Abstract:

The cytochrome P450 mutant CYP2C9.13(L90P) shows a greatly impaired catalytic activity compared with the wild-type. We constructed the mutants by substitution at residue 90 of CYP2C9, expressed in COS-7 cells, assayed their thermal stability and catalysis activity and analyzed the mutants via molecular dynamic(MD) simulation and flexible docking. Mutant L90E exhibits a significantly lower catalytic activity than the wild-type for the hydro- xylation of diclofenac, lornoxicam and luciferin and its molecular dynamics simulation results indicate that the size of the entrance of substrate access was reduced significantly. An increase or minor decrease of catalytic activity was observed for mutants L90Q, L90W, L90R, L90I and L90G, and the sizes of the entrances of substrate access and the active site cavities had a little change in those mutants. The thermal stability and the potential energy of the MD simulation of these mutants showed a similar tendency as the catalysis assays did. Flexible docking results show the fluctuation of interaction energy is due to the change of electrostatic potential distribution. All the above facts show that the changes in the catalysis activity of the mutants caused by the substitution at residue 90 are due to the changes in the size of entrance, the shape and size of active site cavity, electrostatic potential distribution and thermal stability. The residue 90 of CYP2C9 has an important effect on the enzyme catalytic activity.

Key words: CYP2C9; Mutation; Molecular dynamics(MD); Flexible docking; Catalytic activity