Elucidation of the proton transport mechanism in human carbonic anhydrase II

Human carbonic anhydrase II (HCA II) is one of the fastest known enzymes, which utilizes a rate-limiting proton transport (PT) step in its enzymatic reaction. To evaluate the PT event at an atomistic level, the multistate empirical valence bond (MS-EVB) method has been utilized in this work. It is observed that the PT event in HCA II exploits a transient active site water cluster to transport the excess proton between the catalytic zinc-bound water/hydroxide and the proton shuttling residue, His64. This PT event is found to be dependent on the enzyme's ability to form and stabilize the active site water cluster in addition to its ability to orient His64 in a favorable conformation. Evaluation of the PT free energy barrier for different orientations of His64 reveals this residue's vital role as a proton transporter and elucidates its direct effect on the barrier to PT through the active site water. It is suggested that the rate-limiting step oscillates between the active site water PT event to His64 and the de/protonation of His64 depending on the exogenous buffer concentration and the orientation of His64. In the absence of a PT acceptor/donor at position 64, it is found that the excess proton will utilize one of three distinct paths to enter/leave the active site. This latter result not only allows for an increased understanding of how enzymes capitalize on the protein/solvent interface to guide excess protons to/from areas of interest, it also provides valuable insight into the chemical rescue experiments on HCA II mutants.