X-Ray Crystallographic and Kinetic Analysis of Human Purine Nucleoside Phosphorylase Complexes with 1-β-D-Ribofuranosyl-1,2,4-triazole-3-carobxamide and 1-β-D-Ribofuranosyl-1,2,4-triazole-3-carboxamidine

Abstract

The three-dimensional structures of the complexes between human erythrocytic purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) and both 1-β-D-ribofuranosyl-1,2,4-triazole-3-carboxamide (ribavirin) and 1-β-D-ribofuranosyl-1,2,4-triazole-3-carboxamidine (TCNR) have been determined using X-ray crystallographic techniques. The structures have been refined at 2.9 Å resolution using simulated annealing and conjugate-gradient minimization techniques to an R value of 21.8% for ribavirin and 20.8% for TCNR. Ribavirin and TCNR are truncated nucleosides corresponding to adenosine and inosine, respectively, and are of potential interest as PNP inhibitors. Kinetic parameters have been determined for recombinant wild-type PNP and for a mutant PNP in which Asn 243 is converted to Asp. The K_i value for ribavirin is 4.9 mM with wild-type PNP and 4.7 mM with the Asn243Asp mutant, while the K_i values for TCNR are 17.6 μM and 3.8 μM with wild-type and mutant, respectively. X-ray crystallographic studies showed that the binding geometry for both of these substrate analogues was similar to that seen for natural substrates. The glycosidic torsion angles (χ) were −34° for ribavirin and −39° for TCNR which are in good agreement with values seen for other studied nucleoside complexes with PNP, but which are unusual when compared to those seen for free nucleic acid derivatives. Based upon the three-dimensional structure, interactions of Asn 243 and Glu 201 with a protonated carboxamidine of TCNR explain the stronger inhibition of PNP observed for TCNR over ribavirin.