Patent ID: 7590494

Claim:
A method of identifying compounds that bind to a leukotriene A 4 (LTA 4 ) hydrolase comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, the method comprising the steps of: (a) crystallizing a purified LTA 4 hydrolase in the presence of bestatin to form a co-crystal of LTA 4 hydrolase and bestatin, wherein crystallization is performed by liquid-liquid diffusion in a capillary using equal volumes of a buffer: enzyme solution consisting of: i) a buffer solution consisting of 28% PEG8000, 0.1 M Na-acetate, 0.1 M imidazole at a pH of 6.8 and with 5 mM YbCl 3 as an additive; and ii) an enzyme solution consisting of 5 mg/ml LTA 4 hydrolase comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:1 in 10 mM Tris-HCl at a pH of 8, supplemented with 1 mM bestatin; wherein the crystallization results in a LTA 4 hydrolase crystal having the space group P2 1 2 1 2 and the unit cell dimensions a=67.59 {acute over (Å)}, b=133.51 {acute over (Å)}, and c=83.40 {acute over (Å)} and wherein α=β=γ=90°; (b) determining the atomic coordinates of LTA 4 hydrolase from the co-crystal obtained in step (a); and (c) screening the atomic coordinates of a set of candidate compounds against the atomic coordinates obtained in step (b) to identify compounds that bind to the LTA 4 hydrolase.