Activity Of Cholesterol Oxidase Research Articles

Improved production of Bacillus subtilis cholesterol oxidase by optimization of process parameters using response surface methodology

BackgroundCholesterol oxidase has numerous biomedical and industrial applications. In the current study, a new bacterial strain was isolated from sewage and was selected for its high potency for cholesterol degradation (%) and production of high cholesterol oxidase activity (U/OD600). ResultsBased on the sequence of 16S rRNA gene, the bacterium was identified as Bacillus subtilis. The fermentation conditions affecting cholesterol degradation (%) and the activity of cholesterol oxidase (U/OD600) of B. subtilis were optimized through fractional factorial design (FFD) and response surface methodology (RSM). According to this sequential optimization approach, 80.152% cholesterol degradation was achieved by setting the concentrations of cholesterol, inoculum size, and magnesium sulphate at 0.05 g/l, 6%, and 0.05 g/l, respectively. Moreover, 85.461 U of cholesterol oxidase/OD600 were attained by adjusting the fermentation conditions at initial pH, 6; volume of the fermentation medium, 15 ml/flask; and concentration of cholesterol, 0.05 g/l. The optimization process improved cholesterol degradation (%) and the activity of cholesterol oxidase (U/OD600) by 139% and 154%, respectively. No cholesterol was detected in the spectroscopic analysis of the optimized fermented medium via gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC–MS). ConclusionThe current study provides principal information for the development of efficient production of cholesterol oxidase by B. subtilis that could be used in various applications.

A sensitive cholesterol electrochemical biosensor based on biomimetic cerasome and graphene quantum dots.

A simple and sensitive electrochemical cholesterol biosensor was fabricated based on ceramic-coated liposome (cerasome) and graphene quantum dots (GQDs) with good conductivity. The cerasome consists of a lipid-bilayer membrane and a ceramic surface as a soft biomimetic interface, and the mild layer-by-layer self-assembled method as the immobilization strategy on the surface of the modified electrode was used, which can provide good biocompatibility to maintain the biological activity of cholesterol oxidase (ChOx). The GQDs promoted electron transport between the enzyme and the electrode more effectively. The structure of the cerasome-forming lipid was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR). The morphology and characteristics of the cerasome and GQDs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), zeta potential, photoluminescence spectra (PL), etc. The proposed biosensors revealed excellent catalytic performance to cholesterol with a linear concentration range of 16.0 × 10-6-6.186 × 10-3mol/L, with a low detection limit (LOD) of 5.0 × 10-6mol/L. The Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) of ChOx was 5.46mmol/L, indicating that theimmobilized ChOx on the PEI/GQDs/PEI/cerasome-modified electrode has a good affinity to cholesterol. Moreover, the as-fabricatedelectrochemical biosensor exhibited good stability, anti-interference ability, and practical application for cholesterol detection.

Cytotoxic activity of cholesterol oxidase produced by Streptomyces sp. AKHSS against cancerous cell lines: mechanism of action in HeLa cells.

Re-occurrence of cancer is the major drawback for the currently available anticancer therapies. Therefore, study of an efficient enzyme, cholesterol oxidase produced by various kinds of microbes especially obtained from unexplored marine actinobacterial species against human cancer cell lines and understanding its mechanism of action helps to identify an irreversible and potent anticancer agent. The cytotoxic potential of cholesterol oxidase produced by a marine Streptomyces sp. AKHSS against four different human cancer cell lines was demonstrated through MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide] assay. Fluorescent confocal microscopy and flow cytometry based experiments were performed to understand the efficiency of the enzymatic action on HeLa cells. Further, the apoptotic related proteins were detected through western blotting. Interestingly, the enzyme exhibited potent cytotoxicity at very low concentrations (0.093-0.327µM) against all the cells tested. Fluorescent confocal microscopy revealed the morphological variations induced by the enzyme on cancer cell lines such as the formation of lipid droplets and condensation of nuclei. The enzyme treated cell-free extracts of HeLa cells analyzed through gas chromatography mass spectrometry showed the depletion of membrane cholesterol and the presence of substituted enzyme oxidized product, cholest-4-ene-3-one. The enzyme had induced significant inhibitory effects on the cell viability such as cell cycle arrest (G1 phase), apoptosis and rise of reactive oxygen species as evident through flow cytometry. Besides, hyperpolarization of mitochondrial membrane, reduced rates of phosphorylation of pAkt and the expression of apoptotic death markers like Fas, Fas L, caspases (8 and 3) and PARP-1 were recorded in the enzyme treated HeLa cells. Thus, cholesterol oxidase purified from a marine Streptomyces sp. AKHSS exhibits potent cytotoxicity at very low concentrations against human cancer cell lines. All the ex vivo experiments portrayed the substantial inhibitory effect of the enzyme on HeLa cells suggesting that cholesterol oxidase of Streptomyces sp. AKHSS could be a prominent cancer chemotherapeutic agent.

