Serine Protease Catalysis: A Computational Study of Tetrahedral Intermediates and Inhibitory Adducts

Peptide boronic acids and peptidyl trifluoromethyl ketones (TFKs) inhibit serine proteases by forming monoanionic, tetrahedral adducts to serine in the active sites. Investigators regard these adducts as analogs of monoanionic, tetrahedral intermediates. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations and fractional charge analysis show that tetrahedral adducts of model peptidyl TFKs are structurally and electrostatically very similar to corresponding tetrahedral intermediates. In contrast, the DFT calculations show the structures and electrostatic properties of analogous peptide boronate adducts to be significantly different. The peptide boronates display highly electrostatically positive boron, with correspondingly negative ligands in the tetrahedra. In addition, the computed boron-oxygen and boron-carbon bond lengths in peptide boronates (which are identical or very similar to the corresponding bonds in a peptide boronate adduct of α-lytic protease determined by X-ray crystallography at subangstrom resolution) are significantly longer than the corresponding bond lengths in model tetrahedral intermediates. Since protease-peptidyl TFKs incorporate low-barrier hydrogen bonds (LBHBs) between an active site histidine and aspartate, while the protease-peptide boronates do not, these data complement the spectroscopic and chemical evidence for the participation of LBHBs in catalysis by serine proteases. Moreover, while the potency of these classes of inhibitors can be correlated to the structures of the peptide moieties, the present results indicate that the strength of their bonds to serine contribute significantly to their inhibitory properties.