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Characterization of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv alkyl hydroperoxidase AhpC points to the importance of ionic interactions in oligomerization and activity.

ABSTRACT: An alkyl hydroperoxidase (AhpC) has been found frequently to be overexpressed in isoniazid-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. These strains have an inactivated katG gene encoding a catalase peroxidase, which might render mycobacteria susceptible to the toxic peroxide radicals, thus leading to the concomitant overexpression of the AhpC. Although the overexpressed AhpC in isoniazid-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis may not directly participate in isoniazid action, AhpC might still assist M. tuberculosis in combating oxidative damage in the absence of the catalase. Here we have attempted to characterize the AhpC protein biochemically and report its functional and oligomerization properties. The alkyl hydroperoxidase of M. tuberculosis is unique in many ways compared with its well-characterized homologues from enteric bacteria. We show that AhpC is a decameric protein, composed of five identical dimers held together by ionic interactions. Dimerization of individual subunits takes place through an intersubunit disulphide linkage. The ionic interactions play a significant role in enzymic activity of the AhpC protein. The UV absorption spectrum and three-dimensional model of AhpC suggest that interesting conformational changes may take place during oxidation and reduction of the intersubunit disulphide linkage. In the absence of the partner AhpF subunit in M. tuberculosis, the mycobacterial AhpC might use small-molecule reagents, such as mycothiol, for completing its enzymic cycle.

SUBMITTER: Chauhan R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1221645 | biostudies-other | 2001 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:Mutations to the regulatory region of the ahpC gene, resulting in overproduction of alkyl hydroperoxide reductase, were encountered frequently in a large collection of isoniazid (INH)-resistant clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis but not in INH-susceptible strains. Overexpression of ahpC did not seem to be important for INH resistance, however, as most of these strains were already defective for catalase-peroxidase, KatG, the enzyme required for activation of INH. Transformation of the INH-susceptible reference strain, M. tuberculosis H37Rv, with plasmids bearing the ahpC genes of M. tuberculosis or M. leprae did not result in a significant increase in the MIC. Two highly INH-resistant mutants of H37Rv, BH3 and BH8, were isolated in vitro and shown to produce no or little KatG activity and, in the case of BH3, to overproduce alkyl hydroperoxide reductase as the result of an ahpC regulatory mutation that was also found in some clinical isolates. The virulence of H37Rv, BH3, and BH8 was studied intensively in three mouse models: fully immunocompetent BALB/c and Black 6 mice, BALB/c major histocompatibility complex class II-knockout mice with abnormally low levels of CD4 T cells and athymic mice producing no cellular immune response. The results indicated that M. tuberculosis strains producing catalase-peroxidase were considerably more virulent in immunocompetent mice than the isogenic KatG-deficient mutants but that loss of catalase-peroxidase was less important when immunodeficient mice, unable to produce activated macrophages, were infected. Restoration of virulence was not seen in an INH-resistant M. tuberculosis strain that overexpressed ahpC, and this finding was confirmed by experiments performed with appropriate M. bovis strains in guinea pigs. Thus, in contrast to catalase-peroxidase, alkyl hydroperoxide reductase does not appear to act as a virulence factor in rodent infections or to play a direct role in INH resistance, although it may be important in maintaining peroxide homeostasis of the organism when KatG activity is low or absent.

Project description:BackgroundMycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) is the causative agent of tuberculosis, killing ~1.7 million people annually. The remarkable capacity of this pathogen to escape the host immune system for decades and then to cause active tuberculosis disease, makes M.tb a successful pathogen. Currently available anti-mycobacterial therapy has poor compliance due to requirement of prolonged treatment resulting in accelerated emergence of drug resistant strains. Hence, there is an urgent need to identify new chemical entities with novel mechanism of action and potent activity against the drug resistant strains.ResultsThis study describes novel computational models developed for predicting inhibitors against both replicative and non-replicative phase of drug-tolerant M.tb under carbon starvation stage. These models were trained on highly diverse dataset of 2135 compounds using four classes of binary fingerprint namely PubChem, MACCS, EState, SubStructure. We achieved the best performance Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) of 0.45 using the model based on MACCS fingerprints for replicative phase inhibitor dataset. In case of non-replicative phase, Hybrid model based on PubChem, MACCS, EState, SubStructure fingerprints performed better with maximum MCC value of 0.28. In this study, we have shown that molecular weight, polar surface area and rotatable bond count of inhibitors (replicating and non-replicating phase) are significantly different from non-inhibitors. The fragment analysis suggests that substructures like hetero_N_nonbasic, heterocyclic, carboxylic_ester, and hetero_N_basic_no_H are predominant in replicating phase inhibitors while hetero_O, ketone, secondary_mixed_amine are preferred in the non-replicative phase inhibitors. It was observed that nitro, alkyne, and enamine are important for the molecules inhibiting bacilli residing in both the phases. In this study, we introduced a new algorithm based on Matthews correlation coefficient called MCCA for feature selection and found that this algorithm is better or comparable to frequency based approach.ConclusionIn this study, we have developed computational models to predict phase specific inhibitors against drug resistant strains of M.tb grown under carbon starvation. Based on simple molecular properties, we have derived some rules, which would be useful in robust identification of tuberculosis inhibitors. Based on these observations, we have developed a webserver for predicting inhibitors against drug tolerant M.tb H37Rv available at http://crdd.osdd.net/oscadd/mdri/.

