Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound   Target Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound

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Query: EC:1.5.1.3 (dihydrofolate reductase)
5,819 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Methotrexate analogues, in which an additional nitrogen atom is inserted between the phenyl ring and the carbonyl group of the side chain, were prepared by photochemical methods. The compounds were less inhibitory toward dihydrofolate reductase and thymidylate synthetase derived from Lactobacillus casei than was methotrexate. They were also less cytotoxic against human lymphoblastic leukemia cells (CCRF-CEM). In vivo against L-1210 leukemia in mice, the aza homologue of methotrexate showed significant antitumor activity (%ILS = 55%) compared to methotrexate (%ILS = 88%).
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PMID:Methotrexate analogues. 12. Synthesis and biological properties of some aza homologues. 10 16

Folic acid analogues containing an additional nitrogen atom between the phenyl ring and the carbonyl group of the side chain were synthesized. None of the compounds showed significant inhibitory activity against human lymphoblastic leukemia cells (CCRF-CEM) in culture or against Lactobacillus casei (ATCC 7469) growth. Against L1210 leukemia in mice, the aza homologue of folic acid, 4, and the aspartic acid analogue, 14, showed no increase in life span over control animals. These compounds were more toxic in vivo than the corresponding methotrexate analogues. Compound 4 supported the growth of Streptococcus faecium (ATCC 8043), and its tetrahydro derivative supported the growth of Pediococcus cerevisiae (ATCC 8081). These results strongly suggest that 4 can substitute for folate derivatives as cofactors for serine transhydroxymethylase, thymidylate synthetase, and dihydrofolate reductase.
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PMID:Synthesis of aza homologues of folic acid. 10 17

Overexpression of metallothionein in mammalian cells has been associated with protection from cytotoxic chemicals and acquired resistance of tumors to cytotoxic drugs. The mechanism of this effect, however, remains unclear. We have explored whether cytotoxicity of the bifunctional alkylating agent nitrogen mustard was correlated with the extent of DNA damage formation and repair in the metallothionein gene regions in Chinese hamster ovary cells. The DNA damage and repair were examined in metallothionein-overexpressing, cadmium-resistant Chinese hamster ovary cells, Cdr200T1, with or without zinc-induced transcriptional activation, and in the parental CHO-met- cell line. The zinc-induced Cdr200T1 cells tolerated significantly higher doses of nitrogen mustard than did the uninduced Cdr200T1 variant. The parental CHO-met- cells, which did not have any detectable metallothionein expression, were even more resistant to nitrogen mustard than the zinc-induced Cdr variants. Nitrogen mustard-induced N-alkylpurines were formed with a higher frequency in inactive genomic regions than in the active genes. The removal of N-alkylpurines was similar in the active MT I gene region in Cdr200T1 and the silent MT I gene region in the parental cells, and the expression of these genes was determined by Northern assay. The MT II gene-containing region was repaired less efficiently than the MT I gene, independently of zinc induction. Further, preferential repair of nitrogen mustard-induced N-alkylpurines were detected in a single copy of the essential active dihydrofolate reductase gene as compared to a downstream noncoding region. This preferential repair was unaffected by the presence of zinc. Neither damage formation nor repair kinetics in the MT gene regions seemed to parallel the observed spectrum of sensitivity to HN2.
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PMID:Overexpression of metallothionein in Chinese hamster ovary cells and its effect on nitrogen mustard-induced cytotoxicity: role of gene-specific damage and repair. 145 73

The cis/trans isomerization of the peptide bond preceding proline residues in proteins can limit the rate at which a protein folds to its native conformation. Mutagenic analyses of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) from Escherichia coli show that this isomerization reaction can be intramolecularly catalyzed by a side chain from an amino acid which is distant in sequence but adjacent in the native conformation. The guanidinium NH2 nitrogen of Arg 44 forms one hydrogen bond to the imide nitrogen and a second to the carbonyl oxygen of Pro 66 in wild-type DHFR. Replacement of Arg 44 with Leu results in a change of the nature of the two slow steps in refolding from being limited by the acquisition of secondary and/or tertiary structure to being limited by isomerization. The simultaneous replacement of Pro 66 with Ala (i.e., the Leu 44/Ala 66 double mutant) eliminates this isomerization reaction and once again makes protein folding the limiting process. Apparently, one or both of the hydrogen bonds between Arg 44 and Pro 66 accelerate the isomerization of the Gln 65-Pro 66 peptide bond. The replacement of Arg 44 with Leu affects the kinetics of the slow folding reactions in a fashion which indicates that the crucial hydrogen bonds form in the transition states for the rate-limiting steps in folding.
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PMID:Intramolecular catalysis of a proline isomerization reaction in the folding of dihydrofolate reductase. 161 Aug 17

