1,4-Benzoquinone as a new inhibitor of monoamine oxidase.

The effect of 1,4-benzoquinone (BQ) on type A and B monoamine oxidase (MAO-A and -B) in human brain synaptosomes was examined. MAO-A was found to be markedly inhibited by BQ competitively with the substrate, kynuramine, while MAO-B was less sensitive to this inhibitor and the inhibition was non-competitive with the substrate. The Ki value of MAO-A (9.62 +/- 0.35 microM) was much smaller than the Km value of the enzyme with the substrate (56.3 +/- 3.5 microM) or the Ki value of MAO-B with BQ (20.3 +/- 0.9 microM). The inhibition of MAO-A by BQ was also confirmed by the use of platelet mitochondria and clonal rat pheochromocytoma PC12h cells as enzyme sources. The inhibition of MAO activity by BQ proved to be reversible: the inhibited enzyme activity could be recovered by column chromatography on Sephadex G-25.