Enzyme Assays Acid Phosphatase Activity

Enzyme-sensitive supramolecular polymers also hold promise in analytical applications such as the screening of enzyme inhibitors. A simple visual assay based on the hydrogelation of small molecules has been developed for screening the activities of inhibitors of enzymes like acid phosphatase. A number of inhibitors for... 

An approximate idea of the distribution of acid phosphatase activity in human tissues, regardless of the nature of the acid phosphatase, may be obtained from the studies of Reis (R2) on 5 -nucleotidase and other phosphomonoesterases. He prepared aqeuous homogenates of postmortem tissue in the proportion of 20 parts of water to one of tissue, allowed these to autolyze for 2 days at room temperature, centrifuged the material, and employed the supernatant fluid. The assay mixture consisted of 0.4 ml of a suitable buffer, 0.1 ml of 0.005 Af phenyl phosphate as substrate, and 0.1 ml of tissue extract. The enzyme activity was expressed as micrograms of phosphorus hydrolyzed per hour per milligram of wet... 

However, the acid phosphatase activity of rat iiver lysosomes has recently been resolved into at least two enzymes [531]. Acid phosphatase is used in subcellular fractionation studies as a marker enzyme for lysosomes. Both acid phosphatase [E.C. 3.1.3.2] and alkaline phosphatase [E.C. 3.1.3.1] activities should not be confused with other specific phosphatases with high specificity requirements for substrate, e.g. glucose-6-phos-phatase, fructose-l,6-diphosphatase, phosphatidate phosphatase. Several assay procedures are available, u.v. estimation can be achieved using phosphoenolpyruvate as a substrate and lactate dehydrogenase in an indicator reaction [539]. Colorimetric assays can be based upon the liberation of phenol from phenylphosphate [540], upon the Uberation of phosphate from sodium /3-glycerophosphate [541], upon the hydrolysis of sodium phenolphthalein phosphate [542], or upon the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl phosphate [543]. 

When acid DNase activity is assayed by the acid-solubility method the optimal DNA concentration is 0.4 mg/ml (9) and higher substrate concentrations appear to be inhibitory (16, 21, 34)- It has been shown, however, that this inhibition is because increasing substrate concentration decreases the efficiency of acid-soluble oligonucleotide release since the number of breaks per unit length of DNA is lower. If a direct method of estimating enzymic activity is used, such as the determination of phosphatase-sensitive phosphate, it can be shown that the inhibition by high substrate seen by the acid solubility method is only apparent (34)-... 

Two major difficulties must be considered in any assay for acid phosphatase. The enzyme is subject to surface inactivation (23, 24). Accordingly, reproducible initial hydrolytic rates are not always obtained, and the kinetic behavior should be checked in any new assay developed. Discrepancies between the amount of inorganic phosphate produced and phenol liberated from phenolic phosphates may be substantial if extensive phosphotransferase activity occurs because of phosphoryl acceptor action on the part of hydroxylic buffers or other constituents of the incubation mixture (25, 26). Fluorogenic assays have been developed with very high sensitivity (27). Reference will be made to particular assays in the discussion of the specific enzymes. 

Fig. 3. Surface inactivation rate of prostatic acid phosphatase by shaking and protection by added surface-active agent. Shaking mixtures (20 ml) contained purified enzyme (056 /ug of protein/ml) in 0.05 M acetate buffer at pH 5.5. The solutions were shaken in 50 ml volumetric flasks using a mechanical shaker (Burrell, model CC). Temperatures were maintained by immersion of the flasks in an appropriately set water bath. After specified intervals of shaking, duplicate 0.1 ml ahquots were removed into tubes containing Triton X-100. All tubes were assayed simultaneously, following the shaking procedure, with 0.05 M phenyl phosphate as substrate. Curve 1 Enzyme + Triton X-100 at 0°C and 29°C. Curve 2 Enzyme alone at 0°C. Curve 3 Enzyme alone at 29°C. From Tsuboi and Hudson (88).

MacDonald (99) showed that mouse liver acid phosphatase required active sulfhydryl groups for activity and that malonate buffer, pH 5.9, was useful for the assay of this enzyme because it stabilized the enzyme during the period of the assay. 

Alkaline and acid phosphatase are organ-specific enzymes that are assayed in the diagnosis of many diseases. These activities are phosphomonoesterases that dephosphorylate a number of compounds, including nucleoside monophosphates, to their respective nucleosides and free phosphates. However, such dephosphorylations have traditionally been assayed with 4-nitrophenyl... 

Stor e characteristics of the native enzyme are generally good, with activities maintained over years. Alkaline phosphatase conjugates are usually prepared via amino or carboxylic acid side chains and purified by gel filtration chromatography. Conjugates are very stable, but the enzyme is costly due to the limited supply of calf intestine. Alkaline (and also neutral and acid) phosphatase enzymes in biological samples are a potential problem with the use of this enzyme label. Careful washing of solid phases may be required to ensure no interference in assays. 

Place 1 qt methanol (tightly capped) in a - 20°C freezer overnight. 10-4. Place at least 2 liters glass-distilled water at 4°C overnight. Figure 10-17 is a schematic flow chart of the operations involved in partial purification of acid phosphatase. Supernatant solutions enclosed in rectangles on the flow chart are to be sampled for later assay of enzyme activity and protein concentration. 

Another variant of PP2A assay is the one reported by Isobe et al. [166] where a firefly bioluminescence system is used for the detection of protein phosphatase 2A inhibitors, in which luciferin phosphate is hydrolyzed to luciferin and inorganic phosphate by protein phosphatase 2A. The recent commercial availability of the phosphatase enzymes, which obviates the need to isolate them from animal tissues, also makes this approach very attractive. However, not all microcystins variants react with protein phosphatase enzymes to a similar extent [161,163] and the assay is sensitive to protein phosphatase inhibitors other than microcystins, such as okadaic acid, tautomycin, and calyculin A. In addition, the cyanobacterial sample itself may contain phosphatase activity that masks the presence of toxins [160]. As a consequence, the lack of specificity of the protein phosphatase inhibition assays requires that additional confirmatory analytical methods be employed for specific analysis of cyanobacterial toxins. 

The acid phosphatase (ACP) method, developed by Bellavite et al. [151], is based on acid phosphatase platelet activity. Acid phosphatase is a stable enzyme present in platelets. This method is similar to the LDH method. It uses regular PRP and the same Triton-X to completely lyse attached platelets. But in this test, a different enzyme (acid phosphatase) is measnred. On addition of p-nitrophenyl phosphate snbstrate, acid phosphatase converts the snbstrate into p-nitrophenol, which can be easily measnred by a photospectrometer at a wavelength of 405 nm. Side-by-side comparison of both DCH and ACP assays snggests that the ACP assay is better than the LDH assay in terms of reproducibility [152]. 

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