Browsing by Author "Watermeyer, Jean M"

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    Angiotensin-converting enzyme - new insights into structure, biological significance and prospects for domain-selective inhibitors.
    (Bentham Science Publishers, 2009) Watermeyer, Jean M; Kröger, Wendy L; Sturrock, Edward D; Ehlers, Mario R W
    Somatic angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) - well known for its role in cardiovascular pathophysiology - has an unusual, two-domain, double active-site structure. The two domains (designated N and C) are 55% identical and each contains a similar active site with overlapping but distinct substrate preferences. While both convert angiotensin I to angiotensin II in vitro, current evidence suggests the C domain site predominates in this role in vivo. The N domain site inactivates a hemoregulatory and antifibrotic peptide, AcSDKP, in vivo, although the significance of this remains unclear. However, differences in the characteristics of the two domains may result in different context-dependent activities, as is the case with other enzymes containing tandem repeats. The N domain may also have a role in modulating C domain activity, through a combination of inter-domain cooperativity and structural stabilization. Comparison of ACE with its structural homologues reveals conservation of peptidase activity and a tendency to hinge about the active-site cleft. Recent work on ACE active-site mutants containing one or more key residues replaced by their cognate residues from the other domain, synthesis of domain-selective inhibitors, and co-crystal structures of each domain with such inhibitors, has led to a better resolution of the basis for domain selectivity and should enable the design of next-generation, domain-selective inhibitors with distinct pharmacological profiles.
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    Characterization of domain-selective inhibitor binding in angiotensin-converting enzyme using a novel derivative of lisinopril
    (Portland Press, 2010) Watermeyer, Jean M; Kröger, Wendy L; O'Neill, Hester G; Sewell, Trevor B; Sturrock, Edward D
    Human ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) (EC 3.4.15.1) is an important drug target because of its role in the regulation of blood pressure via the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system. Somatic ACE comprises two homologous domains, the differing substrate preferences of which present a new avenue for domainselective inhibitor design. We have co-crystallized lisW-S, a Cdomain-selective derivative of the drug lisinopril, with human testis ACE and determined a structure using X-ray crystallography to a resolution of 2.30 Å (1 Å = 0.1 nm). In this structure, lisW-S is seen to have a similar binding mode to its parent compound lisinopril, but the P2 tryptophan moiety takes a different conformation to that seen in other inhibitors having a tryptophan residue in this position. We have examined further the domain-specific interactions of this inhibitor by mutating Cdomain-specific active-site residues to their N domain equivalents, then assessing the effect of the mutation on inhibition by lisWS using a fluorescence-based assay. Kinetics analysis shows a 258-fold domain-selectivity that is largely due to the co-operative effect of C-domain-specific residues in the S2 subsite. The high affinity and selectivity of this inhibitor make it a good lead candidate for cardiovascular drug development.
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    Engineering pH-tolerant mutants of a cyanide dihydratase
    (Springer Verlag, 2012) Wang, Lan; Watermeyer, Jean M; Mulelu, Andani E; Sewell, Trevor B; Benedik, Michael J
    Cyanide dihydratase is an enzyme in the nitrilase family capable of transforming cyanide to formate and ammonia. This reaction has been exploited for the bioremediation of cyanide in wastewater streams, but extending the pH operating range of the enzyme would improve its utility. In this work, we describe mutants of Bacillus pumilus C1 cyanide dihydratase (CynDpum) with improved activity at higher pH. Error-prone PCR was used to construct a library of CynDpum mutants, and a high-throughput screening system was developed to screen the library for improved activity at pH 10. Two mutant alleles were identified that allowed cells to degrade cyanide in solutions at pH 10, whereas the wild-type was inactive above pH 9. The mutant alleles each encoded three different amino acid substitutions, but for one of those, a single change, E327G, accounted for the phenotype. The purified proteins containing multiple mutations were five times more active than the wild-type enzyme at pH 9, but all purified enzymes lost activity at pH 10. The mutation Q86R resulted in the formation of significantly longer fibers at low pH, and both E327G and Q86R contributed to the persistence of active oligomeric assemblies at pH 9. In addition, the mutant enzymes proved to be more thermostable than the wild type, suggesting improved physical stability rather than any change in chemistry accounts for their increased pH tolerance.
