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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 280, Issue 52, 42817-42825, December 30, 2005
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1



2
From the
Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, the
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Biology and Chemical and Biological Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, the ¶Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, and the ||Laboratory of Structural Biology, NIEHS, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709
Received for publication, April 20, 2005 , and in revised form, September 28, 2005.
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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4-linked glucosamine and glucuronic/iduronic acid units that contain both N- and O-sulfo groups. Unique saccharide sequences within HS determine the specificity of the binding of HS to its target proteins (4). Heparin, a specialized form of HS, is a commonly used anticoagulant drug. Thus, new methods for the synthesis of heparin and HS attract considerable interest for those developing anticoagulant drugs having improved pharmacological effects.
Chemical synthesis has been the major route to obtain structurally defined heparin and HS oligosaccharides (5). The most important example involves the structure antithrombin-binding pentasaccharide. A synthetic pentasaccharide, based on this structure, has been marketed in the United States under the trade name Arixtra. Arixtra is a specific factor Xa inhibitor that is used clinically to prevent venous thromboembolic incidents during surgery. Unfortunately, the total synthesis of heparin and HS oligosaccharides, larger than pentasaccharides, is extremely difficult. HS analogues with 14 saccharide units inhibit the activity of thrombin, but these synthetic analogues are simplified hybrid molecules of HS oligosaccharides and highly sulfated glucose units (6, 7) and are not the naturally occurring structures. Although our laboratory and others continue to pursue the synthesis of heparin and HS oligosaccharides (8), it has become clear that chemical synthesis alone is currently incapable of generating most larger oligosaccharide structures. The application of HS biosynthetic enzymes for generating large heparin and HS oligosaccharides with desired biological activities offers a promising alternative approach.
Six classes of enzymes are involved in the HS biosynthesis. HS is initially synthesized as a copolymer of D-glucuronic acid and GlcNAc through the action of D-glucuronyl and N-acetyl-D-glucosaminyltransferase (9). Next, a series of modifications take place, including N-deacetylation and N-sulfation (carried out by N-deacetylase/N-sulfotransferase) of the glucosamine residue to form N-sulfoglucosamine (GlcNS), C5 epimerization of glucuronic acid (carried out by epimerase) to form L-iduronic acid (IdoUA), 2-O-sulfation of IdoUA (carried out by 2-O-sulfotransferase (2-OST)), 6-O-sulfation of glucosamine (carried out by 6-O-sulfotransferase (6-OST)), and 3-O-sulfation of glucosamine (carried out by 3-O-sulfotransferase (3-OST)) (10). The reactions catalyzed by 2-OST, 6-OST, and 3-OST are shown in Fig. 1A. The enzymes responsible for HS biosynthesis have been cloned and expressed and were employed in the synthesis of HS polysaccharides. Kuberan and Rosenberg (1113) utilized these enzymes to synthesize the HS containing antithrombin binding sites with anticoagulant activity. Although this approach demonstrated for the first time the feasibility of enzymatic synthesis of HS, approximately 1 µg of product was generated, making extensive structural characterization and biological studies impossible. Recently, Lindahl and colleagues reported an alternative chemoenzymatic approach for the synthesis of anticoagulant heparin from heparosan, the E. coli K5 capsular polysaccharide (14). This method utilized the C5 epimerase to convert D-glucuronic acid to IdoUA, followed by the chemical persulfation and finally selective desulfation. Although this approach afforded approximately 5 g of a heparin-like polysaccharide with anticoagulant activity, unnatural saccharide units, such as 3-O-sulfo-D-glucuronic acid, were present in their product, suggesting a limitation in the selectivity of chemical sulfation/desulfation in HS synthesis. Thus, developing an effective and highly selective approach for O-sulfation of polysaccharides remains a challenge for the large scale synthesis of HS.
