Chapter 12: Q30. (page 399)
Sphingosine-1-phosphate (SIP) is important for cell survival. The synthesis of SIP from sphingosine and ATP is catalyzed by the enzyme sphingosine kinase. An understanding of the kinetics of the sphingosine kinase reaction may be important in the development of drugs to treat cancer. The velocity of the sphingosine kinase reaction was measured in the presence and absence of threo-sphingosine, a stereoisomer of sphingosine that inhibits the enzyme. The results are shown below.
[Sphingosine] (饾泹惭) | v鈧 (mg min鈦宦) (no inhibitor) | v鈧 (mg min鈦宦) (with threo-sphingosine) |
2.5 | 32.3 | 8.5 |
3.5 | 40 | 11.5 |
5 | 50.8 | 14.6 |
10 | 72 | 25.4 |
20 | 87.7 | 43.9 |
50 | 115.4 | 70.8 |
Construct a Lineweaver-Burk plot to answer the following questions:
(a) What are the apparent KM and Vmax values in the presence and absence of the inhibitor?
(b) What kind of an inhibitor is threo-sphingosine? Explain.
Short Answer
(a) Vmax values in the absence and presence of an inhibitor are 125mg min鈦宦 and 100mg min鈦宦, respectively. Similarly, KM in the absence and the presence of an inhibitor is 7.1碌M and 25碌M, respectively.
(b) Threo-sphingosine is a competitive inhibitor for the enzyme sphingosine kinase because threo-sphingosine and sphingosine are structurally similar.
