Probing the specificity of the S1 binding site of subtilisin Carlsberg with boronic acids

The binding properties and limitations of the key S1 site of subtilisin Carlsberg have been probed with boronic acid inhibitors bearing structurally varied substituents ranging from small alkyl to large aromatic groups. The data permit structural features favoring, and disfavoring, good S1 binding to be clarified. In addition, applications of electrostatic energy calculations have identified a hitherto unsuspected region of positive potential in the fundamentally hydrophobic S1 pocket, whose interactions with electronegative substituents of inhibitors can make significant binding contributions.