QM/MM modeling of compound I active species in cytochrome P450, cytochrome C peroxidase, and ascorbate peroxidase.

QM/MM calculations provide a means for predicting the electronic structure of the metal center in metalloproteins. Two heme peroxidases, Cytochrome c Peroxidase (CcP) and Ascorbate Peroxidase (APX), have a structurally very similar active site, yet have active intermediates with very different electronic structures. We review our recent QM/MM calculations on these systems, and present new computational data. Our results are in good agreement with experiment, and suggest that the difference in electronic structure is due to a large number of small differences in structure from one protein to another. We also discuss recent QM/MM calculations on the active species of cytochrome P450, in which a similar sensitivity of the electronic structure to the environment is found. However, this does not appear to explain different catalytic profiles of the different drug-metabolizing isoforms of this class of enzyme.