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Development of a Synthetic 3-ketosteroid ?1-dehydrogenase for the Generation of a Novel Catabolic Pathway Enabling Cholesterol Degradation in Human Cells.

ABSTRACT: Cholesterol is an essential component of membranes, which is acquired by cells via receptor-mediated endocytosis of lipoproteins or via de novo synthesis. In specialized cells, anabolic enzymes metabolize cholesterol, generating steroid hormones or bile acids. However, surplus cholesterol cannot be catabolized due to the lack of enzymes capable of degrading the cholestane ring. The inability to degrade cholesterol becomes evident in the development and progression of cardiovascular disease, where the accumulation of cholesterol/cholesteryl-esters in macrophages can elicit a maladaptive immune response leading to the development and progression of atherosclerosis. The discovery of cholesterol catabolic pathways in Actinomycetes led us to the hypothesis that if enzymes enabling cholesterol catabolism could be genetically engineered and introduced into human cells, the atherosclerotic process may be prevented or reversed. Comparison of bacterial enzymes that degrade cholesterol to obtain carbon and generate energy with the action of human enzymes revealed that humans lack a 3-ketosteroid ?1-dehydrogenase (?1-KstD), which catalyzes the C-1 and C-2 desaturation of ring A. Here we describe the construction, heterologous expression, and actions of a synthetic humanized ?1-KstD expressed in Hep3B and U-937 cells, providing proof that one of three key enzymes required for cholesterol ring opening can be functionally expressed in human cells.

SUBMITTER: D'Arcy BM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6461610 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Development of a Synthetic 3-ketosteroid Δ<sup>1</sup>-dehydrogenase for the Generation of a Novel Catabolic Pathway Enabling Cholesterol Degradation in Human Cells.

D'Arcy Brandon M BM Swingle Mark R MR Schambeau Lindsay L Pannell Lewis L Prakash Aishwarya A Honkanen Richard E RE

Scientific reports 20190412 1

Cholesterol is an essential component of membranes, which is acquired by cells via receptor-mediated endocytosis of lipoproteins or via de novo synthesis. In specialized cells, anabolic enzymes metabolize cholesterol, generating steroid hormones or bile acids. However, surplus cholesterol cannot be catabolized due to the lack of enzymes capable of degrading the cholestane ring. The inability to degrade cholesterol becomes evident in the development and progression of cardiovascular disease, wher ...[more]

PMID: 30979909

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Project description:Background3-Ketosteroid Δ1-dehydrogenases (KSTDs) are the enzymes involved in microbial cholesterol degradation and modification of steroids. They catalyze dehydrogenation between C1 and C2 atoms in ring A of the polycyclic structure of 3-ketosteroids. KSTDs substrate spectrum is broad, even though most of them prefer steroids with small substituents at the C17 atom. The investigation of the KSTD's substrate specificity is hindered by the poor solubility of the hydrophobic steroids in aqueous solutions. In this paper, we used 2-hydroxpropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HBC) as a solubilizing agent in a study of the KSTDs steady-state kinetics and demonstrated that substrate bioavailability has a pivotal impact on enzyme specificity.ResultsMolecular dynamics simulations on KSTD1 from Rhodococcus erythropolis indicated no difference in ΔGbind between the native substrate, androst-4-en-3,17-dione (AD; - 8.02 kcal/mol), and more complex steroids such as cholest-4-en-3-one (- 8.40 kcal/mol) or diosgenone (- 6.17 kcal/mol). No structural obstacle for binding of the extended substrates was also observed. Following this observation, our kinetic studies conducted in the presence of HBC confirmed KSTD1 activity towards both types of steroids. We have compared the substrate specificity of KSTD1 to the other enzyme known for its activity with cholest-4-en-3-one, KSTD from Sterolibacterium denitrificans (AcmB). The addition of solubilizing agent caused AcmB to exhibit a higher affinity to cholest-4-en-3-one (Ping-Pong bi bi KmA = 23.7 μM) than to AD (KmA = 529.2 μM), a supposedly native substrate of the enzyme. Moreover, we have isolated AcmB isoenzyme (AcmB2) and showed that conversion of AD and cholest-4-en-3-one proceeds at a similar rate. We demonstrated also that the apparent specificity constant of AcmB for cholest-4-en-3-one (kcat/KmA = 9.25∙106 M-1 s-1) is almost 20 times higher than measured for KSTD1 (kcat/KmA = 4.71∙105 M-1 s-1).ConclusionsWe confirmed the existence of AcmB preference for a substrate with an undegraded isooctyl chain. However, we showed that KSTD1 which was reported to be inactive with such substrates can catalyze the reaction if the solubility problem is addressed.

