| 1. |
- Maurer, Dirk, 1985-
(author)
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Structure Function Relationships in Pyrimidine Degrading and Biocatalytic Enzymes, and Their Implications for Cancer Therapy and Green Chemistry
- 2018
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis includes the work of two separate projects, studies on pyrimidine degrading enzymes and studies on in vitro evolved enzymes. The common denominator of both projects was the use of structural information to explain functional effects, observed in the studied biocatalysts.In humans, and other eukaryotic organisms, the nucleobases uracil and thymine are catabolized by the reductive pyrimidine degradation pathway. This pathway is one of the factors that control the pyrimidine nucleotide concentrations in a cell. Furthermore, it is the main clearance route for pyrimidine analogues, often used as cancer drugs, like 5-fluorouracil and other fluoropyrimidines. Deficiencies in any of the enzymes, involved in this pathway, can lead to a wide range of neurological disorders, and possibly fatal fluoropyrimidine toxicity in cancer patients. Two out of the three involved enzymes, dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) and β-ureidopropionase (βUP), were studied in the first project of this thesis. This resulted in the first crystal structure of a human β-ureidopropionase variant, which could be used to explain functional characteristics of the enzyme. Structural analyses on novel DPD variants, found in patients suffering from DPD deficiency, could explain the decrease in catalytic activity of these enzyme variants. This strategy, of using structural information to predict functional effects from sequential mutations, has the potential to be used as a cheap and fast first assessment of possible deficiencies in this pathway.Enzymes are, however, not only involved in many diseases, but also used for industrial applications. The substitution of classical organic synthetic reactions with enzyme catalyzed reactions usually has a beneficial influence on environmental pollution, as illustrated in the principles of Green Chemistry. The major drawback of the use of enzymes for these purposes is their natural selectivity towards a small group of possible substrates and products, which often do not have the desired composition or conformation for an industrial application. In order to improve an enzyme for industrial purposes, the alcohol dehydrogenase ADH-A, from Rhodococcus ruber, was subjected to a semi-rational approach of directed evolution, using iterative saturation mutagenesis (ISM), in the second project of this thesis. This resulted in different enzyme variants that showed the desired improvements in activity. Most functional improvements could be rationalized with the help of structural information and molecular dynamics simulations. This showed that artificial protein design has the potential to produce enzyme variants capable of substituting many organic synthetic reactions, and that structural information can play a key role in the designing process.
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| 2. |
- Modén, Olof
(author)
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Mutational Analysis and Redesign of Alpha-class Glutathione Transferases for Enhanced Azathioprine Activity
- 2013
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Glutathione transferase (GST) A2-2 is the human enzyme most efficient in catalyzing azathioprine activation. Structure-function relationships were sought explaining the higher catalytic efficiency compared to other alpha class GSTs. By screening a DNA shuffling library, five recombined segments were identified that were conserved among the most active mutants. Mutational analysis confirmed the importance of these short segments as their insertion into low-active GSTs introduced higher azathioprine activity. Besides, H-site mutagenesis led to decreased azathioprine activity when the targeted positions belonged to these conserved segments and mainly enhanced activity when other positions were targeted. Hydrophobic residues were preferred in positions 208 and 213.The prodrug azathioprine is today primarily used for maintaining remission in inflammatory bowel disease. Therapy leads to adverse effects for 30 % of the patients and genotyping of the metabolic genes involved can explain some of these incidences. Five genotypes of human A2-2 were characterized and variant A2*E had 3–4-fold higher catalytic efficiency with azathioprine, due to a proline mutated close to the H-site. Faster activation might lead to different metabolite distributions and possibly more adverse effects. Genotyping of GSTs is recommended for further studies.Molecular docking of azathioprine into a modeled structure of A2*E suggested three positions for mutagenesis. The most active mutants had small or polar residues in the mutated positions. Mutant L107G/L108D/F222H displayed a 70-fold improved catalytic efficiency with azathioprine. Determination of its structure by X-ray crystallography showed a widened H-site, suggesting that the transition state could be accommodated in a mode better suited for catalysis.The mutational analysis increased our understanding of the azathioprine activation in alpha class GSTs and highlighted A2*E as one factor possibly behind the adverse drug-effects. A successfully redesigned GST, with 200-fold enhanced catalytic efficiency towards azathioprine compared to the starting point A2*C, might find use in targeted enzyme-prodrug therapies.
