A New Strategy for As(V) Biosensing Based on the Inhibition of the Phosphatase Activity of the Arsenate Reductase from <i>Thermus thermophilus</i>

Arsenic (As) pollution is a widespread problem worldwide. In recent years, biosensors based on enzymatic inhibition have been developed for arsenic detection, making the study of the effect of inhibitors on the selected enzymatic activity crucial for their setup. The arsenate reductase of <i>T...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rosanna Puopolo, Giovanni Gallo, Danila Limauro, Patrizia Contursi, Gabriella Fiorentino
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-03-01
Series:International Journal of Molecular Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/6/2942
Description
Summary:Arsenic (As) pollution is a widespread problem worldwide. In recent years, biosensors based on enzymatic inhibition have been developed for arsenic detection, making the study of the effect of inhibitors on the selected enzymatic activity crucial for their setup. The arsenate reductase of <i>Thermus thermophilus</i> HB27, <i>Tt</i>ArsC, reduces As(V) into As(III), but is also endowed with phosphatase activity. This work investigates the inhibitory effects of As(V) and As(III) on phosphatase activity by taking advantage of a simple colorimetric assay; the results show that both of them are non-competitive inhibitors affecting the Vmax but not the K<sub>M</sub> of the reaction. However, their Ki values are different from each other (15.2 ± 1.6 μM for As(V) and 394.4 ± 40.3 µm with As(III)), indicating a higher inhibitory effect by As(V). Moreover, the inhibition-based biosystem results to be selective for As(V) since several other metal ions and salts do not affect <i>Tt</i>ArsC phosphatase activity; it exhibits a sensitivity of 0.53 ± 0.03 mU/mg/μM and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.28 ± 0.02 μM. The good sensitivity and specificity for As(V) point to consider inhibition of <i>Tt</i>ArsC phosphatase activity for the setup of a novel biosensor for the detection of As(V).
ISSN:1661-6596
1422-0067