In this work, we describe an enzymatic approach to synthesize HS polysaccharides. Only two or three enzymatic steps are required for the synthesis of HS having three biological activities (Fig. 1). Two major advances have permitted the large scale synthesis of HS. First, large amounts of all the required HS sulfotransferases have been successfully expressed in Escherichia coli. Second, a PAPS regeneration system, developed by Burkhart and colleagues (15), has been coupled to the enzymatic synthesis reactions. We synthesized HS having specific biological activities including anticoagulant heparin, herpes simplex virus glycoprotein D (gD)-binding HS, and fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2)-binding HS. Each of these products had activities comparable with the heparin and HS. Furthermore, the amount of synthesized HS was sufficient to permit not only disaccharide analysis but also analysis using 1H NMR spectroscopy, resulting in the determination of the product structure with a high degree of confidence. The results from our study suggest that this is a general method for the large scale synthesis of a wide range of HS with specific activity required. In addition, this method provides a model system to better understand the biosynthesis of HS.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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Expression and Purification of 2-OST and 6-OSTThe catalytic domains of 2-OST of Chinese hamster ovary (Arg51Asn356) and mouse 6-OST-1 (His53Trp401) were cloned into the pMAL-c2X vector (New England BioLabs) using the BamHI and HindIII sites to generate maltose-binding protein (MBP)-2-OST and MBP-6-OST fusion proteins. The full-length cDNAs of 2-OST and 6-OST-1 were gifts from Dr. Rosenberg (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA) and Dr. Kimata (Aichi University, Japan), respectively. Expression of 2-OST and 6-OST was achieved in Rosetta-gami B (DE3) cells (Novagen) using a standard procedure. Briefly, cells containing the plasmid expressing 2-OST or 6-OST were grown in LB medium supplemented with 2 mg/ml glucose, 15 µg/ml tetracycline, 15 µg/ml kenamycin, 35 µg/ml chloramphenicol, and 50 µg/ml carbenicillin at 37 °C. When the A600 reached 0.60.8, Isopropyl-
-D-thiogalactopyranoside (1 mM) was added, and the cells were shaken overnight at 22 °C. The bacteria were harvested, and the proteins were purified by following a protocol from the manufacturer (New England Biolabs). The purified proteins migrated at 75 kDa on 12% SDS-PAGE with the purity greater than 80%.
Preparation of Immobilized HS SulfotransferasesDialyzed sulfotransferases (3 ml, 4 mg/ml) in phosphate-buffered saline buffer (3 mM KCl, 1.5 mM KH2PO4, 8 mM Na2HPO4, 138 mM NaCl, pH 7.2) were mixed with 1 ml of Aminolink® plus beads (Pierce) following a protocol from the manufacturer. Immobilized enzyme was washed with 50 mM MES, 1% Triton X-100, 1 mM MgCl2, and 1 mM MnCl2, pH 7.0, and stored at 4 °C.
Measurement of Enzymatic Activities of Immobilized ProteinsTo determine the activity of 3-OST-1 and 3-OST-3, HS from bovine kidney (ICN Biomedicals) was used as a substrate; to determine the activity of 6-OST and 2-OST, CDSNS heparin was used as a substrate. Immobilized proteins (100 µl,
300 µg of immobilized enzyme) with 100 µg of substrate (HS for 3-OST and CDSNS heparin for 2-OST or 6-OST) and 200 µM [35S]PAPS (1000 cpm/pmol) in 1 ml of 50 mM MES, pH 7.0, 1% Triton X-100, 1 mM MgCl2, and 1 mM MnCl2. After rotating at room temperature for 1 h, the supernatant was collected, and the beads were washed with 3 x 200 µl of 1 M NaCl in 25 mM MOPS (pH 7.0). The supernatant and washes were combined, diluted with 2 ml of water, and subjected to DEAE chromatography to determine the amount of [35S]HS product used to determine the activities of the various HS O-STs.
PAPS Regeneration SystemThe reactions involved in the PAPS regeneration system are shown in Fig. 1B. N-terminal His6-tagged AST-IV was expressed in E. coli and purified as described by Burkat and colleagues (15) at a yield of
50 mg/liter of bacterial culture. The full-length cDNA of rabbit AST-IV was a generous gift of Dr. Michael Duffel (University of Iowa) (16).
