Bovine copper-zinc superoxide dismutase activity

The simplest direct assay was described by Marklund (1976). Superoxide was generated from its potassium salt at alkaline pH where its stability increases. The decay at 250 nm in the presence and absence of superoxide dismutase is measured in a standard spectrophotometer. The assay is carried out in such a way that the rate of a decay in the presence of the enzyme is within the time response of the apparatus (Fig. 1). One unit of activity is arbitrarily taken as the enzyme activity that results in the dismutation of O2 at a rate of 0. lsec . This rate of dismutation corresponds to 5.5 ng bovine copper/zinc superoxide dismutase and to 64.5 ng bovine manganese superoxide dismutase under the conditions described by Marklund (1976). The rate constants calculated for both enzymes were... 

Kamnakaran, C., Zhang, H., Crow, J.P., Anthohne, W.E., Kalyanaraman, B., 2004. Direct probing of copper active site and free radical formed during bicarbonate-dependent peroxidase activity of bovine and human copper, zinc-superoxide dismutases. Low-temperature electron paramagnetic resonance and electron nuclear double resonance studies. J. Biol. Chem. 279, 32534—32540. 

Water soluble protein with a relative molecular mass of ca. 32600, which particularly contains copper and zinc bound like chelate (ca. 4 gram atoms) and has superoxide-dismutase-activity. It is isolated from bovine liver or from hemolyzed, plasma free erythrocytes obtained from bovine blood. Purification by manyfold fractionated precipitation and solvolyse methods and definitive separation of the residual foreign proteins by denaturizing heating of the orgotein concentrate in buffer solution to ca. 65-70 C and gel filtration and/or dialysis. 

The structure and enzyme kinetics of bovine erythrocyte superoxide dismutase are reviewed. The protein has a novel imidazolate-bridged copper(II)-zinc(II) catalytic center in each of two identical subunits. Since a C /Cu1 redox couple is responsible for the dismutase activity of the enzyme, the role of zinc is of interest. Both 220-MHz NMR measurements of the exchangeable histidine protons and chemical modifications using diethylpyrocarbonate demonstrate that zinc alone can fold the protein chain in the region of the active site into a conformation resembling that of the native enzyme. Other possible roles for zinc are discussed. Synthetic, magnetic, and structural studies of soluble, imidazolate-bridged copper complexes of relevance to the 4 Cu(II) form of the enzyme have been made. 

Superoxide dismutase catalyzes the disproportionation of superoxide as 2O2 -i- 2H — O2 -I- H2O2. The Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutases are widely distributed in both plant and animal kingdoms and are found in eukaryotic cytosols. The vast majority of studies on superoxide dismutases have been made on the enzyme from bovine erythrocytes this enzyme contains 151 amino acid residues and two copper and two zinc atoms per molecule of —32,000 Da. The crystal structure of this protein has been reported (97), and the active site was shown to consist of a bimetallic (Cu,Zn) assembly (see Fig. 6). A type-2 copper center is... 

It has been concluded from a study of the optical and e.p.r. spectra of Co —Cu bovine superoxide dismutase, in which zinc has been replaced by cobalt, that the cobalt site reactivity should be described in terms of reaction of the Co-imidazolate-Cu system as a whole the crystal structure reported last year indicated that the metals were linked by a common histidine residue. There is an exchange interaction between the cobalt and copper however, this is abolished when the linking imidazole is protonated. Further evidence for the close proximity and interactive dependence of the zinc and copper binding sites was obtained from a study of the 4 Cu protein a two-fold enhancement of the activity of 2 Cu dismutase was observed upon occupation of the zinc sites by the Cu ". On the basis of C1 n.m.r. studies, Fee and Ward have suggested that one co-ordination position of Cu in superoxide dismutase is normally occupied by water they further suggest that superoxide can displace the solvent to form a cupric peroxide complex. 

The kinetics of formation of the intermediate complex between catalase and HgOa have been re-examined, and reports of pulse radiolysis experiments with superoxide dismutase and its manganese-containing form have appeared. Bovine superoxide dismutase is known to contain two Cu and two Zn atoms per molecule and it has been shown that the copper site, which is directly involved in the catalytic activity, comprises three nitrogens and a water molecule bound to the metal in a field with less than axial symmetry. Less is known of the zinc site but it has recently been shown, by e.p.r. spectroscopy with the cobalt-copper form of the enzyme, that the... 

---