Inflammation and Alzheimer's disease.

Structure, Recognition, and Processing of Cisplatin-DNA Adducts.

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are part of a vast family of enzymes that have crucial roles in numerous biological processes, largely through their repressive influence on transcription. The expression of many HDAC isoforms in eukaryotic cells raises questions about their possible specificity or redundancy, and whether they control global or specific programmes of gene expression. Recent analyses of HDAC knockout mice have revealed highly specific functions of individual HDACs in development and disease. Mutant mice lacking individual HDACs are a powerful tool for defining the functions of HDACs in vivo and the molecular targets of HDAC inhibitors in disease.

The many roles of histone deacetylases in development and physiology: Implications for disease and therapy

For present purposes, a protein-bound metal site consists of one or more metal ions and all protein side chain and exogenous bridging and terminal ligands that define the first coordination sphere of each metal ion. Such sites can be classified into five basic types with the indicated functions: (1) structural -- configuration (in part) of protein tertiary and/or quaternary structure; (2) storage -- uptake, binding, and release of metals in soluble form: (3) electron transfer -- uptake, release, and storage of electrons; (4) dioxygen binding -- metal-O{sub 2} coordination and decoordination; and (5) catalytic -- substrate binding, activation, and turnover. The authors present here a classification and structure/function analysis of native metal sites based on these functions, where 5 is an extensive class subdivided by the type of reaction catalyzed. Within this purview, coverage of the various site types is extensive, but not exhaustive. The purpose of this exposition is to present examples of all types of sites and to relate, insofar as is currently feasible, the structure and function of selected types. The authors largely confine their considerations to the sites themselves, with due recognition that these site features are coupled to protein structure at all levels. In themore » next section, the coordination chemistry of metalloprotein sites and the unique properties of a protein as a ligand are briefly summarized. Structure/function relationships are systematically explored and tabulations of structurally defined sites presented. Finally, future directions in bioinorganic research in the context of metal site chemistry are considered. 620 refs.« less

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Structural and Functional Aspects of Metal Sites in Biology

FLAVIVIRUSES 1103 Background and Classification 1103 Structure and Physical Properties of the Virion 1104 Binding and Entry 1105 Genome Structure 1106 Translation and Proteolytic Processing 1107 Features of the Structural Proteins 1108 Features of the Nonstructural Proteins 1109 RNA Replication 1112 Membrane Reorganization and the Compartmentalization of Flavivirus Replication 1112 Assembly and Release of Particles from Flavivirus-infected Cells 1112 Host Resistance to Flavivirus Infection 1113

Flaviviridae :T he Viruses and Their Replication

Previous findings have suggested that class IIa histone deacetylases (HDACs) (HDAC4, -5, -7, and -9) are inactive on acetylated substrates, thus differing from class I and IIb enzymes. Here, we present evidence supporting this view and demonstrate that class IIa HDACs are very inefficient enzymes on standard substrates. We identified HDAC inhibitors unable to bind recombinant human HDAC4 while showing inhibition in a typical HDAC4 enzymatic assay, suggesting that the observed activity rather reflects the involvement of endogenous copurified class I HDACs. Moreover, an HDAC4 catalytic domain purified from bacteria was 1,000-fold less active than class I HDACs on standard substrates. A catalytic Tyr is conserved in all HDACs except for vertebrate class IIa enzymes where it is replaced by His. Given the high structural conservation of HDAC active sites, we predicted the class IIa His-Ne2 to be too far away to functionally substitute the class I Tyr-OH in catalysis. Consistently, a Tyr-to-His mutation in class I HDACs severely reduced their activity. More importantly, a His-976-Tyr mutation in HDAC4 produced an enzyme with a catalytic efficiency 1,000-fold higher than WT, and this “gain of function phenotype” could be extended to HDAC5 and -7. We also identified trifluoroacetyl-lysine as a class IIa-specific substrate in vitro. Hence, vertebrate class IIa HDACs may have evolved to maintain low basal activities on acetyl-lysines and to efficiently process restricted sets of specific, still undiscovered natural substrates.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/104/44/17335.full.pdf

Unraveling the hidden catalytic activity of vertebrate class IIa histone deacetylases.

