Development of a computer program for analysis of enzyme kinetics by progress curve fitting

In order to facilitate the study of enzyme kinetics by progress curve analy sis, a convenient Windows 95 program was developed. For describing a set of progress curves, the user should select an enzymatic mechanism. This is gu ided by a menu. Reversible and irreversible reactions up to two substrates and products are supported. The program will automatically use the correspo nding rate equation and fit the parameters of that equation at request by n umerical integration of the batch differential equations. Degradation of re actants, enzyme inactivation and inhibition phenomena can easily be incorpo rated if required. The program was tested for finding a rate equation that would describe a se t of nine progress curves that was generated for a hypothetical enzymatic r eaction according to an ordered bi-uni mechanism. The mechanistically corre ct equation fitted the progress curves best and gave good estimates for the five parameters involved. If there was Gaussian noise of 2% standard devia tion superimposed on the simulated curves, the correct model still fitted s atisfactorily, but it became impossible to discriminate it from some relate d incorrect models. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.