Enzymes and microemulsions. Activity and kinetic properties of liver alcohol dehydrogenase in ionic water-in-oil microemulsions.

The activity and the kinetic properties of horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase have been studied in water-in-oil microemulsions containing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) or hexadecyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), 1-butanol or 1-pentanol or 1-hexanol or t-butanol, water and cyclohexane alone or with octane. In the anionic microemulsions (i.e. containing sodium dodecyl sulfate), the enzyme quickly lost its activity, but was efficiently protected by the coenzyme and some adenine nucleotides. In the cationic microemulsions (i.e. containing hexadecyl trimethylammonium bromide), the enzyme activity was more stable and with higher alcohols was stable for at least 20 min. The Michaelis constant of NAD+ calculated with respect to the water content was nearly constant and higher than in water. The maximum velocity in anionic microemulsions depends on the water content whereas in cationic microemulsions, the maximum velocity did not show a clear dependence on the water content and was close to the maximum velocity found in water. The pH dependence of Km and Vmax in these microemulsions was similar to that observed in water. The kinetic data for a hydrophobic substrate, cinnamyl alcohol, showed that this alcohol partitions between the pseudo-phases and thus the apparent Michaelis constant and the concentration at which substrate-excess inhibition appeared were increased. The catalytic properties of the enzyme in microemulsions were illustrated by the preparative reduction of cinnamaldehyde with cofactor recycling. The rate determination of NAD+ reduction and of 1-butanol/cinnamaldehyde redox reaction showed that at low water content (2.8%), the NAD+ reduction rate was close to zero whereas the redox reaction rate was about half of the rate at higher water content. Probably at low water content the coenzyme binding-dissociation rates are reduced much more than the binding-dissociation rates of the substrates and the rates of the ternary complex interconversion. The cationic microemulsions seemed to be very favorable medium for enzyme activity, the tetraalkyl ammonium surfactant causing less denaturation than the anionic detergent dodecyl sulfate.