Journal of Biochemistry Advance Access originally published online on November 1, 2007
Journal of Biochemistry 2008 143(1):59-68; doi:10.1093/jb/mvm194
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© 2007 The Japanese Biochemical Society.
Enzymatic Characterization and Inhibitor Discovery of a New Cystathionine
-Synthase from Helicobacter pylori



1Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203; and 2School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +86-21-50806918, Fax: +86-21-50806918, E-mail: xshen{at}mail.shcnc.ac.cn
Received September 9, 2007; Accepted October 1, 2007
| Abstract |
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Cystathionine
-synthase (CGS) catalyses the first step of the transsulfuration pathway that converts L-cysteine to L-homocysteine in bacteria, whereas this pathway is absent in human. In this report, we identified a new metB gene from Helicobacter pylori strain SS1, and the recombinant H. pylori Cystathionine
-synthase (HpCGS) was successfully cloned, expressed and purified in Escherichia coli system. Enzymatic study of HpCGS indicated that the Km and kcat/Km values against the substrate O-succinyl-L-homoserine (L-OSHS) were 3.02 mM and 98.7 M–1s–1, respectively. Moreover, four natural products (
-lapachone, 9-hydroxy-
-lapachone, Paulownin and Yangambin, Fig. 1) were discovered to demonstrate inhibitory activities against HpCGS with IC50 values of 11 ± 3, 9 ± 1, 19 ± 2 and 27 ± 6 µM, respectively. All these four inhibitors prevent the binding of L-OSHS to HpCGS in a non-competitive fashion. In vitro antibacterial assays further indicated that these four discovered compounds could highly inhibit the growth of H. pylori and exhibited strong inhibitory specificity against H. pylori related to E. coli.
Key Words:
cystathionine
-synthase, Helicobacter pylori, inhibitor, inhibitor type, minimum inhibition concentration, transsulfuration
Abbreviations:
CGS, cystathionine
-synthase; HpCGS, Helicobacter pylori cystathionine
-synthase; EcCGS, E. coli cystathionine
-synthase; L-OSHS, O-Succinyl-L-homoserine; HO-HxoDH, D-2-Hydroxyisocaproate Dehydrogenase; MIC, minimum inhibition concentration; APPA, DL-E-2-amino-5-phosphono-3-pentenoic acid; PPCA, 3-(phosphonomethyl)pyridine-2-carboxylic acid; CTCPO, 5-carboxymethylthio-3-(3'-chlorophenyl)-1,2,4-oxadiazol; Ni-NTA, nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid; PCR, polymerase chain reaction
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence may also be addressed. E-mail: simmhulh{at}mail.shcnc.ac.cn