On-Site Colorimetric Detection of Cholesterol Based on Polypyrrole Nanoparticles.

Herein, we report a facile method for cholesterol detection by coupling the peroxidase-like activity of polypyrrole nanoparticles (PPy NPs) and cholesterol oxidase (ChOx). ChOx can catalyze the oxidation of cholesterol to produce H2O2. Subsequently, PPy NPs, as a nanozyme, induce the reaction between H2O2 and 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB). Under optimal conditions, the increase is proportional to cholesterol with concentrations from 10 to 800 μM in absorbance of TMB at 652 nm. The linear range for cholesterol is 10-100 μM, with a detection limit of 3.5 μM. This reported method is successfully employed for detection of cholesterol in human serum. The recovery percentage is ranged within 96-106.9%. Furthermore, we designed a facile and simple portable assay kit using the proposed system, realizing the on-site semiquantitative and visual detection of cholesterol in human serum. The cholesterol content detected from the portable assay kit were closely matching those obtained results from solution-based assays, thereby holding great potential in clinical diagnosis and health management.

Purification, characterization, and biological cytotoxic activity of the extracellular cholesterol oxidase produced by Castellaniella sp. COX

A new bacterial strain producing extracellular cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) was isolated and identified as Castellaniella sp. COX. The ChOx was purified by salting-out and ion-exchange chromatography up to 10.4-fold, with a specific activity of 15 U/mg with a molecular mass of 59 kDa. The purified ChOx exhibited pH 8.0 and temperature 40°C for its optimum activity. The enzyme showed stability over a wide pH range and was most stable at pH value 7.0, and at pH 8.0, it retained almost 86% of its initial activity after 3 h of incubation at 37°C. The enzyme possessed a half-life of 8 h at 37°C, 7 h at 40°C, and 3 h at 50°C. A Lineweaver-Burk plot was calibrated to determine its Km (0.16 mM) and Vmax (18.7 μmol·mg-1 ·min-1 ). The ChOx activity was enhanced with Ca2+ , Mg2+ , and Mn2+ while it was inhibited by Hg2+ , Ba2+ , Fe2+ , Cu2+ , and Zn2+ ions. Organic solvents like acetone, n-butanol, toluene, dimethyl sulfoxide, chloroform, benzene, and methanol were well tolerated by the enzyme while iso-propanol and ethanol were found to enhance the activity of purified ChOx. ChOx induced cytotoxicity with an IC50 value of 1.78 and 1.88 U/ml against human RD and U87MG established cell lines, respectively, while broadly sparing the normal human cells.