Pneumocystis carinii was obtained in high yield from the lungs of immunosuppressed rats by rupturing mammalian host cells, washing away the soluble mammalian dihydrofolate reductase, and harvesting intact organisms in association with the mammalian plasma membranes. P. carinii dihydrofolate reductase, measured in the 100,000 x g supernatant from sonicated organisms, was obtained in yields ranging up to 62 IU per rat. The enzyme prepared in the presence of protease inhibitors was stable when frozen in liquid nitrogen. P. carinii dihydrofolate reductase differed from the mammalian enzyme in that the former was slightly inhibited by 150 mM KCl, whereas the latter was stimulated over twofold by 150 mM KCl. The standard assay for P. carinii dihydrofolate reductase contained 0.12 mM NADPH and 92 microM dihydrofolic acid. Under these conditions, the 50% inhibitory concentrations of the known inhibitors trimethoprim, trimetrexate, and pyrimethamine were 12 microM, 42 nM, and 3.8 microM, respectively. These standard compounds were also tested against dihydrofolate reductase from rat liver to allow an assessment of the selectivity of the drugs. Although it was the least potent, trimethoprim was the most selective. Pyrimethamine was more potent but was nonselective. Trimetrexate was extremely potent but was selective for mammalian dihydrofolate reductase. A series of experimental compounds was obtained from the National Cancer Institute and other sources through the Developmental Therapeutics Branch of the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Among the first 87 compounds tested, 11 had 50% inhibitory concentrations below that of trimetrexate and 3 were more selective than trimethoprim. The most promising compounds in this original group were chemically related to methotrexate.
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PMID:Pneumocystis carinii dihydrofolate reductase used to screen potential antipneumocystis drugs. 192 92

The active sites of all bacterial and vertebrate dihydrofolate reductases that have been examined have a tryptophan residue near the binding sites for NADPH and dihydrofolate. In cases where the three-dimensional structure has been determined by X-ray crystallography, this conserved tryptophan residue makes hydrophobic and van der Waals interactions with the nicotinamide moiety of bound NADPH, and its indole nitrogen interacts with the C4 oxygen of bound folate through a bridge provided by a bound water molecule. We have addressed the question of why even the very conservative replacement of this tryptophan by phenylalanine does not seem to occur naturally. Human dihydrofolate reductase with this replacement of tryptophan by phenylalanine has increased rate constants for dissociation of substrates and products and a considerably decreased rate of hydride transfer. These cause some changes in steady-state kinetic behavior, including substantial increases in Michaelis constants for NADPH and dihydrofolate, but there is also a 3-fold increase in kcat. The branched mechanistic pathway for this enzyme has been completely defined and is sufficiently different from that of wild-type enzyme to cause changes in some transient-state kinetics. The most critical changes resulting from the amino acid substitution appear to be a 50% decrease in stability and a decrease in efficiency from 69% to 21% under intracellular conditions.
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PMID:Role of the conserved active site residue tryptophan-24 of human dihydrofolate reductase as revealed by mutagenesis. 199 Nov 24

Although many thousands of inhibitors of the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) have been synthesized, all of the very active compounds have been 2,4-diaminopyrimidines or very close analogues. This paper describes 2,4-diamino-6-benzylbenzimidazole (3b) and the corresponding indole (4), as well as more complex tri- and tetracyclic derivatives (5 and 6). These were designed on the basis of molecular modeling to the known X-ray structure of Escherichia coli DHFR, in an effort to determine whether one could drastically alter the diamino configuration by placing one amino substituent in a 5-membered nitrogen-containing ring and the second in the ortho position of a fused ring and still inhibit DHFR significantly. Although the electronics and bond angles are quite different from that of a 2,4-diaminopyrimidine, the pKa values are in an appropriate range, and hydrogen-bond distances appear to be quite reasonable. The most active compound, 4, was very unstable and active only in the 10(-4) M range. Dihydroindenoimidazole derivatives such as 6 showed quite a good fit to the enzyme by modeling studies, but had low activity. Since the most active compound made was 2 orders of magnitude weaker as an inhibitor of bacterial DHFR than the unsubstituted 5-benzyl-2,4-diaminopyrimidine, we concluded that such a ring system was unlikely to produce the high inhibitory potency of trimethoprim (1), even with greatly improved hydrophobic contacts. Thus the 2,4-diaminopyrimidine system remains unparalleled to date for the competitive inhibition of this enzyme.
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PMID:Receptor-based design of novel dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors: benzimidazole and indole derivatives. 201 14

