In order
to probe
the s
truc
tural basis of s
tereoselec
tivi
ty in
theserine pro
tease family, a seriesof enan
tiomeric boronic acidsRCH
2CH(NHCOCH
3)B(OH)
2has been syn
thesized and kine
ticallycharac
terized as
transi
tion-s
ta
te analog inhibi
tors using
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
-chymo
trypsin and sub
tilisin Carlsberg as modelsys
tems. When
the R-subs
ti
tuen
t in
this series was changed from a
p-chlorophenyl
to a 1-naph
thyl group,
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
-chymo
trypsin, bu
t no
t sub
tilisin, reversed i
ts usual preference for
L-enan
tiomers and bound more
tigh
tly
to
the
D-enan
tiomer [Mar
tichonok, V., & Jones, J. B.(1996)
J.
Am.
Chem.
Soc.
118, 950-958]. Thes
truc
tural fac
tors responsible for
the differences in s
tereoselec
tivi
tybe
tween
the
two enzymes have beenexplored by X-ray crys
tallographic examina
tion of sub
tilisin Carlsbergand
![](/images/gifchars/gamma.gif)
-chymo
trypsin complexesof
the
L- and
D-enan
tiomers of
p-chlorophenyl and 1-naph
thyl boronic acid deriva
tives.In bo
th enzymes,
the
L-isomers of
the inhibi
tors, which are more closelyrela
ted
to
the na
tural
L-amino acidsubs
tra
tes,form
te
trahedral adduc
ts, covalen
tly linking
the cen
tral boron a
tom andO
![](/images/gifchars/gamma.gif)
of
the ca
taly
tic serine. The
D-isomers, however, differ in
the way
they in
terac
t wi
thsub
tilisin or
![](/images/gifchars/gamma.gif)
-chymo
trypsin. Wi
th sub
tilisin,bo
th
the
D-
p-chlorophenyl and
D-1-naph
thyl inhibi
tor complexes form covalen
t SerO
![](/images/gifchars/gamma.gif)
-
to-boron bonds,bu
t wi
th
![](/images/gifchars/gamma.gif)
-chymo
trypsin,
the same inhibi
tors lead
to novel
te
trahedral adduc
ts covalen
tly linking bo
thSer195 O
![](/images/gifchars/gamma.gif)
and His57 N
2 covalen
tly via
theboron a
tom.