A peroxidase isoenzyme (named peroxidase A6 in a previous study) has been successfully purified by the methods used in this study. Calculated RZ ratio (2.4) is besides in the range of values generally found for pure preparations of plant heme peroxidases [18, 19, 20, 21], which leads to the conclusion that peroxidase A6 is a classical plant peroxidase. This purification however was achieved with poor yield. This poor yield is explained by the fact that seedlings of Bambara groundnut contain a multitude of isoperoxidases, and that the activity of the crude extract is due to the sum of the individual activities of these isoenzymes, thus, though relatively large, the activity of peroxidase A6 represents only a fraction of the total activity of the crude extract. The calculated molecular weight (around 41 kDa) is also in the range of the given molecular weights for other classical plant peroxidases. Indeed, this molecular weight is similar to that of horseradish (44 kDa) [22], tobacco (37 kDa) [23], sweet potato (37 kDa) [24], peanut (37–40 kDa) [25] and soybean peroxidases (37 kDa) [26].
The enzyme is very active at acid pH, since the optimal pH obtained for the oxidation of the 5 reducing substrates used in this study lie between 3 (for ABTS) and 6 (for O-dianisidine, DAB and OPD). This preferential activity under acid conditions is also a characteristic of the majority of peroxidases from other plants [8, 27, 28, 29]. However, the very acid optimal pH for ABTS oxidation was observed only for the peroxidase of the African oil palm tree [30], horseradish peroxidase for example showing an optimum of activity with respect to this substrate at higher pH [31]. This suggests a great stability of peroxidase A6 in an acid environment. Peroxidase A6 shows moreover a great sensitivity with respect to the reducing substrates used in this study and to hydrogen peroxide. The values of apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) obtained are comparable to those of other peroxidases known for their great sensitivity towards various substrates. For example, Km for O-dianisidine and H2O2 were calculated to be 3.5 mM and 2.53 mM for peroxidase A6 at pH 6 and pH 3 respectively, values which are similar to those of horseradish peroxidase isoenzyme VII (3.6 mM and 6.9 mM respectively) at pH 5.3 [32]. For an anionic peroxidase from Brasssica napus roots, Km values were found to be 0.37 mM, 0.84 mM and 1.4 mM respectively for O-dianisidine, ABTS and H2O2 [33]. The values of catalytic efficiency Kcat/Km obtained with peroxidase A6 are very high, in particular those relating to the oxidation of ABTS and the reduction of H2O2. For example, we obtained a Kcat/Km ratio of 1.79×106 mM− 1.min− 1 for the reduction of H2O2 by peroxidase A6, while it was found by others that this ratio is 6x105 and 2.28x105 mM− 1.min− 1 respectively for the peroxidase from Geotrichum candidum DEC 1 and horseradish peroxidase [7]. The calculated values of catalytic efficiency revealed that the reducing substrates can be classify by decreasing order of specificity for peroxidase A6 as follows: ABTS, OPD, DAB, TMB, O-dianisidine. However, this classification is made without taking into account that the determination of these kinetic parameters was done at the beforehand given optimal pH for each of these substrates. According to the operational pH of a biotransformation process, the catalytic efficiency can be very different [34]. For example, by comparing the activity of peroxidase A6 with respect to ABTS at pH 3 and pH 6, it can be noted that this activity at pH 6 accounts for only 4% of that obtained at the optimal pH (pH 3); in addition, the activity of peroxidase A6 with respect to the oxidation of OPD at pH 6 accounts only for 67% of that calculated at the optimal pH (pH 4). Moreover, considering that the affinity of the enzyme for the substrate depends also on the pH that could also contribute to upset this classification if one compares the catalytic efficiencies at the same pH.
