Pressure Effects on the Ligand-Binding Kinetics for Hemoproteins and Their Site-Directed Mutants

Abstract

The effects of high pressure up to 1500 bar on the recombination kinetics of oxygen and carbon monoxide (CO) binding to human hemoglobin (intact and isolated chain forms), human myoglobin (and its mutants), and cytochrome P-450 were studied by the use of millisecond and nanosecond laser photolysis. The activation volumes for the binding of CO to the R- and T-quaternary states of hemoglobin (Hbs) were determined to be –9.0 and –31.7 ml, respectively. The characteristic pressure dependence of the activation volume was observed for the R-state Hb but not for the T-state Hb. More detailed studies were made with isolated α- and β-chains of human Hb. The kinetic data were analyzed on the basis of a simple three-species model, which assumes two elementary reaction processes of bond formation and steps of ligand migration. A pressure-dependent activation volume change from negative lo positive values in the bimolecular CO association reaction was observed for both chains. This is attributed to a change of the rate-limiting step from the bond-formation step to the ligandmigration step. High-pressure ligand-binding kinetics were also examined for site-specific mutants of human myoglobin in which some amino acid residues at the heme distal sites, such as Leu 29, Lys 45, Ala 66, and Thr 67, are substituted by others. The pressure dependence of the CO binding rate for the L29 mutants was unusual: a positive value was obtained unexpectedly for overall CO binding. Corresponding to this anomaly was an unusual geometry of the iron-bound CO, which was determined by IR and NMR spectroscopies. The effects of camphor and camphor analogues as substrates on the CO-binding kinetics for P-450cam were also studied under pressure. The positive activation volumes for CO binding were obtained for substrate-free and norcamphor- and adamantane-bound P-450, whereas other substrate analogue-bound P-450 complexes exhibited the negative activation volumes. All of the present high-pressure results are discussed in relation to (1) the dynamic aspects of the protein conformation, and (2) the specific participation of amino acid residues in the heme distal site in each elementary step of the ligand-binding reaction process.