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Molecular modeling of the reaction pathway and hydride transfer reactions of HMG-CoA reductase.

ABSTRACT: HMG-CoA reductase catalyzes the four-electron reduction of HMG-CoA to mevalonate and is an enzyme of considerable biomedical relevance because of the impact of its statin inhibitors on public health. Although the reaction has been studied extensively using X-ray crystallography, there are surprisingly no computational studies that test the mechanistic hypotheses suggested for this complex reaction. Theozyme and quantum mechanical (QM)/molecular mechanical (MM) calculations up to the B3LYP/6-31g(d,p)//B3LYP/6-311++g(2d,2p) level of theory were employed to generate an atomistic description of the enzymatic reaction process and its energy profile. The models generated here predict that the catalytically important Glu83 is protonated prior to hydride transfer and that it acts as the general acid or base in the reaction. With Glu83 protonated, the activation energies calculated for the sequential hydride transfer reactions, 21.8 and 19.3 kcal/mol, are in qualitative agreement with the experimentally determined rate constant for the entire reaction (1 s(-1) to 1 min(-1)). When Glu83 is not protonated, the first hydride transfer reaction is predicted to be disfavored by >20 kcal/mol, and the activation energy is predicted to be higher by >10 kcal/mol. While not involved in the reaction as an acid or base, Lys267 is critical for stabilization of the transition state in forming an oxyanion hole with the protonated Glu83. Molecular dynamics simulations and MM/Poisson-Boltzmann surface area free energy calculations predict that the enzyme active site stabilizes the hemithioacetal intermediate better than the aldehyde intermediate. This suggests a mechanism in which cofactor exchange occurs before the breakdown of the hemithioacetal. Slowing the conversion to aldehyde would provide the enzyme with a mechanism to protect it from solvent and explain why the free aldehyde is not observed experimentally. Our results support the hypothesis that the pK(a) of an active site acidic group is modulated by the redox state of the cofactor. The oxidized cofactor and deprotonated Glu83 are closer in space after hydride transfer, indicating that indeed the cofactor may influence the pK(a) of Glu83 through an electrostatic interaction. The enzyme is able to catalyze the transfer of a hydride to the structurally and electronically distinct substrates by maintaining the general shape of the active site and adjusting the electrostatic environment through acid-base chemistry. Our results are in good agreement with the well-studied hydride transfer reactions catalyzed by liver alcohol dehydrogenase in calculated energy profile and reaction geometries despite different mechanistic functionalities.

SUBMITTER: Haines BE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3522576 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Molecular modeling of the reaction pathway and hydride transfer reactions of HMG-CoA reductase.

Haines Brandon E BE Steussy C Nicklaus CN Stauffacher Cynthia V CV Wiest Olaf O

Biochemistry 20120925 40

HMG-CoA reductase catalyzes the four-electron reduction of HMG-CoA to mevalonate and is an enzyme of considerable biomedical relevance because of the impact of its statin inhibitors on public health. Although the reaction has been studied extensively using X-ray crystallography, there are surprisingly no computational studies that test the mechanistic hypotheses suggested for this complex reaction. Theozyme and quantum mechanical (QM)/molecular mechanical (MM) calculations up to the B3LYP/6-31g( ...[more]

