Biochemical Studies on Polyamine and Its Analogues

The phagocidal action of oxidation products of natural and synthetic amines by crystalline amine oxidase preparations has been investigated with a large variety of bacteriophages. Oxidized spermine was shown to inactivate T3, T5, T7, MS2, ?80, λ (Escherichia coli); ε¹⁵, ε³⁴ (Salmonella anatum); Al (Bacillus subtilis); P465, P468, Ap85, P4 (Brevibacterium lactofermentum); I128T (Pseudomonas glycinea), I2418 (Xanthomonas phaseoli) and PK66 (Streptomyces griseus). Phages of T2, T4, T6, ?X174 (E. coli), P22 (S. anatum) and M2, SP10 (B. subtilis) was not inactivated. Essentially the similar activity was observed with the oxidation products of spermidine and synthetic polyamines analogous to spermine.

The reduction of logarithmic titers of survival phages by the oxidized polyamines proceeded linearly with both incubation time and concentration of the oxidized polyamines. Then, it is conceivable that the inactivation of phages may be due to the interaction between oxidized polyamine and phagal nucleic acid.