The thioredoxin fold is a characteristic protein structural motif that has been found in five distinct classes of proteins that have the common property of interacting with cysteine-containing substrates.

Sulfonation is an important reaction in the metabolism of numerous xenobiotics, drugs, and endogenous compounds. A supergene family of enzymes called sulfotransferases (SULTs) catalyze this reaction. In most cases, the addition of a sulfonate moiety to a compound increases its water solubility and decreases its biological activity. However, many of these enzymes are also capable of bioactivating procarcinogens to reactive electrophiles. In humans three SULT families, SULT1, SULT2, and SULT4, have been identified that contain at least thirteen distinct members. SULTs have a wide tissue distribution and act as a major detoxification enzyme system in adult and the developing human fetus. Nine crystal structures of human cytosolic SULTs have now been determined, and together with site-directed mutagenesis experiments and molecular modeling, we are now beginning to understand the factors that govern distinct but overlapping substrate specificities. These studies have also provided insight into the enzyme kinetics and inhibition characteristics of these enzymes. The regulation of human SULTs remains as one of the least explored areas of research in the field, though there have been some recent advances on the molecular transcription mechanism controlling the individual SULT promoters. Interindividual variation in sulfonation capacity may be important in determining an individual's response to xenobiotics, and recent studies have begun to suggest roles for SULT polymorphism in disease susceptibility. This review aims to provide a summary of our present understanding of the function of human cytosolic sulfotransferases.

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If DNA is the information of life, then proteins are the machines of life--but they must be assembled and correctly folded to function. A key step in the protein-folding pathway is the introduction of disulphide bonds between cysteine residues in a process called oxidative protein folding. Many bacteria use an oxidative protein-folding machinery to assemble proteins that are essential for cell integrity and to produce virulence factors. Although our current knowledge of this machinery stems largely from Escherichia coli K-12, this view must now be adjusted to encompass the wider range of disulphide catalytic systems present in bacteria.

Proteins that contain disulphide bonds are often slow to fold in vitro because the oxidation and correct pairing of the cysteine residues is rate limiting. The folding of such proteins is greatly accelerated in Escherichia coli by DsbA, but the mechanism of this rate enhancement is not well understood. Here we report the crystal structure of oxidized DsbA and show that it resembles closely the ubiquitous redox protein thioredoxin, despite very low sequence similarity. An important difference, however, is the presence of another domain which forms a cap over the thioredoxin-like active site of DsbA. The redox-active disulphide bond, which is responsible for the oxidation of substrates, is thus at a domain interface and is surrounded by grooves and exposed hydrophobic side chains. These features suggest that DsbA might act by binding to partially folded polypeptide chains before oxidation of cysteine residues.

Recombinant forms of the dengue 2 virus NS3 protease linked to a 40-residue co-factor, corresponding to part of NS2B, have been expressed in Escherichia coli and shown to be active against para-nitroanilide substrates comprising the P6-P1 residues of four substrate cleavage sequences. The enzyme is inactive alone or after the addition of a putative 13-residue co-factor peptide but is active when fused to the 40-residue co-factor, by either a cleavable or a noncleavable glycine linker. The NS4B/NS5 cleavage site was processed most readily, with optimal processing conditions being pH 9, I ‫؍‬ 10 mM, 1 mM CHAPS, 20% glycerol. A longer 10-residue peptide corresponding to the NS2B/NS3 cleavage site (P6-P4) was a poorer substrate than the hexapeptide (P6-P1) para-nitroanilide substrate under these conditions, suggesting that the prime side substrate residues did not contribute significantly to protease binding. We also report the first inhibitors of a co-factor-complexed, catalytically active flavivirus NS3 protease. Aprotinin was the only standard serine protease inhibitor to be active, whereas a number of peptide substrate analogues were found to be competitive inhibitors at micromolar concentrations.

The binding constants and structural components of 200 drugs and enzyme inhibitors have been used to calculate the average binding energies of 10 common functional groups. As expected, charged groups bind more strongly than polar groups, which in turn bind more tightly than nonpolar groups. The derived intrinsic binding energies (in kcal/mol) are (i) charged groups, CO-2, 8.2; PO2-4, 10.0; N+, 11.5; (ii) polar groups, N, 1.2; OH, 2.5; CO, 3.4; O or S ethers, 1.1; halogens, 1.3; (iii) nonpolar groups, C (sp2), 0.7; C (sp3), 0.8. These values may be used to determine the goodness of fit of a drug to its receptor. This is done by comparing the observed binding constant to the average binding energy calculated by summing the intrinsic binding energies of the component groups and then subtracting two entropy related terms (14 kcal/mol for the loss of overall rotational and translational entropy and 0.7 kcal/mol for each degree of conformational freedom). Drugs that match their receptors exceptionally well have a measured binding energy that substantially exceeds this calculated average value--examples include diazepam and biotin. Conversely, if the observed binding energy is very much less than the calculated average value, then the drug apparently matches its receptor less well than average. Examples of this type include methotrexate and buprenorphine.

Despite less than 15% sequence identity, the protein fold resembles that of the catalytic domain of plant purple acid phosphatase and some serine/threonine protein phosphatases. The active-site regions of the mammalian and plant purple acid phosphatases differ significantly, however. The internal symmetry suggests that the binuclear centre evolved as a result of the combination of mononuclear ancestors. The structure of the mammalian enzyme provides a basis for antiosteoporotic drug design.