Artificial Neural Network Modeling to Predict the Non-Linearity in Reaction Conditions of Cholesterol Oxidase from <i>Streptomyces olivaceus</i> <i>MTCC</i> 6820

Cholesterol oxidase (COX) is widely used enzyme for total cholesterol estimation in human serum and for the fabrication of electro-chemical biosensors. COX is also used for the bioconversion of cholesterol; for the production of precursors of steroidal drugs and hormones. Enzyme activity depends decisively on defined conditions with respect to pH, temperature, ionic strength of the buffer, substrate concentration, enzyme concentration, reaction time. Standardization of these parameters is desirable to attain optimum activity of the enzyme. The present work aims to build a neural network model using five input parameters (pH, cholesterol concentration, 4-aminoantipyrine concentration, crude COX volume and horseradish peroxidase) and one output i.e., COX activity (U/ml) as a response. A feed forward back propagation neural network with Levenberg-Marquardt training algorithm was used to train the network. The network performance was assessed in terms of regression (R2), Mean Squared Error (MSE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE). A network topology of 5-10-1 was found to be optimum. The MSE, MAPE and R2 values of the neural model were 0.0075%, 0.12% and 0.9792% respectively. The maximum predicted activity of COX was 1.073 U/ml, which was close to the experimental value i.e., 1.1 U/ml at simulated optimum assay conditions. MSE and MAPE depicted the precision in the prediction efficiency of the developed ANN model. Higher R2 value showed a good correlation between the experimental and ANN predicted values. This proved the robustness of the ANN model to predict similar type of system (COX from other Streptomyces sp.) within the limits of the trained data set. The COX activity was enhanced by 1.71 folds after optimization of the reaction conditions.

Extracellular cholesterol oxidase production by Streptomyces aegyptia, in vitro anticancer activities against rhabdomyosarcoma, breast cancer cell-lines and in vivo apoptosis

In recent years, microbial cholesterol oxidases have gained great attention due to its widespread use in medical applications for serum cholesterol determination. Streptomyces aegyptia strain NEAE-102 exhibited high level of extracellular cholesterol oxidase production using a minimum medium containing cholesterol as the sole source of carbon. Fifteen variables were screened using Plackett–Burman design for the enhanced cholesterol oxidase production. The most significant variables affecting enzyme production were further optimized by using the face-centered central composite design. The statistical optimization resulted in an overall 4.97-fold increase (15.631 UmL−1) in cholesterol oxidase production in the optimized medium as compared with the unoptimized medium before applying Plackett Burman design (3.1 UmL−1). The purified cholesterol oxidase was evaluated for its in vitro anticancer activities against five human cancer cell lines. The selectivity index values on rhabdomyosarcoma and breast cancer cell lines were 3.26 and 2.56; respectively. The in vivo anticancer activity of cholesterol oxidase was evaluated against Ehrlich solid tumor model. Compared with control mice, tumors growth was significantly inhibited in the mice injected with cholesterol oxidase alone, doxorubicin alone and cholesterol oxidase/doxorubicin combination by 60.97%, 72.99% and 97.04%; respectively. These results demonstrated that cholesterol oxidase can be used as a promising natural anticancer drug.

Colorimetric detection of cholesterol based on highly efficient peroxidase mimetic activity of graphene quantum dots

In the present study, we report graphene quantum dots (GQDs), an enzyme mimetic of horse radish peroxidase (HRP), for unprecedented detection of free cholesterol. Synthesized directly from graphite using simple and quick one step wet chemical method, these GQDs in the presence of H2O2 exhibit highly efficient catalytic activity toward the oxidation of peroxidase substrate 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to produce a blue colored product. The proposed detection system based on GQDs allows wide range (0.02–0.6mM) of cholesterol sensing with a detection limit as low as 0.006mM. Further, higher Vmax (7.3×10−6Ms−1) along with lower Km (0.01mM) attest enhanced peroxidase like catalytic activity and better binding affinity of cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) to cholesterol resulting in good biosensor stability and resistance to environmental interferences. The proposed method without the use of sophisticated instruments perceives the cholesterol using naked eye with blue color compound formation. The potential of the method to be applied on field is shown by the proposed cholesterol measuring color wheel, where the shades of color are related to actual levels of cholesterol in the sample.

Molecularly "wired" cholesterol oxidase for biosensing.

