Translations:Flavin adenine dinucleotide/24/en

Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is an extensively studied flavoenzyme due to its biological importance with the catabolism of norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. MAO oxidizes primary, secondary and tertiary amines, which nonenzymatically hydrolyze from the imine to aldehyde or ketone. Even though this class of enzyme has been extensively studied, its mechanism of action is still being debated. Two mechanisms have been proposed: a radical mechanism and a nucleophilic mechanism. The radical mechanism is less generally accepted because no spectral or electron paramagnetic resonance evidence exists for the presence of a radical intermediate. The nucleophilic mechanism is more favored because it is supported by site-directed mutagenesis studies which mutated two tyrosine residues that were expected to increase the nucleophilicity of the substrates.