J Biol Chem, Vol. 274, Issue 39, 27740-27746, September 24, 1999
The Binding Sites of Inhibitory Monoclonal Antibodies on
Acetylcholinesterase
IDENTIFICATION OF A NOVEL REGULATORY SITE AT THE PUTATIVE
"BACK DOOR"
Stéphanie
Simon
,
Anne
Le Goff
,
Yveline
Frobert¶,
Jacques
Grassi¶, and
Jean
Massoulié
From the
Laboratoire de Neurobiologie Cellulaire et
Moléculaire, CNRS URA 1857, Ecole Normale Supérieure,
46 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France and the ¶ Service de
Pharmacologie et d'Immunologie, CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif sur
Yvette cedex, France
We investigated the target sites of three
inhibitory monoclonal antibodies on Electrophorus
acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Previous studies showed that Elec-403 and
Elec-410 are directed to overlapping but distinct epitopes in the
peripheral site, at the entrance of the catalytic gorge, whereas
Elec-408 binds to a different region. Using
Electrophorus/rat AChE chimeras, we identified surface residues that differed between sensitive and insensitive AChEs: the
replacement of a single Electrophorus residue by its rat
homolog was able to abolish binding and inhibition, for each antibody. Reciprocally, binding and inhibition by Elec-403 and by Elec-410 could
be conferred to rat AChE by the reverse mutation. Elec-410 appears to
bind to one side of the active gorge, whereas Elec-403 covers its
opening, explaining why the AChE-Elec-410 complex reacts faster than
the AChE-Elec-403 or AChE-fasciculin complexes with two active site
inhibitors,
m-(N,N,N-trimethyltammonio)trifluoro-acetophenone and
echothiophate. Elec-408 binds to the region of the putative "back
door," distant from the peripheral site, and does not interfere with
the access of inhibitors to the active site. The binding of an antibody
to this novel regulatory site may inhibit the enzyme by blocking the
back door or by inducing a conformational distortion within the active site.
Copyright © 1999 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.