The influence of several factors on the activity of cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) transiently exposed to a room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) was studied. Presence of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD, prosthetic group of ChOx) during exposure to RTIL makes the procedure enzyme-friendly, while the use of RTIL (green reagent) makes it environmentally-friendly. Following exposure to RTIL and its subsequent removal, FAD becomes part of the molecular structure of the refolded protein (a molecular "wire"). This makes the procedure used here a molecular one. The factors studied were: FAD presence in RTIL during modification, water presence during exposure to RTIL, and ratio FAD:RTIL during "wiring". Performance parameters monitored were: enzyme activity before and after "wiring" (expressed as (dA/dt)/mg enzyme, and measured spectrophotometrically), peak current in an amperometric biosensor for cholesterol detection, and linearity of the biosensor response depending on cholesterol concentration. After RTIL removal, the modified enzyme (ME) retained a high percentage of the added FAD, which supplemented that of the native enzyme (functioning as a "wire" and enhancing electron transfer kinetics), and a fraction of the initial activity. Used in an amperometric biosensor, ME showed catalytic activity, linear behavior as a function of cholesterol concentration, and stability.

Activity of cholesterol oxidase immobilized on Layered Double Hydroxide nanomaterials for biosensor application: Acacia salicina scavenging power of hypercholesterolemia therapy

In the current study, we aimed to immobilize cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) on Layered Double Hydroxide (LDH) for cholesterol sensing. Obtained results have shown that immobilized ChOx keeps its activity even after several uses. However, some free radicals, such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), were generated through the enzymatic activity. In this work, we investigated the effects of hexane extract from Acacia salicina toward free radical scavenging activity. Hexane extract was an effective inhibitor of H2O2 generated by the enzymatic cholesterol/cholesterol oxidase catabolism (inhibition percentage ≈ 40%). This activity could be attributed to the presence of phytosterols in this extract. The present study demonstrates that extracts of A.salicina leaves are a potential source of antioxidant agents (most likely sterols compounds), their antioxidant activity might be used in chemoprevention trials.

Enzymatic activity of cholesterol oxidase immobilized onto polymer nanoparticles mediated by Congo red

Poly(ethylene glycol), PEG, decorated polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized by means of dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta (ζ) potential measurements, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The adsorption of Congo red (CR) onto PS/PEG particles was evidenced by the decrease of ζ potential values and increase in the particles mean diameter in comparison to bare particles. Cholesterol oxidase (ChOx), the main enzyme in the oxidation of cholesterol, adsorbed onto PS/PEG and PS/PEG/CR particles, as revealed by the increase in the particles mean size and spectrophotometry. The enzymatic activity of free and immobilized ChOx was determined as a function of time by means of a coupled reaction with horseradish peroxidase. The activity of free ChOx decreased with time, while the activity of immobilized ChOx increased with time; after 1h reaction the latter was half of the former. Freeze-drying the ChOx covered PS/PEG/CR particles allowed their storage for at least one month under room conditions without loss of enzymatic activity. Conjugation effects between CR and ChOx or cholesterol evidenced by circular dichroism and spectrophotometry rendered a conformational state of ChOx, such that the enzymatic action was favored. ChOx adsorbed onto PS/PEG presents no enzymatic activity, probably due to ChOx denaturation or unfavorable orientation. Freeze-dried and freshly prepared dispersions of ChOx immobilized onto PS/PEG/CR particles yielded linear response in the cholesterol concentration range of 100mgdL−1 (lowest limit of normal blood concentration) to 300mgdL−1 (high risk level).

Continuous steroid biotransformations in microchannel reactors

The use of microchannel reactor based technologies within the scope of bioprocesses as process intensification and production platforms is gaining momentum. Such trend can be ascribed a particular set of characteristics of microchannel reactors, namely the enhanced mass and heat transfer, combined with easier handling and smaller volumes required, as compared to traditional reactors. In the present work, a continuous production process of 4-cholesten-3-one by the enzymatic oxidation of cholesterol without the formation of any by-product was assessed. The production was carried out within Y-shaped microchannel reactors in an aqueous-organic two-phase system. Substrate was delivered from the organic phase to aqueous phase containing cholesterol oxidase and the product formed partitions back to the organic phase. The aqueous phase was then forced through a plug-flow reactor, containing immobilized catalase. This step aimed at the reduction of hydrogen peroxide formed as a by-product during cholesterol oxidation, to avoid cholesterol oxidase deactivation due to said by-product. This setup was compared with traditional reactors and modes of operation. The results showed that microchannel reactor geometry outperformed traditional stirred tank and plug-flow reactors reaching similar conversion yields at reduced residence time. Coupling the plug-flow reactor containing catalase enabled aqueous phase reuse with maintenance of 30% catalytic activity of cholesterol oxidase while eliminating hydrogen peroxide. A final production of 36 m of cholestenone was reached after 300 hours of operation.

