Myoglobin coupled oxidation

Prior to the purification of heme oxygenase in sufficient quantities to carry out in vitro studies, the coupled oxidation of myoglobin was... 

Although the coupled oxidation reaction closely resembles the enzymatic reaction, it may not be identical. One clear difference is that heme free in solution is oxidized at all four meso positions 40), heme in myoglobin only at the a-meso position 6, 46) and heme in hemoglobin at the a- and -positions 6, 46). Prior to the observation that hemin in... 

Sigman JA, Wang X, Lu Y (2001) Coupled oxidation of heme by myoglobin is mediated by exogenous peroxide. J Am Chem Soc 123 6945-6946... 

The first electrochemical studies of Mb were reported for the horse heart protein in 1942 (94) and subsequently for sperm whale Mb (e.g., 95) through use of potentiometric titrations employing a mediator to achieve efficient equilibriation of the protein with the electrode (96). More recently, spectroelectrochemical measurements have also been employed (97, 98). The alternative methods of direct electrochemistry (99-102) that are used widely for other heme proteins (e.g., cytochrome c, cytochrome bs) have not been as readily applied to the study of myoglobin because coupling the oxidation-reduction eqiulibrium of this protein to a modified working electrode surface has been more difficult to achieve. As a result, most published electrochemical studies of wild-type and variant myoglobins have involved measurements at eqiulibrium rather than dynamic techniques. 

The cytochrome c oxidase protein is thought to consist of two heme iron centers (heme a with two axial histidines and heme 03 with one axial histidine (analogous to myoglobin)) and two copper centers (Cua with two histidine, two cysteine, and one water/tyrosine ligand in its oxidized state and Cub with three histidine, one methionine, and one H2O/HO" ligands). The CuA/heme a pair constitute two coupled, one-electron redox couples (low potential, 0.4V) that facilitate (a) electron transfer from cytochrome c(Fe ) at the matrix side of the inner mitochondrial membrane as well as (b) proton transfer from the mitochondrial matrix across the inner membrane to the cytosol. At the cytosol side of the inner mitochondrial membrane, the CuB/heme a- pair constitute the binding site for O2 as well as the conduit for its high-potential four-electron, four-proton reduction to two H2O molecules. 

Spectroscopic data obtained from spectroelectrochemical experiments require careful and case-specific analysis. The Fe /Fe redox couple has a unique role in diflferent iron-containing proteins. It is hypothesised that the mammalian iron-transport protein transferrin uses the Fe /Fe redox couple as a switch that controls the time and site-specific release of iron, while other iron-containing proteins, such as myoglobin, are able to hold on to iron in both oxidation states. Therefore, it is very important to evaluate the protein and its interaction with both the oxidised and reduced states of iron and accordingly develop a data-analysis model. The spectroelectrochemical response of an iron binding protein can be ideal Nernstian, non-Nernstian resulting from coupled... 

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