Difference spectroscopic and kinetic studies on the interaction of lactate dehydrogenase with structurally related triazine dyes.

Difference spectroscopy and enzyme kinetics were employed to study the interaction of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) from rabbit muscle with the azo-dye Procion Red HE-3B and two of its structural variants in order to follow the significance of the sulphonated terminal rings for the strength and specificity of binding. Procion Red HE-3B possesses a significantly higher affinity to LDH compared to the dye Cibacron Blue F3G-A, a well characterized pseudo-biospecific ligand of dehydrogenases. Moreover, Procion Red HE-3B showed competition towards the cofactor NAD+/NADH. The enzyme-dye complex is mainly stabilized by hydrophobic interactions, but other binding forces cannot be excluded. LDH possesses one dye-binding site per subunit. As a binding region the active center of LDH, preferentially the hydrophobic nicotinamide pocket is involved. Removal of the negatively charged sulphonic acid group from the terminal rings of Procion Red HE-3B decreases the affinity to LDH significantly but does not change the type of binding. Addition of an anilino group to the terminal rings of Procion Red HE-3B does not affect the affinity to the active site significantly but enables the binding on other sites with lower affinity in dependence on the dye concentration.