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Knowledge of protein structures is of central importance in modern drug discovery and molecular biology, but to be useful the structures, including those obtained in the crystalline state, must be biologically relevant. Small variations in crystallization conditions can lead to alternative crystal forms, conformations, and oligomerization states, causing changes which can lead to altered fold and active site architectures. In the determination of protein structures by X-ray crystallography, crystallization is an essential prerequisite and remains a major bottleneck in drug discovery. Although many methods have been tried in an attempt to improve the production of protein crystals, it is still largely a "trial and error" process. To our knowledge, crystallization by cross-seeding using homologous proteins has previously only been successful for proteins with greater than 61-74% sequence identity. In the study presented here, we explore the effect of low sequence similarity on cross-seeding using metallo-β-lactamases with sequence identities and sequence similarities as low as 24% and 36%, respectively, but with homologous core folds. Despite the low sequence identities, the results show that micro-cross-seeding matrix screening can increase the number of hits obtained and can shorten crystallization time. It can also help in the identification of new crystallization conditions and different crystal forms.

Substituted guanines and pyrimidines were tested as inhibitors of cyclin B1/CDK1 and cyclin A3/CDK2 and soaked into crystals of monomeric CDK2. O6-Cyclohexylmethylguanine (NU2058) was a competitive inhibitor of CDK1 and CDK2 with respect to ATP (Ki values: CDK1, 5 +/- 1 microM; CDK2, 12 +/- 3 microM) and formed a triplet of hydrogen bonds (i.e., NH-9 to Glu 81, N-3 to Leu 83, and 2-NH2 to Leu 83). The triplet of hydrogen bonding and CDK inhibition was reproduced by 2,6-diamino-4-cyclohexylmethyloxy-5-nitrosopyrimidine (NU6027, Ki values: CDK1, 2.5 +/- 0.4 microM; CDK2, 1.3 +/- 0.2 microM). Against human tumor cells, NU2058 and NU6027 were growth inhibitory in vitro (mean GI50 values of 13 +/- 7 microM and 10 +/- 6 microM, respectively), with a pattern of sensitivity distinct from flavopiridol and olomoucine. These CDK inhibition and chemosensitivity data indicate that the distinct mode of binding of NU2058 and NU6027 has direct consequences for enzyme and cell growth inhibition.

The crystal structure of netropsin bound to the decamer d(CGCAATTGCG) has been determined at 2.4 A resolution. This is the first example of a crystal structure of netropsin bound to decamer DNA. The central eight bases of each DNA single-strand base pair with a self-complementary strand to form an octamer B-DNA duplex. These duplexes lie end to end within the unit cell. The terminal 5'-C and G-3' bases are unpaired and interact with the neighboring duplexes via interactions within both the major and minor groove to form base triplet interactions of the type C(+)-G x C and G*(G x C), respectively. The triplet interaction of the type C(+)-G x C is known to exist within triplex DNA with the C+ base oriented parallel with the Watson-Crick guanine base to which it hydrogen bonds. The netropsin molecule lies within the minor groove of the octamer duplex and assumes a class I type position, with bifurcated hydrogen-bonding interactions from the amide groups of the netropsin to the A x T base pairs of the minor groove. The netropsin molecule fits within a five base pair long minor groove site by bending of the flexible amidinium group at one end of the drug.

Catalysis by glycogen phosphorylase involves a mechanism in which binding of one substrate tightens the binding of the other substrate to produce a productive ternary enzyme-substrate complex. In this work the molecular basis for this synergism is probed in crystallographic studies on ternary complexes in which the glucosyl component is substituted by the putative transition state analogue nojirimycin tetrazole, a compound which has been established previously as a transition state analogue inhibitor for a number of glycosidases. Kinetic studies with glycogen phosphorylase showed that nojirimycin tetrazole is a competitive inhibitor with respect to glucose 1-phosphate and uncompetitive with respect to phosphate. Ki values for the phosphorylase-AMP-glycogen complex and the phosphorylase-AMP-glycogen-phosphate complexes are 700 microM and 53 microM, respectively, indicating that by itself norjirimycin tetrazole has poor affinity for glycogen phosphorylase but that phosphate substantially improves the binding of norjirimycin tetrazole. X-ray crystallographic binding studies to 2.4 A resolution with T state phosphorylase b crystals showed that nojirimycin tetrazole binds at the catalytic site and promotes the binding of phosphate through direct interactions. Phosphate binding is accompanied by conformational changes that bring a crucial arginine (Arg569) into the catalytic site. The positions of the phosphate oxygens were definitively established in X-ray crystallographic binding experiments at 100 K to 1.7 A resolution using synchrotron radiation. X-ray crystallographic binding studies at 2.5 A resolution with R state glycogen phosphorylase crystals showed that the protein atoms and water molecules in contact with the nojirimycin tetrazole and the phosphate are similar to those in the T state. In both T and R states the phosphate ion is within hydrogen-bonding distance of the cofactor pyridoxal 5'-phosphate group and in ionic contact with the N-1 atom of the tetrazole ring. The results are consistent with previous time-resolved structural studies on complexes with heptenitol and phosphate. The structural and kinetic results suggest that nojirimycin tetrazole in combination with phosphate exhibits properties consistent with a transition state analogue and demonstrate how one promotes the binding of the other.