Abstract
Estradiol, testosterone and other steroid hormones inhibit cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) purified from bovine heart. The inhibition is strongly dependent on concentration of dodecyl-maltoside (DM) in the assay. The plots of Ki vs [DM] are linear for both estradiol and testosterone which may indicate an 1:1 stoichiometry competition between the hormones and the detergent. Binding of estradiol, but not of testosterone, brings about spectral shift of the oxidized CcO consistent with an effect on heme a33+. We presume that the hormones bind to CcO at the bile acid binding site described by Ferguson-Miller and collaborators. Estradiol is shown to inhibit intraprotein electron transfer between hemes a and a3. Notably, neither estradiol nor testosterone suppresses the peroxidase activity of CcO. Such a specific mode of action indicates that inhibition of CcO activity by the hormones is associated with impairing proton transfer via the K-proton channel.