be separately aligned with an RMSD value of 2.0 Å for 90
-carbon atoms (Fig. 4
-carbons are within 3.5 Å of each other, and a gap is inserted where the
-carbon positions differ by more that 3.5 Å. Although the three domains display close structural similarities individually, the spatial arrangement of the domains differs substantially.
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The MurF proteins belong to the larger structurally related family of murein synthetases that includes MurC, MurD, and MurE, sharing several invariant amino acid residues that are suggestive of a common enzymatic reaction mechanism throughout the family (Bouhss et al. 1999). Structural information is available from several studies on these enzymes, and general similarities are apparent. These proteins all contain a three-domain arrangement, albeit with significant differences in detail as might be expected for subfamily members with ~15% sequence identity. Elegant studies of the MurD protein provide descriptions of "open" and "closed" conformations that help explain the enzymatic reaction mechanism conserved throughout the family (Bertrand et al. 1999, 2000). Interestingly, the structures of MurD also exhibit large conformational differences between the positions of the C-terminal domain relative to the rest of the protein, wherein the closed form is thought to approximate the enzymatic transition state and the open form would represent a generic interdomain conformation without substrates or products. Although the closed conformations for MurD and MurF do not overlap exactly, the comparison is noteworthy (Fig. 7
). Alignment of their central domains (RMSD of 1.9 Å for 139
-carbons) yields a closer topological comparison for the C-terminal domains than with the structure of MurF from E. coli, but it is unclear how closely the ligand bound structure of S. pneumonia MurF approximates the domain arrangement of the transition state. The locations of the invariant residues suggest the MurF structure would need to undergo significant conformational changes at least locally to attain a transition state structure. In reporting the apo structure of MurF from E. coli, the investigators compare the structure with the closed form of MurD and suggest a large conformational change is required for catalysis (Yan et al. 2000). The present co-crystal structure supports this hypothesis by providing a novel example of MurF in a compact conformation, more closely approximating that observed for the closed state of MurD.
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In the report of the E. coli MurF structure, the investigators describe an X-ray experiment in which they soaked a crystal with two substrates, UDPMurNAc-tripeptide and D-Ala-D-Ala dipeptide, and observed electron density for the uridineribose moiety located on the surface between the N-terminal and central domains (Yan et al. 2000). Although limited information makes it difficult to compare with the S. pneumonia MurF in detail, the uridineribose binding site unambiguously overlaps with the corresponding ligand binding site observed for compounds 1 and 2. For MurD, interestingly, inclusion of ligands was important to capture the closed form in crystallization, requiring either ATP analogs and/or substrate (UDP-N-actyl-muramoyl-L-alanine), and their binding modes were readily established (Bertrand et al. 1999). While MurF differs in detail, the UDP-derivative binds MurD across the N-terminal domain and extends toward the ATP binding pocket in the middle domain, partly coinciding with the corresponding site for compounds 1 and 2 in MurF (Fig. 7C,D
). Comparisons can also be drawn from the structures of MurC and MurE complexes, differing again in detail, but offering homologous examples with topologically similar locations of substrate binding sites (Gordon et al. 2001; Mol et al. 2003). Unfortunately, similar efforts to soak crystals of S. pneumonia MurF did not reveal any evidence of substrates in the electron density maps of X-ray experiments. While much remains uncertain about the binding mode of substrates for MurF, the comparisons strongly suggest that compounds 1 and 2 occupy a portion of the substrate-binding region.
Topological comparisons also provide insight to additional features of the MurF structure in the vicinity of the active site. Structures of MurD identify an ATP binding site in the central domain, consistent with other proteins with mononucleotide folds containing a characteristic "Walker" sequence motif, and these features are conserved in the E. coli structure of MurF (Smith and Rayment 1996; Bertrand et al. 1999; Yan et al. 2000). The sequence of MurF from S. pneumonia also contains the characteristic motif (residues 104112), but the conformation of this loop is unusual. Although the density in this region is relatively poor, the loop does not adopt a typical conformation for binding ATP but rather extends toward the C-terminal domain. X-ray data collected on crystals soaked with nucleotides did not yield evidence of binding, which is consistent with the observed atypical conformation that is apparently incompatible with ATP. Intriguingly, NMR data suggest compound 1 and ATP can bind simultaneously, suggesting that the crystal structure does not capture a conformation accessible in solution as observed by NMR. This difference is conceivably due to local conformational changes of the nucleotide-binding loop without influencing the interactions at the binding site for compound 1 or 2.