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| 3. |
- Al-Smadi, Derar, 1983-
(author)
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Carboligation using the aldol reaction : A comparison of stereoselectivity and methods
- 2018
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The research summarized in this thesis focuses on synthesizing aldehyde and aldol compounds as substrates and products for the enzyme D-fructose-6-aldolase (FSA). Aldolases are important enzymes for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds in nature. In biological systems, aldol reactions, both cleavage and formation play central roles in sugar metabolism. Aldolases exhibit high degrees of stereoselectivity and can steer the product configurations to a given enantiomeric and diastereomeric form. To become truly useful synthetic tools, the substrate scope of these enzymes needs to become broadened.In the first project, phenylacetaldehyde derivatives were synthesized for the use as test substrates for E. coli FSA. Different methods were discussed to prepare phenylacetaldehyde derivatives, the addition of a one carbon unit to benzaldehyde derivatives using a homologation reaction was successful and was proven efficient and non-sensitive to the moisture. The analogues were prepared through two steps with 75-80 % yields for both meta- and para-substituted compounds.The second project focuses on synthesizing aldol compound using FSA enzymes, both wild type and mutated variants selected from library screening, the assay has been successfully used to identify a hit with 10-fold improvement in an R134V/S166G variant. This enzyme produces one out of four possible stereoisomers.The third project focuses on the synthesis of a range of aldol compounds using two different approaches reductive cross-coupling of aldehydes by SmI2 or by organocatalysts using cinchonine. Phenylacetaldehydes were reacted with hydroxy-, dihydroxyacetone and hydroxyacetophenone in presence of cinchonine, the reaction was successful with hydroxyacetophenone in moderate yields and 60-99 % de ratio. On the other hand, the aldehydes reacting with methyl- and phenylglyoxal in the presence of SmI2 resulted in moderate yields and without stereoselectivity.
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| 4. |
- Enugala, Thilak Reddy, 1984-
(author)
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Engineered Alcohol Dehydrogenases for Stereoselective Chemical Transformations
- 2019
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Enzymes are biomolecules built from amino acids and catalyze the chemical transformations in a cell. Enzymes are by nature stereoselective, biodegradable, environmentally friendly, and can perform catalysis in aqueous solutions and at ambient temperatures. Due to these advantages the use of enzymes as biocatalysts for chemical transformations has emerged as an attractive “greener” alternative to conventional chemical synthesis strategies. And, if naturally occurring enzymes cannot carry out the desired chemical transformations, the functional properties of enzymes can be modified by directed evolution or protein engineering techniques. Since enzymes are genetically encoded they can be optimized for desired traits such as substrate selectivity or improved catalytic efficiency. Considering these advantages and also keeping the synthetic and industrial application in mind, we have employed alcohol dehydrogenase-A (ADH-A) from Rhodococcus ruber DSM 44541 as a study object in engineering for new catalytic properties. ADH-A tolerates water miscible organic solvents, accepts a relatively wide range of aromatic sec-alcohols/ketones as substrates and is therefore a potentially useful biocatalyst for asymmetric synthesis of organic compounds. Presented research work in this thesis has been primarily focused on engineering of ADH-A and characterization of resulting enzyme variants. The engineering efforts have aimed for altered substrate scope, as well as stereo- and regioselectivities. Furthermore, possible substrate promiscuity in engineered enzyme variants has also been addressed. In short, i). Paper I: three sub sites, each consisting of two-three amino acid residues within the active-site cavity were exposed to saturation mutagenesis in step-wise manner, coupled to an in vitro selection for improved catalytic activity with the unfavored (R)-1-phenylethanol. The observed stereoselectivity could be explained partly by a shift in nonproductive substrate binding. ii). Paper II is aimed specifically towards the improving the catalytic activity with aryl-substituted vicinal diols, such as (R)-1-phenylethane-1,2-diol, and the possibility to link the ADH-A reaction with a preceding epoxide hydrolysis to produce the acyloin 2-hydroxyacetophenone from rac-styrene oxide. iii). Paper III is mainly focused towards studies of regioselectivity. Here, ADH-A and engineered variants were challenged with a substrate containing two sec-alcohol functions and the cognate di-ketone. The regioselectivity in wild type as well as in engineered variants could in part be explained by a combination of experimental and computer simulations. iv). Paper IV is focused on elucidating possible effects on substrate promiscuities in engineered variants as compared to the wild type parent enzyme, when challenged with a spectrum of potential previously untested substrates.
