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Octanol/water partition coefficients as a model system for assessing antidotes for methylmercury(II) poisoning, and for studying mercurials with medicinal applications.

1-Octanol/water partition coefficients, [HgII]octanol/[HgII]water, provide a simple but limited model system for aspects of the biological behavior of methylmercury(II) and commonly used organomercury(II) medicinal compounds. In an octanol/water system some widely studied antidotes for mercury poisoning at least partly displace the biological thiols L-cysteine and glutathione from binding to MeHgII at pH 6.9. Addition of the antidote meso-dimercaptosuccinic acid to MeHgII in the presence of glutathione results in formation of metallic mercury. For RHgII derivatives of L-cysteine and glutathione, octanol/water partition coefficients follow the order Ph greater than Et greater than Me. An exceptionally high value for diphenylmercury, compared with PhHgII derivatives of L-cysteine and glutathione, is consistent with reported results of the distribution of mercury compounds in rats. Ethylmercury(II) is partly displaced from thimerosal by L-cysteine and glutathione in the octanol/water system, indicating that the active form of thimerosal in vivo may involve binding of EtHgII to biological ligands.

Animals↗

Structure of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase in a complex with the non-nucleoside inhibitor alpha-APA R 95845 at 2.8 A resolution.

BACKGROUND: HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) is a multifunctional enzyme that copies the RNA genome of HIV-1 into DNA. It is a heterodimer composed of a 66 kDa (p66) and a 51 kDa (p51) subunit. HIV-1 RT is a crucial target for structure-based drug design, and potent inhibitors have been identified, whose efficacy, however, is limited by drug resistance. RESULTS: The crystal structure of HIV-1 RT in complex with the non-nucleoside inhibitor alpha-anilinophenyl-acetamide (alpha-APA) R95845 has been determined at 2.8 A resolution. The inhibitor binds in a hydrophobic pocket near the polymerase active site. The pocket contains five aromatic amino acid residues and the interactions of the side chains of these residues with the aromatic rings of non-nucleoside inhibitors appear to be important for inhibitor binding. Most of the amino acid residues where mutations have been correlated with high levels of resistance to non-nucleoside inhibitors of HIV-1 RT are located close to alpha-APA. The overall fold of HIV-1 RT in complex with alpha-APA is similar to that found when in complex with nevirapine, another non-nucleoside inhibitor, but there are significant conformational changes relative to an HIV-1 RT/DNA/Fab complex. CONCLUSIONS: The non-nucleoside inhibitor-binding pocket has a flexible structure whose mobility may be required for effective polymerization, and may be part of a hinge that permits relative movements of two subdomains of the p66 subunit denoted the 'palm' and 'thumb'. An understanding of the structure of the inhibitor-binding pocket, of the interactions between HIV-1 RT and alpha-APA, and of the locations of mutations that confer resistance to inhibitors provides a basis for structure-based design of chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of AIDS.

Acetamides↗

Structure of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase/DNA complex at 7 A resolution showing active site locations.

AIDS, caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is one of the world's most serious health problems, with current protocols being inadequate for either prevention or successful long-term treatment. In retroviruses such as HIV, the enzyme reverse transcriptase copies the single-stranded RNA genome into double-stranded DNA that is then integrated into the chromosomes of infected cells. Reverse transcriptase is the target of the most widely used treatments for AIDS, 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT) and 2',3'-dideoxyinosine (ddI), but resistant strains of HIV-1 arise in patients after a relatively short time. There are several nonnucleoside inhibitors of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, but resistance to such agents also develops rapidly. We report here the structure at 7 A resolution of a ternary complex of the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase heterodimer, a monoclonal antibody Fab fragment, and a duplex DNA template-primer. The double-stranded DNA binds in a groove on the surface of the enzyme. The electron density near one end of the DNA matches well with the known structure of the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase RNase H domain. At the opposite end of the DNA, a mercurated derivative of UTP has been localized by difference Fourier methods, allowing tentative identification of the polymerase nucleoside triphosphate binding site. We also determined the structure of the reverse transcriptase/Fab complex in the absence of template-primer to compare the bound and free forms of the enzyme. The presence of DNA correlates with movement of protein electron density in the vicinity of the putative template-primer binding groove. These results have important implications for developing improved inhibitors of reverse transcriptase for the treatment of AIDS.

Base Sequence↗

Synthesis and characterization of the dimercury(I)-linked compound [PPn]4[(Re7C(CO)21Hg)2]. Oxidative cleavage of the mercury-mercury bond leading to carbidoheptarhenate complexes of mercury(II), including [PPN][Re7C(CO)21Hg(S=C(NME2)2)].

The reaction of [PPN](3)[Re(7)C(CO)(21)] with Hg(2)(NO(3))(2).2H(2)O in dichloromethane formed the complex [PPN](4)[(Re(7)C(CO)(21)Hg)(2)] ([PPN](4)[1]), isolated in 60% yield. Analogous salts of [1](4-) with [PPh(4)](+) and [NEt(4)](+) were also prepared. The crystal structure of [PPN](4)[1] showed that two carbidoheptarhenate cores are linked by a dimercury(I) unit (d(Hg-Hg) = 2.610(4) A), with each individual mercury atom face-bridging. Oxidative cleavage of the Hg-Hg bond in [1](4-) was effected by 4-bromophenyl disulfide to form [Re(7)C(CO)(21)HgSC(6)H(4)Br](2-) ([4](2-)), by I(2) to form [Re(7)C(CO)(21)HgI](2-) ([5](2-)), and by Br(2) to form [Re(7)C(CO)(21)HgBr](2-) ([6](2-)). Oxidation of [1](4-) by ferrocenium ion (2 equiv) in the presence of tetramethylthiourea resulted in the derivative [Re(7)C(CO)(21)HgSC(NMe(2))(2)](-) ([7](-)). The molecular structure of [PPN][7] was determined by X-ray crystallography. This is the first example of a carbidoheptarhenate-mercury complex with a neutral ligand on mercury, and ligand exchange was demonstrated by displacement with triethylphosphine. Complex [7](-) can also be prepared by protonating [Re(7)C(CO)(21)HgO(2)CCH(3)](2-) in the presence of tetramethylthiourea. Cyclic voltammetry data to calibrate and compare the redox properties of compounds [1](4-) and [7](-) have been measured.

Indicators and Reagents↗

Determination of organic mercury species in soils by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection.

Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection was optimized for the simultaneous separation and quantification of nine organic mercury compounds: methyl-, ethyl-, phenyl-, methoxyethyl-, ethoxyethyl-, benzoic and tolylmercury, mersalylic acid and nitromersol. The nine compounds were successfully separated on octadecylsilane columns (200 x 3 mm i.d.) by gradient elution with a methanol-water mixture ranging from 30 to 50% v/v. The detection limits for the various compounds are in the range 7.0-95.1 micrograms dm-3. For the extraction of five organomercurials from spiked soils, eight different extraction solutions were tested to differentiate between the total content and the available/soluble fraction of the analytes. Ammonium acetate solutions (1 mol dm-3) and water proved to be suitable agents for the estimation of the available and soluble fractions of methyl-, ethyl-, benzoic, methoxyethyl- and ethoxyethylmercury. For the determination of the total content of methyl- and benzoic mercury in soils, solutions of potassium iodide (1 mol dm-3)-ascorbic acid (0.1 mol dm-3) and oxalic acid (1 mol dm-3) provided recoveries in the ranges 53-81%. None of the solutions tested is suitable for the extraction of ethyl-, methoxyethyl- and ethoxyethylmercury.

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid↗