The Significance of N-Methylation of Bacillithiol on Its Biological Activity As a Redox Cofactor
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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF N-METHYLATION OF BACILLITHIOL ON ITS BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY AS A REDOX COFACTOR Hazel Nicole Moxham A thesis submitted for the Degree of Master of Science by Research University of East Anglia School of Pharmacy September 2018 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived therefrom must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. 1 Abstract Low molecular weight thiols play a crucial role in a multitude of biological processes such as maintaining redox homeostasis and the detoxification of chemical stressors. Different classes of microorganisms utilise different low molecular weight thiols. For example: glutathione is found eukaryotes and most gram-negative bacteria, mycothiol is found in the actinomycetes, and bacillithiol is found in the firmicutes. This study focused on N-methyl-bacillithiol, the novel low molecular weight thiol found in the green sulfur bacteria. Due to the unavailability of the thiol, the biophysical properties of a series of related derivatives were analysed and compared. Six thiols were examined so that each of their macroscopic and microscopic pKa values as well as their thiol-disulfide exchange rate constants and their copper catalysed autoxidation rates were isolated. The results determined that each thiol maintains its own set of biophysical properties that are unique to each compound. These were then observed alongside others within the literature to compare and contrast. Predictions were made regarding the properties of N-methylated bacillithiol by associating the data of those with similar structural differences. The data presented here improves upon the knowledge of the individual properties of specific thiols, provides insight into the potential properties of a novel thiol and discusses its significance within the green sulfur bacteria. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ 2 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ 5 List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... 5 List of Figures - Appendices ................................................................................................. 7 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Overview .............................................................................................................. 9 1.2 Low Molecular Weight Thiols and their Roles as Redox Cofactors .................... 10 1.2.1 Overview .................................................................................................... 10 1.2.2 Glutathione ................................................................................................ 13 1.2.3 Trypanothione ............................................................................................ 15 1.2.4 Glutathione Amide ..................................................................................... 18 1.2.5 Mycothiol ................................................................................................... 19 1.2.6 Cysteine ...................................................................................................... 21 1.3 The biological activity of Bacillithiol in Bacillus subtilis ..................................... 23 1.3.1 Identification .............................................................................................. 23 1.3.2 Biosynthesis ............................................................................................... 23 1.3.3 Cellular Functionality ................................................................................. 24 1.4 Green Sulfur Bacteria and its novel low molecular weight thiol ....................... 26 1.4.1 Green Sulfur Bacteria ................................................................................. 26 1.4.2 The Role of Sulfur ....................................................................................... 26 1.4.3 The Discovery of N-Methyl-Bacillithiol ...................................................... 27 1.4.4 N-Methyl-Bacillithiol Biosynthesis ............................................................. 28 1.4.5 N-Methyl-Cysteine and Homocysteinyl-Bacillithiol ................................... 30 1.5 LMW Thiol Data Comparison ............................................................................. 31 1.6 Aims of the project ............................................................................................. 33 1.6.1 Determining the Macroscopic and Microscopic pKa’s of LMW thiols ........ 33 1.6.2 Determining the pH Independent Thiol-Disulfide Exchange Rate Constants of LMW thiols ............................................................................................................. 33 1.6.3 Determining the Copper Catalysed Autoxidation Rates of LMW thiols..... 33 Chapter 2: Determining the Macroscopic and Microscopic pKa’s of LMW thiols .............. 34 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 34 2.2 Materials and Methods ...................................................................................... 37 2.2.1 Materials and Instruments ......................................................................... 37 3 2.2.2 Thiol Quantification ................................................................................... 37 2.2.3 Thiol and Amine Macroscopic pKa Determination ..................................... 37 2.2.4 Thiol and Amine Microscopic pKa Calculations and Equations .................. 38 2.3 Results and Discussion ....................................................................................... 39 Chapter 3: Determining the pH Independent Thiol-Disulfide Exchange Rate Constants of LMW thiols ......................................................................................................................... 46 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 46 3.2 Materials and Methods ...................................................................................... 50 3.2.1 Materials and Instruments ......................................................................... 50 3.2.2 Thiol-Disulfide Exchange Assay .................................................................. 50 3.2.3 Obtaining the pH-Independent rate constant (k1) ..................................... 50 3.3 Results and Discussion ....................................................................................... 51 Chapter 4: Determining the Copper Catalysed Autoxidation Rates of LMW thiols ........... 56 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 56 4.2 Materials and Methods ...................................................................................... 61 4.2.1 Materials and Instruments ......................................................................... 61 4.2.2 Cu2+ Catalysed Autoxidation ...................................................................... 61 4.2.3 Data Analysis .............................................................................................. 61 4.3 Results and Discussion ....................................................................................... 62 Chapter 5: Conclusions and Future Work .......................................................................... 68 Appendices ......................................................................................................................... 69 1.1 Additional pKa graphs and standard errors .............................................................. 69 Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................... 73 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 75 4 List of Tables Table 1. The known properties of select LMW thiols. ........................................................... 31 Table 2. Macroscopic and microscopic pKa values of the thiol and amino groups for various LMW thiols. Data errors for each pKa were calculated to <0.36 pKa values using Grafit. ..... 41 Table 3. The predicted values for the macroscopic and microscopic pKa's of N-Me-BSH. .... 44 Table 4. Gathered vs published data of thiol-disulfide exchange reactivities between LMW thiols and DTNB. .................................................................................................................... 52 Table 5. The autoxidation rates of LMW thiols with and without CuSO4, their rates relative to Cys when normalised to 100%, and their standard errors. ............................................... 64 List of Figures Figure 1. Common LMW thiols produced by various organisms and their Cys components (blue). ....................................................................................................................................