Ultrasonic-assisted enzymatic degradation of cholesterol in egg yolk

Abstract An ultrasonic-assisted enzymatic process was developed for effective degradation of cholesterol in natural egg yolk. The objective of this study was to follow the catalytic activity of cholesterol oxidase against egg yolk cholesterol in an effort to obtain a cholesterol reduced egg yolk without affecting the major nutrients composition of egg yolk. Cholesterol oxidase was used to catalyze the degradation of cholesterol in egg yolk. Firstly, a 30 g portion of the egg yolk was pretreated by ultrasonic for 15 min at 200 W and then incubated for 10 h with cholesterol oxidase concentration of 0.6 U/g egg yolk at 37 °C. Finally, the cholesterol level in egg yolk was reduced to 8.32% of its original concentration without affecting the quality attributes of the yolk. Industrial relevance With the increase of public awareness to the dangers of cholesterol in recent years, a large number of popular food products have drawn criticism for containing high levels of cholesterol. Many reduced cholesterol egg products have been developed for market requirement. The results indicate that the ultrasonic-assistant extraction is an effective method for effective degradation of cholesterol in natural egg yolk. The knowledge gained from this study should be useful for further exploitation and application of the resource. Cholesterol-reduced egg yolk promises to be a value-added functional food with all the health enhancing attributes associated with egg yolk.

Improvement of the thermostability and enzymatic activity of cholesterol oxidase by site-directed mutagenesis

Site-directed mutagenesis was applied to enhance the thermostability and enzymatic activity of cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) isolated from Brevibacterium sp. Three amino acid residues (Q153E, F128L, and S143H) located near the FAD-binding site of the enzyme were substituted based on structural analysis. The specific activity of the two-sites mutant Q153E/F128L increased by 11.6% and the relative activity increased by 47% when grown for 2 h at 50 °C. This mutant is a potential industrial strain for producing ChOx.

Acyl-Chain Mismatch Driven Superlattice Arrangements in DPPC/DLPC/Cholesterol Bilayers

Fluorescence and infrared spectroscopy and cholesterol oxidase activity were employed to investigate the effect of phosphatidylcholine (PC) acyl chain length mismatch on the lateral organizations of lipids in liquid-ordered dipalmitoyl-PC/dilauroyl-PC/cholesterol (DPPC/DLPC/CHOL) bilayers. Plots of steady-state fluorescence emission anisotropy of diphenylhexatriene (DPH) labeled PC (DPH-PC) embedded in the DPPC/DLPC/CHOL bilayers revealed significant peaks at several DPPC mole fractions (Y(DPPC)) when the cholesterol mole fraction (X(CHOL)) was fixed to particular values. Analogously, the DPH-PC anisotropy peaked at several critical X(CHOL)'s when Y(DPPC) was fixed. Acyl chain C-H and C horizontal lineO vibrational peak frequencies of native PC as well as the activity of cholesterol oxidase also revealed dips and peaks at similar Y(DPPC)'s. Importantly, most of the observed peaks/dips coincide with the critical mole fractions predicted by the Superlattice (SL) model. A three-dimensional map of DPH-PC anisotropy versus composition in the range 0.32 <or= X(CHOL) <or= 0.50; 0.54 <or= Y(DPPC) <or= 0.72 revealed a prominent peak at (X(CHOL), Y(DPPC)) approximately (0.42, 0.64). This suggests a simultaneous presence of two different types of superlattices, one where cholesterol is the quest molecule in a PC host lattice and another where DPPC is the guest in the DLPC host lattice. Time-resolved measurements of DPH-PC fluorescence indicated the existence of an ordered, rotationally hindered environment of acyl chains at that "critical" composition consistent with the existence of SL arrangements. We propose that beside CHOL/PC superlattices, DPPC, and DLPC as well tend to adopt regular SL-like lateral distributions relative to each other, presumably because the less hydrophobic DLPC molecule is slightly displaced toward the aqueous phase, thus allowing more room and mobility for the head groups of both DPPC and DLPC as well as for the acyl chain tails of DPPC. The parallel presence of two kinds of superlattices, that is, CHOL/PC-SL and DPPC/DLPC-SL as demonstrated here, has intriguing implications regarding lipid homeostasis of eukaryote membranes.

