Copper-Containing Amine Oxidases

Abstract

Amine oxidases catalyze the reaction

$$ R - C{H_2}NH_3^{+} \quad + \quad {O_2}\quad + \quad {H_2}O \to R - CHO\quad + \quad NH_4^{+} \quad + \quad {H_2}{O_2} $$

where R can be either aromatic or aliphatic. The copper-containing amine oxidases (Cu-AOs) oxidize only primary amines at variance with FAD-containing amine oxidases (eg. mitochondrial MAO). Several trivial names have been used for Cu-AOs, such as benzylamine oxidase, histaminase, diamine oxidase, lysyloxidase, spermine oxidase etc. on the basis of their substrate specificity. Thev are widespread in nature among eukaryotes though a prokaryotic Cu-AO has been recently described (van Iersel etal., 1986).