Molecular Deficiency of Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase in Primaquine Sensitivity

Abstract

GENETICALLY determined deficiencies in activity of human glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G–6–PD) occur among various ethnic groups. The deficiency affecting 8–12 per cent of American Negro males is known as primaquine sensitivity and is incompletely expressed: affected persons have 7–15 per cent of the normal activity of erythrocytic G–6–PD and an even higher proportion of activity of this enzyme in some other tissues^1,2. In view of similarities in qualitative characteristics between the partially purified G–6–PD of affected Negroes and that of normal persons, one of us has questioned the possibility that sensitive Negroes have a G–6–PD that is impaired in its catalytic efficiency (turnover number)³. A comparative examination of more extensively purified G–6–PD's seems to offer new evidence on this subject.