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Rotational-echo double-resonance (REDOR) NMR is a powerful and versatile solid-state NMR measurement that has been recruited to elucidate drug modes of action and to drive the design of new therapeutics. REDOR has been implemented to examine composition, structure, and dynamics in diverse macromolecular and whole-cell systems, including taxol-bound microtubules, enzyme-cofactor-inhibitor ternary complexes, and antibiotic-whole-cell complexes. The REDOR approach involves the integrated design of specific isotopic labeling strategies and the selection of appropriate REDOR experiments. By way of example, this digest illustrates the versatility of the REDOR approach, with an emphasis on the practical considerations of experimental design and data interpretation., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Bacterial biofilms are complex multicellular assemblies, characterized by a heterogeneous extracellular polymeric matrix, that have emerged as hallmarks of persistent infectious diseases. New approaches and quantitative data are needed to elucidate the composition and architecture of biofilms, and such data need to be correlated with mechanical and physicochemical properties that relate to function. We performed a panel of interfacial rheological measurements during biofilm formation at the air-liquid interface by the Escherichia coli strain UTI89, which is noted for its importance in studies of urinary tract infection and for its assembly of functional amyloid fibers termed curli. Brewster-angle microscopy and measurements of the surface elasticity (G(s)') and stress-strain response provided sensitive and quantitative parameters that revealed distinct stages during bacterial colonization, aggregation, and eventual formation of a pellicle at the air-liquid interface. Pellicles that formed under conditions that upregulate curli production exhibited an increase in strength and viscoelastic properties as well as a greater ability to recover from stress-strain perturbation. The results suggest that curli, as hydrophobic extracellular amyloid fibers, enhance the strength, viscoelasticity, and resistance to strain of E. coli biofilms formed at the air-liquid interface., (Copyright © 2012 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The important anticancer drug Taxol (paclitaxel, PTX) owes its unique activity to its ability to bind to tubulin in a stoichiometric ratio and promote its assembly into microtubules. The conformation of the microtubule-bound drug has been the focus of numerous research efforts, since the inability of polymerized tubulin to form crystals precludes structure proof by X-ray crystallography. Likewise, although the alpha,beta-tubulin dimer structure has been solved by electron crystallography, the 3.7 A resolution is too low to permit direct determination of either ligand conformation or binding pose. In this article, we present experimental results from 2H{19F} REDOR NMR that provide direct confirmation that paclitaxel adopts a T-shaped conformation when it is bound to tubulin.

REDOR and REDOR-like 13C[19F] and 2H[19F] NMR experiments have been performed on lyophilized whole cells of Staphylococcus aureus. The bacteria were grown to maturity on media containing L-[13C(3)]alanine or L-[methyl-d(3)]alanine, and then complexed with the 4-fluorobiphenyl derivative of chloroeremomycin, an analogue of the widely used antibiotic, vancomycin. The position of the 19F of the drug bound in the bacterial cell wall was determined relative to L-alanine 13C and 2H labels in the peptidoglycan peptide stem that was closest to the fluorinated biphenyl moiety of the drug. These determinations were made by dipolar recoupling methods that do not require an absolute measurement of the REDOR full echo (the signal observed without rotor-synchronized dephasing pulses) of the labels in the peptide stem.

Cross-polarization magic-angle spinning and rotational-echo double resonance 13C and 15N NMR experiments have been performed on intact cells of Staphylococcus aureus labeled with D-[1-13C]alanine and [15N]glycine or with [1-13C]glycine and L-[epsilon-15N]lysine. The cells were harvested during stationary or exponential growth conditions, the latter in media with and without the addition of vancomycin. The results of these experiments allowed the in situ determination of the relative concentrations of peptidoglycan cross-links (the number of peptide-stem D-alanines covalently linked to a pentaglycyl bridge) and bridge-links (the number of peptide-stem lysines covalently linked to a pentaglycyl bridge). The concentration of cross-links remained constant in the presence of vancomycin, whereas the number of bridge-links decreased. These changes suggest that vancomycin (at therapeutic levels) interrupts peptidoglycan synthesis in S. aureus by interference with transglycosylation.

Solid-state NMR experiments with stable isotope-labeled Staphylococcus aureus have provided insight into the structure of the peptidoglycan binding site of a potent fluorobiphenyl derivative of chloroeremomycin (Eli Lilly LY329332). Rotational-echo double resonance (REDOR) NMR provided internuclear distances from the 19F of this glycopeptide antibiotic to natural-abundance 31P and to specific 13C and 15N labels biosynthetically incorporated into the bacteria from labeled alanine, glycine, or lysine in the growth medium. Results from experiments with intact late log phase bacteria and cell walls indicated homogeneous drug-peptidoglycan binding. Drug dimers were not detected in situ, and the hydrophobic fluorobiphenyl group of LY329332 did not insert into the bilayer membrane. A model of the binding site consistent with the REDOR results positions the vancomycin cleft around an un-cross-linked D-Ala-D-Ala peptide stem with the fluorobiphenyl moiety of the antibiotic near the base of a second, proximate stem in a locally ordered peptidoglycan matrix.