A study on post-synthetic modifications in alfa-alfa enolase (EC 4.2.1.11) brought about by a human serum protein.

Human alfa-alfa enolase is modified in the blood circulation by a serum protein for which the name 'modifying protein' is proposed. The protein occurs in every human serum tested and appears to be the same protein that is responsible for the post-synthetic modification in the M subunit of creatine kinase. Three alfa-alfa enolase forms, the original one plus two modified forms can be found in serum both in vivo and after in vitro incubation. The original alfa-alfa enolase is modified completely within a few hours in vitro in a pH-controlled human serum matrix at 37 degrees C. As the modification also takes place in vivo it is theoretically possible to acquire information about the activity of a disease process by doing one single determination of the amount of circulating alfa-alfa 3 enolase. A mechanism is proposed for the modification, where at first one of the two alfa chains is modified resulting in the alfa-alfa 2 form. Ultimately the second alfa chain is also modified. The alfa-alfa 1 form seems to be the completely modified alfa-alfa form. The three enolase forms differ in their isoelectric points but have similar Michaelis-Menten constants.