Itaconate is an immunometabolite with both anti-inflammatory and bactericidal effects. Its coenzyme A (CoA) derivative, itaconyl-CoA, inhibits B12-dependent methylmalonyl-CoA mutase (MCM) by an unknown mechanism. We demonstrate that itaconyl-CoA is a suicide inactivator of human and Mycobacterium tuberculosis MCM, which forms a markedly air-stable biradical adduct with the 5′-deoxyadenosyl moiety of the B12 coenzyme. Termination of the catalytic cycle in this way impairs communication between MCM and its auxiliary repair proteins. Crystallography and spectroscopy of the inhibited enzyme are consistent with a metal-centered cobalt radical ~6 angstroms away from the tertiary carbon-centered radical and suggest a means of controlling radical trajectories during MCM catalysis. Mycobacterial MCM thus joins enzymes in the glyoxylate shunt and the methylcitrate cycle as targets of itaconate in pathogen propionate metabolism.
Don't take this antivitamin! 2-Phenylethynylcobalamin was prepared in a newly developed radical reaction using cob(II)alamin and 1-iodo-2-phenylethyne. It has an exceptionally short organometallic bond and is a remarkably light-stable and heat-resistant organometallic cobalamin. It is bound well by two important proteins of the human B12 transport system and has properties that are as expected for a new type of an "antivitamin B12 ".
Cobalamins are of widespread importance in biology. Both of the cofactors essential for human metabolism, the organocobalamins coenzyme B and methylcobalamin, are highly photolabile, as are other alkylcobalamins. The alkynylcobalamin phenylethynylcobalamin (PhEtyCbl) and the arylcobalamin 4-ethylphenylcobalamin (EtPhCbl) with "atypical" Co-C-bonds to unsaturated carbons, were recently designed as metabolically inert cobalamins, classified as "antivitamins B". The further development of an ideal light-activated or "conditional" antivitamin B would require it to be readily converted by light into an active B vitamin form. Very photolabile "antivitamins B" would also represent particularly useful scaffolds for therapeutic light-activated reagents. Here, the photoactive arylcobalamin EtPhCbl and the remarkably photostable alkynylcobalamin PhEtyCbl are examined using femtosecond to picosecond UV-visible transient absorption spectroscopy. PhEtyCbl undergoes internal conversion to the ground state with near unit quantum yield on a time scale < 100 ps and an activation energy of 12.6 ± 1.4 kJ/mol. The arylcobalamin EtPhCbl forms an excited state with a ca. 247 ps lifetime. This excited state branches between internal conversion to the ground state and formation of a long-lived base-off species with a quantum yield of ∼9%. Anaerobic steady state photolysis of "light-sensitive" EtPhCbl results in the formation of cob(II)alamin, but only with quantum yield <1%. Hence, our studies suggest that suitably modified arylcobalamins may be a rational basis for the design of photoresponsive "antivitamins B".
Corrinoid-dependent reductive dehalogenation is mediated by phylogenetically diverse anaerobic bacteria that either synthesize corrinoids de novo or are dependent on corrinoid salvaging from the environment. The tetrachloroethene (PCE) reductive dehalogenase (PceA) of the Gram-negative Epsilonproteobacterium Sulfurospirillum multivorans harbours a norpseudo-B12 as corrinoid cofactor. Norpseudo-B12 differs from coenzyme B12 in the nucleotide loop structure. Adenine instead of 5,6-dimethylbenzimidazole (DMB) serves as lower ligand base of the central cobalt ion, and the nucleotide loop of norpseudo-B12 lacks a methyl group at position 176. In this study, S. multivorans was grown anaerobically with PCE in the presence of DMB. At a DMB concentration of 25 μM, the adenine moiety in the nucleotide loop of norpseudo-B12 was quantitatively replaced by DMB. The formation of the DMB-containing nor-B12 severely affected PCE-dependent growth and the PceA activity. In DMB-treated cells processing of the cytoplasmic PceA precursor was impeded, a result pointing to retarded cofactor incorporation. PceA enriched from cells cultivated with DMB contained nor-B12 . Nor-B12 purified from cells grown in the presence of DMB mediated the abiotic reductive dehalogenation of trichloroacetate to dichloroacetate at a 25-fold lower rate in comparison with norpseudo-B12 , a fact underpinning the relevance of norpseudo-B12 as efficient catalyst for reductive dehalogenation in general.
Antivitamins B12 have a growing biomedical impact as robust B12-dummies. Here, the potential antivitamin B12 2,4-difluorophenyl-ethynyl-cobalamin (F2PhEtyCbl) was prepared and its 3D-structure was studied in solution and in the crystal. Chemically inert F2PhEtyCbl resisted thermolysis of its (Co-C)-bond at 100°C, was stable to bright day light and also remained intact during prolonged storage in aqueous solution at room temperature. It bound to the human B12-processing enzyme CblC with high affinity (KD = 130 nM) in the presence of the co-substrate glutathione (GSH). F2PhEtyCbl withstood tailoring by CblC, and it also stabilized the ternary complex with GSH. The crystal structure of this abortive assembly afforded first insights into the binding interactions of an antivitamin B12 with CblC, as well as into the organization of GSH and a base-off cobalamin in the active site of this enzyme.
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