Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Life Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health

Celia A. Schiffer

Hydrogen Bonding

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Crystal Structure Of Human Thymidylate Synthase: A Structural Mechanism For Guiding Substrates Into The Active Site, Celia Schiffer, Ian Clifton, V. Jo Davisson, Daniel Santi, Robert Stroud Nov 2011

Crystal Structure Of Human Thymidylate Synthase: A Structural Mechanism For Guiding Substrates Into The Active Site, Celia Schiffer, Ian Clifton, V. Jo Davisson, Daniel Santi, Robert Stroud

Celia A. Schiffer

The crystal structure of human thymidylate synthase, a target for anti-cancer drugs, is determined to 3.0 A resolution and refined to a crystallographic residual of 17.8%. The structure implicates the enzyme in a mechanism for facilitating the docking of substrates into the active site. This mechanism involves a twist of approximately 180 degrees of the active site loop, pivoted around the neighboring residues 184 and 204, and implicates ordering of external, eukaryote specific loops along with the well-characterized closure of the active site upon substrate binding. The highly conserved, but eukaryote-specific insertion of twelve residues 90-101 (h117-128), and of eight …


Substrate Shape Determines Specificity Of Recognition For Hiv-1 Protease: Analysis Of Crystal Structures Of Six Substrate Complexes, Moses Prabu-Jeyabalan, Ellen Nalivaika, Celia Schiffer Nov 2011

Substrate Shape Determines Specificity Of Recognition For Hiv-1 Protease: Analysis Of Crystal Structures Of Six Substrate Complexes, Moses Prabu-Jeyabalan, Ellen Nalivaika, Celia Schiffer

Celia A. Schiffer

The homodimeric HIV-1 protease is the target of some of the most effective antiviral AIDS therapy, as it facilitates viral maturation by cleaving ten asymmetric and nonhomologous sequences in the Gag and Pol polyproteins. Since the specificity of this enzyme is not easily determined from the sequences of these cleavage sites alone, we solved the crystal structures of complexes of an inactive variant (D25N) of HIV-1 protease with six peptides that correspond to the natural substrate cleavage sites. When the protease binds to its substrate and buries nearly 1000 A2 of surface area, the symmetry of the protease is broken, …


How Does A Symmetric Dimer Recognize An Asymmetric Substrate? A Substrate Complex Of Hiv-1 Protease, Moses Prabu-Jeyabalan, Ellen Nalivaika, Celia Schiffer Nov 2011

How Does A Symmetric Dimer Recognize An Asymmetric Substrate? A Substrate Complex Of Hiv-1 Protease, Moses Prabu-Jeyabalan, Ellen Nalivaika, Celia Schiffer

Celia A. Schiffer

The crystal structure of an actual HIV-1 protease-substrate complex is presented at 2.0 A resolution (R-value of 19.7 % (R(free) 23.3 %)) between an inactive variant (D25N) of HIV-1 protease and a long substrate peptide, Lys-Ala-Arg-Val-Leu-Ala-Glu-Ala-Met-Ser, which covers a full binding epitope of capsid(CA)-p2, cleavage site. The substrate peptide is asymmetric in both size and charge distribution. To accommodate this asymmetry the two protease monomers adopt different conformations burying a total of 1038 A(2) of surface area at the protease-substrate interface. The specificity for the CA-p2 substrate peptide is mainly hydrophobic, as most of the hydrogen bonds are made with …


Structure Of A Phage Display-Derived Variant Of Human Growth Hormone Complexed To Two Copies Of The Extracellular Domain Of Its Receptor: Evidence For Strong Structural Coupling Between Receptor Binding Sites, Celia Schiffer, Mark Ultsch, Scott Walsh, William Somers, Abraham De Vos, Anthony Kossiakoff Nov 2011

Structure Of A Phage Display-Derived Variant Of Human Growth Hormone Complexed To Two Copies Of The Extracellular Domain Of Its Receptor: Evidence For Strong Structural Coupling Between Receptor Binding Sites, Celia Schiffer, Mark Ultsch, Scott Walsh, William Somers, Abraham De Vos, Anthony Kossiakoff

Celia A. Schiffer

The structure of the ternary complex between the phage display- optimized, high-affinity Site 1 variant of human growth hormone (hGH) and two copies of the extracellular domain (ECD) of the hGH receptor (hGHR) has been determined at 2.6 A resolution. There are widespread and significant structural differences compared to the wild-type ternary hGH hGHR complex. The hGH variant (hGH(v)) contains 15 Site 1 mutations and binds>10(2) tighter to the hGHR ECD (hGH(R1)) at Site 1. It is biologically active and specific to hGHR. The hGH(v) Site 1 interface is somewhat smaller and 20% more hydrophobic compared to the wild-type …