Catechol O-methyltransferase

Function

Catechol O-methyltransferase (COMT) methylates catecholamines like dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine. The cofactor S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) serves as the methyl donor in the reaction and is converted to to S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine (SAH) by the reaction.^[1] For more details see Student Projects for UMass Chemistry 423 Spring 2012-6.

Relevance

The Parkinson Disease drug levodopa is a substrate of COMT and COMT inhibitors like entacapone are used with levodopa in the disease treatment.^[2]

Structural highlights

• (PDB entry 3a7e). Water molecule is shown as red sphere.

3D Structures of catechol O-methyltransferase

Catechol O-methyltransferase 3D structures