In conclusion, we have identified a novel class of small molecule compounds that bind MurF and determined the structural interactions of the proteinligand complex. The compounds capture the protein in a topologically compact state that is reminiscent of the closed forms of transition state structures for related enzymes sharing similar catalytic mechanisms. While the observed structure is clearly not in a transition state conformation, the binding site for the compound overlaps with the expected binding site for substrate. The detailed interactions of the compound with the protein form the basis for further structure-based drug design. These studies highlight the coordinated efforts of NMR and X-ray crystallographic studies to validate pharmaceutical leads and yield valuable information for further directed exploration by medicinal chemistry.
| Materials and methods |
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-ketobutyrate and [3,3'-13C]-
-ketoisovalerate, whereas cultures for X-ray crystallography studies were supplemented with Se-methionine in minimal media. Cells were grown to mid exponential-phase at 37°C, at which point 1 mM IPTG was added and the temperature was shifted to 30°C. Cells were harvested 4.5 h post-induction and frozen at 85°C. A French pressure cell was used to lyse the cells in 50 mM Tris, 10% glycerol, and 1 mM dithiothreitol (buffer A, pH 8.0). The soluble portion was applied to a Q-sepharose anion exchange column and eluted using a 100- to 250-mM NaCl gradient in buffer A (pH 7.5). Ammonium sulfate was added to the protein pool for a final concentration of 2 M, and the pool was applied to an Me-HIC (Bio-Rad) chromatography column in 50 mM Tris (pH 7.5), 2 M ammonium sulfate, and 1 mM DTT. Protein was eluted with a gradient into buffer A (pH 7.7), and concentrated for a final step of gel filtration on Sephacryl S200 Hi-prep in 50 mM Tris (pH 7.5), 150 mM NaCl, 1 mM DTT.
NMR screening
NMR samples were composed of 13C-methyl labeled MurF in an H2O/D2O (9/1) solution containing 20 mM Tris, 5 mM DTT, 5 mM MgCl2 (pH 8.5) (Hajduk et al. 2000). Ligand binding was detected by acquiring 1H/13C-HSQC spectra utilizing a WATERGATE sequence for solvent suppression on 500 µL of 0.04 mM protein in the presence and the absence of added compound (Piotto et al. 1992). A Bruker sample changer was used on a Bruker DRX500 spectrometer equipped with a CryoProbe (Hajduk et al. 1999). Binding was determined by the observation of changes in the HSQC spectrum. Dissociation constants were obtained for selected compounds by monitoring the chemical shift changes of the protein resonances as a function of ligand concentration. Data were fit using a single binding site model, and a least-squares grid search was performed by varying the values of KD and the chemical shift of the fully saturated protein.
Crystallization and structure determination
Purified protein at 1015 mg/mL in 50 mM Tris (pH 7.5), 150 mM NaCl, and 1 mM DTT was incubated with compound and crystallized at 4°C by the hanging drop method, using a reservoir containing 2.5 M ammonium sulfate, 10 mM magnesium acetate, and 50 mM MES (pH 5.6). Crystals were transferred to fresh reservoir solution with 25% (w/v) glycerol and rapidly frozen in liquid nitrogen. X-ray data were collected at the Advanced Photon Source of Argonne National Laboratory on the IMCA beamline 17-ID with an ADSC quantum 210 detector. Anomalous diffraction data were collected on a co-crystal of compound 1 and MurF containing seleno-methionine using a wavelength of 0.9795 Å, which was verified as the peak of fluorescence across the selenium absorption edge. Data were integrated and scaled using HKL2000 (Otwinowski and Minor 1997), and the diffraction exhibited hexagonal symmetry of the P6122 space group with cell parameters of a = b = 116.27 Å and c = 161.39 Å. For a monomer of 50 kDa, the Vm coefficient of 3.1 Å 3/Da suggests the asymmetric unit contains one protein molecule with ~60% solvent. Intensity differences of all Bijvoet pairs were used as input to the program SOLVE (Terwilliger and Berendzen 1999), which successfully located the positions of 11 outof the 12 selenium atoms expected for the recombinant protein. Subsequent density modification using DM (CCP4 1994) yielded an interpretable electron density map. Parallel calculations with P6522 clearly distinguished P6122 as the correct polar space group assignment. A protein model was built and refined using the programs O (Jones et al. 1991), QUANTA and CNX (Accelrys), targeting the measured structure factor magnitudes and HL coefficients containing the experimentally determined phase information. Figures were prepared using InsightII (Accelrys) and PyMOL (DeLano Scientific). The atomic coordinates and structure factors have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank with accession codes 2AM1 (compound 1) and 2AM2 (compound 2).
| Acknowledgments |
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