Three percent of the world's population is chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and at risk of developing liver cancer. Effective cellular immune responses are deemed essential for spontaneous resolution of acute hepatitis C and long-term protection. Here we describe a new T-cell HCV genetic vaccine capable of protecting chimpanzees from acute hepatitis induced by challenge with heterologous virus. Suppression of acute viremia in vaccinated chimpanzees occurred as a result of massive expansion of peripheral and intrahepatic HCV-specific CD8(+) T lymphocytes that cross-reacted with vaccine and virus epitopes. These findings show that it is possible to elicit effective immunity against heterologous HCV strains by stimulating only the cellular arm of the immune system, and suggest a path for new immunotherapy against highly variable human pathogens like HCV, HIV or malaria, which can evade humoral responses.

A T-cell HCV vaccine eliciting effective immunity against heterologous virus challenge in chimpanzees.

The cutting rates of bovine pancreatic deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) vary along a given DNA sequence, indicating that the enzyme recognizes sequence-dependent structural variations of the DNA double-helix. In an attempt to define the helical parameters determining this sequence-dependence, we have co-crystallized a complex of DNase I with a self-complementary octanucleotide and refined the crystal structure at 2 A resolution. This structure confirms the basic features of an early model, namely that an exposed loop of DNase I binds in the minor groove of B-type DNA and that interactions do occur with the backbone of both strands. Nicked octamer duplexes that have lost a dinucleotide from the 3'-end of one strand are hydrogen-bonded across a two-fold axis in the crystal to form a quasi-continuous double helix of 14 base pairs. The DNA 14-mer has a B-type conformation and shows substantial distortion of both local and overall helix parameters, induced mainly by the tight interaction of Y73 and R38 in the unusually wide minor groove. Directly coupled to the widening of the groove by approximately 3A is a 21.5 degree bend of the DNA away from the bound enzyme towards the major groove, suggesting that both DNA stiffness and groove width are important in determining the sequence-dependence of the enzyme cutting rate. A second cut of the DNA which is induced by diffusion of Mn2+ into the co-crystals suggests that there are two active sites in DNase I separated by more than 15A.

Structure refined to 2A of a nicked DNA octanucleotide complex with DNase I.

X-ray structure of the DNase I-d(GGTATACC)2 complex at 2.3 A resolution.

P1 nuclease from Penicillium citrinum is a zinc dependent glyco-enzyme consisting of 270 amino acid residues which cleaves single-stranded RNA and DNA into 5'-mononucleotides. The X-ray structure of a tetragonal crystal form of the enzyme with two molecules per asymmetric unit has been solved at 3.3 and refined at 2.8 A resolution to a crystallographic R-factor of 21.6%. The current model consists of 269 amino acid residues, three Zn ions and two N-acetyl glucosamines per subunit. The enzyme is folded very similarly to phospholipase C from Bacillus cereus, with 56% of the structure displaying an alpha-helical conformation. The three Zn ions are located at the bottom of a cleft and appear to be rather inaccessible for any phosphate group in double-stranded RNA or DNA substrates. A crystal soaking experiment with a dinucleotide gives clear evidence for two mononucleotide binding sites separated by approximately 20 A. One site shows binding of the phosphate group to one of the zinc ions. At both sites there is a hydrophobic binding pocket for the base, but no direct interaction between the protein and the deoxyribose. A cleavage mechanism is proposed involving nucleophilic attack by a Zn activated water molecule.

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Armin Lahm

Papers

Unraveling the hidden catalytic activity of vertebrate class IIa histone deacetylases.

A T-cell HCV vaccine eliciting effective immunity against heterologous virus challenge in chimpanzees.

Structure refined to 2A of a nicked DNA octanucleotide complex with DNase I.

X-ray structure of the DNase I-d(GGTATACC)2 complex at 2.3 A resolution.

Crystal structure of Penicillium citrinum P1 nuclease at 2.8 A resolution.