One form of Niemann-Pick disease is caused by a deficiency in the enzymatic activity of acid sphingomyelinase. During efforts to develop an enzyme replacement therapy based on a recombinant form of human acid sphingomyelinase (rhASM), purified preparations of the recombinant enzyme were found to have substantially increased specific activity if cell harvest media were stored for several weeks at ؊20°C prior to purification. This increase in activity was found to correlate with the loss of the single free thiol on rhASM, suggesting the involvement of a cysteine residue. It was demonstrated that a variety of chemical modifications of the free cysteine on rhASM all result in substantial activation of the enzyme, and the modified cysteine responsible for this activation was shown to be the C-terminal residue (Cys 629 ). Activation was also achieved by copper-promoted dimerization of rhASM (via cysteine) and by Cterminal truncation using carboxypeptidase Y. The role of the C-terminal cysteine in activation was confirmed by creating mutant forms of rhASM in which this residue was either deleted or replaced by a serine, with both forms having substantially higher specific activity than wild-type rhASM. These results indicate that purified rhASM can be activated in vitro by loss of the free thiol on the C-terminal cysteine via chemical modification, dimerization, or deletion of this amino acid residue. This method of activation is similar to the cysteine switch mechanism described previously for matrix metalloproteinases and could represent a means of posttranslational regulation of ASM activity in vivo.

Adenylosuccinate synthetase from Escherichia coli is inactivated in a biphasic reaction by guanosine 5'-O-[S-(4-bromo-2,3-dioxobutyl)thio]phosphate (GMPSBDB) at pH 7.1 and 25 degrees C. Reaction of the enzyme with [8-3H]GMPSBDB results in the incorporation of 2 mol of the reagent/mol of subunit; in the presence of active site ligands the incorporation is reduced to 1 mol of reagent/mol of subunit. GMPSBDB reacts with Cys-291 in the initial rapid reaction which is accompanied by loss of 50% of the enzymatic activity; this reaction is not affected by the presence of active site ligands. In the slower reaction, GMPSBDB inactivates the enzyme by reacting with Arg-143. The inactivation kinetics of the slower phase are consistent with the formation of an enzyme--GMPSBDB complex having a Kd of 42 microM. Active site nucleotides, either adenylosuccinate or IMP + GTP, prevent both slower phase inactivation and labeling of Arg-143. Replacement of Arg-143 with a Leu by site-directed mutagenesis does not change the catalytic constant or the K(m) for aspartate but does significantly impair nucleotide binding: the Michaelis constants for IMP and GTP increase by 60-fold and 10-fold, respectively, in the R143L mutant. The crystal structure of the E. coli enzyme [Poland, B.W., Silva, M.M., Serra, M.A., Cho, Y., Kim, K. H., Harris, E.M.S., & Honzatko, R.B. (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268, 25334--25342] shows that Arg-143 from one subunit projects into the putative active site of the other subunit. These results indicate that both subunits of dimeric adenylosuccinate synthetase contribute to each active site and that Arg-143 plays an important role in nucleotide binding.

A range of 4-thiaacyl-CoA derivatives has been synthesized to study the bioactivation of cytotoxic fatty acids by the mitochondrial medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase and the peroxisomal acyl-CoA oxidase. Both enzymes catalyze alpha-proton abstraction from normal acyl-CoA substrates with elimination of a beta-hydride equivalent to the FAD prosthetic group. In competition with this oxidation reaction, 4-thiaacyl-CoA thioesters undergo dehydrogenase-catalyzed beta-elimination, providing that the corresponding thiolates are sufficiently good leaving groups and can be accommodated by the active site of the enzyme. Thus, the dehydrogenase catalyzes the elimination of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole and 4-nitrothiophenolate from 4-(2-benzothiazole)-4-thiabutanoyl-CoA and 4-(4-nitrophenyl)-4-thiabutanoyl-CoA, respectively. However, the 2,4-dinitrophenyl-analogue appears too bulky and the unsubstituted thiophenyl-derivative is insufficiently activated for significant elimination. Molecular modeling shows that steric interference from the flavin ring dictates a syn rather than an anti elimination. Acryloyl-CoA, the other product of 4-thiaacyl-CoA elimination reactions, is not a significant inactivator of the medium-chain dehydrogenase. In contrast, the irreversible inactivation observed during beta-elimination using 5,6-dichloro-4-thia-5-hexenoyl-CoA (DCTH-CoA), 5,6-dichloro-7,7,7-trifluoro-4-thia-5-heptenoyl-CoA (DCTFTH-CoA), and 6-chloro-5,5,6-trifluoro-4-thiahexanoyl-CoA (CTFTH-CoA) is caused by release of cytotoxic thiolate products within the active site of the dehydrogenase. The double bond between C5 and C6 found in the vinylic analogues DCTH- and DCTFTH-CoA is not essential for enzyme inactivation, although CTFTH-CoA is a weaker inhibitor of the dehydrogenase. Mechanism-based inactivation with CTFTH-CoA requires elimination, is unaffected by exogenous nucleophiles, and is strongly protected by octanoyl-CoA. The peroxisomal acyl-CoA oxidase efficiently oxidizes 4-thiaacyl-CoA analogues, but is only rapidly inactivated by DCTFTH-CoA. The variable ratio of elimination to oxidation observed for DCTH-, DCTFTH-, and CTFTH-CoA may influence the metabolism of the corresponding cytotoxic alkanoic acids in vivo.