Modification of PolysaccharidesAll enzymatic modifications, including those catalyzed by 2-OST, 6-OST, 3-OST-1, and 3-OST-3 followed the same protocol. Briefly, 20 mg of purified AST-IV was incubated with 40 µM PAP and 1 mM PNPS in 20 ml of 50 mM MES, pH 7.0, 1% Triton X-100, 1 mM MgCl2, and 1 mM MnCl2 at 25 °C for 15 min. The reaction mixture was mixed with 4 ml of immobilized sulfotransferase, 2 mg of a polysaccharide substrate was added, and the mixture was rotated at 25 °C for 24 h. The supernatant was recovered, and the polysaccharide that bound to the beads was eluted by washing three times with 8 ml of 1 M NaCl in 25 mM MOPS. Both the supernatant and wash were combined and the product was precipitated by adding ethanol (3 volumes). After incubating overnight at 4 °C, polysaccharide was recovered by centrifugation.
Estimation of the Modification LevelThe completion of 2-OST modification was monitored by incubating 10 µg of polysaccharide (2) with 20 µg of soluble 2-OST in the presence of 100 µM of [35S]PAPS at 37 °C for 30 min. In a control experiment, 10 µg of compound 1 replaced the previously modified polysaccharide in the otherwise identical reaction mixture. By comparing the amount of 35S incorporation, we could estimate the extent of the original 2-O-sulfation reaction. For monitoring the completion of 6-OST, compound 1 or 2 was used as a substrate; for 3-OST-1, compound 4 was used.
Using [35S]PAPS as a Sulfate DonorAntithrombin (AT)-binding and gD-binding experiments utilized 35S-labeled polysaccharides prepared using [35S]PAPS. In a typical reaction, 2 mg of HS substrate was incubated with 4 ml of beads with immobilized sulfotransferase (
12 mg of immobilized enzyme) at 25 °C in 20 ml of 50 mM MES, pH 7.0, 1% Triton X-100, 1 mM MgCl2, and 1 mM MnCl2, 200 µM [35S]PAPS (1000 cpm/pmol) for 1 h. The resultant polysaccharide was recovered using DEAE chromatography.
Disaccharide AnalysisSynthesized polysaccharides (100 µg) were degraded by a mixture of heparin lyases as previously described (17) and desalted on BioGel P-2 column (0.5 x 200 cm) in 0.1 M NH4HCO3. Disaccharides were analyzed by a C18 reversed phase column (0.45 x 25 cm; Vydac) with UV 232 detection and identified by coelution with appropriate standards (18). The overall recovery yield of the disaccharide analysis was estimated by using 2-O-[35S]heparin (100,000 cpm/70 ng; compound 2) as an internal control.
NMR AnalysisPolysaccharide sample (12 mg) was dissolved in 0.5 ml of 2H2O (99.9%), freeze dried to remove exchangeable protons, redissolved in 75 µl of 2H2O (100.00%), and transferred to a Shigemi NMR microtubes. NMR spectra were referenced relative to the HO2H at 4.80 ppm, and in COSY water was suppressed by presaturation of the HO2H resonance.
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FGF2/FGFR1C-mediated Proliferation AssayThe BaF3 cells ectopically expressing FGFR1C have been previously described (20). The BaF3-FGFR1c cells were maintained in RPMI 1640 medium (Sigma) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 0.5 ng/ml interleukin (IL)-3 (PeproTech Inc., Rocky Hill, NJ), 2 mML-glutamine, penicillin (50 IU/ml) and streptomycin (50 µg/ml), and 50 µM
-mercaptoethanol. For mitogenic assays, BaF3 FGFR1c cells were washed three times with RPMI 1640 medium to remove IL-3 and resuspended in the growth medium lacking IL-3. About 30,000 cells were plated per well in a 96-well plate in medium containing 1 µg/ml heparin, compound 1, 2, 3, 4a, or 4b, and 2 nM FGF-2 (PeproTech) in a total volume of 200 µl. The cells were then incubated at 37 °C for 40 h. To each well, an additional 50 µl of growth medium containing 1 µCi of [3H]thymidine was added. Cells were harvested after 45 h by filtration through glass fiber paper. The incorporation of [3H]thymidine into the DNA was determined by scintillation counting.
