Assays coupled

Another quite general approach is to employ a coupled assay (Figure 7-10). Typically, a dehydrogenase whose substrate is the product of the enzyme of interest is added in catalytic excess. The rate of appearance or disappearance of NAD(P)H then depends on the rate of the enzyme reaction to which the dehydrogenase has been coupled. 

The possibility of isolating the components of the two above-reported coupled reactions offered a new analytical way to determine NADH, FMN, aldehydes, or oxygen. Methods based on NAD(P)H determination have been available for some time and NAD(H)-, NADP(H)-, NAD(P)-dependent enzymes and their substrates were measured by using bioluminescent assays. The high redox potential of the couple NAD+/NADH tended to limit the applications of dehydrogenases in coupled assay, as equilibrium does not favor NADH formation. Moreover, the various reagents are not all perfectly stable in all conditions. Examples of the enzymes and substrates determined by using the bacterial luciferase and the NAD(P)H FMN oxidoreductase, also coupled to other enzymes, are listed in Table 5. 

The reaction mixture for a coupled assay includes the substrates for the initial or test enzyme and also the additional enzymes and reagents necessary to convert the product of the first reaction into a detectable product of the final reaction. The enzyme aspartate aminotransferase (EC 2.6.1.1), for instance, results in the formation of oxaloacetate, which can be converted to malic acid by the enzyme malate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.37) with the simultaneous conversion of NADH to NAD+, a reaction which can be followed spectropho-tometrically at 340 nm ... 

It is essential to identify the need for any activators and to determine their optimal concentrations. In many coupled assays it is not uncommon to find that an activator for one enzyme can inhibit another. The selected optimum concentration of all activators must be checked against all the other enzymes for any possible inhibition effects. Problems can often be solved by careful control of concentrations and by increasing the amounts of any inhibited supplementary enzymes. 

The only rate-limiting factor in a coupled assay should be the concentration of the initial and linking products and all other reagents should be in excess. The role of the auxiliary and indicator enzymes is essentially that of a substrate assay system and under optimum assay conditions the rate of the indicator reaction should be equal to the rate of formation of the initial product. The indicator reaction must be capable of matching the different test reaction rates and its velocity can be defined by the Michaelis-Menten equation in the usual way ... 

Figure 8.13 Typical reaction trace of a coupled enzyme assay. The indicator reaction in many coupled assays will often show a demonstrable change after the addition of the sample but before the addition of the substrate for the test enzyme. This blank reaction may be due to the presence of endogenous substrates in the sample and its rate (B) must be measured in order to be able to calculate the activity of the test enzyme (T —B) from the total rate of reaction (7) which results from adding the substrate.

In coupled assays, it is essential that the concentration of the indicator enzyme be kept low... 

Coupled enzyme assays provide a good alternative to chemical modification and permit a kinetic technique to be employed. In a coupled assay, the rate at which the product is formed is measured by using the product of the reaction as a substrate for a second enzyme reaction which can be monitored more easily. Coupled assays offer great flexibility in enzyme methodology while still retaining all the advantages of continuous monitoring techniques and are illustrated by Procedure 8.5. 

The enzyme is activated by magnesium ions, has an optimum pH of about 7.5 and offers a very sensitive assay method for ATP but has much wider applications when used in coupled assays with ATP-converting enzymes. 

A wide range of coupled assays involving ATP, NAD(P)H and FMN can be developed using these two enzymes and provide increased levels of sensitivity over other coupled assays (Procedure 8.7). 

The presence of a lag period in many coupled assays and difficulties in determining the linear portion of a curve present the main problems in the calculation of enzyme activity using reaction rate analysers. In the simplest instruments the slope of the curve in the first few seconds of the reaction is extrapolated into a straight line or, if the reaction is known to show a lag period, the rate of reaction after a defined period of time can be measured. The more sophisticated instruments use microcomputers to determine the linear portion of the curve and calculate the enzyme activity directly from the slope. The second derivative of the reaction progress curve (rate of change of the slope) can be monitored by the computer and when a value of zero is held for a period of time (10—15 seconds) this indicates a linear section of the graph. From the value for the slope, the enzyme activity can be calculated. 

As the enzyme itself is usually the focus of interest, information on the behavior of that enzyme can be obtained by incubating the enzyme with a suitable substrate under appropriate conditions. A suitable substrate in this context is one which can be quantified by an available detection system (often absorbance or fluorescence spectroscopy, radiometry or electrochemistry), or one which yields a product that is similarly detectable. In addition, if separation of substrate from product is necessary before quantification (for example, in radioisotopic assays), this should be readily achievable. It is preferable, although not always possible, to measure the appearance of product, rather than the disappearance of substrate, because a zero baseline is theoretically possible in the former case, improving sensitivity and resolution. Even if a product (or substrate) is not directly amenable to an available detection method, it maybe possible to derivatize the product with a chemical species to form a detectable adduct, or to subject a product to a second enzymatic step (known as a coupled assay, discussed further later) to yield a detectable product. But, regardless of whether substrate, product, or an adduct of either is measured, the parameter we are interested in determining is the initial rate of change of concentration, which is determined from the initial slope of a concentration versus time plot. 

EuLISA based on primary and Eu-labeled secondary antibody Based on primary and peroxidase-labeled secondary antibody EuLISA based on primary and Eu-labeled secondary antibody Peroxidase-coupled assay... 

