Inhibition of the Red Blood Cell Calcium Pump by Eosin and Other Fluorescein Analogues

This paper addresses the mechanism of inhibition of the plasma membrane Ca pump by fluorescein analogues and their isothiocyanate derivatives. Eosin (i.e., tetrabromofluorescein) was found to be one of the most potent reversible inhibitors of the erythrocyte Ca pump [half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) < 0.2 microM]; fluorescein itself was about four orders of magnitude less potent (IC50 approximately 1,000 microM). Eosin decreased the maximum influx and thus did not compete with ATP for the Ca pump. Irreversible inhibition produced by the isothiocyanate analogues of eosin and fluorescein [eosin 5-isothiocyanate (EITC) and fluorescein 5-isothiocyanate (FITC), respectively] was also studied. While EITC bound reversibly at the eosin site, two results suggest that EITC does not react covalently at this site: 1) eosin did not alter the time course of the EITC irreversible reaction, and 2) the concentration dependence for reversible EITC inhibition was different from the concentration dependence for irreversible EITC inhibition. ATP did slow the rate of inactivation of both EITC and FITC consistent with the idea that EITC and FITC bind to the ATP site. Our results are consistent with eosin and ATP binding to separate sites and EITC reacting covalently at the ATP site, but not the eosin site.