Heme Regulation of Human Cystathionine β-Synthase Activity: Insights from Fluorescence and Raman Spectroscopy

Cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) plays a central role in homocysteine metabolism, and malfunction of the enzyme leads to homocystinuria, a devastating metabolic disease. CBS contains a pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) cofactor which catalyzes the synthesis of cystathionine from homocysteine and serine. Mammalian forms of the enzyme also contain a heme group, which is not involved in catalysis. It may, however, play a regulatory role, since the...