Heme iron and nonheme dimanganese catalases protect biological systems against oxidative damage caused by hydrogen peroxide. Rubrerythrins are ferritine-like nonheme diiron proteins, which are structurally and mechanistically distinct from the heme-type catalase but similar to a dimanganese KatB enzyme. In order to gain more insight into the mechanism of this curious enzyme reaction, non-heme structural and functional models were carried out by the use of mononuclear [FeII(L1-4)(solvent)3](ClO4)2 (1-4) (L1 = 1,3-bis(2-pyridyl-imino)isoindoline, L2 = 1,3-bis(4'-methyl-2-pyridyl-imino)isoindoline, L3 = 1,3-bis(4'-Chloro-2-pyridyl-imino)isoindoline, L4 = 1,3-bis(5'-chloro-2-pyridyl-imino)isoindoline) complexes as catalysts, where the possible reactive intermediates, diiron-perroxo [FeIII2(μ-O)(μ-1,2-O2)(L1-L4)2(Solv)2]2+ (5-8) complexes are known and well-characterized. All the complexes displayed catalase-like activity, which provided clear evidence for the formation of diiron-peroxo species during the catalytic cycle. We also found that the fine-tuning of iron redox states is a critical issue, both the formation rate and the reactivity of the diiron-peroxo species showed linear correlation with the FeIII/FeII redox potentials. Their stability and reactivity towards H2O2 was also investigated and based on kinetic and mechanistic studies a plausible mechanism, including a rate-determining hydrogen atom transfer between the H2O2 and diiron-peroxo species, was proposed. The present results provide one of the first examples of a nonheme diiron-peroxo complex, which shows a catalase-like reaction.
Keywords: catalase mimics; diiron-peroxo complexes; kinetic studies; peroxide; structure/activity.