Synthetic analogues and biosynthetic intermediates of bleomycin. Metal-binding, dioxygen interaction, and implication for the role of functional groups in bleomycin action mechanism.

In order to clarify the role of bleomycin functional groups in action mechanism, the metal-binding, dioxygen activation, and DNA cleavage of several synthetic analogues and biosynthetic intermediates of bleomycin have been investigated. The present results support that 1) the beta-aminoalaninepyrimidine-beta-hydroxyhistidine portion of the bleomycin molecule substantially participates in the Fe(II) and dioxygen interactions, 2) the transposition of the pyrimidine (or pyridine) and imidazole groups in the Fe(II)-coordination is essential for the effective binding and activation of molecular oxygen by the bleomycin ligands, and 3) the gulose-mannose moiety plays an important role as an environmental factor for the efficient dioxygen reduction and DNA cleavage, although the sugar portion does not contribute significantly to the nucleotide specificity in the DNA strand scission. Certain oligopeptides are able to mimic the metal-binding and dioxygen activation by bleomycin, but not induce the effective DNA cleavage. Probably, the bithiazole DNA interaction site of bleomycin delivers the iron/dioxygen chemistry to particularly the DNA (formula, see text) nucleotide sequences.