Heavy metal ion inhibition studies of human, sheep and fish α-carbonic anhydrases.

Carbonic anhydrases (CAs, EC 4.2.1.1) were purified from sheep kidney (sCA IV), from the liver of the teleost fish Dicentrarchus labrax (dCA) and from human erythrocytes (hCA I and hCA II). The purification procedure consisted of a single step affinity chromatography on Sepharose 4B-tyrosine-sulfanilamide. The kinetic parameters of these enzymes were determined for their esterase activity with 4-nitrophenyl acetate as substrate. The following metal ions, Pb(2+), Co(2+), Hg(2+), Cd(2+), Zn(2+), Se(2+), Cu(2+), Al(3+) and Mn(3+) showed inhibitory effects on these enzymes. The tested metal ions inhibited these CAs competitively in the low milimolar/submillimolar range. The susceptibility to various cations inhibitors differs significantly between these vertebrate α-CAs and is probably due to their binding to His64 or the histidine cluster.