I. Introduction to Carbonic Anhydrase (CA) and to the Review 948 1. Introduction: Overview of CA as a Model 948 1.1. Value of Models 950 1.2. Objectives and Scope of the Review 950 2. Overview of Enzymatic Activity 950 3. Medical Relevance 951 II. Structure and Structure−Function Relationships of CA 953 4. Global and Active-Site Structure 953 4.1. Structure of Isoforms 953 4.2. Isolation and Purification 954 4.3. Crystallization 954 4.4. Structures Determined by X-ray Crystallography and NMR 955 4.4.1. Structures Determined by X-ray Crystallography 955 4.4.2. Structure Determined by NMR 955 4.5. Global Structural Features 963 4.6. Structure of the Binding Cavity 964 4.7. Zn II -Bound Water 965 5. Metalloenzyme Variants 966 6. Structure−Function Relationships in the Catalytic Active Site of CA 968 6.1. Effects of Ligands Directly Bound to Zn II 968 6.2. Effects of Indirect Ligands 969 7. Physical-Organic Models of the Active Site of CA 969 III. Using CA as a Model to Study Protein−Ligand Binding 970 8. Assays for Measuring Thermodynamic and Kinetic Parameters for Binding of Substrates and Inhibitors 970 8.1. Overview 970 8.

Q8 is known to bind two aromatic guests simultaneously and, in the presence of methyl viologen, to recognize N-terminal tryptophan over internal and C-terminal sequence isomers. Here, the binding of Q8 to aromatic peptides in the absence of methyl viologen was studied by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), 1 H NMR spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography. The peptides studied were of sequence X-Gly-Gly, Gly-X-Gly, and Gly-Gly-X (X = Trp, Phe, Tyr, and His). Q8 selectively binds and dimerizes Trp-Gly-Gly (1) and Phe-Gly-Gly (4) with high affinity (ternary K = 10 9 -10 11 M -2 );binding constants for the other 10 peptides were too small to be measured by ITC. Both peptides bound in a stepwise manner, and peptide 4 bound with positive cooperativity. Crystal structures of Q8•1 and Q8•42 reveal the basis for selective recognition as simultaneous inclusion of the hydrophobic aromatic side chain into the cavity of Q8, and chelation of the proximal N-terminal ammonium group by carbonyl groups of Q8. The peptide sequence selectivity and positively cooperative dimerization reported here are, to the best of our knowledge, unprecedented for synthetic hosts in aqueous solution. Specific peptide recognition and dimerization by synthetic hosts such as Q8 should be important in the study of dimer-mediated biochemical processes and for the separation of peptides and proteins.2

The discovery of molecules that bind tightly and selectively to desired proteins continues to drive innovation at the interface of chemistry and biology. This paper describes the binding of human insulin by the synthetic receptor cucurbit[7]uril (Q7) in vitro. Isothermal titration calorimetry and fluorescence spectroscopy experiments show that Q7 binds to insulin with an equilibrium association constant of 1.5 × 106 M-1 and with 50-100-fold selectivity versus proteins that are much larger but lack an N-terminal aromatic residue, and >1000-fold selectivity versus an insulin variant lacking the N-terminal phenylalanine (Phe) residue. The crystal structure of the Q7•insulin complex shows that binding occurs at the N-terminal Phe residue and that the N-terminus unfolds to enable binding. These findings suggest that site-selective recognition is based on the properties inherent to a protein terminus, including the unique chemical epitope presented by the terminal residue and the greater freedom of the terminus to unfold, like the end of a ball of string, to accommodate binding. Insulin recognition was predicted accurately from studies on short peptides and exemplifies an approach to protein recognition by targeting the terminus.

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