Rate experiments that are typically carried out in the presence of different concentrations of an alternative product (or product analog) while using the normal substrates . This approach can be particularly useful when the normal product cannot be used because it is unstable, insoluble, or ineffective (the latter indicated by a very high Ki value). Moreover, the normal product may be consumed as an essential substrate in a coupled assay system for the primary enzyme. Fromm and Zewe used the alternative product inhibition approach in their study of hexokinase. Wratten and Cleland later applied this procedure to exclude the Theorell-Chance mechanism for liver alcohol dehydrogenase. See Abortive Complexes... 

The components of the coupling system should neither inhibit nor activate the primary enzyme. Moreover, care must be exercized to ascertain that the auxiliary enzyme (s) is not contaminated with other minor enzyme activities capable of influencing the primary enzymatic activity. The results from any coupled enzyme assay must exactly match the results obtained with other valid initial rate assays to ensure that the presence of the auxiliary system in no way affects the activity of the primary enzyme. This is typically accomplished by comparing data obtained from the coupled assay with stopped-time assay results to ensure that similar results are obtained. 

Even under seemingly ideal conditions, the steady-state concentration of the first reaction product may exceed the inhibitory constant for the binding of that product to the primary enzyme. In such cases, the linearity of the coupled assay can be misleading, and the investigator must validate the coupled enzyme kinetic data by direct comparison with the results obtained by another technique such as a stopped-time radiometric assay. This... 

Easterby proposed a generalized theory of the transition time for sequential enzyme reactions where the steady-state production of product is preceded by a lag period or transition time during which the intermediates of the sequence are accumulating. He found that if a steady state is eventually reached, the magnitude of this lag may be calculated, even when the differentiation equations describing the process have no analytical solution. The calculation may be made for simple systems in which the enzymes obey Michaehs-Menten kinetics or for more complex pathways in which intermediates act as modifiers of the enzymes. The transition time associated with each intermediate in the sequence is given by the ratio of the appropriate steady-state intermediate concentration to the steady-state flux. The theory is also applicable to the transition between steady states produced by flux changes. Apphcation of the theory to coupled enzyme assays makes it possible to define the minimum requirements for successful operation of a coupled assay. The theory can be extended to deal with sequences in which the enzyme concentration exceeds substrate concentration. 

Provide a reference or direct experimental proof that the conditions chosen do provide initial rate measurements. At a minimum, the percentage of substrate consumed during the course of an initial rate determination should be specified. One should also show that under initial rate conditions a doubling of enzyme concentration should exactly produce a doubling in the observed initial rate. Likewise, if an auxiliary enzyme assay is used to monitor the primary enzyme s activity the observed rate at low or high substrate concentration should not depend on the concentration of additional enzyme(s), substrate(s), or factors used for the coupled assay. 2. Describe all assay conditions (eg., concentrations of substrates, products, inhibitors, and/or activators enzyme concentration temperature pH and buffer composition ... 

Fig. 7. Enzyme-coupled assay in which the hydrolase-catalyzed reaction releases acetic acid. The latter is converted by acetyl-CoA synthetase (ACS) into acetyl-CoA in the presence of (ATP) and coenzyme A (CoA). Citrate synthase (CS) catalyzes the reaction between acetyl-CoA and oxaloacetate to give citrate. The oxaloacetate required for this reaction is formed from L-malate and NAD in the presence of L-malate dehydrogenase (l-MDH). Initial rates of acetic acid formation can thus be determined by the increase in adsorption at 340 nm due to the increase in NADH concentration. Use of optically pure (Ry- or (5)-acetates allows the determination of the apparent enantioselectivity i app i81)-...

Glucose was determined by the glucose oxidase-peroxidase method. Cellobiose (liberated enzymatically from methylcellotrioside) was determined in a coupled assay using cellobiose dehydrogenase from Sporotrichum thermophile (4). 

The activity of complex V (ATP synthase) can be conveniently measured in the reverse direction, ATP hydrolysis with a coupled assay thereafter described [72] (Fig. 3.8.6). The use of oligomycin, a specific inhibitor of the enzyme, allows discrimination of the mitochondrial enzyme from any nonmitochondrial ATPases. 

Figure 15-2 Absorption spectra of NAD+ and NADH. Spectra of NADP+ and NADPH are nearly the same as these. The difference in absorbance between oxidized and reduced forms at 340 nm is the basis for what is probably the single most often used spectral measurement in biochemistry. Reduction of NAD+ or NADP+ or oxidation of NADH or NADPH is measured by changes in absorbance at 340 nm in many methods of enzyme assay. If a pyridine nucleotide is not a reactant for the enzyme being studied, a coupled assay is often possible. For example, the rate of enzymatic formation of ATP in a process can be measured by adding to the reaction mixture the following enzymes and substrates hexokinase + glucose + glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase + NADP+. As ATP is formed, it phosphorylates glucose via the action of hexokinase. NADP+ then oxidizes the glucose 6-phosphate that is formed with production of NADPH, whose rate of appearance is monitored at 340 nm.

The poor accessibility of the a-nitrogen and its reduced nucleophilicity due to Np-protection requires strong N -acylating conditions. Coupling assays of Boc-Pro-OH or Fmoc-Pro-OH with H-(ZNH)Gly-OEt under various conditions show that the best yield is obtained with a symmetric anhydride or an acyl chloride.[93 The symmetric anhydride method affords Z-Protp[CO-N(NH2)]Ala-NHiPr (78) in 55% yield (Scheme 22)P1 ... 

Cost-selectivity equation 395-399 Coupled assays 196 Covalent catalysis 62, 77-85 see also nucleophilic catalysis Creatine kinase 264, 266 Crotonase 108, 166 Cryoenzymology 40 Crystalline enzymes activity 45 water content 39 Curie 196... 

---