Study Of The Effects Of Power Frequency Electric Field On Enzyme Conformation And Its Activity

The electric field is a physical factor and the researches into its effect onbiological substance have been carried out for over half a century and huge successhas been obtained. But these researches mainly took biological macroscopicphenomena as its observotary quota. It was little reported about what components ofbiological system the electric field acted on, especially the primary functionalmechanism of how the electric field treated biological substance, To some extent, atpresent that is the key factor which hinders the exploration and the research inelectric field's biological effects. Therefore, what the microscopic mechanism of theeffect on biological substance of electric field is remains an urgent issue to be tackledat present.The effect of the power frequency electric field of different intensities on thesecondary structure of SOD(Surperoxide Dismutase) and HRP(Horseradish Peroxidase) was researched by the technology of circular dichroism. Meanwhile, theeffect of electric field of different intensities on the activity of enzyme was measuredand the relationship between the content change and the activity change in theirsecondary structure was also discussed. The research results show that in 0.5～5.5kV/cm, SOD and HRP treated in power frequency electric field for 5 miniutes, theunit's content of the secondary structure of enzyme and the activity of enzyme bothvary differently. Their changed patterns are both non-monotonic and the changedpatterns of different kinds of enzymeare are also different. There exists certainrelevance between the activity change of enzyme and the unit's content change of itssecondary structure. When SOD is treated with the electric field intensity of 1.0 and3.5 kV/cm, the content change of the secondary structure is more significant than inother electric field intensities. When HRP is treated with the electric field intensity of1.0, 1.5 and 3.5 kV/cm, the content change of the secondary structure is moresignificant than in other electric field intensities. Treated by power frequency electricfield, SOD activities decrease in various degrees. It's relevant to the content decreaseof a-helix andβ-sheet in its secondary structure. However, the activity of HRPdecreases when treated with the electric field intensity of 2.0, 3.0, 4.5 and 5.0 kV/cm,and increases in various degrees when treated with other intensities. It's also relevantto the content change of a-helix in its secondary structure.It's believed that the conformation and activity of enzyme can be changed if thebiological secondary structure is treated with power frequency electric field. And thiswill influence enzyme's function as an activator. As a result a series of different macroscopic biological effects will be produced. The research result of this paperprovides convincing evidence on the level of molecule for the research into themechanism of biological effects of power frequency electric field.