Trypanothione reductase is a key enzyme in the trypanothione-based redox metabolism of pathogenic trypanosomes. Because this system is absent in humans, being replaced with glutathione and glutathione reductase, it offers a target for selective inhibition. The rational design of potent inhibitors requires accurate structures of enzyme-inhibitor complexes, but this is lacking for trypanothione reductase. We therefore used quinacrine mustard, an alkylating derivative of the competitive inhibitor quinacrine, to probe the active site of this dimeric flavoprotein. Quinacrine mustard irreversibly inactivates Trypanosoma cruzi trypanothione reductase, but not human glutathione reductase, in a time-dependent manner with a stoichiometry of two inhibitors bound per monomer. The rate of inactivation is dependent upon the oxidation state of trypanothione reductase, with the NADPH-reduced form being inactivated significantly faster than the oxidized form. Inactivation is slowed by clomipramine and a melarsen oxide-trypanothione adduct (both are competitive inhibitors) but accelerated by quinacrine. The structure of the trypanothione reductase-quinacrine mustard adduct was determined to 2.7 Å, revealing two molecules of inhibitor bound in the trypanothione-binding site. The acridine moieties interact with each other through -stacking effects, and one acridine interacts in a similar fashion with a tryptophan residue. These interactions provide a molecular explanation for the differing effects of clomipramine and quinacrine on inactivation by quinacrine mustard. Synergism with quinacrine occurs as a result of these planar acridines being able to stack together in the active site cleft, thereby gaining an increased number of binding interactions, whereas antagonism occurs with nonplanar molecules, such as clomipramine, where stacking is not possible.
Trypanothione reductase (TryR) is a key enzyme involved in the oxidative stress management of the Trypanosoma and Leishmania parasites, which helps to maintain an intracellular reducing environment by reduction of the small-molecular-mass disulphide trypanothione (T[S](2)) to its di-thiol derivative dihydrotrypanothione (T[SH](2)). TryR inhibition studies are currently impaired by the prohibitive costs of the native enzyme substrate T[S](2). Such costs are particularly notable in time-dependent and high-throughput inhibition assays. In the present study we report a protocol that greatly decreases the substrate quantities needed for such assays. This is achieved by coupling the assay with the chemical oxidant 5,5'-dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB), which can rapidly re-oxidize the T[SH](2) product back into the disulphide substrate T[S](2), thereby maintaining constant substrate concentrations and avoiding deviations from rate linearity due to substrate depletion. This has enabled the development of a continuous microplate assay for both classical and time-dependent TryR inhibition in which linear reaction rates can be maintained for 60 min or more using minimal substrate concentrations (<1 microM, compared with a substrate K (m) value of 30 microM) that would normally be completely consumed within seconds. In this manner, substrate requirements are decreased by orders of magnitude. The characterization of a novel time-dependent inhibitor, cis -3-oxo-8,9b-bis-(N(1)-acrylamidospermidyl)-1,2,3,4,4a,9b-hexahydrobenzofuran (PK43), is also described using these procedures.
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