The use of caged substrates to assess the activity of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase in living sea urchin eggs

Photoregulation of cytochrome P450 activity by using caged compound

Cytochrome P450 (P450) species play an important role in the metabolism of xenobiotics, and assaying the activities of P450 is important for evaluating the toxicity of chemicals in drugs and food. However, the lag time caused by the introduction and mixing of sample solutions can become sources of error as the throughput is heightened by increasing the sample number and decreasing the sample volume. To amend this technological obstacle, we developed a methodology to photoregulate the activity of P450 by using photoprotected (caged) compounds. We synthesized caged molecules of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP(+)) and glucose 6-phosphate (G6P), which are involved in the generation of NADPH (cofactor of P450). The use of caged-G6P completely blocked the P450 catalysis before the UV illumination, whereas caged-NADP(+) resulted in a little background reaction. Upon UV illumination, more than 90% of the enzymatic activity could be restored. The use of caged-G6P enabled assays in isolated microchambers (width, 50 μm; height, 50 μm) by encapsulating necessary ingredients in advance and initiating the reaction by UV illumination. The initiation of enzymatic reaction could be observed in a single microchamber. Minimizing uncertainties caused by the introduction and mixing of solutions led to significantly reduced errors of obtained kinetic constants.

Analysis of enzyme reactions in situ

Estimations of metabolic rates in cells and tissues and their regulation on the basis of kinetic properties of enzymes in diluted solutions may not be applicable to intact living cells or tissues. Enzymes often behave differently in living cells because of the high cellular protein content that can lead to homologous and heterologous associations of protein molecules. These associations often change the kinetics of enzymes as part of post-translational regulation mechanisms. An overview is given of these interactions between enzyme molecules or between enzyme molecules and structural elements in the cell, such as the cytoskeleton. Biochemical and histochemical methods are discussed that have been developed for in vivo and in situ analyses of enzyme reactions, particularly for the study of effects of molecular interactions. Quantitative (histochemical) analysis of local enzyme reactions or fluxes of metabolites has become increasingly important. At present, it is possible to calculate local concentrations of substrates in cells or tissue compartments and to express local kinetic parameters in units that are directly comparable with those obtained by biochemical assays of enzymes in suspensions. In situ analysis of the activities of a number of enzymes have revealed variations in their kinetic properties (Km and Vmax) in different tissue compartments. This stresses the importance of in vivo or in situ analyses of cellular metabolism. Finally, histochemical determinations of enzyme activity in parallel with immunohistochemistry for the detection of the total number of enzyme molecules and in situ hybridization of its messenger RNA allow the analysis of regulation mechanisms at all levels between transcription of the gene and post-translational activity modulation.