Development of Organophosphate Hydrolase Activity in a Bacterial Homolog of Human Cholinesterase
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 16 July 2014 doi: 10.3389/fchem.2014.00046 Development of organophosphate hydrolase activity in a bacterial homolog of human cholinesterase Patricia M. Legler 1*, Susanne M. Boisvert 2, Jaimee R. Compton 3 and Charles B. Millard 4 1 Naval Research Laboratory, Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering, Washington, DC, USA 2 Department of Chemistry, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA 3 Nova Research Inc., Alexandria, VA, USA 4 United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, MD, USA Edited by: We applied a combination of rational design and directed evolution (DE) to Bacillus Carissa M. Soto, Naval Research subtilis p-nitrobenzyl esterase (pNBE) with the goal of enhancing organophosphorus Laboratory, USA acid anhydride hydrolase (OPAAH) activity. DE started with a designed variant, pNBE Reviewed by: A107H, carrying a histidine homologous with human butyrylcholinesterase G117H to Jiaoyang Jiang, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA find complementary mutations that further enhance its OPAAH activity. Five sites were Christian W. Gruber, Medical selected (G105, G106, A107, A190, and A400) within a 6.7 Å radius of the nucleophilic University of Vienna, Austria serine Oγ. All 95 variants were screened for esterase activity with a set of five substrates: Markus Kaiser, University of pNP-acetate, pNP-butyrate, acetylthiocholine, butyrylthiocholine, or benzoylthiocholine. Duisburg-Essen, Germany A microscale assay for OPAAH activity was developed for screening DE libraries. *Correspondence: Patricia M. Legler, Naval Research Reductions in esterase activity were generally concomitant with enhancements in OPAAH Laboratory, Center for Bio/Molecular activity. One variant, A107K, showed an unexpected 7-fold increase in its kcat/Km for Science and Engineering, 4555 benzoylthiocholine, demonstrating that it is also possible to enhance the cholinesterase Overlook Ave., Washington, DC activity of pNBE. Moreover, DE resulted in at least three variants with modestly enhanced 20375, USA e-mail: [email protected] OPAAH activity compared to wild type pNBE. A107H/A190C showed a 50-fold increase in paraoxonase activity and underwent a slow time- and temperature-dependent change affecting the hydrolysis of OPAA and ester substrates. Structural analysis suggests that pNBE may represent a precursor leading to human cholinesterase and carboxylesterase 1 through extension of two vestigial specificity loops; a preliminary attempt to transfer the - loop of BChE into pNBE is described. Unlike butyrylcholinesterase and pNBE, introducing a G143H mutation (equivalent to G117H) did not confer detectable OP hydrolase activity on human carboxylesterase 1 (hCE1). We discuss the use of pNBE as a surrogate scaffold for the mammalian esterases, and the importance of the oxyanion-hole residues for enhancing the OPAAH activity of selected serine hydrolases. Keywords: organophosphate, cholinesterase, directed evolution, catalytic bioscavenger, nerve agent, hysteresis INTRODUCTION rapidly, completely, and irreversibly inhibit essential biological Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE; EC 3.1.1.8) and its genetically stores of synaptic acetylcholinesterase (AChE; EC 3.1.1.7) leading engineered variants are being developed as therapeutic enzyme to rigid paralysis, asphyxiation, and seizures (Shih et al., 2003). “bioscavengers” of organophosphorus acid anhydrides (OPAA) to OPAA are archetypical irreversible inhibitors of serine hydrolases prevent or treat OPAA poisoning (Millard et al., 1995a; Doctor (Scheme S1), but in some cases the inhibition is slowly reversed and Saxena, 2005; Saxena et al., 2006) and also have been inves- (half-time of hours or days) because the phosphylated esterase tigated to reverse cocaine addiction (Xie et al., 1999; Zheng undergoes spontaneous hydrolysis of the covalent adduct to yield and Zhan, 2008; Masson and Rochu, 2009). OPAA compounds reactivated enzyme (Main, 1979). Human BChE has been pro- (Figure 1) are highly toxic or lethal primarily because they posed as a prophylactic antidote because it is able to react rapidly with essentially all toxic pesticides and military “nerve agents” Abbreviations: AtCh, acetylthiocholine; BME, beta-mercaptoethanol; BtCh, in the blood stream to prevent inhibition of AChE (reviewed in butyrylthiocholine; BzCh, benzoylthiocholine; CD, circular dichroism; CE, car- Ashani, 2000; Doctor and Saxena, 2005; Nachon et al., 2013). boxylesterase; DMSO, dimethylsulfoxide; DTNB, dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid); DTT, dithiothreitol; EB, equilibration buffer; hCE1, human carboxylesterase The primary limitation to employing natural human BChE as 