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    Probing the basis of domain-dependent inhibition using novel ketone inhibitors of angiotensin-converting enzyme
    (ACS Publications, 2008) Watermeyer, Jean M; Kro¨ger, Wendy L; O’Neill, Hester G; Trevor Sewell, B; Sturrock, Edward D
    Human angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) has two homologous domains, the N and C domains, with differing substrate preferences. X-ray crystal structures of the C and N domains complexed with various inhibitors have allowed identification of active site residues that might be important for the molecular basis of this selectivity. However, it is unclear to what extent the different residues contribute to substrate domain selectivity. Here, cocrystal structures of human testis ACE, equivalent to the C domain, have been determined with two novel C domain-selective ketomethylene inhibitors, (5S)-5-[(Nbenzoyl)amino]-4-oxo-6-phenylhexanoyl-L-tryptophan (kAW) and (5S)-5-[(N-benzoyl)amino]-4-oxo-6- phenylhexanoyl-L-phenylalanine (kAF). The ketone groups of both inhibitors bind to the zinc ion as a hydrated geminal diolate, demonstrating the ability of the active site to catalyze the formation of the transition state. Moreover, active site residues involved in inhibitor binding have been mutated to their N domain counterparts, and the effect of the mutations on inhibitor binding has been determined. The C domain selectivity of these inhibitors was found to result from interactions between bulky hydrophobic side chain moieties and C domain-specific residues F391, V518, E376, and V380 (numbering of testis ACE). Mutation of these residues decreased the affinity for the inhibitors 4-20-fold. T282, V379, E403, D453, and S516 did not contribute individually to C domain-selective inhibitor binding. Further domainselective inhibitor design should focus on increasing both the affinity and selectivity of the side chain moieties.
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    Probing the basis of domain-dependent inhibition using novel ketone inhibitors of angiotensin-converting enzyme
    (American Chemical Society, 2008) Watermeyer, Jean M; Kroger, Wendy L; O'Neill, Hester G; Sewell, B Trevor; Sturrock, Edward D
    Human angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) has two homologous domains, the N and C domains, with differing substrate preferences. X-ray crystal structures of the C and N domains complexed with various inhibitors have allowed identification of active site residues that might be important for the molecular basis of this selectivity. However, it is unclear to what extent the different residues contribute to substrate domain selectivity. Here, cocrystal structures of human testis ACE, equivalent to the C domain, have been determined with two novel C domain-selective ketomethylene inhibitors, (5S)-5-[(N-benzoyl)amino]-4-oxo-6-phenylhexanoyl-l-tryptophan (kAW) and (5S)-5-[(N-benzoyl)amino]-4-oxo-6-phenylhexanoyl-l-phenylalanine (kAF). The ketone groups of both inhibitors bind to the zinc ion as a hydrated geminal diolate, demonstrating the ability of the active site to catalyze the formation of the transition state. Moreover, active site residues involved in inhibitor binding have been mutated to their N domain counterparts, and the effect of the mutations on inhibitor binding has been determined. The C domain selectivity of these inhibitors was found to result from interactions between bulky hydrophobic side chain moieties and C domain-specific residues F391, V518, E376, and V380 (numbering of testis ACE). Mutation of these residues decreased the affinity for the inhibitors 4−20-fold. T282, V379, E403, D453, and S516 did not contribute individually to C domain-selective inhibitor binding. Further domain-selective inhibitor design should focus on increasing both the affinity and selectivity of the side chain moieties.
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    Structure of testis ACE glycosylation mutants and evidence for conserved domain movement
    (American Chemical Society, 2006) Watermeyer, Jean M; Sewell, Trevor B; Schwager, Sylva L; Natesh, Ramanathan; Corradi, Hazel R; Acharya, Ravi K; Sturrock, Edward D
    Human angiotensin-converting enzyme is an important drug target for which little structural information has been available until recent years. The slow progress in obtaining a crystal structure was due to the problem of surface glycosylation, a difficulty that has thus far been overcome by the use of a glucosidase-1 inhibitor in the tissue culture medium. However, the prohibitive cost of these inhibitors and incomplete glucosidase inhibition makes alternative routes to minimizing the N-glycan heterogeneity desirable. Here, glycosylation in the testis isoform (tACE) has been reduced by Asn-Gln point mutations at N-glycosylation sites, and the crystal structures of mutants having two and four intact sites have been solved to 2.0 Å and 2.8 Å, respectively. Both mutants show close structural identity with the wild-type. A hinge mechanism is proposed for substrate entry into the active cleft, based on homology to human ACE2 at the levels of sequence and flexibility. This is supported by normal-mode analysis that reveals intrinsic flexibility about the active site of tACE. Subdomain II, containing bound chloride and zinc ions, is found to have greater stability than subdomain I in the structures of three ACE homologues. Crystallizable glycosylation mutants open up new possibilities for cocrystallization studies to aid the design of novel ACE inhibitors.
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    Symmetry-restrained flexible fitting for symmetric EM maps
    (Elsevier, 2011) Chan, Kwok-Yan; Gumbart, James; McGreevy, Ryan; Watermeyer, Jean M; Sewell, Trevor B; Schulten, Klaus
    Many large biological macromolecules have inherent structural symmetry, being composed of a few distinct subunits, repeated in a symmetric array. These complexes are often not amenable to traditional high-resolution structural determination methods, but can be imaged in functionally relevant states using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). A number of methods for fitting atomic-scale structures into cryo-EM maps have been developed, including the molecular dynamics flexible fitting (MDFF) method. However, quality and resolution of the cryo-EM map are the major determinants of a method's success. In order to incorporate knowledge of structural symmetry into the fitting procedure, we developed the symmetry-restrained MDFF method. The new method adds to the cryo-EM map-derived potential further restraints on the allowed conformations of a complex during fitting, thereby improving the quality of the resultant structure. The benefit of using symmetry-based restraints during fitting, particularly for medium to low-resolution data, is demonstrated for three different systems.