MOLECULAR PROBES OF THE MECHANISM OF CYTOCHROME P450

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The central theme of this program involves studies of the mechanisms of action of cytochrome P450 enzymes and nitric oxide synthase. The principal approach is the synthesis and characterization of reactive iron porphyrin species that are thought to be intermediates in the catalytic cycles and to relate the interconversions of these species toward a molecular understanding of these proteins. Cytochrome P450 is the central protein involved in drug detoxification and hormone metabolism while nitric oxide and peroxynitrite. Synthetic metalloporphyrins can be employed as probes to intervene in these processes in diagnostic ways. Thus, these agents may prove to be significant tools for elaborating the biology of superoxide, peroxynitrite and NO. These same metalloporphyrins have shown impressive activity in animals suggesting their application as pharmaceutical agents. Our effort seeks to provide a foundation of mechanistic and kinetic information which can be applied to in vitro models, cell culture studies and whole animal models of specific disease states such as ischemia-reperfusion, sepsis and autoimmune diseases. Experiments are aimed at determining what reactive intermediates are formed and what their biological targets are likely to be. The elaboration of these will processes will facilitate the design of metal complexes for the catalytic decomposition of peroxynitrite and these other species. The studies of nitric oxide synthase aim to illuminate the range of mechanisms of NOS and to seek out new oxidation processes that may help with the rational development of NOS inhibitors. Peroxoiron(III) porphyrin species are now readily accessible in aqueous solution at ambient temperature. Rapid kinetic techniques have been developed to study the reactivity of these species. A central question is how to modulate the chemistry of these complexes between nucleophilic and electrophilic pathways that are essential to understand the variety of P450 mediated processes. Synthetic and semi-synthetic phospholipid assemblies are used to model and understand the larger scale events in P450 and NOS action and to probe the permeability of membranes to reactive oxygen species. Membrane binding by amphiphilic metalloporphyrins is extraordinarily sensitive to pH. This is an unprecedented observation that may have immediate application to the design of metallopharmaceuticals.