1; IPTG, isopropyl-β-thiogalactoside; -loop, residues between Cys-67-Cys-94 a therapeutic is that each enzyme molecule can react only once (TcAChE numbering); OPAA, organophosphorus acid anhydride inhibitors; with an OPAA inhibitor molecule and therefore will require an OPAAH, organophosphorus acid anhydride hydrolase; paraoxon, diethyl p- estimated dose of 200–1820 mg/70 kg of BChE to confer protec- nitrophenylphosphate; pNBE, p-nitrobenzylesterase; pNPA, p-nitrophenyl acetate; × pNPB, p-nitrophenyl butyrate; SDS-PAGE, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide tion against 2 LD50 of most nerve agents (Ashani, 2000; Geyer gel electrophoresis; WT, wild type. et al., 2010). For therapeutic enzyme bioscavengers, catalyzed www.frontiersin.org July 2014 | Volume 2 | Article 46 | 1 Legler et al. Protein engineering of p-nitrobenzyl esterase FIGURE 1 | Structures of carboxylester substrates and organophosphate effective inhibitors because they mimic the substrates of the esterases which inhibitors. The G-type agents, Soman and Sarin, carry neutral R-groups while they inhibit. The transition states of carboxylesters are tetrahedral, while the V-type inhibitors, VX and echothiophate, contain cationic R-groups which those of OP are pentavalent. Accommodation of the various R-groups of the mimic choline. Simulants which carry poorer leaving groups are commonly OP is therefore determined empirically using a series of inhibitors with used in screening and include paraoxon, DFP,and echothiophate. OP are R-groups varying in size or charge. turnover could significantly enhance the rate of OPAA hydrol- including, Glu-197, and Trp-82 within the -loop of BChE ysis and reduce the amount of enzyme needed for protection. (Figure S1, Figure 2)(Hosea et al., 1996; Masson et al., 1997a; Using rational protein design, Millard and colleagues introduced Kua et al., 2003). Cholinesterases are predominantly found in a single histidine residue (G117H) into the oxyanion hole of higher eukaryotes and the -loopmayhavearisenspecifi- human BChE to increase the rate of spontaneous reactivation and cally to bind and hydrolyze choline esters (Figure 2) because thereby convert OPAAs from inhibitors into xenobiotic substrates very few esterases react efficiently with cationic ligands (Cousin which could be hydrolyzed by the mutant enzyme (Millard et al., et al., 1996). Structurally related esterases [such as human car- 1995a; Lockridge et al., 1997). G117H enhanced the hydrolysis boxylesterase (hCE)] that lack the homologous Trp do not exhibit of paraoxon or echothiophate by 100,000-fold (Lockridge et al., significant cholinesterase activity and do not undergo comparable 1997), and a second mutation (G117H/E197Q) permitted hydrol- aging after OPAA inhibition (Hemmert et al., 2010). ysis of even the most toxic nerve agents known (soman, sarin, or Human BChE and its variants offer several important advan- VX) by increasing the rate of spontaneous reactivation and simul- tages as therapeutic enzymes (Doctor and Saxena, 2005), and taneously decreasing an unwanted side reaction known as “aging” transgenic animals bearing the G117H BChE variant have shown (Scheme S1)(Shafferman et al., 1996; Millard et al., 1998). limited resistance to OPAA poisoning (Wang et al., 2004). A pegy- Cholinesterase “aging” is an irreversible dealkylation of the lated WT BChE enzyme (Protexia®) has also shown protection phosphylated serine that proceeds through enzyme-catalyzed for- in vivo against soman and VX (Lenz et al., 2007; Mumford and mation of a carbocation leaving group (Scheme S1)(Michel Troyer, 2011). In addition to BChE, other enzymes such as AChE, et al., 1967; Li et al., 2007; Masson et al., 2010). Dealkylation hCE, or the metalloenzyme paraoxonase (PON1) have shown results in an anionic phosphoester adduct that is resistant promise as bioscavengers. Both BChE (Saxena et al., 2006; Lenz to nucleophilic attack. Aging involves the same cholinesterase et al., 2007; Mumford and Troyer, 2011) and PON1 (Costa et al., residues that stabilize the binding of positively charged leaving 1990; Li et al., 1995; Valiyaveettil et al., 2011) have shown limited groups of choline esters or V-type nerve agents (VX and VR), protection against nerve agent and OP-pesticide intoxication in Frontiers in Chemistry | Chemical Biology July 2014 | Volume 2 | Article 46 | 2 Legler et al. Protein engineering of p-nitrobenzyl esterase FIGURE 2 | Comparison of pNBE and BChE. (A) Structure of pNBE (PDB part of the choline binding site and carries Trp-82; this residue forms an 1QE3) (Spiller et al., 1999). (B) Active site of WT pNBE. The catalytic energetically significant cation-pi interaction with cationic choline substrates triad, Glu-310, His-399, Ser-189, is shown in lime. The residues selected (Ordentlich et al., 1993, 1995). Glu-197 also plays an important role in for DE (G105, G106, A107,