Decyanation of vitamin B12 by a trafficking chaperone

The mystery of how the cyanide group in vitamin B₁₂ or cyanocobalamin, discovered 60 years ago, is removed, has been solved by the demonstration that the trafficking chaperone, MMACHC, catalyzes a reductive decyanation reaction. Electrons transferred from NADPH via cytosolic flavoprotein oxidoreductases are used to cleave the cobalt-carbon bond with reductive elimination of the cyanide ligand. The product, cob(II)alamin, is a known substrate for assimilation into the active cofactor forms, methylcobalamin and 5'-deoxyadenosylcobalamin, and is bound in the "base-off" state that is needed by the two B₁₂-dependent target enzymes, methionine synthase and methylmalonyl-CoA mutase. Defects in MMACHC represent the most common cause of inborn errors of B₁₂ metabolism, and our results explain the observation that fibroblasts from these patients are poorly responsive to vitamin B₁₂ but show some metabolic correction with aquocobalamin, a cofactor form lacking the cyanide ligand, which is mirrored by patients showing poorer clinical responsiveness to cyano- versus aquocobalamin.