Enzyme regulation by reversible zinc inhibition: glycerol phosphate dehydrogenase as an example

Since cellular zinc is not freely available as the inorganic ion, zinc proteins must acquire their metal from some other source. But how, when, and where they acquire it is unknown. Metallothionein can participate in the controlled delivery of zinc by binding it with high stability and by mobilizing it through a novel biochemical mechanism that critically depends on the redox activity of the zinc-sulfur bond. Thus, metallothionein activates zinc-depleted alcohol (sorbitol) dehydrogenases by glutathione-modulated zinc transfer. In addition to its catalytic, co-catalytic, and/or structural roles in a myriad of enzymes, zinc also inhibits some enzymes that are not necessarily zinc enzymes, e.g. glyceraldehyde and glycerol phosphate dehydrogenases, and aldehyde dehydrogenase. Zinc inhibits glycerol phosphate dehydrogenase with an IC(50) value of 100 nM. Zinc binding is slow at low pH, but instantaneous at high pH. Thionein, the apoprotein of metallothionein, re-activates the zinc-inhibited enzyme. Tight inhibition by zinc and activation of glycerol phosphate dehydrogenase by thionein, a biological chelating agent, provide further support that modulation of zinc binding by metallothionein and thionein is a physiological mechanism of enzyme regulation. Since glycerol phosphate dehydrogenase is a key enzyme in energy metabolism, the effect of zinc is expected to elicit significant physiological responses.