Biochemical properties of the heme oxygenase inhibitor, Sn-protoporphyrin. Interactions with apomyoglobin and human serum albumin.

Sn-protoporphyrin is a strong competitive inhibitor of heme oxygenase and a potential pharmacological agent for the treatment of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. Little is otherwise known about the biochemistry of tin porphyrins. We have investigated aspects of the chemistry of tin-protoporphyrin in aqueous solution and of its interactions with heme-binding proteins other than heme oxygenase, specifically apomyoglobin and human serum albumin. In the pH region 7-10, Soret region absorption studies of unbound Sn-protoporphyrin demonstrate a pH-dependent monomer-dimer equilibrium (KD congruent to 10(6) M-1 at pH 7) with little higher aggregation. Dissociation of the dimer is relatively slow at neutral pH, permitting interaction of protein ligands with monomeric and dimeric species to be distinguished and providing insights into kinetic mechanisms of porphyrin binding by heme-binding proteins. In the present study, the kinetics of interaction of Sn-protoporphyrin with apomyoglobin are presented as novel evidence that this binding proceeds by an induced fit mechanism. Binding of Sn-protoporphyrin to both apomyoglobin and serum albumin is unexpectedly weak. Between pH 7 and 9, the apparent affinity of Sn-protoporphyrin for apomyoglobin is less than 1/200 that of heme and, at pH 9, is also significantly less than that of protoporphyrin. The apparent affinity of Sn-protoporphyrin for human serum albumin is less than 1/1000 that of heme and 1/30 to 1/100 that of protoporphyrin. Competition studies between heme and Sn-protoporphyrin and between bilirubin and Sn-protoporphyrin indicate that Sn-protoporphyrin distributes differently among porphyrin-binding sites on serum albumin than does heme and that it is also not an effective competitor with bilirubin for bilirubin-binding sites. These results argue that Sn-protoporphyrin should not significantly alter normal mechanisms for the binding and transport of heme or of preformed bilirubin by serum albumin. From a more general perspective, the results indicate potentially unusual binding site selectivity by tin chelates; possible origins of this selectivity are discussed.