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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Enantioselective antibodies can separate the enantiomers of a chiral compound in a highly specific manner. We have recently reported the cloning and applications of a recombinant Fab-fragment, ENA11His, in the enantioseparation of a drug candidate, finrozole, which contains two chiral centers. Here, the crystal structures of this enantioselective antibody Fab-fragment are determined in the absence of the hapten at a resolution of 2.75 A, and in the presence of the hapten at 2.05 A resolution. The conformation of the protein was found to be similar in both free and complex forms. The hapten molecule was tightly bound in a deep cleft between the light and heavy chains of the Fab-fragment. The complex structure also allowed us to describe the molecular basis for enantioselectivity and to deduce the absolute configurations of all the four different stereoisomers (a-d) of finrozole. The ENA11His antibody fragment selectively binds the SR (a) enantiomer from the racemic mixture of a and d-enantiomers, thus allowing separation from the pharmacologically most active RS enantiomer (d). In particular, Asp95 and Asn35 of the H-chain in the ENA11 His antibody seem to provide this specificity through hydrogen bonding.

Crystal structures of an enantioselective fab-fragment in free and complex forms.,Parkkinen T, Nevanen TK, Koivula A, Rouvinen J J Mol Biol. 2006 Mar 24;357(2):471-80. Epub 2006 Jan 3. PMID:16427081^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.