토양 미생물로부터 생산된 Extracellular Cholesterol Oxidase의 특성

본 연구에서는 산업적으로 사용될 수 있는 안정하고 활성이 높은 cholesterol oxidase를 생산하는 균주를 얻기 위해 토양 미생물로부터 균주를 선별하였다. 선별된 균주에 대하여 세포외 효소 활성을 측정한 결과 BEN 115로 명명한 균주가 가장 높은 효소 활성도를 나타내었다. 이 균주는 형태학적, 생리학적 특성과 배양형태 및 G＋C 함량을 분석한 결과 Nocardia속으로 확인되었다. 최적 효소 생산 조건을 조사한 결과 기존 yeast malt extract broth 조성인 0.4% yeast extract, 0.4% glucose, 1% malt extract에서 가장 높은 활성을 나타냈다. 본 균주에서 생산된 extracellular cholesterol oxidase는 SDS-PAGE와 Western blot 결과 분자량이 55, 57 kDa인 두 종류의 효소가 존재하는 것으로 나타났다. BEN 115에 대한 효소학적 특성을 연구한 결과 온도 안정성은 55℃까지 효소 활성이 유지되었고, pH 안정성은 pH 3.5～9.5의 범위까지 안정한 것으로 나타났으며 최적 온도와 최적 pH는 각각 35oC와 pH 5.5인 것으로 나타났다. 또한 detergent(Triton X-100, Triton X-114 그리고 Tween 80) 첨가 시 효소 활성이 첨가하지 않은 대조군보다 약 1.6~2.0배 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. Campesterol, sitosterol 그리고 stigmasterol에 대한 기질 특이성은 cholesterol(100%)과 상대적으로 비교 시 각각 50%, 50% 그리고 27%의 기질 특이성을 나타내었다.

Purification and characterization of extracellular cholesterol oxidase from Enterobacter sp.

The objective of this work is to obtain an abundant source of cholesterol oxidases for industrial and medicinal needs. Thirteen bacterial strains that express high level of inducible extracellular cholesterol oxidase (COX) were isolated from carnivore feces. One of these strains, named COX8-9, belonging to the genus Enterobacter, was found to produce the highest level of cholesterol oxidase. COX from strain COX8-9 was purified from the culture supernatant by ultrafiltration followed with two consecutive Q-Sepharose chromatographies at different pH values, and then by Superdex-75 gel filtration. The purified enzyme was a monomer with a molecular weight of 58 kDa, and exhibited maximum absorption at 280 nm. The Km value for oxidation of cholesterol by this enzyme was 1.2 × 10−4 M, with optimum activity at pH 7.0. Enzymatic activity of COX was enhanced 3-fold in the presence of metal ion Cu2+, and the enzyme was stable during long-term aqueous storage under various temperatures, indicating its potential as a clinical diagnostic reagent. Preparation and characterization of cholesterol oxidases from the other selected strains are under way.

