Inhibition study of alanine aminotransferase enzyme using sequential online capillary electrophoresis analysis

We report the study of several inhibitors on alanine aminotransferase (ALT) enzyme using sequential online capillary electrophoresis (CE) assay. Using metal ions (Na+ and Mg2+) as example inhibitors, we show that evolution of the ALT inhibition reaction can be achieved by automatically and simultaneously monitoring the substrate consumption and product formation as a function of reaction time. The inhibition mechanism and kinetic constants of ALT inhibition with succinic acid and two traditional Chinese medicines were derived from the sequential online CE assay. Our study could provide valuable information about the inhibition reactions of ALT enzyme.