A comparison of nitrophenyl esters and lactones as substrates of cytosolic aldehyde dehydrogenase

Interaction of human aldehyde dehydrogenase with aromatic substrates and ligands

The substrate benzaldehyde (but not propionaldehyde) could elute aldehyde dehydrogenase from a p-hydroxyacetophenone-affinity column, and inhibit the esterase activity (K(i)=47 microM), indicating that this simple aromatic aldehyde binds to the free enzyme and possibly in the substrate-binding site. Thus, the kinetic mechanism for aldehyde dehydrogenase might be dependent upon which aldehyde is used in the reaction. Chloramphenicol which also elutes the enzyme from the affinity column, shows a discriminatory effect by inhibiting the ALDH1 oxidation of benzaldehyde and activating that of propionaldehyde while showing no effect when assayed with hexanal or cyclohexane-carboxaldehyde. Chloramphenicol is an uncompetitive inhibitor against NAD when benzaldehyde is the substrate. We propose that this drug might interact with both the benzaldehyde and NAD binding sites.

The use of chromogenic reference substrates for the kinetic analysis of penicillin acylases

Determination of kinetic parameters of penicillin acylases for phenylacetylated compounds is complicated due to the low K(m) values for these substrates, the lack of a spectroscopic signal, and the strong product inhibition by phenylacetic acid. To overcome these difficulties, a spectrophotometric method was developed, with which kinetic parameters could be determined by measuring the effects on the hydrolysis of the chromogenic reference substrate 2-nitro-5-[(phenylacetyl)amino]benzoic acid (NIPAB). To that end, spectrophotometric progress curves with NIPAB in the absence and presence of the phenylacetylated substrates and their products were measured and analyzed by numerical fitting to the appropriate equations for competing substrates with product inhibition. This analysis yielded kinetic constants for phenylacetylated substrates such as penicillin G, which are in close agreement with those obtained in independent initial velocity experiments. Using NIPAB analogs with lower k(cat)/K(m) values, kinetic parameters for the hydrolysis of cephalexin and penicillin V were determined. This method was suitable for determining the kinetic constants of penicillin acylases in periplasmic extracts from Escherichia coli, Alcaligenes faecalis, and Kluyvera citrophila. The use of chromogenic reference substrates thus appears to be a rapid and reliable method for determining kinetic constants with various substrates and enzymes.

Studies of the esterase activity of cytosolic aldehyde dehydrogenase with resorufin acetate as substrate

Resorufin acetate is a very good substrate for sheep liver cytosolic aldehyde dehydrogenase, both from the point of view of practical spectrophotometry and in terms of information provided about the nature of the catalysis shown by this enzyme. p-Nitrophenyl (PNP) acetate competes against resorufin acetate for the enzyme's active site (although relatively weakly as the latter substrate has the lower Michaelis constant), but acetaldehyde (in the presence of NAD+) inhibits the hydrolysis of resorufin acetate only at very high aldehyde concentration. In the absence of cofactor, the rate-limiting step in the hydrolysis of resorufin acetate and of PNP acetate is hydrolysis of the common acetyl-enzyme, as shown by the observation of bursts of chromophoric product and very similar values of kcat. In the presence of NAD+ or NADH, however, the deacylation step with resorufin acetate is greatly accelerated until acylation seems to become rate-limiting, because no burst is seen under these conditions. Millimolar concentrations of Mg2+ activate the hydrolyis of resorufin acetate both in the presence and absence of cofactors. With both Mg2+ and cofactor the kcat for hydrolysis of resorufin acetate is 30-35 s-1; this is three orders of magnitude higher than the kcat for aldehyde oxidation in the presence of Mg2+, showing that the enzyme's potential catalytic efficency is very much hampered by the slowness with which NADH dissociates from its binding site. The pH profile for the hydrolysis of resorufin acetate in the presence of NAD+ or NADH fits well to a theoretical ionization curve of pKa approx. 8.2; it is suggested that this might belong to the enzyme's putative catalytic residue (Cys-302).