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| 5. |
- Gurell, Ann, 1981-
(author)
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Biochemical Studies on a Plant Epoxide Hydrolase : Discovery of a Proton Entry and Exit Pathway and the Use of In vitro Evolution to Shift Enantioselectivity
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The work leading to this thesis has provided additional information and novel knowledge concerning structure-function relationship in the potato epoxide hydrolase. Epoxide hydrolases are enzymes catalyzing the hydrolysis of epoxides to yield the corresponding vicinal diols. The reaction mechanism proceeds via a nucleophilic attack resulting in a covalent alkylenzyme intermediate, which in turn is attacked by a base-activated water molecule, followed by product release. Epoxides and diols are precursors in the production of chiral compounds and the use of epoxide hydrolases as biocatalysts is growing. The promising biocatalyst StEH1, a plant epoxide hydrolase from potato, has been investigated in this thesis. In paper I the active site residue Glu35, was established to be important for the formation of the alkylenzyme intermediate, activating the nucleophile for attack by facilitated proton release through a hydrogen bond network. Glu35 is also important during the hydrolytic half reaction by optimally orienting the hydrolytic water molecule, aiding in the important dual function of the histidine base. Glu35 makes it possible for the histidine to work as both an acid and a base. In paper II a putative proton wire composed of five water molecules lining a protein tunnel was proposed to facilitate effective proton transfer from the exterior to the active site, aiding in protonation of the alkylenzyme intermediate. The protein tunnel is also proposed to stabilize plant epoxide hydrolases via hydrogen bonds between water molecules and protein. Enzyme variants with modified enantiospecificity for the substrate (2,3-epoxypropyl)benzene have been constructed by in vitro evolution using the CASTing approach. Residues lining the active site pocket were targeted for mutagenesis. From the second generation libraries a quadruple enzyme variant, W106L/L109Y/V141K/I155V, displayed a radical shift in enantioselectivity. The wild-type enzyme favored the S-enantiomer with a ratio of 2:1, whereas the quadruple variant showed a 15:1 preference for the R-enantiomer.
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| 6. |
- Hamnevik, Emil, 1986-
(author)
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Characterization and Directed Evolution of an Alcohol Dehydrogenase : A Study Towards Understanding of Three Central Aspects of Substrate Selectivity
- 2017
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Many different chemicals are used in the everyday life, like detergents and pharmaceuticals. However, their production has a big impact on health and environment as much of the raw materials are not renewable and the standard ways of production in many cases includes toxic and environmentally hazardous components. As the population and as the life standard increases all over the planet, the demand for different important chemicals, like pharmaceuticals, will increase. A way to handle this is to apply the concept of Green chemistry, where biocatalysis, in the form of enzymes, is a very good alternative. Enzymes do not normally function in industrial processes and needs modifications through protein engineering to cope in such conditions. To be able to efficiently improve an enzyme, there is a need to understand the mechanism and characteristics of that enzyme.Acyloins (α-hydroxy ketones) are important building blocks in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals. In this thesis, the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase A (ADH-A) from Rhodococcus ruber has been in focus, as it has been shown to display a wide substrate scope, also accepting aryl-substituted alcohols. The aim has been to study the usefulness of ADH-A as a biocatalyst towards production of acyloins and its activity with aryl-substituted vicinal diols and to study substrate-, regio-, and enantioselectivity of this enzyme.This thesis is based on four different papers where the focus of the first has been to biochemically characterize ADH-A and determine its mechanism, kinetics and its substrate-, regio-, and enantioselectivity. The second and third paper aims towards deeper understanding of some aspects of selectivity of ADH-A. Non-productive binding and its importance for enantioselectivity is studied in the second paper by evolving ADH-A towards increased activity with the least favored enantiomer through protein engineering. In the third paper, regioselectivity is in focus, where an evolved variant displaying reversed regioselectivity is studied. In the fourth and last paper ADH-A is studied towards the possibility to increase its activity towards aryl-substituted vicinal diols, with R-1-phenyl ethane-1,2-diol as the model substrate, and the possibility to link ADH-A with an epoxide hydrolase to produce acyloins from racemic epoxides.
