Determination of the conformation of trimethoprim in the binding pocket of bovine dihydrofolate reductase from a STD-NMR intensity-restrained CORCEMA-ST optimization

Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is a pharmacologically important intracellular target enzyme for folate antagonists, including the antibacterial agent trimethoprim (TMP). The structures of DHFR from various sources with and without the bound ligands have been determined by X-ray crystallography and solution NMR spectroscopy. However, there is no crystal or solution NMR structure for the bovine DHFR/TMP complex. Here we report the solution structure of TMP within the binding pocket of bovine DHFR using a novel method developed in our laboratory, viz., STD-NMR intensity-restrained CORCEMA-ST optimization (SICO) utilizing experimental STD data on this complex, and demonstrate that its solution structure is essentially identical to the one in the crystal structure of the homologous chicken liver DHFR/TMP complex. The excellent agreement we obtain between the experimental and predicted STDs also serves as a validation of the CORCEMA-ST methodology.