title: Enzyme mimics complexing Cu(II) ion: structure-function relationships.
abstract: Five peptides containing (His-X2)-His or (His-X3)-His motifs have been designed and synthesized to coordinate Cu(II). Structural information was obtained by various spectroscopic techniques and was used as constraint to search for local conformational energy minima by molecular mechanics. Thermodynamic stability constants of the Cu(II) chelates was obtained by 19F-NMR. The synthesized Cu(II)-peptide chelates were tested as catalysts of some important red-ox processes occuring in biological systems, in particular oxidation of ascorbate and dismutation of superoxide ion. The catalytic efficiency of the five chelates was much lower than that of ascorbate oxidase. On the contrary, two of them showed kinetic constants for superoxide dismutation about one order of magnitude lower than that of the enzyme Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase. In both cases, the catalytic properties were dependent on the peptide sequence. The relationships between structure and activity are discussed to find the structural parameters crucial for catalytic activity that can be modulated by appropriate design and synthesis of the peptides.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and INFM, University of Trento, Povo-Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Corazza
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vianello
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zennaro
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gourova
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Di Paolo
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Signor
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Marin
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rigo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scarpa
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D002384:Catalysis; D002614:Chelating Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008958:Models, Molecular; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D002614:Chelating Agents; D003300:Copper; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase; D001205:Ascorbic Acid