J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 262, Issue 20, 9555-9560, Jul, 1987
Mechanism of inhibition of glycolysis by vanadate
JE Benabe, LA Echegoyen, B Pastrana and M Martinez-Maldonado
Vanadate is known to inhibit several phosphatases including Na+, K+-
ATPase, alkaline phosphatase, and glyceraldehyde-3-P dehydrogenase.
Inhibition presumably results because vanadium adopts a stable structure
which resembles the transition state of phosphate during the reactions
involving these enzymes. We performed experiments to further examine the
effects of vanadate (VO3-4) on erythrocyte (red blood cells (RBC]
glycolytic intermediates. RBC obtained from human subjects were centrifuged
and washed with lactated Ringer's 5% dextrose. 31P nuclear magnetic
resonance analysis of the RBC revealed the characteristic peaks for the
3-phosphate and 2-phosphate of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (DPG), inorganic
phosphate (Pi), and ATP. Incubation of RBC with 10(-6) M VO3-4 led to a
disappearance of ATP and 2,3-DPG while the peak for Pi increased. By the
end of 4 h over 90% of the VO3-4 had been reduced to VO2+ (vanadyl) in the
RBC. The effects of 10(-4) M iodoacetamide and 10(-5) M ethacrynic acid,
known inhibitors of glyceraldehyde-3-P dehydrogenase that act by
interactions with sulfhydryl groups (-SH) of the enzyme, were similar to
those of VO3-4. Incubation with vanadyl did not affect the peaks for Pi,
2-DPG, or 3-DPG. Furthermore, using electron spin resonance we demonstrated
that in the presence of glyceraldehyde-3-P dehydrogenase, VO3-4 is reduced
to VO2+. The findings demonstrate that VO3-4 inhibits glycolysis at
micromolar concentrations and that the ion is reduced to VO2+ in the cell.
The similarity of the effect of VO3-4 to those of iodoacetamide and
ethacrynic acid suggests that interactions with -SH groups is its mechanism
of inhibition. Since under physiological conditions intracellular VO3-4
concentrations are in the micromolar range and may exist in oxidized and/or
reduced forms, VO3-4 could regulate the activity of glyceraldehyde-3-P
dehydrogenase through changes in the redox state of the enzyme rather than
by substituting for the PO3-4 ion.