Solution Structures of Chemoenzymatically Synthesized Heparin and Its Precursors

10 páginas, 5 figuras, 4 tablas -- 12998-13007
We report the first chemoenzymatic synthesis of the stable isotope-enriched heparin from a uniformly labeled [13C,15N]N-acetylheparosan (-GlcA(1,4)GlcNAc-) prepared from E. coli K5. Glycosaminoglycan (GAG) precursors and heparin were formed from N-acetylheparosan by the following steps: chemical N-deacetylation and N-sulfonation leading to N-sulfoheparosan (-GlcA(1,4)GlcNS-); enzyme-catalyzed C5-epimerization and 2-O-sulfonation leading to undersulfated heparin (-IdoA2S(1,4)GlcNS-); enzymatic 6-O-sulfonation leading to the heparin backbone (-IdoA2S(1,4)GlcNS6S-); and selective enzymatic 3-O-sulfonation leading to the anticoagulant heparin, containing the GlcNS6S3S residue. Heteronuclear, multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was employed to analyze the chemical composition and solution structure of [13C,15N]N-acetylheparosan, precursors, and heparin. Isotopic enrichment was found to provide well-resolved 13C spectra with the high sensitivity required for conformational studies of these biomolecules. Stable isotope-labeled heparin was indistinguishable from heparin derived from animal tissues and is a novel reagent for studying the interaction of heparin with proteins
National Institutes of Health Grants GM38060 and HL62244 (to R.J.L.) and AI50050 (to J.L.), and the Ministry of Education and Science of Spain for Grant CTQ-2006-10874-C02-01 (to J.J.-B.) and for Ramón-y-Cajal contract (to F.C.) are gratefully acknowledged for supporting this work