Crystal Structures of Fumarate Hydratases from Leishmania Major in a Complex with Inhibitor 2-Thiomalate

Leishmaniases affect the poorest people on earth and have no effective drug therapy. Here, we present the crystal structure of the mitochondrial isoform of class I fumarate hydratase (FH) from Leishmania major and compare it to the previously determined cytosolic Leishmania major isoform. We further describe the mechanism of action of the first class-specific FH inhibitor, 2-thiomalate, through X-ray crystallography and inhibition assays. Our crystal structures of both FH isoforms with inhibitor bound at 2.05 Å resolution and 1.60 Å resolution show high structural similarity. These structures further reveal that the selectivity of 2-thiomalate for class I FHs is due to direct coordination of the inhibitor to the unique Fe of the catalytic [4Fe-4S] cluster that is found in class I parasitic FHs but is absent from class II human FH. These studies provide the structural scaffold in order to exploit class I FHs as potential drug targets against leishmaniases as well as Chagas diseases, sleeping sickness, and malaria.