Effects of Alcohols on the Hydrolysis of Colominic Acid Catalyzed by Streptococcus Neuraminidase1

Abstract

Regulation of the activity of neuraminidase of Streptococcus sp. (group K) was evaluated by examining the effects of alcohols on the hydrolysis of colominic acids catalyzed by the neuraminidase. Two kinds of alcohol binding site, activation and inhibition sites, were proposed to exist. Competitive inhibition was observed with alcohols smaller than polyethylene glycol #300 (average molecular weight: 300), so the inhibition site is considered to be the substrate binding site, the size of which was estimated to be 10 A in diameter. On the contrary, polyethylene glycols larger than this size activated the enzyme by 1.5-1.8 times. The activity could be raised by binding of the polyethylene glycols to the activation site. This activation was shown to be due solely to the decrease in the Michaelis constant, Km. The smaller polyethylene glycols (#200 and #300) were also considered to bind to the activation site, although activation was not clearly observed due to compensation with inhibition. Strong substrate inhibition by colominic acid was also observed. The activity of Streptococcus neuraminidase was shown to be regulated intricately by the substrate colominic acid and alcohols contained in the reaction medium.