Analysis of flavin oxidation and electron-transfer inhibition in Plasmodium falciparum dihydroorotate dehydrogenase.

ABSTRACT: Plasmodium falciparum dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (pfDHODH) is a flavin-dependent mitochondrial enzyme that provides the only route to pyrimidine biosynthesis in the parasite. Clinically significant inhibitors of human DHODH (e.g., A77 1726) bind to a pocket on the opposite face of the flavin cofactor from dihydroorotate (DHO). This pocket demonstrates considerable sequence variability, which has allowed species-specific inhibitors of the malarial enzyme to be identified. Ubiquinone (CoQ), the physiological oxidant in the reaction, has been postulated to bind this site despite a lack of structural evidence. To more clearly define the residues involved in CoQ binding and catalysis, we undertook site-directed mutagenesis of seven residues in the structurally defined A77 1726 binding site, w

SUBMITTER: Malmquist NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2868338 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature