Density functional theory has been used to study the mechanism and stereospeci7icity of the catalytic reaction of human glyoxalase I. We used the quantum mechanical cluster method to model the enzyme active site. Glyoxalase I accepts both enantiomers of the hemithioacetal between methylglyoxal and glutathione and converts them to the S-D enantiomer of lactoylglutathione. We have compared several previously suggested or alternative reaction mechanisms for both substrates on an equal footing. The results show that the coordination shell of the Zn ion in the optimized geometries is more symmetric than in some inhibitor crystal structures, which we assign to differences in the electronic structure and the protonation states. The symmetry of the active site model indicates that the enzyme can use the same reaction mechanism for the S and the R enantiomers of the substrate, but with exchanged roles of the two active-site glutamate residues. However, the calculations show some asymmetry (0-4 kcal mol -1 differences in reaction energies and activation barriers), caused by the different coordination states of the glutamate residues in the starting crystal structure. Our results indicate that the only possibility for the stereospeci7icity of GlxI is differences in the electrostatic surroundings and 7lexibility of the glutamate residues in the active site owing to their neighboring residues in the protein.

Despite many studies during the latest two decades, the reason for the unusual stereospecificity of glyoxalase I (GlxI) is still unknown. This metalloenzyme converts both enantiomers of its natural substrate to only one enantiomer of its product. In addition, GlxI catalyzes reactions involving some substrate and product analogues with a stereospecificity similar to that of its natural substrate reaction. For example, the enzyme exchanges the pro- S, but not the pro- R, hydroxymethyl proton of glutathiohydroxyacetone (HOC-SG) with a deuterium from DO. To find some clues to the unusual stereospecificity of GlxI, we have studied the stereospecific proton exchange of the hydroxymethyl proton of HOC-SG by this enzyme. We employed density functional theory and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to study the proton exchange mechanism and origin of the stereospecificity. The results show that a rigid cluster model with the same flexibility for the two active-site glutamate residues cannot explain the unusual stereospecificity of GlxI. However, using a cluster model with full flexibility of Glu-172 or a larger model with the entire glutamates, extending the backbone into the neighboring residues, the results showed that there is no way for HOC-SG to exchange its protons if the alcoholic proton is directed toward Glu-99. However, if the hydroxymethyl proton instead is directed toward the more flexible Glu-172, we find a catalytic reaction mechanism for the exchange of the H proton by a deuterium, in accordance with experimental findings. Thus, our results indicate that the special stereospecificity of GlxI is caused by the more flexible environment of Glu-172 in comparison to that of Glu-99. This higher flexibility of Glu-172 is also confirmed by MD simulations. We propose a reaction mechanism for the stereospecific proton exchange of the hydroxymethyl proton of HOC-SG by GlxI with an overall energy barrier of 15 kcal/mol.

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