Determination of the Binding of Compounds 58 to ATApproximately 1 x 105 cpm of 35S-labeled compound was incubated with 5 µg of human AT (Cutter Biological) in 50 µl of binding buffer containing 10 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 150 mM NaCl, 1 mM Mn2+, 1 mM Mg2+, 1 mM Ca2+, 10 µM dextran sulfate, 0.0004% Triton X-100, and 0.02% sodium azide for 30 min at room temperature. Concanavalin A-Sepharose (Sigma; 50 µl of 1:1 slurry) was then added, and the reaction was shaken at room temperature for 1 h. The beads were then washed by 3 x 1 ml of binding buffer, and the bound polysaccharide was eluted with 1 M NaCl.
Inhibition Effect of the Polysaccharides on the Activities of Factor Xa and ThrombinAssays were based on two previous methods (21, 22). Briefly, factor Xa (Enzyme Research Laboratories, South Bend, IN) and thrombin (Sigma) were diluted to 20 and 8 units/ml with phosphate-buffered saline containing 1 mg/ml bovine serum albumin, respectively. AT was diluted with phosphate-buffered saline containing 1 mg/ml bovine serum albumin to give a stock solution at the concentration of 27 µM. The chromogenic substrates, S-2765 (for factor Xa assay) and S-2238 (for thrombin assay) were from Diapharma and made up at 1 mM with 1 mg/ml Polybrene in water. The synthesized polysaccharide (compounds 5, 7, and 8) or heparin was dissolved in a buffer containing 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.4, 7.5 mM Na2EDTA, 175 mM NaCl at various concentrations (110,000 ng/ml). The reaction mixture, which consisted of 25 µl of AT stock solution and 25 µl of the solution containing polysaccharide, was incubated at 37 °C for 2 min. Factor Xa (25 µl) or thrombin (25 µl) was added. After incubating 37 °C for 4 min, 25 µlof S-2765 or S-2238 was added. The absorbance of the reaction mixture was measured at 405 nm continuously for 10 min. The absorbance values were plotted against the reaction time. The absorbance of the reaction mixture was measured at 405 nm continuously for 10 min. The initial reaction rates as a function of concentration were used to calculate the IC50 values. The concentrations of the synthesized polysaccharides were determined using Alcian blue as described by Bjornsson (23) and quantitative disaccharide analysis as described above.
The Binding to Herpes Simplex Virus gDThe assay for determining binding of 35S-labeled polysaccharides (compounds 5 and 6) to gD was carried out by an immunoprecipitation procedure using anti-gD monoclonal antibody (DL6) (24).
| RESULTS |
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Introduction of PAPS Regeneration SystemPAP inhibits sulfotransferase-catalyzed reactions. A PAPS regeneration system can be used to convert PAP to PAPS by relying on AST-IV to catalyze the transfer of the sulfo group from PNPS to PAP, as illustrated in Fig. 1B (15). We observed that the PAPS regeneration system performed very well with 2-OST, 6-OST, and 3-OST-1. Complete modification of the substrate could be demonstrated by the low susceptibility of polysaccharide product to undergo additional sulfation using [35S]PAPS with soluble enzymes, as described under "Experimental Procedures." Under the standard conditions, 2-OST, 6-OST, and 3-OST-1 afforded 98, 97, and 98% complete modification, respectively, using the PAPS regeneration system. These results demonstrate that the PAPS regeneration system functioned properly, providing sufficient PAPS for the complete sulfotransferase-catalyzed modification of polysaccharide substrates. This conclusion was further supported by characterizing the structures of the newly synthesized polysaccharide products 2, 3, 4a, 4b, and 5 (described below). In a parallel experiment, we used [35S]PAPS as the sulfo donor to sulfate the polysaccharides in order to estimate the number of sulfo groups that were incorporated into the product. Six 2-O-sulfo and 6-O-sulfo groups and three 3-O-sulfo groups were estimated to be transferred to one polysaccharide molecule, respectively, assuming that the length of the polysaccharide is 25 disaccharide units. Approximately 1.5 mg of anticoagulant HS (5) was synthesized from 10 mg of CDSNS heparin (1) using immobilized sulfotransferases and the PAPS regeneration system.