Project description:Background9α-hydroxyandrost-4-ene-3,17-dione (9-OHAD) is a significant intermediate for the synthesis of glucocorticoid drugs. However, in the process of phytosterol biotransformation to manufacture 9-OHAD, product degradation, and by-products restrict 9-OHAD output. In this study, to construct a stable and high-yield 9-OHAD producer, we investigated a combined strategy of blocking Δ1‑dehydrogenation and regulating metabolic flux.ResultsFive 3-Ketosteroid-Δ1-dehydrogenases (KstD) were identified in Mycobacterium fortuitum ATCC 35855. KstD2 showed the highest catalytic activity on 3-ketosteroids, followed by KstD3, KstD1, KstD4, and KstD5, respectively. In particular, KstD2 had a much higher catalytic activity for C9 hydroxylated steroids than for C9 non-hydroxylated steroids, whereas KstD3 showed the opposite characteristics. The deletion of kstDs indicated that KstD2 and KstD3 were the main causes of 9-OHAD degradation. Compared with the wild type M. fortuitum ATCC 35855, MFΔkstD, the five kstDs deficient strain, realized stable accumulation of 9-OHAD, and its yield increased by 42.57%. The knockout of opccr or the overexpression of hsd4A alone could not reduce the metabolic flux of the C22 pathway, while the overexpression of hsd4A based on the knockout of opccr in MFΔkstD could remarkably reduce the contents of 9,21 ‑dihydroxy‑20‑methyl‑pregna‑4‑en‑3‑one (9-OHHP) by-products. The inactivation of FadE28-29 leads to a large accumulation of incomplete side-chain degradation products. Therefore, hsd4A and fadE28-29 were co-expressed in MFΔkstDΔopccr successfully eliminating the two by-products. Compared with MFΔkstD, the purity of 9-OHAD improved from 80.24 to 90.14%. Ultimately, 9‑OHAD production reached 12.21 g/L (83.74% molar yield) and the productivity of 9-OHAD was 0.0927 g/L/h from 20 g/L phytosterol.ConclusionsKstD2 and KstD3 are the main dehydrogenases that lead to 9-OHAD degradation. Hsd4A and Opccr are key enzymes regulating the metabolic flux of the C19- and C22-pathways. Overexpression of fadE28-29 can reduce the accumulation of incomplete degradation products of the side chains. According to the above findings, the MF-FA5020 transformant was successfully constructed to rapidly and stably accumulate 9-OHAD from phytosterols. These results contribute to the understanding of the diversity and complexity of steroid catabolism regulation in actinobacteria and provide a theoretical basis for further optimizing industrial microbial catalysts.

Project description:Comamonas testosteroni delta 4(5 alpha)- and delta1-dehydrogenases [delta4(5alpha)- and delta1DH] are key enzymes in the degradation of steroids having an A:B ring fusion in a trans configuration. We previously reported the isolation of the delta1dh gene (P. Plesiat, M. Grandguillot, S. Harayama, S. Vragar, and Y. Michel Briand, J. Bacteriol. 173:7219-7227, 1991). In this study, the gene encoding delta 4(5 alpha)DH was cloned in Escherichia coli on a 16-kbp BamHI fragment by screening a genomic bank of C. testosteroni ATCC 17410 with a probe derived from delta1dh. Subcloning experiments in plasmid pUC19 mapped delta 4(5 alpha)dh immediately downstream of delta1dh. The enzyme was overexpressed 18-fold in cells of E. coli JM109 carrying a 2.5-kbp cloned fragment (plasmid pXE25). However, much higher levels of enzymatic activity (264-fold) were obtained in Pseudomonas putida KT2440, using pMMB208 as an expression vector. Studies with crude lysates of KT2440 showed that delta4(5alpha)DH exhibits higher specificity and higher activity toward delta l-androstene-3,17-dione than toward the saturated derivative 5 alpha-androstane-3,17-dione. The reaction was found to be irreversible and to use efficiently typical flavoprotein electron acceptors; optimal conditions for the enzyme activity were pH 8 and 40 degrees C. Analysis of the nucleotide sequence of the insert of pXE25 revealed an open reading frame of 1,593 bp preceded by a putative ribosome-binding site and followed by a potential transcription terminator. The amino acid sequence of the deduced peptide showed a typical flavin adenine dinucleotide-binding site in its N-terminal region, confirming the flavoproteinic structure of delta 4(5 alpha)DH. The predicted molecular mass was consistent with that of the enzyme expressed in a T7 polymerase system (60 kDa). Alignment between delta 4(5 alpha)dh and delta1dh indicated that both genes, though coding for functionally related enzymes, do not derive from a common ancestor.

Dataset Information

Development of a Synthetic 3-ketosteroid ?1-dehydrogenase for the Generation of a Novel Catabolic Pathway Enabling Cholesterol Degradation in Human Cells.

Publications

Development of a Synthetic 3-ketosteroid Δ<sup>1</sup>-dehydrogenase for the Generation of a Novel Catabolic Pathway Enabling Cholesterol Degradation in Human Cells.

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