Adler, C.

Curtius, H.-Ch

Herrmann, F. H.

Petruschka, L.

Rebrin, I.

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Rebrin et al.: Pterin 4a-carbinolamine dehydratase 55 Pteridines Vol. 3, pp. 5 5 - 5 7 Short Communication Human Liver Pterin 4 a-Carbinolamine Dehydratase. Purification and Characterization I. Rebrin, L. Petruschka, H.-Ch. Curtius*, C. Adler* and F. H. Herrmann Institute of Medical Genetics, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University, Fleischmannstr. 42 — 44, D/0-2200 Greifswald, Fed. Rep. of Germany * Department of Pediatrics, Division of Clinical Chemistry, University of Zürich, Switzerland (Received March 1992) Introduction The pterin 4a-carbinolamine dehydratase (P4aCD) is an enzyme that catalyzed the dehydration of the 4a-carbinolamine, the tetrahydrobiopterin derived inter-mediate product by phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) catalyzed reaction, to form q-dihydropterin. The de-hydratase is of special interest because it is proposed, that a new variant form of hyperphenylalaninemia (primapterinuria) can be caused by absence of this enzyme. Recently, Curtius et al. have described pa-tients with characteristic excretion of 7-substituted pterins (primapterin, anapterin and 6-oxo-prima-pterin) in urine (1). New data on the formation of primapterin during PAH catalyzed reaction in the absence of dehydratase and the proposed detailed chemical mechanism for 7-substituted pterin forma-tion suggest the evidence, that the enzyme P4aCD can be deficient in these patients (2). In order to study the novel aspects of PAH catalyzed reaction and the mechanism of 7-substituted pterin formation, we de-scribed purification procedure for dehydratase from human liver, partial characterization of this enzyme and comparison with P4aCD from rat liver. Materials Phenyl Sepharose CL-4B, chromatofocussing kit, Se-pacryl S-200 HR were purchased from Pharmacia. Hydroxylapatite Biogel HT was from Bio-Rad. The human livers were obtained from kidney transplan-tation donors and used immediately. Methods Purification P4aCD All procedures were performed at 4 °C, unless oth-erwise stated. 200 g liver was homogenized in buffer A (0.03 M Tris/ HCl, pH 7.4, 0.02 m L-phenylalanine, 0.75 M KCl). The homogenate was centrifuged at 105 g for 60 min and supernatant (liver extract) was incubated at 25 °C for 10 min (3). The activated extract was applied to phenyl Sepharose column (5.10 χ 10 cm) which was equilibrated with buffer A containing 0.1% Tween 80 (flow rate was 800 ml/h). The column was washed with 250 ml buffer A and then with 1000 ml buffer Β (0.03 m Tris/HCl, pH 7.4, 0.01 m L-phenylalanine, 0.15 M KCl and 4.8% dimethylformamide). The first 2.5 bed volumes of the dimethylformamide containing wash were collected and solid (NH4)2S04 was added to obtain 80% saturation. The precipitate was col-lected by centrifugation, dissolved in a small volume of buffer C (5 mM potasium phosphate buffer, pH 6.8, 0.1 M KCl) and dialyzed against the same buffer. The dialyzed sample was applied to a Biogel HT column (3.2 χ 18cm), washed with 250 ml buffer C and eluted with 20 mM potassium phosphate buffer, pH 6.8, 0.1 M KCl. The fractions containing enzyme activity were precipitated with 60% (NH4)2S04. The precipitate was dissolved in a small volume of 0.025 M imidazol buffer, pH 7.4, and dialyzed against the same buffer. The sample was separated on a chromatofo-cussing column (1.0 χ 30 cm) with pH gradient from 7.4 to 5.0 according instructions from Pharmacia. Pteridines / Vol. 3 / No. 1/2 Copyright © 1992 Walter de Gruyter · Berlin • New York 56 Rebrin et al.: Pterin 4a-carbinolamine dehydratase Table 1. Purification of pterin 4a-carbinolamine dehydratase from human liver. Purification step Total Activity (units3) Total Protein (mg) Specific Activity (units/mg) Purification (-fold) Yield (%) Crude extract 2336 14500 0.16 1 100 Phenyl Sepharose/80% (NH4)2S04 1817 790 2.3 14 78 Biogel HT pool 1525 82 18.6 116 65 Chromatofocussing pool 1060.5 10.1 105.0 656 45 Gel filtration pool 940.5 4.5 158.0 990 30 a 1 unit is defined as 1 μηιοί tyrosine formed per 30 min P4aCD active fractions were pooled, concentrated to 1.5 ml (Amicon Centriprep-10) and separated on a Sephacryl S-200 HR column (1.6 χ 100 cm) with buffer C at flow rate of 25 ml/h. The final dehydratase pool was concentrated and stored at — 80 °C. The dehydratase from rat liver was purified according to the method of Parniak (4), followed by two further purification steps: column chromatofocussing and gel filtration. Dehydratase-free PAH was obtained ac-cording to Shiman (3). The activity of enzymes were assayed fluorimetrically (5). Results The purification of P4aCD was 990-fold as deter-mined by the enzyme assay, based on stimulation of PAH activity (5), and represents a 30% yield (Table 1). Absorption chromatography and column chro-matofocussing were the main purification steps in our procedure (Table 1). The isoelectric point for human liver enzyme upon chromatofocussing was estimated as 5.25. The last purification step resulted in a single symmetrical peak of activity, corresponding to an Mr of 45 000. SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis of the enzyme activity peak eluted from the size column demonstrated the presence of a single 11 000-Mr com-ponent. The enzymes were separated by SDS gel elec-trophoresis and after entrapment of liberated phos-phate the gel was stained with methyl green. Both enzymes (from rat and from human liver) showed a bright green colored band specifically for phospho-proteins (data not shown). The amino acid composi-tion of purified enzymes was also determined and high level of glutamic acid, aspartic acid, alanine and leucine were detected (Table 2). Discussion We have described the purification of P4aCD from human liver by 990-fold with a recovery of 30%. This is a simple purification protocol utilizing a four col-umn procedure that includes a phenyl Sepharose step, Table 2. Comparison of amino acid composition of rat and human pterin 4a-carbinolamine dehydratase. Amino acid Residues/mol of subunit P4aCD Human liver Rat liver Rat liver" Lysine 5.4 4.7 6.1 Histidine 4.2 4.6 5.4 Arginine 5.9 5.9 7.6 Cysteine & 1.2 1.1 1.4 Cystic acid 1.2 1.1 1.4 Aspartic acid 9.9 9.9 12.1 Threonine 3.9 3.9 4.4 Serine 3.7 4.3 5.8 Glutamine acid 12.9 12.6 14.8 Proline 3.1 2.7 3.3 Glycine 5.7 6.3 6.6 Alanine 9.8 9.3 10.8 Valine 5.4 5.2 6.6 Methionine 0.9 0.9 1.9 Isoleucine 3.6 3.8 4.7 Leucine 9.3 9.1 11.4 Tyrosine 0.8 0.8 1.5 Phenylalanine 6.6 6.7 7.6 Tryptophan ND N D 1.0 Mr 11 000 11000 12900 " Values from Huang et al. (5) absorption chromatography, column chromatofo-cussing and gel filtration chromatography. Approxi-mately 80% of the dehydratase activity was bound and eluted from phenyl Sepharose column under the conditions employed (use of 0.75 M KCl in homoge-nization buffer). This step in the purification was based on the previous finding that rat liver P4aCD bound strongly to hydrophobic support in the buffer with high ionic strength (0.5 M KCl) and could be eluted by decreasing it (4). Remarkably, the PAH bind strongly to phenyl Sepharose by substrate in-duced interaction (3). Our purification procedure has the additional advantage that both enzymes involved in phenylalanine hydroxylation can be conveniently obtained from the same human liver sample, similar as described for rat enzymes (4). It is likely that the native human liver dehydratase (Mr 45 000) consist of four subunits with equal Mr Pteridines / Vol. 3 / No. 1/2 Rebrin et air. Pterin 4 a-carbinolamine dehydratase 57 of 11 000, as it has been shown for rat liver enzyme (5). The acidic properties of P4aCD (pi = 5.25) are confirmed by estimated high level of dicarbon amino acid after amino acid analysis (Table 2). Physicochem-ical studies suggest that the enzyme from human liver is very similar to that from rat liver: Mr, subunit number, pi, amino acid composition, both enzyme are might be phosphoproteins. However, further stud-ies are required to start the characterization of pri-mapterinuric patients by means of biochemical, im-munological and molecular-biological methods. References 1. Curtius, H.-Ch., Küster, Th., Matasovic. Α., Blau. Ν. & Dhondt, J. L. (1988) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 153, 715-721. 2. Curtius, C.-Ch., Adler, C., Rebrin, I., Heizmann, C. & Ghisla, S. (1990) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 172, 1 0 6 0 - 1 0 6 6 . 3. Shiman, R. (1987) in: Methods in Enzymology 1987 (Kauf-man, S., ed.) pp. 17 — 27, Academic Press, Inc., Orlando. 4. Parniak, M. A. (1990) in: Chemistry and Biology of Pteridines 1989 (Curtius, H.-Ch., Ghisla, S. & Blau, Ν., eds.) pp. 6 5 6 -659, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin. 5. Huang, C. Y„ Max, E. & Kaufman, S. (1973) J. Biol. Chem. 248, 4235-4241. Pteridines / Vol.3 / No. 1/2 

Human Liver Pterin 4 a-Carbinolamine Dehydratase. Purification and Characterization

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