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| 7. |
- Lindberg, Diana, 1970-
(author)
-
Exploring Selectivity and Hysteresis : Kinetic Studies on a Potato Epoxide Hydrolase
- 2010
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The kinetic mechanism of an α/β hydrolase fold epoxide hydrolase from potato, StEH1, has been studied with the aims of explaining the underlying causes for enantio- and regioselectivity, both being important for product purity. Further effort has been laid upon understanding the causes of a hysteretic behavior discovered in the measurements leading to Paper I. The enantioselectivity was investigated with substrates differing only in substituent size at one carbon of the oxirane ring structure. In catalysis with trans-stilbene oxide and styrene oxide, enantioselectivity is the result of differences in alkylation rates. In pre-steady state measurement with trans-2-methylstyrene oxide (2-MeSO), a rate-limiting step involving slow transitions, referred to as hysteresis, was discovered. With this substrate enantioselectivity is proposed to be a consequence of the catalytic rate of (1R,2R)-enantiomer being more influenced by the hysteretic behavior than was the rate of the other enantiomer. In steady-state measurements with (1R,2R)-2-MeSO, at different temperatures and pH, hysteretic cooperativity was displayed. It can be concluded that this behavior is dependent on the relationship between kcat and the rate of transition between two Michaelis complexes. From the differences in pH dependence of kcat/KM in formation of the two diols resulting from low regioselectivity in catalysis of (1R,2R)-2-MeSO, it is suggested that hysteresis is a result of the substrates placed in different conformational modes within the active site cavity. Regioselectivity is proposed to be the result of specific interactions between the catalytically important Tyr and the substrate, with a link between KM-values and degree of regioselectivity. Furthermore, the hysteretic kinetic model proposed can explain hysteresis, cooperativity and regioselectivity resulting from StEH1 catalyzed hydrolysis of (1R,2R)-2-MeSO.
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| 8. |
- Löfdahl, Per-Åke, 1959-
(author)
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On bacterial formats in protein library technology
- 2009
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Millions of years of evolution have resulted in an immense number of different proteins, which participate in virtually every process within cells and thus are of utmost importance for allknown forms of life. In addition, there are several examples of natural proteins which have found use in applications outside their natural environment, such as the use of enzymes infood industry and washing powders or the use of antibodies in diagnostic, bioseparation or therapeutic applications. To improve the performance of proteins in such applications, anumber of techniques, all collectively referred to as ‘protein engineering’, are performed in thelaboratory.Traditionally, methods involving ‘rational design’, where a few alterations are introduced atspecific protein locations to hopefully result in expected improvements have been applied.However, the use of more recent techniques involving a simultaneous construction of a large number of candidate variants (protein libraries) by various diversification principles, fromwhich rare clones showing enhanced properties can be isolated have contributed greatly to thefield of protein engineering.In the present thesis, different protein traits of biotechnological importance have beenaddressed for improvements by the use of such methods, in which there is a crucial need tomaintain a clonal link between the genotype and the phenotype to allow an identification of protein library members isolated by virtue of their functional properties. In all protein library investigations included in this thesis this coupling has been obtained by Escherichia coli bacterialcell-membrane compartmental confinement.In a first study, a combination of error prone PCR and gene-shuffling was applied to the Tobacco Etch Virus (TEV)-protease gene in order to produce collections from which genesencoding variants showing an enhanced soluble expression of the enzyme frequently used inbiotechnology to cleave fusion proteins were identified. Using Green Fluorescence Protein(GFP)-based cell fluorescence analysis, a clone with a five-fold increase in the yield of solubly produced protein was successfully isolated. In a second study, a novel and different GFPbased selection system, in addition also involving targeted in vivo protein degradation principles,was employed for investigations of the substrate sequence space of the same protease. In two additional studies, a selection system denoted Protein Fragment Complementation Assay(PCA), based on the affinity driven structural complementation of a genetically split β-lactamase enzyme was used to identify variants having desired target protein binding abilities,including both specificity and affinity. Using Darwinian principles concerning clonal growth advantages, affibody binding proteins showing sub-nanomolar dissociation constants to thehuman cytokine TNF-α were isolated. Taken together, these studies have shown that the bacterial format is very well suited for use in various aspects of protein library selection.
