Sauve · Biochemistry 2001 · in vitro mechanistic biochemistry study · n=?

Chemistry of gene silencing: the mechanism of NAD+-dependent deacetylation reactions.

Cited 304 times in the scientific literature.

Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data

In vitro bench biochemistry and enzymology study without human clinical data

PubMed 11747420 · doi:10.1021/bi011858j · record verified 2026-08-27

What was done

The authors investigated the enzymatic reaction mechanism and products of NAD+-dependent protein deacetylation catalyzed by the Sir2 enzyme family using peptide substrates. Reaction intermediates, products, regioisomers, anomeric forms, interconversion rates, and equilibria were characterized using NMR, HPLC, 18O exchange, and mass spectrometry (MS) methods.

What was found

The abstract reports qualitative biochemical steps and reaction products without providing numerical rate constants or equilibrium values. The reaction yields deacetylated peptide and 2'- and 3'-regioisomers of O-acetyl ADP-ribose (AADPR). The pathway proceeds via ADP-ribosylation of the peptide acyl oxygen forming an O-alkyl amidate intermediate, attack of the 2'-OH group forming a 1',2'-acyloxonium species, water hydrolysis to 2'-AADPR, and non-enzymatic intramolecular transesterification equilibrating 2'- and 3'-AADPR.

Why it matters

This study defines the catalytic mechanism and chemical products of NAD+-dependent deacetylation by Sir2 enzymes, demonstrating that deacetylation is directly coupled to stoichiometric NAD+ cleavage to generate O-acetyl-ADP-ribose.

Limits

This is an in vitro bench enzymology study using synthetic peptide substrates rather than full-length protein complexes or in vivo systems. The abstract provides no quantitative kinetic parameters, rate constants, or equilibrium constants. Biological signaling roles of the AADPR products were not experimentally tested.

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