Active site-directed inhibitors of cytochrome P-450scc. Structural and mechanistic implications of a side chain-substituted series of amino-steroids.

A series of analogues of cholesterol, each having a shortened side chain and a primary amine group, were prepared and tested for their effects on bovine adrenocortical cholesterol side chain cleavage cytochrome P-450 (P-450scc). A previous study had shown that one derivative, 22-amino-23,24-bisnor-5-cholen-3 beta-ol, is a potent competitive inhibitor of the enzyme and forms a complex in which the steroid ring binds to the cholesterol site and the side chain amine forms a bond with the heme iron (Sheets, J. J., and Vickery, L. E. (1982) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 79, 5773-5777). In the studies reported here, the 23-amine derivative, 23-amino-24-nor-5-cholen-3 beta-ol, was found to be an equally potent inhibitor and to be competitive with respect to cholesterol (Ki = 38 nM). Binding of the 23-amine to P-450scc also caused formation of a low spin complex with an absorption maximum at 422 nm, indicative of a nitrogen-donor ligand. Other derivatives in which the side chain amine was linked closer to the steroid, 17 beta-amino-5-androsten-3 beta-ol and (20 R + S)-20-amino-5-pregnen-3 beta-ol, were found to be only very weak inhibitors (I50 greater than 100 microM) and did not produce the 422 nm spectral form when bound. Derivatives in which the amine was attached a greater distance from the steroid ring, 24-amino-5-cholen-3 beta-ol and 25-amino-26,27-bisnor-5-cholesten-3 beta-ol, caused a progressive decrease in inhibitory potency and a failure to produce the 422 nm form on binding. The dependence of the type of interaction of these amino-steroids with P-450scc upon the amine position establishes that the steroid binding site and the heme catalytic site of the enzyme are fixed within a specific distance of one another. The heme appears to be located sufficiently close to the position that the side chain of cholesterol would occupy to allow for direct attack of an iron-bound oxidant to occur during hydroxylation and side chain cleavage.