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UA-GlcNS (disaccharide 2), residual unsulfated disaccharide,
UA-GlcNAc (disaccharide 1), and small amounts of sulfated disaccharides (disaccharides 35) due to incomplete chemical desulfation (Fig. 3A and TABLE ONE). The modification by 2-OST elevated the level of
UA2S-GlcNS (disaccharide 4) by about 5-fold (Fig. 3B and TABLE ONE), confirming the structure of compound 2. Analysis of compound 3 afforded a 7-fold increase in the level of the disaccharide
UA-GlcNS6S (disaccharide 3) compared with compound 1, consistent with 6-OST-catalyzed modification (Fig. 3C and TABLE ONE). The level of trisulfodisaccharide,
UA2S-GlcNS6S (disaccharide 5), in compounds 4a and 4b was increased by about 10-fold compared with that of compound 1 (Fig. 3, D and E, and TABLE ONE). The results from the disaccharide analysis clearly establish that the expected enzymatic modifications took place at each step. It is interesting to note that 6-O-sulfation occurs at N-sulfoglucosamine, consistent with the substrate specificity of 6-OST in vitro (26). The 2-O-sulfation predominantly occurs at the uronic acid with an N-sulfoglucosamine residue at the reducing end. We also note that substantial amounts of
UA-GlcNS (disaccharide 2) remain in compounds 4a and 4b. This observation is not unexpected, since the HS from various tissues also afford a
UA-GlcNS disaccharide unit, suggesting that the structures of compounds 4a and 4b are similar to HS from natural sources (27).
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15% of the glucosamine residues contained N-acetyl groups. Using this information, we examined the incorporation of 2-O-, 3-O-, and 6-O-sulfo groups. Comparison of the N-acetyl peak with IdoUA2S-H2 in compound 2 demonstrates incorporation of a 2-O-sulfo group into 35% of the IdoUA residues. Based on this incorporation into compound 2, the integral of GlcNS-H6a and IdoUA2S-H2 (overlapping signal) was compared with the integral of the N-acetyl methyl group in compound 4a to estimate the level of incorporation of the 6-O-sulfo group. Integration showed that the 6-O-sulfo group was incorporated into 25% of the GlcNS residues. The reduced level of incorporation is not surprising, since only the 6-OST-1, and not 6-OST-2 and -3, was used in this synthesis. In compound 5, the incorporation of the 3-O-sulfo group was calculated by comparing the integral of the N-acetyl methyl group with GlcN-H3 and IdoUA-H4 (overlapping signal). Based on these calculations, the 3-O-sulfo group was incorporated into 32% of the GlcNS6S residues. According to 1H NMR and COSY experiments (TABLE TWO), the structures of the compounds 4a, 4b, and 5 were all found to be similar to heparin and contained no unusual signals. Compound 5 showed a slightly greater heterogeneity, as evidenced by additional minor signals corresponding to additional 3-O-sulfo group-containing sequences in the 1H NMR, when compared with heparin. This is not unexpected, since heparin contains a lower level of 3-O-sulfo groups/chain than the content of 3-O-sulfo groups/chain observed in compound 5 as determined by 35S incorporation.
