Purple acid p
hosp
hatases (PAPs) employ a dinuclear Fe
3+Fe
2+ or Fe
3+Zn
2+ center to catalyzet
he
hydrolysis of p
hosp
hate monoesters. T
he interaction of fluoride
wit
h bovine spleen purple acidp
hosp
hatase (BSPAP)
has been studied using a combination of steady-state kinetics and spectroscopicmet
hods. For FeZn-BSPAP, t
he nature of t
he in
hibition c
hanges from noncompetitive at pH 6.5 (
Ki(comp)
Ki(uncomp) ![](/images/entities/ap.gif)
2 mM) to uncompetitive at pH 5.0 (
Ki(uncomp) = 0.2 mM). T
he in
hibition constant for AlZn-BSPAP at pH 5.0 (
Ki = 3
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
M) is ~50-70-fold lo
wer t
han t
hat observed for bot
h FeZn-BSAP andGaZn-BSPAP, suggesting t
hat fluoride binds to t
he trivalent metal. Fluoride binding to t
he enzyme-substrate complex
was found to be remarkably slo
w;
hence, t
he kinetics of fluoride binding
were studiedin some detail for FeZn-, AlZn-, and FeFe-BSPAP at pH 5.0 and for FeZn-BSPAP at pH 6.5. Sincet
he enzyme kinetics studies indicated t
he formation of a ternary enzyme-substrate-fluoride complex, t
hebinding of fluoride to FeZn-BSPAP
was studied using optical and EPR spectroscopies, bot
h in t
he presenceand absence of p
hosp
hate. T
he c
haracteristic optical and EPR spectra of FeZn-BSPAP·F and FeZn-BSPAP·PO
4·F are similar at pH 5.0 and pH 6.5, indicating t
he formation of similar fluoride complexesat bot
h pHs. A structural model for t
he ternary enzyme-(substrate/p
hosp
hate)-fluoride complexes isproposed t
hat can explain t
he results from bot
h t
he spectroscopic and t
he enzyme kinetics experiments.In t
his model, fluoride binds to t
he trivalent metal replacing t
he
water/
hydroxide ligand t
hat is essentialfor t
he
hydrolysis reaction to take place,
while p
hosp
hate or t
he p
hosp
hate ester coordinates to t
he divalentmetal ion.