Use of isotope effects to characterize intermediates in mechanism-based inactivation of dopamine beta-monooxygenase by beta-chlorophenethylamine

A mechanism for beta-chlorophenethylamine inhibition of dopamine beta-monooxygenase has been postulated in which bound alpha-aminoacetophenone is generated followed by an intramolecular redox reaction to yield a ketone-derived radical cation as the inhibitory species (Mangold, J.B., and Klinman, J.P. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 7772-7779). Based on the assumption that the ketone radical is the inhibitory intermediate, an analogous system was predicted and verified (Bossard, M.J., and Klinman, J.P. (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261, 16421-16427). In the present study, the role of alpha-aminoacetophenone as the proposed intermediate in the inactivation by beta-chlorophenethylamine was examined in greater detail. From the interdependence of tyramine and alpha-aminoacetophenone concentrations, ketone inactivation is concluded to occur at the substrate site as opposed to potential binding at the reductant-binding site. Using beta-2-1H]- and beta-2-2H]chlorophenethylamine, the magnitude of the deuterium isotope effect on inactivation under second-order conditions has been found to be identical to that observed under catalytic turnover, D(kappa inact/Ki) = D(kappa cat/Km) = 6-7. By contrast, the isotope effect on inactivation under conditions of substrate and oxygen saturation, D kappa inact = 2, is 3-fold smaller than that seen on catalytic turnover, D kappa cat = 6. This reduced isotope effect for inactivation is attributed to a normal isotope effect on substrate hydroxylation followed by an inverse isotope effect on the partitioning of the enol of alpha-aminoacetophenone between oxidation to a radical cation versus protonation to regenerate ketone. These findings are unusual in that two isotopically sensitive steps are present in the inactivation pathway whereas only one is observable in turnover.