PMID: 22971202

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Project description:Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibition reduces vascular event risk, but confusion surrounds its effects on low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Here, we clarify associations of genetic inhibition of CETP on detailed lipoprotein measures and compare those to genetic inhibition of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR). We used an allele associated with lower CETP expression (rs247617) to mimic CETP inhibition and an allele associated with lower HMGCR expression (rs12916) to mimic the well-known effects of statins for comparison. The study consists of 65,427 participants of European ancestries with detailed lipoprotein subclass profiling from nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Genetic associations were scaled to 10% reduction in relative risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). We also examined observational associations of the lipoprotein subclass measures with risk of incident CHD in 3 population-based cohorts totalling 616 incident cases and 13,564 controls during 8-year follow-up. Genetic inhibition of CETP and HMGCR resulted in near-identical associations with LDL cholesterol concentration estimated by the Friedewald equation. Inhibition of HMGCR had relatively consistent associations on lower cholesterol concentrations across all apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins. In contrast, the associations of the inhibition of CETP were stronger on lower remnant and very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol, but there were no associations on cholesterol concentrations in LDL defined by particle size (diameter 18-26 nm) (-0.02 SD LDL defined by particle size; 95% CI: -0.10 to 0.05 for CETP versus -0.24 SD, 95% CI -0.30 to -0.18 for HMGCR). Inhibition of CETP was strongly associated with lower proportion of triglycerides in all high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles. In observational analyses, a higher triglyceride composition within HDL subclasses was associated with higher risk of CHD, independently of total cholesterol and triglycerides (strongest hazard ratio per 1 SD higher triglyceride composition in very large HDL 1.35; 95% CI: 1.18-1.54). In conclusion, CETP inhibition does not appear to affect size-specific LDL cholesterol but is likely to lower CHD risk by lowering concentrations of other atherogenic, apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins (such as remnant and VLDLs). Inhibition of CETP also lowers triglyceride composition in HDL particles, a phenomenon reflecting combined effects of circulating HDL, triglycerides, and apolipoprotein B-containing particles and is associated with a lower CHD risk in observational analyses. Our results reveal that conventional composite lipid assays may mask heterogeneous effects of emerging lipid-altering therapies.

Project description:HMG-CoA reductase (HMGR) is the target of statins, cholesterol-lowering drugs prescribed to millions of patients worldwide. More recent research indicates that HMGR could be a useful target in the development of antimicrobial agents. Over the last seven decades, researchers have proposed a series of increasingly complex reaction mechanisms for this biomedically important enzyme. The maturation of the mechanistic proposals for HMGR have paralleled advances in a diverse set of research areas, such as molecular biology and computational chemistry. Thus, the development of the HMGR mechanism provides a useful case study for following the advances in state-of-the-art methods in enzyme mechanism research. Similarly, the questions raised by these mechanism proposals reflect the limitations of the methods used to develop them. The mechanism of HMGR, a four-electron oxidoreductase, is unique and far more complex than originally thought. The reaction contains multiple chemical steps, coupled to large-scale domain motions of the homodimeric enzyme. The first proposals for the HMGR mechanism were based on kinetic and labeling experiments, drawing analogies to the mechanism of known dehydrogenases. Advances in molecular biology and bioinformatics enabled researchers to use site-directed mutagenesis experiments and protein sequencing to identify catalytically important glutamate, aspartate, and histidine residues. These studies, in turn, have generated new and more complicated mechanistic proposals. With the development of protein crystallography, researchers solved HMGR crystal structures to reveal an unexpected lysine residue at the center of the active site. The many crystal structures of HMGR led to increasingly complex mechanistic proposals, but the inherent limitations of the protein crystallography left a number of questions unresolved. For example, the protonation state of the glutamate residue within the active site cannot be clearly determined from the crystal structure. The differing protonation state of this residue leads to different proposed mechanisms for the enzyme. As computational analysis of large biomolecules has become more feasible, the application of methods such as hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations to the HMGR mechanism have led to the most detailed mechanistic proposal yet. As these methodologies continue to improve, they prove to be very powerful for the study of enzyme mechanisms in conjunction with protein crystallography. Nevertheless, even the most current mechanistic proposal for HMGR remains incomplete due to limitations of the current computational methodologies. Thus, HMGR serves as a model for how the combination of increasingly sophisticated experimental and computational methods can elucidate very complex enzyme mechanisms.

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Molecular modeling of the reaction pathway and hydride transfer reactions of HMG-CoA reductase.

Publications

Molecular modeling of the reaction pathway and hydride transfer reactions of HMG-CoA reductase.

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