Heme is an essential cofactor for most organisms and all metazoans. While the individual enzymes involved in synthesis and utilization of heme are fairly well known, less is known about the intracellular trafficking of porphyrins and heme, or regulation of heme biosynthesis via protein complexes. To better understand this process we have undertaken a study of macromolecular assemblies associated with heme synthesis. Herein we have utilized mass spectrometry with coimmunoprecipitation of tagged enzymes of the heme biosynthetic pathway in a developing erythroid cell culture model to identify putative protein partners. The validity of these data obtained in the tagged protein system is confirmed by normal porphyrin/heme production by the engineered cells. Data obtained are consistent with the presence of a mitochondrial heme metabolism complex which minimally consists of ferrochelatase, protoporphyrinogen oxidase and aminolevulinic acid synthase-2. Additional proteins involved in iron and intermediary metabolism as well as mitochondrial transporters were identified as potential partners in this complex. The data are consistent with the known location of protein components and support a model of transient protein-protein interactions within a dynamic protein complex.

Heme is an iron containing cofactor essential for multiple cellular processes and fundamental activities such as oxygen transport. To better understand the means by which heme synthesis is regulated during erythropoiesis, affinity purification coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) was carried out to identify putative protein partners interacting with ferrochelatase (FECH), the terminal enzyme in the heme biosynthetic pathway. Both Progesterone Receptor Membrane Component 1 (PGRMC1) and Progesterone Receptor Membrane Component 2 (PGRMC2) were identified in these experiments. These interactions were validated by reciprocal affinity purification followed by MS analysis and immunoblotting. The interaction between PGRMC1 and FECH was confirmed in vitro and in HEK293T cells, a non-erythroid cell line. When cells that are recognized models for erythroid differentiation were treated with a small molecule inhibitor of PGRMC1, AG-205, there was an observed decrease in hemoglobinization relative to untreated cells. In vitro heme transfer experiments showed that purified PGRMC1 was able to donate heme to apo-cytochrome b5. In the presence of PGRMC1 in vitro measured FECH activity decreased in a dose dependent manner. Interactions between FECH and PGRMC1 were strongest for the conformation of FECH associated with product release suggesting that PGRMC1 may regulate FECH activity by controlling heme release. Overall, the data illustrate a role for PGRMC1 in regulating heme synthesis via interactions with FECH and suggest that PGRMC1 may be a heme chaperone or sensor.

Heme is a ubiquitous and essential iron containing metallo-organic cofactor required for virtually all aerobic life. Heme synthesis is initiated and completed in mitochondria, followed by certain covalent modifications and/or its delivery to apo-hemoproteins residing throughout the cell. While the biochemical aspects of heme biosynthetic reactions are well understood, the trafficking of newly synthesized heme—a highly reactive and inherently toxic compound—and its subsequent delivery to target proteins remain far from clear. In this review, we summarize current knowledge about heme biosynthesis and trafficking within and outside of the mitochondria.

During erythroid differentiation, the erythron must remodel its protein constituents so that the mature red cell contains hemoglobin as the chief cytoplasmic protein component. For this, ∼10 molecules of heme must be synthesized, consuming 10 molecules of succinyl-CoA. It has long been assumed that the source of succinyl-coenzyme A (CoA) for heme synthesis in all cell types is the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. Based upon the observation that 1 subunit of succinyl-CoA synthetase (SCS) physically interacts with the first enzyme of heme synthesis (5-aminolevulinate synthase 2, ALAS2) in erythroid cells, it has been posited that succinyl-CoA for ALA synthesis is provided by the adenosine triphosphate-dependent reverse SCS reaction. We have now demonstrated that this is not the manner by which developing erythroid cells provide succinyl-CoA for ALA synthesis. Instead, during late stages of erythropoiesis, cellular metabolism is remodeled so that glutamine is the precursor for ALA following deamination to α-ketoglutarate and conversion to succinyl-CoA by α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (KDH) without equilibration or passage through the TCA cycle. This may be facilitated by a direct interaction between ALAS2 and KDH. Succinate is not an effective precursor for heme, indicating that the SCS reverse reaction does not play a role in providing succinyl-CoA for heme synthesis. Inhibition of succinate dehydrogenase by itaconate, which has been shown in macrophages to dramatically increase the concentration of intracellular succinate, does not stimulate heme synthesis as might be anticipated, but actually inhibits hemoglobinization during late erythropoiesis.

