[Interactions of various cationic detergents with cholinesterase of horse blood serum].

Cetyltrimethyl ammonium and cetylpyridinium, both being cationic detergents, have been studied for their effect on the catalytic activity of horse blood serum cholinesterase (BuHChE) in reactions of hydrolysis of carbonic acid esters. It is shown that the detergents tested are reversible competitive inhibitors of the reaction of butyryl cholinesterase hydrolysis of butyryl choline, a specific cationic substrate, but in this case they activate enzymic hydrolysis of alpha-naphthylacetate, a nonspecific neutral substrate. Values of constants, describing enzyme binding with a detergent, are estimated both by the degree of inhibition of enzymatic hydrolysis of butyryl choline and by the degree of activation of enzymatic hydrolysis of alpha-naphthylacetate and are practically equal. An assumption is made that in both cases the same complex of BuHChE with a molecule of the detergent is formed. The enzyme, as a constituent of such a complex, possesses different substrate specificity as compared with the initial one.