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| 9. |
- Gossas, Thomas, 1976-
(author)
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Protease Activity, Inhibition and Ligand Interaction Analysis : Developments and Applications for Drug Discovery
- 2007
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The present study has focused on characterising protease-ligand interactions in the context of drug discovery. The proteases that have been studied are human matrix metallopeptidase 12 (MMP-12), HIV-protease and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3/NS4A protease. These studies have involved kinetic characterisation of protease-inhibitor interactions using biosensor technology, as well as determination of inhibition and activity regulation by using activity assays.The regulation of MMP-12 activity by calcium was proposed, based on the study of the calcium dependence of MMP-12 activity. Furthermore, it was shown that the high affinity of hydroxamate-based inhibitors of MMP-12 were due to slow dissociation of the enzyme-inhibitor complex by using a new biosensor assay for the study of interactions between MMP-12 and ligands.A study of the pH-dependency of protease-inhibitor interactions revealed that the interaction kinetics of HIV-protease inhibitors differed with pH in a way that could be related to the inhibitor structures. This suggested that the forces of interaction are different in the association and dissociation phases of an interaction. Furthermore, it demonstrated the usefulness of pH as a variable in characterising protein-ligand interactions.Results applicable in the discovery of drugs against Hepatitis C were obtained, with the analysis of structure-activity relationships of novel inhibitors. Furthermore, the mode of binding imposed by key functional groups of the inhibitors was explored by investigating the effect of pH on the interactions with NS3.The results show the importance of using appropriate model systems for drug discovery by selecting relevant targets and assay conditions. Furthermore, the usefulness of kinetic rate information in drug discovery is demonstrated. Thus, by contributing to the knowledge of protease-ligand interactions, applicable to both protease inhibitor interactions and protease activity regulation, this thesis is expected to have an impact on the field of protease inhibitor development and drug discovery in general.
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| 10. |
- Lindås, Ann-Christin, 1967-
(author)
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Tripeptidyl-Peptidase II : Structure, Function and Gene Regulation
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The protein degradation process is of vital importance for the cell to maintain cellular functions. An important enzyme in this process is the multimeric tripeptidyl-peptidase II (TPP II). It removes tripeptides from a free N-terminus of the substrates. TPP II has broad substrate specificity and wide-spread distribution, suggesting that the TPP II gene is a house-keeping gene. However, the levels of both mRNA and TPP II protein varies during different conditions and the TPP II gene promoter was therefore identified and characterized. It is a 215 bp fragment just upstream of the coding sequence. This fragment lacks a TATA-box but contains an initiator, two inverted CCAAT-boxes and an E-box. The CCAAT-boxes and the E-box were found to bind the nuclear factor Y (NF-Y) and upstream stimulatory factor-1 (USF-1) respectively. The CCAAT-boxes appear to be most important for the transcriptional activation. Furthermore, several silencer element were identified further upstream of the 215 bp promoter and the octamer binding factor Oct-1 was found to bind one of these fragments. If Oct-1 is responsible for the inhibition of the transcription of the TPP II gene remains to be investigated. In addition, the substrate specificity was investigated. For this purpose an expression system using Pichia pastoris was developed. The purified recombinant TPP II was found to have the same enzymatic properties as the native enzyme. In order to identify the amino acids involved in the binding of the N-terminus of the substrate, wild-type murine TPP II and four mutants E305Q, E305K, E331Q and E331K were purified. Steady-state kinetic analysis clearly demonstrated that both Glu-305 and Glu-331 are important for this binding as the KMapp is more than 102 higher for the mutants than wild-type. Finally, the pH-dependence for cleavage of two chromogenic substrates was compared for TPP II from different species.
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