Haemophilus influenzae, the primary causative factor in bacterial meningitis, displays a unique growth requirement for intact NAD. Selective inhibitors of the pyridine nucleotide-requiring enzymes from H. influenzae could have a pronounced effect on growth of the organism. Haemophilus malate dehydrogenase was purified 109-fold with a 26% recovery through a 4-step procedure involving salt fractionation, and hydrophobic and dye affinity chromatography. The purified enzyme was demonstrated to be a dimer of M,= 61,000. Initial velocity, product, and dead-end inhibition studies were consistent with an ordered bi-bi mechanism in which NAD is the first substrate bound to the enzyme. Several NAD analogs structurally altered in either the pyridine or purine moiety functioned as coenzymes in the reaction catalyzed. Selective interactions occurring at the coenzyme binding sites were investigated. Coenzyme-competitive inhibition by adenosine derivatives demonstrated important interactions of the pyrophosphate moiety of the coenzyme. Positive chain length effects in the coenzyme-competitive inhibition by aliphatic carboxylic acids indicated the presence of a hydrophobic region close to the pyrophosphate region at the coenzyme binding site. Several structural analogs of NAD and malate were evaluated as selective inhibitors of the enzyme. The enzyme was inactivated by incubation with diethylpyrocarbonate whereas no inactivation was observed with sulfhydryl reagents. Haemophilus influenzae 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase was purified 308-fold with a 16% recovery through a 4-step chromatographic procedure involving a PhenylSepharose hydrophobic column, and affinity chromatography on Matrex gel Green A, Matrex gel Red A, and 2',5’ADP-Sepharose resin. The purified enzyme was demonstrated to be a dimer of M,= 70,000. Initial velocity studies of 6-phosphogluconate oxidation indicated a sequential reaction mechanism. Although certain product and dead-end inhibition studies were consistent with an ordered mechanism, the direct binding of 6-phosphogluconate in protection experiments did not support a strictly ordered reaction sequence. Inhibition by adenosine derivatives indicated that the 2’-phosphate is important in binding to the coenzyme binding site of the enzyme. The 3-acetylpyridine analogs of NAD and NADP which support growth of H. influenzae were demonstrated to function as coenzymes with the two dehydrogenases studied. The most effective inhibitors of the purified malate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase were observed to inhibit the growth of Haemophilus influenzae. However, the most potent inhibition of growth by 3-aminopyridine analogs of NAD and NADP could not be explained on the basis of interactions of these analogs with the two dehydrogenases studied. / Ph. D.