The composition estimated by NMR is consistent with the results of disaccharide analysis. NMR analysis suggests that about 15% of the glucosamine unit is N-acetylated, which is similar to the results of disaccharide analysis for
UA-GlcNAc (1422%; TABLE ONE). NMR analysis demonstrates that compound 2 consists of 35% of IdoUA2S-GlcNS, and compound 4a consists of 25% of IdoUA2S-GlcNS6S, and disaccharide analysis demonstrates that compounds 2 and 4a contain 40% of
UA2S-GlcNS and 30% of
UA2S-GlcNS6S, respectively. Because of the signal overlap, we were unable to calculate the degree of 6-O-sulfation in compounds 3 and 4b using 1H NMR.
Determination of the Biological Activities of the Synthesized Polysaccharides
The Binding of the Polysaccharides to AT and FGF2Characterization of the affinities of AT to heparin and enzymatically modified heparin derivatives were performed by SPR. A two-state reaction model was applied to the SPR study of AT and polysaccharide interactions using BIAevaluation Software for curve fitting analysis. None of the derivatives with the exception of the 2,6,3-O-sulfopolysaccharide (5) and heparin had high affinity to AT. The binding constant (KD) for the binding of compound 5 to AT was determined to be 170 nM, which is very similar to that of heparin (75 nM). We also estimated the binding affinity of FGF2 to the synthesized polysaccharides. Compound 1 showed no interaction with FGF2, whereas compounds 4a and 4b showed the identical binding affinity to FGF2 at a Kd of 35 nM, which is similar to heparin (22 nM) and is consistent with the value reported in the literature (28).
Synthetic Polysaccharides Promote Cell ProliferationThe BaF3 FGFR1c cells normally depend on IL-3 for growth. In the absence of IL-3, the cell proliferation depends on the addition of both FGF and heparin or HS (20). We measured the activity of compounds 1, 2, 3, 4a, and 4b and heparin in promoting cell mitogenesis using the FGF-2/FGFR1c system in BaF3 cells as described under "Experimental Procedures." The cells receiving compounds 4a and 4b (at 1 µg/ml) showed an increase in [3H]thymidine incorporation, which was about 60 and 40% of that of heparin, respectively, suggesting that the combinations of 2-O- and 6-O-sulfations confer the activity in promoting cell proliferation (Fig. 4A). We also compared the activity of 4a and 4b with that of heparin at different concentrations (Fig. 4B). We found that compound 3 had moderate activity in promoting cell proliferation, whereas compounds 1 and 2 did not exhibit activity. The results are consistent with previously reported data on the contributions of the sulfo groups of HS to the mitogenic activity (29, 30). We noted that 4a appears to have stronger activity in promoting cell proliferation than 4b, suggesting that different sequences are generated by the different order of 2-O- and 6-O-sulfation as suggested by Jacobsson and Lindahl (31). However, such sequence difference could not be detected by the disaccharide or NMR analysis.
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| DISCUSSION |
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Two approaches were used to increase the scale of enzymatic synthesis. First, HS sulfotransferases were expressed in E. coli, readily affording 2050 mg of purified enzymes. We had previously shown that both 3-OST-1 and 3-OST-3 were expressed in E. coli in relatively high yield. In this study, both 2-OST and 6-OST were similarly expressed in E. coli as the soluble 2-OST and 6-OST-MBP fusion proteins. Second, we improved efficiency of enzymatic sulfation by utilizing immobilized O-sulfotransferases and coupling their use to a PAPS regeneration system. When this PAPS regeneration system was applied for preparing N-sulfoheparosan from heparosan using N-deacetylase/N-sulfotransferase, the N-sulfation yield was lower than that obtained using added exogenous PAPS (42). We considered the application of this system essential to our study for the following reasons. First, PAP inhibits HS O-sulfotransferase activities with IC50 values of
100 µM under the reaction conditions used in our syntheses (data not shown), making milligram-scale synthesis difficult without continuously removing PAP. Second, a PAPS regeneration system would permit the PNPS as the sulfo donor and require only catalytic amounts of PAP, significantly reducing the cost of synthesis. The listed price of PNPS in the Aldrich catalog is 1300-fold less than PAPS. The immobilized enzyme format allowed us to use the enzymes repeatedly, making the method amendable to a large scale synthesis, since scale-up of immobilized enzyme columns is relatively simple.
