PARAMAGNETIC LANTHANIDE(III) IONS AS NMR PROBES FOR BIOMOLECULAR STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

 LI-JUNE MING
 Department of Chemistry
 and Institute for Biomolecular Science
 University of South Florida
 Tampa, Florida 33620-5250

Abstract:  Paramagnetic lanthanide(III) ions (Ln³⁺) have been used successfully as spectroscopic probes for the study of chemical, physical and physiological properties of many Ca²⁺-dependent biological systems in the past several years.  Some paramagnetic Ln³⁺ (e.g. Pr³⁺, Eu³⁺, and Yb³⁺) possessing very short electronic relaxation times are able to exhibit relatively sharp isotropically shifted ¹H NMR features attributable to the protons in the close proximity of the metal.  Thus, the use of such Ln³⁺ ions as substitutes for Ca²⁺ in proteins raises the possibility of detailed NMR study of the Ca²⁺ binding environment in proteins.  These paramagnetic Ln3+ ions have also been used as NMR probes for the study of the structural and functional roles of several metal-dependent antibiotics, such as the anthracyclines.  We report in this contribution the use of two dimensional NMR techniques for the studies of paramagnetic Ln³⁺-substituted Ca²⁺ proteins in terms of the configuration of the metal-binding sites and the interactions with ligands, and for the study of metallo-antibiotics.
 

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