To facilitate the delivery of nucleotide-based therapeutics to cells and tissues, a variety of pronucleotide approaches have been developed. Our laboratory and others have demonstrated that nucleoside phosphoramidates can be activated intracellularly to the corresponding 5'-monophosphate nucleotide and that histidine triad nucleotide binding proteins (Hints) are potentially responsible for their bioactivation. Hints are conserved and ubiquitous enzymes that hydrolyze phosphoramidate bonds between nucleoside 5'-monophosphate and an amine leaving group. On the basis of the ability of nucleosides to quench the fluorescence of covalently linked amines containing indole, a sensitive, continuous fluorescence-based assay was developed. A series of substrates linking the naturally fluorogenic indole derivatives to nucleoside 5'-monophosphates were synthesized, and their steady state kinetic parameters of hydrolysis by human Hint1 and Escherichia coli hinT were evaluated. To characterize the elemental and stereochemical effect on the reaction, two P-diastereoisomers of adenosine or guanosine phosphoramidothioates were synthesized and studied to reveal a 15-200-fold decrease in the specificity constant (kcat/Km) when the phosphoryl oxygen is replaced with sulfur. While a stereochemical preference was not observed for E. coli hinT, hHint1 exhibited a 300-fold preference for d-tryptophan phosphoramidates over l-isomers. The most efficient substrates evaluated to date are those that contain the less sterically hindering amine leaving group, tryptamine, with kcat and Km values comparable to those found for adenosine kinase. The apparent second-order rate constants (kcat/Km) for adenosine tryptamine phosphoramidate monoester were found to be 107 M-1 s-1 for hHint1 and 106 M-1 s-1 for E. coli hinT. Both the human and E. coli enzymes preferred purine over pyrimidine analogues. Consistent with observed hydrogen bonding between the 2'-OH group of adenosine monophosphate and the active site residue, Asp43, the second-order rate constant (kcat/Km) for thymidine tryptamine phosphoramidate was found to be 3-4 orders of magnitude smaller than that for uridine tryptamine phosphoramidate for hHint1 and 2 orders of magnitude smaller than that for E. coli hinT. Ara-A tryptamine phosphoramidate was, however, shown to be a good substrate with a specificity constant (kcat/Km) only 10-fold lower than the value for adenosine tryptamine phosphoramidate. Consequently, nucleoside phosphoramidates containing unhindered primary amines and either an alpha or beta 2'-OH group should be easily bioactivated by Hints with efficiencies rivaling those for the 5'-monophosphorylation of nucleosides by nucleoside kinases. The differential substrate specificity observed for human and E. coli enzymes represents a potential therapeutic rationale for the development of selective antibiotic phosphoramidate pronucleotides.

Hint, histidine triad nucleotide-binding protein, is a universally conserved enzyme that hydrolyzes AMP linked to lysine and, in yeast, functions as a positive regulator of the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain kinase, Kin28. To explore the biochemical and structural bases for the adenosine phosphoramidate hydrolase activity of rabbit Hint, we synthesized novel substrates linking a p-nitroaniline group to adenylate (AMP-pNA) and inhibitors that consist of an adenosine group and 5-sulfamoyl (AdoOSO 2 NH 2 ) or N-ethylsulfamoyl (AdoOSO 2 NHCH 2 CH 3 ) group. AMP-pNA is a suitable substrate for Hint that allowed characterization of the inhibitors; titration of each inhibitor into AMP-pNA assays revealed their K i values. The N-ethylsulfamoyl derivative has a 13-fold binding advantage over the sulfamoyl adenosine. The 1.8-Å cocrystal structure of rabbit Hint with N-ethylsulfamoyl adenosine revealed a binding site for the ethyl group against Trp-123, a residue that reaches across the Hint dimer interface to interact with the alkyl portion of the inhibitor and, presumably, the alkyl portion of a lysyl substrate. Ser-107 is positioned to donate a hydrogen bond to the leaving group nitrogen. Consistent with a role in acid-base catalysis, the Hint S107A mutant protein displayed depressed catalytic activity.

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