A molecular level mechanism for uranium (VI) toxicity through Ca2+ displacement in pyrroloquinoline quinone-dependent bacterial dehydrogenase
作者:Katherine A. Burbank、Robert A. Walker、Brent M. Peyton
DOI:10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2014.11.007
日期:2015.8
Dipicolinic acid (DPA), a small molecule analogue for the pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) bacterial dehydrogenase cofactor, was used to model displacement of the complexing ion, Ca2+, by a uranium (VI) dioxo-cation, UO22+. Complexation of UO22+ with DPA through the displacement of Ca2+ was examined with UV/visible spectroscopy, ESI (electrospray ionization)-Mass spectrometry, and density functional theory based-modeling. The UO22+ displacement of other biologically important metal cations (Zn2+, Cu2+, Ni2+, and Fe3+) from DPA was also examined. Results show that UO22+ has a distinctly higher binding affinity (log beta = 102 +/- 0.1) for DPA compared to that of Ca2+ (log beta = 4.6 +/- 0.1), and provide molecular level insight into the mechanism of uranium toxicity associated with the ONO} site. These results support those of VanEngelen et al. (2011) where a key interaction between PQQ and UO22+ produced significant uranium toxicity in bacteria. The observed toxicity mechanism was determined to be the displacement of a Ca2+ cation bound to the ONO} site on PQQ and was observed even at submicromolar UO22+ concentrations. Here we couple experimental findings with density functional theory (DFT) calculations to investigate the electronic and structural properties that make the ONO} site so distinctively favorable for UO22+ binding. This novel approach using integrated experimental and fundamental atomic based models opens the path to identify a library of potential uranium interactions with critical biological molecules. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.