Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.1.3.5 (5'-nucleotidase)
 3,167 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A method for the isolation of gamma-aminobutyric acidergic (GABAergic) and glutamatergic terminals from crustacean muscle was developed, using differential centrifugation and sucrose density gradient centrifugation. Individual fractions were assessed using a variety of markers. One fraction was isolated which showed 40-fold purification of glutamate decarboxylase with a yield of 12%. This fraction was enriched in GABA, glutamate, glutamate dehydrogenase, and 5'-nucleotidase, but not in NADPH cytochrome c reductase. This fraction possessed an uptake system for GABA and glutamate with apparent kinetic constants of Km = 50 microM, Vmax = 250 pmol/min/mg of protein and Km = 183 microM, Vmax = 219 pmol/min/mg of protein, respectively. Electron microscopy showed nerve terminal profiles and a heterogeneous population of membrane vesicles. This fraction contained 3.4 nmol ATP/mg of protein which was stable for 30 min at 12 degrees C, and was also able to synthesise ATP from exogenous adenosine. The terminals released labelled GABA and glutamate in a Ca2+-dependent fashion on depolarisation. No release of ATP was detected. It is concluded that viable nerve terminals have been isolated which could be used as model systems for the study of GABAergic and glutamatergic neurochemistry.
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PMID:Isolation of nerve terminals from crustacean muscle. 257 77

A membrane vesicle preparation was used to examine characteristics of the human placental cholinergic system. Plasma membrane vesicles were prepared from the microvillous surface of the human placental syncytiotrophoblast. Membranes were purified 18 -to 20-fold as indicated by 5'-nucleotidase activity. Vesicle cholinesterase activity was enriched and had a substrate preference consistent with that of acetylcholinesterase (acetylcholine greater than acetyl-beta-methylcholine greater than butyryl-choline). Choline acetyltransferase specific activity was reduced 80%. The synthetic muscarinic ligand, [3H]-quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB), was used to identify two classes of muscarinic cholinergic binding sites. The dissociation constant of QNB binding was 80 pM and 30 nM for the two sites. The sites were saturable and bound 9 fmoles and 910 fmoles per mg protein for the high and low affinity sites, respectively. Specific binding was inhibited by scopolamine, atropine, carbamylcholine (CCH), and diphenhydramine, but not by non-muscarinic ligands-i.e. GABA, glycine, d-amphetamine, kappa-bungarotoxin and nicotine. The cholinergic agonist CCh had no effect on active AIB transport, although pharmacologic doses (lmM) of atropine, scopolamine and lidocaine reduced Na-gradient active transport of kappa-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB). No effect on Na-independent AIB transport was observed. Thus, these drugs apparently reduced AIB uptake through their shared local anesthetic activity and not through a central cholinergic mechanism. In contrast, CCh was able to stimulate Ca2+ uptake by the vesicles in a dose-dependent manner paralleling its ability to inhibit QNB binding. The CCh-stimulated Ca2+ uptake was inhibited by scopolamine, implying its mediation via cholinergic-type binding sites. The membrane vesicle preparation therefore provides a useful model for examination of the role of the human placental cholinergic system.
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PMID:Syncytiotrophoblast membrane vesicles: a model for examining the human placental cholinergic system. 733 61