A potent polymer/pyridoxamine enzyme mimic.

An enzyme mimic consisting of pyridoxamines covalently linked to polyethyleneimine carrying long-chain alkyl groups converts pyruvic acid to dl-alanine with as much as an 8000-fold acceleration relative to the reaction with simple pyridoxamine at the same pyridoxamine concentration. The acceleration by polymer is a strong function of the length of the alkyl chains that are appended. The polymer furnishes acid and base groups to catalyze the proton transfers that are involved in transamination.