Structural features for the mechanism of antitumor action of a dimeric human pancreatic ribonuclease variant

Antonello Merlino 1, Giovanna Avella 1, Sonia Di Gaetano 2, Angela Arciello 3, Renata Piccoli 3 4, Lelio Mazzarella 1 2, Filomena Sica 1 2 *

1Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Via Cintia, Napoli 80126, Italy 2Istituto di Biostrutture e Bioimmagini, CNR, Via Mezzocannone 16, Napoli 80134, Italy 3Dipartimento di Biologia Strutturale e Funzionale, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Via Cintia, Napoli 80126, Italy 4Istituto Nazionale di Biostrutture e Biosistemi (INBB), Italy

email: Filomena Sica (filomena.sica@unina.it)

^*Correspondence to Filomena Sica, Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant' Angelo, Via Cintia, 80126 Napoli, Italy

Funded by:
 Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca; Grant Number: FIRB RBNE03B8KK and, PRIN2007

A specialized class of RNases shows a high cytotoxicity toward tumor cell lines, which is critically dependent on their ability to reach the cytosol and to evade the action of the ribonuclease inhibitor (RI). The cytotoxicity and antitumor activity of bovine seminal ribonuclease (BSRNase), which exists in the native state as an equilibrium mixture of a swapped and an unswapped dimer, are peculiar properties of the swapped form. A dimeric variant (HHP2-RNase) of human pancreatic RNase, in which the enzyme has been engineered to reproduce the sequence of BSRNase helix-II (Gln28Leu, Arg31Cys, Arg32Cys, and Asn34Lys) and to eliminate a negative charge on the surface (Glu111Gly), is also extremely cytotoxic. Surprisingly, this activity is associated also to the unswapped form of the protein. The crystal structure reveals that on this molecule the hinge regions, which are highly disordered in the unswapped form of BSRNase, adopt a very well-defined conformation in both subunits. The results suggest that the two hinge peptides and the two Leu28 side chains may provide an anchorage to a transient noncovalent dimer, which maintains Cys31 and Cys32 of the two subunits in proximity, thus stabilizing a quaternary structure, similar to that found for the noncovalent swapped dimer of BSRNase, that allows the molecule to escape RI and/or to enhance the formation of the interchain disulfides.