INTRODUCTIONb-Lactamases are produced by pathogenic bacteria and are enzymes that cause resistance to b-lactam antibiotics by hydrolyzing their b-lactam rings.1-3) b-Lactamases are classified into two major types on the basis of the main component of the active site: serine-b-lactamases and metallo-b-lactamases. 4,5) Serine-b-lactamases are further classified into three classes: classes A, C, and D; i.e., metallo-b-lactamase is classified into class B.As is well known, the catalytic mechanism of serine-b-lactamases involves acylation ( Fig. 1 (a) to (c) via (b)) and deacylation ( Fig. 1 (c) to (d)). The acylation mechanism has been examined in many experimental [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and theoretical works, 11,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] and acylation is common to serine-b-lactamase and penicillin-binding protein (PBP). Deacylation, on the other hand, is only seen in serine-b-lactamase. This means that the essence of antibiotic resistance by serine-blactamase arises from the deacylation reaction. Hence, an understanding of the reaction mechanism of deacylation is important for developing novel b-lactam antibiotics and potent b-lactamase inhibitors. We have investigated the deacylation mechanisms of serine-b-lactamases by using theoretical calculation. In this paper, the results of our recent computational analyses for all classes of serine-b-lactamases are presented.
DEACYLATION MECHANISM OF CLASS A b-LACTA-MASEClass A b-lactamase is more frequently detected in a clinical setting than are other classes of b-lactamase. Since the study by Knox et al. suggested that the E166A mutant of blactamase from Bacillus licheniformis induced the accumulation of an acyl-enzyme intermediate, 23) the catalytic residue involved in the deacylation reaction has been presumed to be only Glu166. However, it is difficult to conclude that the deacylation reaction occurs only due to Glu166 because the distance between Ser70O g and Glu166O e is too far to interact (ca. 3.74 Å) according to the results of our molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of the structure of b-lactam antibioticsb-lactamase complex. 24) We have speculated that not only Glu166 but also Lys73 is involved in the deacylation reaction because Lys73N z is located between Ser70 and Glu166 and interacts with Ser70O g and Glu166O e , nearly forming hydrogen bonds (2.77 and 3.21 Å, respectively).24) Furthermore, a hydrogen bond network among Lys73N z , Ser130O g and the carboxyl group of the substrate (b-lactam antibiotics) should be taken into account to clearly explain the reaction mechanism. Ishiguro et al. also discussed the importance of the hydrogen bond network based on the results of their molecular mechanics calculations.15) Accordingly, we investigated the whole mechanism of the deacylation reaction by theoretical The substrate deacylation mechanisms of serine-b b-lactamases (classes A, C and D) were investigated by theoretical calculations. The deacylation of class A proceeds via four elementary reactions. The rate-determining process is the tetrahedra...