Preparation and some properties of cholesterol oxidase from Rhodococcus sp. R14-2

Rhodococcus sp. R14-2, isolated from Chinese Jin-hua ham, produces a novel extracellular cholesterol oxidase (COX). The enzyme was extracted from fermentation broth and purified 53.1-fold based on specific activity. The purified enzyme shows a single polypeptide band on SDS-PAGE with an estimated molecular weight of about 60 kDa, and has a pI of 8.5. The first 10 amino acid residues of the NH2-terminal sequence of the enzyme are A-P-P-V-A-S-C-R-Y-C, which differs from other known COXs. The enzyme is stable over a rather wide pH range of 4.0–10.0. The optimum pH and temperature of the COX are pH 7.0 and 50°C, respectively. The COX rapidly oxidizes 3β-hydroxysteroids such as cholesterol and phytosterols, but is inert toward 3α-hydroxysteroids. Thus, the presence of a 3β-hydroxyl group appears to be essential for substrate activity. The Michaelis constant (Km) for cholesterol is estimated at 55 μM; the COX activity was markedly inhibited by metal ions such as Hg2+ and Fe3+ and inhibitors such as p-chloromercuric benzoate, mercaptoethanol and fenpropimorph. Inhibition caused by p-chloromercuric benzoate, mercuric chloride, or silver nitrate was almost completely prevented by the addition of glutathione. These suggests that -SH groups may be involved in the catalytic activity of the present COX.

Lipid Headgroup Superlattice Modulates the Activity of Surface-Acting Cholesterol Oxidase in Ternary Phospholipid/Cholesterol Bilayers

The relationship between the molecular organization of lipid headgroups and the activity of surface-acting enzyme was examined using a bacterial cholesterol oxidase (COD) as a model. The initial rate of cholesterol oxidation by COD in fluid state 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphatidylethanolamine/1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphatidylcholine/cholesterol (POPE/POPC/CHOL) bilayers was measured as a function of POPE-to-phospholipid mole ratio (X(PE)) and cholesterol-to-lipid mole ratio (X(CHOL)) at 37 degrees C. At X(PE) = 0, the COD activity changed abruptly at X(CHOL) approximately 0.40, whereas major activity peaks were detected at X(PE) approximately 0.18, 0.32, 0.50, 0.64, and 0.73 when X(CHOL) was fixed to 0.33 or 0.40. At a fixed X(CHOL) of 0.50, the COD activity increased progressively with PE content and exhibited small peaks or kinks at X(PE) approximately 0.40, 0.50, 0.58, 0.69, and 0.81. When X(PE) and X(CHOL) were systematically varied within a narrow 2-D lipid composition window, an onset of COD activity at X(CHOL) approximately 0.40 and the elimination of the activity peak at X(PE) approximately 0.64 for X(CHOL) >0.40 were clearly observed. Except for X(PE) approximately 0.40 and 0.58, the observed critical PE mole ratios agree closely (+/-0.03) with those predicted by a headgroup superlattice model (Virtanen, J.A., et al. (1998) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 95, 4964-4969; Cannon, B., et al. (2006) J. Phys. Chem. B 110, 6339-6350), which proposes that lipids with headgroups of different sizes tend to adopt regular, superlattice-like distributions at discrete and predictable compositions in fluid lipid bilayers. Our results indicate that headgroup superlattice domains exist in lipid bilayers and that they may play a crucial role in modulating the activity of enzymes acting on the cell membrane surface.

Bioconversion of β-Sitosterol and Its Esters by Actinobacteria of the Genus Rhodococcus

The ability of pure cultures of Rhodococcus actinobacteria from the Ural Specialized Collection of Alkanotrophic Microorganisms (World Federation for Culture Collections accession number 768; http://www.ecology.psu.ru/iegmcol) to convert β-sitosterol (BSS) and its 3β-acylated derivatives was studied. Rhodococcus strains with pronounced cholesterol oxidase activity, capable of converting BSS to stigmat-4-ene-3-one in the reaction of cooxidation with n-hexadecane, were selected. The dependence of the activity of cholesterol oxidase of rhodococci on the length of the acyl group in BSS esters was studied. Conditions under which Rhodococcus cells convert BSS to 17β-hydroxyandrost-4-ene-3-one (testosterone), commonly used in pharmacology, were determined.