Th
e enzym
e-solubl
e guanylat
e cyclas
e (sGC), which conv
erts GTP to cGMP, is a r
ec
eptor forth
e signaling ag
ent nitric oxid
e (NO). YC-1, a synth
etic b
enzylindazol
e d
erivativ
e, has b
een shown toactivat
e sGC in an NO-ind
ep
end
ent fashion. In th
e pr
es
enc
e of carbon monoxid
e (CO), which by its
elfactivat
es sGC approximat
ely 5-fold, YC-1 activat
es sGC to a l
ev
el comparabl
e to stimulation by NOalon
e. W
e hav
e us
ed kin
etic analys
es and r
esonanc
e Raman sp
ectroscopy (RR) to inv
estigat
e th
e int
eractionof YC-1 and CO with guanylat
e cyclas
e. In th
e pr
es
enc
e of CO and 200
![](/imag<font color=)
es/
entiti
es/mgr.gif">M YC-1, th
e Vmax/
Km GTPincr
eas
es 226-fold. Whil
e YC-1 do
es not p
erturb th
e RR sp
ectrum of th
e f
errous form of baculovirus/Sf9c
ell
expr
ess
ed sGC, it induc
es a shift in th
e F
e-CO str
etching fr
equ
ency for th
e CO-bound form from474 to 492 cm
-1. Similarly, YC-1 has no
eff
ect on th
e RR sp
ectrum of f
errous
![](/imag<font color=)
es/gifchars/b
eta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middl
e">1
1-385, th
e isolat
ed sGCh
em
e-binding domain, but shifts th
e ![](/imag<font color=)
es/gifchars/nu.gif" BORDER=0 >(F
e-CO) of CO-
![](/imag<font color=)
es/gifchars/b
eta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middl
e">1
1-385 from 478 to 491 cm
-1, indicating thatYC-1 binds in h
em
e-binding r
egion of sGC. In addition, th
e CO-bound forms of sGC and
![](/imag<font color=)
es/gifchars/b
eta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middl
e">1
1-385 in th
epr
es
enc
e of YC-1 li
e on th
e ![](/imag<font color=)
es/gifchars/nu.gif" BORDER=0 >(F
e-CO) vs
![](/imag<font color=)
es/gifchars/nu.gif" BORDER=0 >(C-O) corr
elation curv
e for proximal ligands with imidazol
echaract
er, which sugg
ests that histidin
e r
emains th
e h
em
e proximal ligand in th
e pr
es
enc
e of YC-1.Int
er
estingly, YC-1 do
es not shift
![](/imag<font color=)
es/gifchars/nu.gif" BORDER=0 >(F
e-CO) for th
e CO-bound form of H105G(Im), th
e imidazol
e-r
escu
edh
em
e ligand mutant of
![](/imag<font color=)
es/gifchars/b
eta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middl
e">1
1-385. Th
e data ar
e consist
ent with binding of CO and YC-1 to th
e sGC h
em
e-binding domain l
eading to conformational chang
es that giv
e ris
e to an incr
eas
e in catalytic turnov
er anda chang
e in th
e el
ectrostatic
environm
ent of th
e h
em
e pock
et.