Abstract5′-aminolevulinate synthase (ALAS) catalyzes the first step in heme biosynthesis, generating 5′-aminolevulinate from glycine and succinyl-CoA. Inherited frameshift indel mutations of human erythroid-specific isozyme ALAS2, within a C-terminal (Ct) extension of its catalytic core that is only present in higher eukaryotes, lead to gain-of-function X-linked protoporphyria (XLP). Here, we report the human ALAS2 crystal structure, revealing that its Ct-extension folds onto the catalytic core, sits atop the active site, and precludes binding of substrate succinyl-CoA. The Ct-extension is therefore an autoinhibitory element that must re-orient during catalysis, as supported by molecular dynamics simulations. Our data explain how Ct deletions in XLP alleviate autoinhibition and increase enzyme activity. Crystallography-based fragment screening reveals a binding hotspot around the Ct-extension, where fragments interfere with the Ct conformational dynamics and inhibit ALAS2 activity. These fragments represent a starting point to develop ALAS2 inhibitors as substrate reduction therapy for porphyria disorders that accumulate toxic heme intermediates.

The iron metabolism of malignant cells, which is altered to ensure higher acquisition and utilization, motivates the investigation of iron chelation strategies in cancer treatment. In a prochelation approach aimed at increasing intracellular specificity, disulfide reduction/activation switches are incorporated on iron-binding scaffolds resulting in intracellularly activated scavengers. Herein, this strategy is applied to several tridentate donor sets including thiosemicarbazones, aroylhydrazones and semicarbazones. The novel prochelator systems are antiproliferative in breast adenocarcinoma cell lines (MCF-7 and metastatic MDA-MB-231) and do not result in the intracellular generation of oxidative stress. Consistent with iron deprivation, the tested prochelators lead to cell-cycle arrest at the G/S interface and induction of apoptosis. Notably, although hemoglobin-synthesizing blood cells have the highest iron need in the human body, no significant impact on hemoglobin production was observed in the MEL (murine erythroleukemia) model of differentiating erythroid cells. This study provides new information on the intracellular effects of disulfide-based prochelators and indicates aroylhydrazone (AH1-S) as a promising prototype of a new class of antiproliferative prochelator systems.

Rapid and accurate heme quantitation in the research lab has become more desirable as the crucial role that intracellular hemoproteins play in metabolism continues to emerge. Here, the time-honored approaches of pyridine hemochromogen and fluorescence heme assays are compared with direct absorbance-based technologies using the CLARiTY spectrophotometer. All samples tested with these methods were rich in hemoglobin-associated heme, including buffered hemoglobin standards, whole blood from mice, and murine erythroleukemia (MEL) and K562 cells. While the pyridine hemochromogen assay demonstrated the greatest linear range of heme detection, all 3 methods demonstrated similar analytical sensitivities and normalized limits of quantitation of ∼1 µM. Surprisingly, the fluorescence assay was only shown to be distinct in its ability to quantitate extremely small samples. Using the CLARiTY system in combination with pyridine hemochromogen and cell count data, a common hemoglobin extinction coefficient for blood and differentiating MEL and K562 cells of 0.46 µM-1 cm-1 was derived. This value was applied to supplemental experiments designed to measure MEL cell hemoglobinization in response to the addition or removal of factors previously shown to affect heme biosynthesis (e.g., L-glutamine, iron).

As part of the inflammatory response by macrophages, Irg1 is induced resulting in millimolar quantities of itaconate being produced. This immunometabolite remodels the macrophage metabolome and acts as an antimicrobial agent when excreted. Itaconate is not synthesized within the erythron, but instead may be acquired from central macrophages within the erythroid island. Previously we reported that itaconate inhibits hemoglobinzation of developing erythroid cells. Herein we demonstrate that this is accomplished by inhibition of tetrapyrrole synthesis. In differentiating erythroid precursors, cellular heme and protoporphyrin IX synthesis are reduced by itaconate at an early step in the pathway. In addition, itaconate causes global alterations in cellular metabolite pools resulting in elevated levels of succinate, 2-hydroxyglutarate, pyruvate, glyoxylate, and intermediates of glycolytic shunts. Itaconate taken up by the developing erythron can be converted to itaconyl-CoA by the enzyme succinyl-CoA:glutarate-CoA transferase. Propionyl-CoA, propionyl-carnitine, methylmalonic acid, heptadecanoic acid and nonanoic acid, as well as the aliphatic amino acids threonine, valine, methionine, and isoleucine are increased, likely due to the impact of endogenous itaconyl-CoA synthesis. We further show that itaconyl-CoA is a competitive inhibitor of the erythroid-specific 5-aminolevulinate synthase (ALAS2), the first and rate-limiting step in heme synthesis. These findings strongly support our hypothesis that the inhibition of heme synthesis observed in chronic inflammation is mediated not only by iron limitation, but also by limitation of tetrapyrrole synthesis at the point of ALAS2 catalysis by itaconate. Thus, we propose that macrophage-derived itaconate promotes anemia during an inflammatory response in the erythroid compartment.