title: Structural studies of shikimate dehydrogenase from Bacillus anthracis complexed with cofactor NADP.
abstract: Bacillus anthracis has been employed as an agent of bioterrorism, with high mortality, despite anti-microbial treatment, which strongly indicates the need of new drugs to treat anthrax. Shikimate pathway is a seven step biosynthetic route which generates chorismic acid from phosphoenol pyruvate and erythrose-4-phosphate. Chorismic acid is the major branch point in the synthesis of aromatic amino acids, ubiquinone, and secondary metabolites. The shikimate pathway is essential for many pathological organisms, whereas it is absent in mammals. Therefore, these enzymes are potential targets for the development of nontoxic antimicrobial agents and herbicides and have been submitted to intensive structural studies. The forth enzyme of this pathway is responsible for the conversion of dehydroshikimate to shikimate in the presence of NADP. In order to pave the way for structural and functional efforts toward development of new antimicrobials we describe the molecular modeling of shikimate dehydrogenase from Bacillus anthracis complexed with the cofactor NADP. This study was able to identify the main residues of the NADP binding site responsible for ligand affinities. This structural study can be used in the design of more specific drugs against infectious diseases.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Biociências, Laboratório de Bioquímica Estrutural, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Guy Barros
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Barcellos
authors.forename: Rafael Andrade
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Caceres
authors.forename: Walter Filgueira
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: de Azevedo
mesh_terms: D000429:Alcohol Oxidoreductases / Q000737:chemistry*; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D001408:Bacillus anthracis / Q000201:enzymology*; D001665:Binding Sites; D015195:Drug Design; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009249:NADP / Q000737:chemistry*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012765:Shikimic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; C096387:3-dehydroshikimate; D012765:Shikimic Acid; D009249:NADP; D000429:Alcohol Oxidoreductases; C022641:Shikimate dehydrogenase