3-Fluoroaspartate and pyruvoyl-dependant aspartate decarboxylase: exploiting the unique characteristics of fluorine to probe reactivity and binding.

Fluorine-containing amino acids have been used with great success as mechanism-based inhibitors of pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes, and the influence of fluorine on the conformation of molecules has also been extensively studied and practically exploited. In this study, we sought to use these unique characteristics to probe the reactivity and binding of aspartate decarboxylase (ADC) enzymes, which are members of the small class of pyruvoyl-dependant decarboxylases. Since ADC activity has been shown to be essential to the virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, information gained in this manner could be used for the development of inhibitors that selectively target pyruvoyl-dependent enzymes such as ADC, without affecting PLP-dependent enzymes in the host. For this purpose, we synthesized the L-erythro and L-threo isomers of 3-fluoroaspartate and tested their ability to act as substrates and/or inhibitors of the M. tuberculosis and Escherichia coli ADC enzymes. Trapping and MS-based binding analysis was additionally used to confirm that both isomers enter the enzymes' active sites. Our studies show that both isomers undergo single turnover decarboxylation and fluorine elimination reactions to give enamine products that can be trapped within the active site. Interestingly, the enamine/ADC complex that forms from the L-erythro (but not the L-threo) isomer is sufficiently stable that it can be observed even without any trapping. This finding suggests that the two 3-fluoroaspartates maintain different conformations within the ADC active site, which leads to the enamine products with configurations of different stabilities. Taken together, our results provide new insights for the development of cofactor-specific inhibitors, and confirm the utility of fluorine as a unique tool for probing reactivity and binding profiles within enzymes.