We have previously demonstrated preferential DNA repair of active genes in mammalian cells. The methodology involves the use of a specific endonuclease or other more direct approaches to create nicks at sites of damage followed by quantitative Southern analysis and probing for specific genes. Initially, we used pyrimidine dimer specific endonuclease to detect pyrimidine dimers after UV irradiation. We now also use the bacterial enzyme ABC excinuclease to examine the DNA damage and repair of a number of adducts other than pyrimidine dimers in specific genes. We can detect gene specific alkylation damage by creating nicks via depurination and alkaline hydrolysis. In our assay for preferential repair, we compare the efficiency of repair in the DHFR gene to that in the 3' flanking, non-coding region to the gene. In CHO cells, UV induced pyrimidine dimers are efficiently repaired from the active DHFR gene, but not from the inactive region. We have demonstrated that the 6-4 photoproducts are also preferentially repaired and that they are removed faster from the regions studied than pyrimidine dimers. Using similar approaches, we find that DNA adducts and crosslinks caused by cisplatinum are preferentially repaired in the active gene compared to the inactive regions and to the inactive c-fos oncogene. Also, nitrogen mustard and methylnitrosurea damage is preferentially repaired whereas dimethylsulphate damage is not. NAAAF adducts do not appear to be preferentially repaired in this system.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Gene specific damage and repair after treatment of cells with UV and chemotherapeutical agents. 206 87

The structure of the Escherichia coli thymidylate synthase (TS) covalent inhibitory ternary complex consisting of enzyme, 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridylate (FdUMP) and 5,10-methylene tetrahydrofolate (CH2-H4PteGlu) has been determined at 2.5 A resolution using difference Fourier methods. This complex is believed to be a stable structural analog of a true catalytic intermediate. Knowledge of its three-dimensional structure and that for the apo enzyme, also reported here, suggests for the first time how TS may activate dUMP and CH2-H4PteGlu leading to formation of the intermediate and offers additional support for the hypothesis that the substrate and cofactor are linked by a methylene bridge between C-5 of the substrate nucleotide and N-5 of the cofactor. By correlating these structural results with the known stereospecificity of the TS-catalyzed reaction it can be inferred that the catalytic intermediate, once formed, must undergo a conformational isomerization before eliminating across the bond linking C-5 of dUMP to C-11 of the cofactor. The elimination itself may be catalyzed by proton transfer to the cofactor's 5 nitrogen from invariant Asp169 buried deep in the TS active site. The juxtaposition of Asp169 and bound tetrahydrofolate in TS is remarkably reminiscent of binding geometry found in dihydrofolate reductase where a similarly conserved carboxyl group serves as a general acid for protonating the corresponding pyrazine ring nitrogen of dihydrofolate.
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PMID:Stereochemical mechanism of action for thymidylate synthase based on the X-ray structure of the covalent inhibitory ternary complex with 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridylate and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate. 220 79

We here present a general method to detect alkylation damage in specific genomic regions. Cells are treated with nitrogen mustard or dimethyl sulfate; the DNA is extracted and restricted, and the parental DNA is separated. Strand breaks are created at sites of N-alkylpurines by neutral depurination followed by alkaline hydrolysis. The DNA is then separated on alkaline agarose gels and transferred, and gene fragments are detected after hybridization with specific probes. Using this approach, we have examined damage formation and repair in the active genes dihydrofolate reductase and adenosine phosphoribosyltransferase, in a fragment containing the inactive c-fos gene and in a nontranscribed region downstream from the dihydrofolate reductase gene in Chinese hamster ovary cells. We find variations in the formation of nitrogen mustard adducts in these different regions. Nitrogen mustard adducts are preferentially repaired from the active genes as compared to the inactive gene and the noncoding region. However, we find no preferential damage or repair in these regions of the N7-methylpurines after dimethyl sulfate damage. Thus, there are significant differences in the repair mechanisms for two alkylating agents; this may implicate that there are important differences in the structural alterations in chromatin invoked by these agents. As a comparison to the studies of adduct levels in specific genomic regions, we have examined the overall genome, average adduct formation, and repair by these agents in the hamster cells. We used alkaline sucrose gradient sedimentation, and also a novel approach: quantitation of the DNA smears stained by ethidium bromide in the alkaline gels (used in the gene-selective repair analysis). Both these techniques gave similar data for adduct formation and repair; there was less initial damage formation and repair in the average genome than in specific genomic regions.
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PMID:Heterogeneity of nitrogen mustard-induced DNA damage and repair at the level of the gene in Chinese hamster ovary cells. 238 Jan 93


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