A sucrose-binding site provides a lead towards an isoform-specific inhibitor of the cancer-associated enzyme carbonic anhydrase IX.
Pinard, M.A., Aggarwal, M., Mahon, B.P., Tu, C., McKenna, R.(2015) Acta Crystallogr F Struct Biol Commun 71: 1352-1358
- PubMed: 26457530 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1107/S2053230X1501239X
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
4YWP, 4ZAO - PubMed Abstract: 
Human carbonic anhydrase (CA; EC 4.2.1.1) isoform IX (CA IX) is an extracellular zinc metalloenzyme that catalyzes the reversible hydration of CO2 to HCO3(-), thereby playing a role in pH regulation. The majority of normal functioning cells exhibit low-level expression of CA IX. However, in cancer cells CA IX is upregulated as a consequence of a metabolic transition known as the Warburg effect. The upregulation of CA IX for cancer progression has drawn interest in it being a potential therapeutic target. CA IX is a transmembrane protein, and its purification, yield and crystallization have proven challenging to structure-based drug design, whereas the closely related cytosolic soluble isoform CA II can be expressed and crystallized with ease. Therefore, we have utilized structural alignments and site-directed mutagenesis to engineer a CA II that mimics the active site of CA IX. In this paper, the X-ray crystal structure of this CA IX mimic in complex with sucrose is presented and has been refined to a resolution of 1.5 Å, an Rcryst of 18.0% and an Rfree of 21.2%. The binding of sucrose at the entrance to the active site of the CA IX mimic, and not CA II, in a non-inhibitory mechanism provides a novel carbohydrate moiety binding site that could be further exploited to design isoform-specific inhibitors of CA IX.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.