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Structure and dynamics in solution of the complex of Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductase with the new lipophilic antifolate drug trimetrexate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1999

VLADIMIR I. POLSHAKOV
Affiliation:
Division of Molecular Structure, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, United Kingdom Center for Drug Chemistry, Moscow 119815, Russia
BERRY BIRDSALL
Affiliation:
Division of Molecular Structure, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, United Kingdom
THOMAS A. FRENKIEL
Affiliation:
MRC Biomedical NMR Centre, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, United Kingdom
ANGELO R. GARGARO
Affiliation:
Division of Molecular Structure, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, United Kingdom
JAMES FEENEY
Affiliation:
Division of Molecular Structure, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, United Kingdom
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Abstract

We have determined the three-dimensional solution structure of the complex of Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductase and the anticancer drug trimetrexate. Two thousand seventy distance, 345 dihedral angle, and 144 hydrogen bond restraints were obtained from analysis of multidimensional NMR spectra recorded for complexes containing 15N-labeled protein. Simulated annealing calculations produced a family of 22 structures fully consistent with the constraints. Several intermolecular protein-ligand NOEs were obtained by using a novel approach monitoring temperature effects of NOE signals resulting from dynamic processes in the bound ligand. At low temperature (5 °C) the trimethoxy ring of bound trimetrexate is flipping sufficiently slowly to give narrow signals in slow exchange, which give good NOE cross peaks. At higher temperature these broaden and their NOE cross peaks disappear thus allowing the signals in the lower-temperature spectrum to be identified as NOEs involving ligand protons. The binding site for trimetrexate is well defined and this was compared with the binding sites in related complexes formed with methotrexate and trimethoprim. No major conformational differences were detected between the different complexes. The 2,4-diaminopyrimidine-containing moieties in the three drugs bind essentially in the same binding pocket and the remaining parts of their molecules adapt their conformations such that they can make effective van der Waals interactions with essentially the same set of hydrophobic amino acids, the side-chain orientations and local conformations of which are not greatly changed in the different complexes (similar χ1 and χ2 values).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 The Protein Society

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