The optimal temperature of activity of peroxidase A6 that we determined is higher than those obtained for the majority of other peroxidases. Indeed, several peroxidases have their optimal temperature of activity ranging between 30 and 50°C [7, 8, 9, 10]. This property of peroxidase A6 is a great advantage on the practical level, for the rate of enzyme catalysis generally increases with increase in temperature until a critical point known as the optimum temperature beyond which denaturation of the enzyme is initiated and the reaction rate begins to decrease. Thus, a high optimum temperature is often associated with a high thermal stability of the enzyme. The thermal stability of peroxidase A6 was studied in detail, and the results obtained testify to a great stability with respect to the heat treatments. The calculated half-lives, 805 min, 15.5 min and 3.5 min respectively at 70°C, 80°C, and 90°C are largely higher than what is reported for other peroxidases. For example, sorghum peroxidase readily loses activity when incubated at temperature above 55°C [35], peroxidase of Garlic Allium sativum loses 50% of its activity in less than 20 min at 60°C [8], crude extracts of artichoke peroxidases loses almost all their activity after 10 min of incubation at 80°C [36], and an anionic peroxidase from Brassica napus completely loses activity after 10 min of incubation at 70°C [32]. Moreover, horseradish peroxidase, the most studied peroxidase, loses its activity only after 10 minutes of treatment at 70°C at pH7 [37]. Only palm tree and soybean peroxidases have been reported to have similar or greater stability among plant peroxidases [38, 39]. In addition, at 50°C, peroxidase A6 has an impressive half-life of 3.06 weeks. By comparison, peroxidase of Garlic Allium sativum loses 50% of activity only after 5 hours at 50°C [8], peroxidases of Corn Root Plasma Membranes loses 40–50% of activity in 5 min [40]. The great stability of A6 peroxidase at fairly high temperatures could be an advantage for processes like hydrogen peroxide biosensing where peroxidases must catalyse reactions for several hours at 37°C [1], and wastewater treatment which is held at temperatures up to 60°C for hours [2]. Furthermore, nucleic acid-sensing by electrochemical processes which rely on denaturing paired nucleic acid strands at temperatures in excess of 50° C requires thermostable electrochemical devices, notably nucleic acid-thermostable peroxidase probe [2, 41, 42]. Thermal inactivation of peroxidase A6 at high temperatures followed first-order kinetics as plotting log (residual activities) vs. time gave straight lines. This suggests that denaturation of peroxidase A6 can be interpreted by conformational changes between a native state and a final denatured state, which could be analyzed by the Arrhenius equation. Thus, activation energy (221.5 KJ/mol) has been deduced from the Arrhenius plot. This value is significantly higher compared for example to that reported for horseradish peroxidase (159 kJ/mol) at pH 3, pH where it was shown that this enzyme is stable [43], to sorghum peroxidase (157 KJ/mol) at pH 5 [35], and to taro peroxidase (81.1 KJ/mol) [28]. In addition, regards to storage at ambient temperature, peroxidase A6 lost only 5% of activity after 4 months at room temperature, and 24% after 6 months. Scarce data affirm that horseradish peroxidase completely loses its activity after 4 months under similar conditions and that peroxidases from crude extracts of Picea abies L. Karst. needles lose up to 60% of their activity only after 1 month of storage at 24°C [44]. Other scattered data argue that soybean seed coat peroxidase conserves a substantial activity after 1 year of storage under similar conditions. Indeed, compared to horseradish peroxidase, soybean peroxidase has, in addition to a greater catalytic efficiency, a longer half-life at temperatures higher than the temperature of congelation [45], and so, it was found that soybean peroxidase is superior to horseradish peroxidase to help diagnose various viral, bacterial, and parasitic diseases, including AIDS and malaria. Thus, the stable characteristics of peroxidase A6 at ambient temperature during months can make it possible to avoid the cycles of freezing/thawing of immunoconjugates used in techniques such as ELISA, which generally contributes to the denaturation of reagents.
The study of the effect of metal salts on the activity and the thermal stability of peroxidase A6 revealed that Mg2+ ions produce a slight inhibition at ambient temperature. Some studies show that metal salts can behave like activators or inhibitors of peroxidases. Horseradish peroxidase for example is activated by Ca2+ [46]; glutathion peroxidase of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is inhibited by weak concentrations (1mM) of Mg2+, Cu2+, Ca2+, Mn2+ and Zn2+ [47]. With regard to the effect on thermal stability, the calcium salt behaved like a stabilizer, since the presence of CaCl2 in the incubation medium has preserved a residual activity 8 times higher than that of control. The stabilizing effect of the Ca2+ ions had already been observed with horseradish peroxidase [46], and mosses peroxidases [48].
However, sodium azide considerably inhibits the enzyme. So, for applications of peroxidase A6 in techniques of antigen detection in clinical diagnosis or enzyme immunoassays, sodium azide must consequently be eliminated or reduced from the commercial preparations of antibody which are conjugated with peroxidases. This inhibition has been shown to be irreversible in the case of horseradish peroxidase [49], and is thought to be due to the binding of the azidyl radical to the heme nucleus. Although other studies, performed on other peroxidases, report rather a competitive-type inhibition, or a reversible inhibition [50], the graph that we obtained in our study would confirm the first hypothesis.