Substrate-Specific Enhancement of the Oxidative Half-Reaction of Monoamine Oxidase

Monoamine oxidases A and B have identical flavin sites but different, although overlapping, amine substrate specificity. Reoxidation of ternary complexes containing substrate is much faster than of free enzyme, and the enhancement is greater in the A form than the B form. The oxidative half-reaction was studied with a variety of substrates to elucidate the specificity of the effect and to probe the different influences of substrate on the flavin reoxidation in the two forms of the enzyme. The second-order rate constant for the reoxidation was highest with monoamine oxidase A when kynuramine was the ligand (508 × 103 M−1 s−1) compared to 4 × 103 M−1 s−1 in its absence. MPTP (166 × 103 M−1 s−1) also enhanced reoxidation well, but indole substrates stimulated only poorly (e.g., tryptamine, 29 × 103 M−1 s−1; serotonin, 50 × 103 M−1 s−1). For the A form, the reduction of the flavin was rate-limiting in all cases. For the B form, reoxidation was rate-limiting for β-phenylethylamine and contributed to the determination of the overall rate with several substrates. The ratio of the enhanced rate of oxidation to the rate of reduction correlated with the redox state of the enzyme in turnover experiments. All the observations are consistent with alternate paths of reoxidation, via either free enzyme or a reduced enzyme-substrate complex. The flux through each path is determined by the relative dissociation constants and rate constants.