A microplate fluorescence assay for DAPA aminotransferase by detection of the vicinal diamine 7,8-diaminopelargonic acid.
7,8-Diaminopelargonic acid (DAPA) aminotransferase is an enzyme of the biotin biosynthetic pathway that plays an essential role in Mycobacterium tuberculosis virulence. Inhibition of this enzyme is a potential strategy to combat this microorganism, the causative agent of tuberculosis. To identify new inhibitors as potential drugs, a simple enzymatic assay for high-throughput screening (HTS) is needed. Several methods for measuring DAPA aminotransferase activity are already available. However, requirements for their implementation for HTS are tedious. We describe here a microplate fluorescence assay for DAPA aminotransferase that is simple, cheap, and sensitive, allowing linear detection of DAPA in the range of 20 nM to 50 μM. The principle of the method is the direct detection in the enzymatic reaction mixture of the vicinal diamine DAPA derivatized with ortho-phthalaldehyde (OPA) and 2-mercaptoethanol (2ME). The assay was validated with the known inhibitor desmethyl-KAPA (8-amino-7-oxopelargonic acid) and adapted to microplate for HTS. The structure of the stable fluorescent adduct formed between a vicinal primary diamine and OPA in the presence of 2ME was characterized by mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
Laboratoire Charles Friedel, Chimie ParisTech ENSCP, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France. stephane-mann@chimie-paristech.fr
Stéphane
S
Mann
Luc
L
Eveleigh
Olivier
O
Lequin
Olivier
O
Ploux
D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D000599:Amino Acids, Diamino / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D003959:Diamines / Q000737:chemistry; D057075:Enzyme Assays; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008623:Mercaptoethanol / Q000737:chemistry; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000201:enzymology; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D000637:Transaminases / Q000378:metabolism*; D009764:o-Phthalaldehyde / Q000737:chemistry
D000596:Amino Acids; D000599:Amino Acids, Diamino; D003959:Diamines; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; C004720:7,8-diaminopelargonic acid; C001502:7-keto-8-aminopelargonic acid; D008623:Mercaptoethanol; D009764:o-Phthalaldehyde; C515407:7,8-diaminoperlargonic acid aminotransferase, Mycobacterium tuberculosis; D000637:Transaminases