THEORETICAL BIOINORGANIC CHEMISTRY AT UNIVERSITY OF CALABRIA

Nino Russo

Dipartimento di Chimica and Centro di Calcolo ad Alte Prestazioni per Elaborazioni Parallele e Distribuite-Centro d’Eccellenza MURST, Università della Calabria, I-87030 Arcavacata di Rende, Italy. E-mail: nrusso@unical.it

Metal cations play a fundamental role in a great variety of biological processes and are present in about 40% of the known proteins. Their peculiar physical chemistry properties account for their large presence in the vegetal and animal kingdoms. Often, they are present in many drugs used in different medical protocols.

In the last decade, the Laboratory of Theoretical and computational Chemistry of the University of Calabria has undertaken a systematic work on a series of biological processes in which the metal cations are involved with the aim to better understand the metal role and the considered processes. In this lecture I will review the recent activity of the Laboratory in the field of the theoretical bioinorganic chemistry. In Particular, the results of our investigation on the following subjects should be briefly presented and discussed:

-Metalloenzyme reaction mechanisms [1] (Carbonic anhydrases , Nitrate reductase, Peptide deformilase, Methanol dehydrogenase, Aminopeptidases );

-Photodynamic therapy [2];

-Interaction between metal cations and DNA and amino acids [3];

-Copper coordination in the octarepeat segment of prion protein [4];

- Hydrolysis Reactions of the Pt based Anticancer Drug [5].

References

[1] T. Marino, N. Russo and M. Toscano, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127 (2005) 4242.; M. Leopoldini, N. Russo, M. Toscano, M. Dulak, T. A. Wesolowski, Chem. Eur. J. 12 (2006) 2532-2541.; M. Leopoldini, N. Russo and M. Toscano, J. Phys. Chem. B, 110 (2006) 1063-1072.; M. Leopoldini, N. Russo, M. Toscano, Chem. Eur. J. 13 (2007) 2109-2117.; M. Leopoldini, N. Russo, M. Toscano, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 129 (.2007) 7776-7784

[2] L. Petit, C. Adamo and N. Russo, J. Phys. Chem. B 109 (2005) 12214-12221.; L. Petit, A. D. Quartarolo, C. Adamo, N. Russo, J. Phys. Chem. B, 110 (2006) 2398-2404.; A. Quartarolo, N. Russo and E. Sicilia, Chem. Eur. J. 12 (2006) 6797-6803.; A. D. Quartarolo, N. Russo, E. Sicilia and F. Lelj, J. Chem. Theory Comput. 3 (2007) 860-869.

[3] D. Mazzuca, N. Russo, M. Toscano, and A. Grand, J. Phys. Chem. B, 110 (2006) 8815-8824; T. Marino, M. Toscano, N. Russo and A. Grand, J. Phys. Chem. B, 110 (2006) 24666-24673.; E. Rezabal, T. Marino, J. M. Mercero, N. Russo, and J. M. Ugalde, Inorg. Chem., 46 ( 2007) 6413-6419.; T. Marino, D. Mazzuca, M. Toscano, N. Russo and A. Grand, Int. J. Quantum Chem. 107 (2007) 311-317.;

[4]T. Marino, N. Russo and M. Toscano , J. Phys. Chem. B 111 (2007) 635-640.

[5] F. Lucas, M. Pavelka and N. Russo, Chem. Eur. J. (2007) in press.

Work performed with the financial support of Università della Calabria and Regione Calabria (POR 2000/2006, misura 3.16, progetto PROSICA).