Metalloporphycene is an Attractive Cofactor for Hemoproteins

Abstract

Abstract Porphycene, a constitutional isomer of porphyrin, is an attractive ligand, and its metal complexes have been investigated as alternative metal cofactors for hemoproteins such as myoglobin. Iron, cobalt and manganese complexes of porphycene are smoothly inserted into apomyoglobin after removal of native heme b, resulting in stable reconstituted proteins. Myoglobin reconstituted with iron porphycene exhibits extremely high O2 affinity compared to native myoglobin (nMb). In addition, the reconstituted protein also shows catalytic activity toward one-electron oxidation of phenol derivatives and sulfoxidation of thioanisole, although the natural function of nMb is O2 storage. Furthermore, myoglobin reconstituted with manganese porphycene can promote H2O2-dependent hydroxylation of inert alkane species as seen with cytochrome P450s. Myoglobin reconstituted with iron porphycene can act as a catalyst for abiological reactions such as cyclopropanation with ethyl diazoacetate. These results clearly indicate that replacement of heme with metalloporphycenes can dramatically alter the function of hemoproteins.