Developing an effective approach to synthesize HS is also essential for understanding the mechanism of its biosynthesis. Unlike the protein biosynthesis, polysaccharide biosynthesis is not a template-driven process. Although the cDNAs encoding the HS biosynthetic enzymes have been cloned, the genetic regulation mechanism for the synthesis of the HS with defined biological functions is not fully understood. We now know that the unique and often remote sequence features in substrate can influence the action of HS O-sulfotransferases. Furthermore, whether additional factors or the formation of complexes of biosynthetic enzymes takes part in controlling the structure of HS remains to be elucidated. It is interesting to note that a complex of HS epimerase and 2-OST in vivo has been reported (43). Our approach could provide a tool to answer these questions, since it is capable of generating a sufficient amount of HS product required for extensive structural biochemical and biological analysis.
HS is believed to be present in block structures, consisting of highly sulfated and nonsulfated domains (44), and the HS with the biological activities largely contain the highly sulfated domains. We believe that the modifications in our system indeed happen in a block fashion based on the following facts. First, the results of the disaccharide analysis concluded that both 6-O-sulfation and 2-O-sulfation are carried out predominantly in the sulfated region (Fig. 3 and TABLE ONE). Second, the enzymatically modified products exhibit the anticipated biological functions, including the activation of FGF/FGF receptor signaling (compounds 4a and 4b), carrying anticoagulant activity (compound 5), and binding to herpes simplex virus glycoprotein D (compound 6). Because the HS carrying these functions must contain the domain structures with the size larger than pentasaccharide (5, 34, 39, 45), the synthetic products with the desired functions suggest that the modifications indeed occur in a block fashion. Further investigation is needed to determine whether the enzymatic modifications are identical to those in vivo. We note that the GlcNAc6S unit is a common saccharide residue in the HS from natural sources; however, it cannot be generated by 6-OST modification in vitro, suggesting the difference between in vitro and in vivo synthesis (46).
In summary, we have described a method for enzymatic sulfation to prepare the HS with three distinct biological activities. Unique sulfated saccharide sequences play a dominant role in the function and specificity of HS/heparin. Our method demonstrates the feasibility of using a collection of HS biosynthetic enzymes to synthesize HS/heparin with selected biological activities. The synthetic scale with this method can be easily increased for large scale synthesis, provided that both the enzymes and the sulfo donor are easily accessible. Since the synthesis of HS polysaccharide is not a template-driven process, it is still not possible to design an approach to synthesize a "sequence-pure" polysaccharide. Nevertheless, the current method clearly demonstrates that HS/heparin having specific biological activities can be synthesized by subjecting a backbone saccharide polymer to different enzymatic modifications. This enzymatic selectivity is currently not accessible by chemical sulfation approaches. Further improvement of this method will significantly aid the exploration of new potential therapeutic applications for HS. In addition, enzymatic synthesis of anticoagulant heparin could lead to a better anticoagulant drug by reducing its side effects.
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1 Present address: College of Chemical Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, Hubei, China. ![]()
2 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Rm. 309, Beard Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599. Tel.: 919-843-6511; Fax: 919-843-5432; E-mail: jian_liu{at}unc.edu.
3 The abbreviations used are: HS, heparan sulfate(s); RPIP-HPLC, reversed-phase ion pairing-high performance liquid chromatography; GlcNS, N-sulfoglucosamine; IdoUA, L-iduronic acid; 2-, 3-, and 6-OST, 2-, 3-, and 6-O-sulfotransferase, respectively; FGF, fibroblast growth factor; CDSNS, chemically desulfated N-sulfated heparin; MBP, maltose-binding protein; MES, 4-morpholineethanesulfonic acid; PAPS, 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphosulfate; MOPS, 4-morpholinepropanesulfonic acid; gD, glycoprotein D; SPR, surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy; IL, interleukin; AT, Antithrombin. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| REFERENCES |
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