Project description:In contrast to the intact oxyR gene (a homolog of the central regulator of peroxide stress response in enteric bacteria) in Mycobacterium leprae, this gene is inactive in all strains of M. tuberculosis. In both species, oxyR is divergently transcribed from ahpC, which encodes a homolog of alkyl hydroperoxide reductase. To initiate investigations of the regulation of oxidative stress in mycobacteria and consequences of the elimination of oxyR in M. tuberculosis, in this work we tested the hypothesis that mycobacterial OxyR acts as a DNA binding protein and analyzed its interactions with the oxyR and ahpC promoters. M. leprae OxyR was overproduced and purified, and its binding to the oxyR-ahpC intergenic region of M. leprae was demonstrated. By using a sequential series of overlapping DNA fragments, the minimal OxyR binding site was delimited to a 30-bp DNA segment which included a palindromic sequence conforming with the established rules for the LysR family of regulators. A consensus sequence for the mycobacterial OxyR recognition site (cTTATCggc-N3-gccGATAAg) was deduced based on its conservation in different mycobacteria. A variance in two potentially critical nucleotides within this site was observed in M. tuberculosis, in keeping with its reduced affinity for OxyR. Transcription of plasmid-borne M. leprae oxyR and ahpC was investigated in M. smegmatis and M. bovis BCG by S1 nuclease protection and transcriptional fusion analyses. Two mRNA 5' ends were detected in each direction: (i) P1oxyR and P2oxyR and (ii) P1ahpC and P2ahpC. The binding site for OxyR overlapped P1oxyR, reminiscent of the autoregulatory loops controlling expression of oxyR in enteric bacteria and characteristic of the LysR superfamily in general. This site was also centered 65 bp upstream of P1ahpC, matching the usual position of LysR-type recognition sequences in relationship to positively controlled promoters. Superimposed on these features was the less orthodox presence of multiple transcripts and their unique arrangement, including a region of complementarity at the 5' ends of the P2ahpC and P2oxyR mRNAs, suggesting the existence of complex regulatory relationships controlling oxyR and ahpC expression in mycobacteria.

Project description:The ability to adapt to different conditions is key for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), to successfully infect human hosts. Adaptations allow the organism to evade the host immune responses during acute infections and persist for an extended period of time during the latent infectious stage. In latently infected individuals, estimated to include one-third of the human population, the organism exists in a variety of metabolic states, which impedes the development of a simple strategy for controlling or eradicating this disease. Direct knowledge of the metabolic states of M. tuberculosis in patients would aid in the management of the disease as well as in forming the basis for developing new drugs and designing more efficacious drug cocktails. Here, we propose an in silico approach to create state-specific models based on readily available gene expression data. The coupling of differential gene expression data with a metabolic network model allowed us to characterize the metabolic adaptations of M. tuberculosis H37Rv to hypoxia. Given the microarray data for the alterations in gene expression, our model predicted reduced oxygen uptake, ATP production changes, and a global change from an oxidative to a reductive tricarboxylic acid (TCA) program. Alterations in the biomass composition indicated an increase in the cell wall metabolites required for cell-wall growth, as well as heightened accumulation of triacylglycerol in preparation for a low-nutrient, low metabolic activity life style. In contrast, the gene expression program in the deletion mutant of dosR, which encodes the immediate hypoxic response regulator, failed to adapt to low-oxygen stress. Our predictions were compatible with recent experimental observations of M. tuberculosis activity under hypoxic and anaerobic conditions. Importantly, alterations in the flow and accumulation of a particular metabolite were not necessarily directly linked to differential gene expression of the enzymes catalyzing the related metabolic reactions.

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Characterization of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv alkyl hydroperoxidase AhpC points to the importance of ionic interactions in oligomerization and activity.

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