Kinetic Studies of Copper(II)-exchange from L-Histidine to Human Serum Albumin and Diglycyl-L-histidine, a Peptide Mimicking the Copper(II)-transport Site of Albumin

The Cu(II)-exchange reactions of L-histidine with human serum albumin and diglycyl-L-histidine were studied at pH 7.53 in 0.1 MN-ethylmorpholine–HCl buffer. The exchange rates from L-histidine to albumin and peptide were determined as 0.67 and 0.42 s−1 respectively. Those from albumin and peptide to L-histidine were obtained as 0.04 and 0.07 s−1 respectively. This result is in accord with the earlier observations of the equilibrium study that the peptide has about half the Cu(II)-binding affinity as compared to albumin. The difference in the Cu(II)-exchange rates of albumin and peptide may reflect the influence of either the COOH-terminal free carboxyl group of the peptide or the side-chain residues of the Cu(II)-binding site in the native protein or both. An exchange mechanism is proposed in which the ternary complexes are shown to play the important role in the rate-determining step in the Cu(II)-exchange between a macromolecule and a small substance.