Thioredoxin reductase (EC 1.6.4.5) is a widely distributed flavoprotein that catalyzes the NADPH-dependent reduction of thioredoxin. Thioredoxin plays several key roles in maintaining the redox environment of the cell. Like all members of the enzyme family that includes lipoamide dehydrogenase, glutathione reductase and mercuric reductase, thioredoxin reductase contains a redox active disulfide adjacent to the flavin ring. Evolution has produced two forms of thioredoxin reductase, a protein in prokaryotes, archaea and lower eukaryotes having a M r of 35 000, and a protein in higher eukaryotes having a M r of 55 000. Reducing equivalents are transferred from the apolar flavin binding site to the protein substrate by distinct mechanisms in the two forms of thioredoxin reductase. In the low M r enzyme, interconversion between two conformations occurs twice in each catalytic cycle. After reduction of the disulfide by the flavin, the pyridine nucleotide domain must rotate with respect to the flavin domain in order to expose the nascent dithiol for reaction with thioredoxin; this motion repositions the pyridine ring adjacent to the flavin ring. In the high M r enzyme, a third redox active group shuttles the reducing equivalent from the apolar active site to the protein surface. This group is a second redox active disulfide in thioredoxin reductase from Plasmodium falciparum and a selenenylsulfide in the mammalian enzyme. P. falciparum is the major causative agent of malaria and it is hoped that the chemical difference between the two high M r forms may be exploited for drug design.Keywords: flavoprotein; thioredoxin; thioredoxin reductase; selenium, disulfide; dithiol; selenenylsulfide; redox active; ribonucleotide reductase; transcription factor activation; drug design.With most enzymes, the structure, and the mechanism that is associated with it, are essentially the same regardless of the enzyme source, whether that be prokaryote, archaea or eukaryote, i.e. evolution has decided on one way to effect catalysis. However, there are enzymes where the same reaction is catalyzed by more than one structure and mechanism (e.g. methionine synthase [1]), and thioredoxin reductase is another such enzyme [2,3]. Thioredoxin reductase is a flavoprotein that catalyzes the reduction of thioredoxin by NADPH [4,5]. The substrate thioredoxin is a small protein of M r 12 000 which in its dithiol state plays a key role in maintaining the redox environment of the cell [6]. Important functions of reduced thioredoxin include the reduction of nucleotides to deoxynucleotides and the modulation of transcription factors such as NF-kB in eukaryotes [6±8]. C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S O F A N E N Z Y M E F A M I L YThioredoxin reductase is a member of the family of dimeric flavoenzymes that catalyze the transfer of electrons between pyridine nucleotides and disulfide/dithiol compounds and promote catalysis via FAD and a redox active disulfide (Table 1) [9±13]. The family includes lipoamide dehydrogenase, glutathione reductase and mercuric reduc...

Myotubularin-related proteins are a large subfamily of protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) that dephosphorylate D3-phosphorylated inositol lipids. Mutations in members of the myotubularin family cause the human neuromuscular disorders myotubular myopathy and type 4B Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome. The crystal structure of a representative member of this family, MTMR2, reveals a phosphatase domain that is structurally unique among PTPs. A series of mutants are described that exhibit altered enzymatic activity and provide insight into the specificity of myotubularin phosphatases toward phosphoinositide substrates. The structure also reveals that the GRAM domain, found in myotubularin family phosphatases and predicted to occur in approximately 180 proteins, is part of a larger motif with a pleckstrin homology (PH) domain fold. Finally, the MTMR2 structure will serve as a model for other members of the myotubularin family and provide a framework for understanding the mechanism whereby mutations in these proteins lead to disease.

Thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) is the homodimeric flavoenzyme that catalyzes reduction of thioredoxin disulfide (Trx). For Plasmodium falciparum, a causative agent of tropical malaria, TrxR is an essential protein which has been validated as a drug target. The high-throughput screening of 350000 compounds has identified Mannich bases as a new class of TrxR mechanism-based inhibitors. During catalysis, TrxR conducts reducing equivalents from the NADPH-reduced flavin to Trx via the two redox-active cysteine pairs, Cys88-Cys93 and Cys535'-Cys540', referred to as N-terminal and C-terminal cysteine pairs. The structures of unsaturated Mannich bases suggested that they could act as bisalkylating agents leading to a macrocycle that involves both C-terminal cysteines of TrxR. To confirm this hypothesis, different Mannich bases possessing one or two electrophilic centers were synthesized and first studied in detail using glutathione as a model thiol. Michael addition of glutathione to the double bond of an unsaturated Mannich base (3a) occurs readily at physiological pH. Elimination of the amino group, promoted by base-catalyzed enolization of the ketone, is followed by addition of a second nucleophile. The intermediate formed in this reaction is an alpha,beta-unsaturated ketone that can react rapidly with a second thiol. When studying TrxR as a target of Mannich bases, we took advantage of the fact that the charge-transfer complex formed between the thiolate of Cys88 and the flavin in the reduced enzyme can be observed spectroscopically. The data show that it is the C-terminal Cys 535'-Cys540' pair rather than the N-terminal Cys88-Cys93 pair that is modified by the inhibitor. Although alkylated TrxR is unable to turn over its natural substrate Trx, it can reduce low M(r) electron acceptors such as methyl methanethiolsulfonate by using its unmodified N-terminal thiols. On the basis of results with chemically distinct Mannich bases, a detailed mechanism for the inactivation of TrxR is proposed.

The flavoenzyme thioredoxin reductase (TrR) catalyzes the reduction of the small redox protein thioredoxin (Tr) by NADPH. It has been proposed that a large conformational change is required in catalysis by TrT in order to visualize a complete pathway for reduction of equivalents. The proposal is based on the comparison of the crystal structures of TrR and glutathione reductase, the latter being a well-understood member of the enzyme family [Waksman, G., et al. (1994) J. Mol. Biol. 236, 800-816]. Bound NADPH is perfectly positioned for electron transfer to the FAD in glutathione reductase, but in TrR, these two components are 17 angstroms apart. In order to provide evidence for the proposed conformational change, a complex between TrR and its substrate Tr involving a mixed disulfide between TrR and Tr was prepared. The redox active disulfide of TrR is composed of Cys135 and Cys138, and the redox active disulfide of Tr is made up of Cys32 and Cys35. The complex C135S-C32S is prepared from forms of TrR and Tr altered by site-directed mutagenesis where Cys138 and Cys35 are remaining in TrR and Tr, respectively. The purified C135S-C32S presents a band on a nonreducing sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis responding to a molecular weight sum of one subunit of TrR and one of Tr. Several observations indicate that C135S-C32S can adopt only one conformation. It was reported previously that TrR C135S can form a charge transfer complex in the presence of ammonium cation in which the donor is the remaining thiolate of Cys138 [Prongay, A.J., et al., (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 2656-2664], while titration of C135S-C32S with NH4Cl does not induce charge transfer, presumably because Cys138 is participating in the mixed dissulfide. Reduction of C135S-C32S with dithiothreitol (DTT) results in a decrease of epsilon454 to a value similar to that of TrR C135S, and subsequent NH4Cl titration leads to charge transfer complex formation in the nascent TrR C135S. Reductive titrations show that approximately 1 equiv of sodium dithionite or NADPH is required to fully reduce C135S-C32S, and treatment with NH4Cl and DTT demonstrates that the mixed disulfide between Cys138 of TrR C135S and Cys35 of TrC32S that locks the structure in a conformation where FAD can be reduced by NADPH, but electrons cannot flow from FADH2 to the mixed disulfide bond.