Organophosphates constitute environmentally hazardous molecules that are commonly used in agriculture and various industries as chemical warfare agents. They extremely stable compounds with a half-life of up to thousands years. Because the lack protection against their harmful activities environment, recently intensive efforts have been made design synthetic for hydrolytic degradation. These in...

Biological nitrogen fixation by the nitrogenase enzymes has long been a touchstone for dinitrogen chemists.1,2 Both the enzymatic reduction and protonation of N2 mediated by these metalloenzymes (eq 1)3,4 and the industrial hydrogenation of N2 exemplified by the Haber-Bosch process (eq 2)5-7 employ transition metal-based catalysts to accelerate the thermodynamically feasible production of ammonia.

In recent years, artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) have become a major research interest in the field of biocatalysis. With ability to facilitate new-to-nature reactions, researchers generally prepared them either through intensive protein engineering studies or introduction abiotic transition metals. The aim this review will be summarize types ArMs that been recently developed, as well highligh...

the Brain Stem Copper deficiency is rare but can result from gastrointestinal surgery, excess zinc in the diet, parenteral nutrition, and malabsorption syndromes. Copper deficiency gives rise to a sensory ataxic myelopathy, symmetrically involving the pyramidal tracts and dorsal columns in the spinal cord, producing a clinical picture indistinguishable from subacute combined degeneration (SCD) ...

Invited for this month's cover is the group of Prof. Jörg Eppinger. The cover picture illustrates the concept of using metal-conjugated affinity labels (m-ALs) to convert proteases into well-defined and catalytically active artificial metalloenzymes. For more details, see the Communication on p. 50 ff.

The inhibition of ribonuclease Bi by 3'-N-hydroxyurea-3'-deoxythymidine 5'-phosphate is enhanced by 30-fold in the presence of Zn(2+). Thus, an N-hydroxyurea nucleotide can recruit Zn(2+) to inhibit the enzymatic activity of a ribonuclease. This result engenders a general strategy for the inhibition of non-metalloenzymes by metal complexes.

Recent progress in computational modeling of the catalytic activation of cobalt-carbon bond cleavage shows that quantum chemical calculations could be an important part of coenzyme B(12) research. Particular emphasis has been placed on density functional theory, which is now emerging as a powerful tool to elucidate the electronic structure and spectroscopic properties of the active sites of met...