Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.1.4.1 (phosphodiesterase)
 18,767 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The rationale for melanoma-specific antitumor agents containing phenolic amines is based in part on the ability of the enzyme tyrosinase to oxidize these prodrugs to toxic intermediates. The phenolic amine compounds 4-S-cysteaminylphenol (4-S-CAP) and N-acetyl-4-S-cysteaminylphenol (N-Ac-4-S-CAP) inhibited in situ thymidylate synthase activity in pigmented melanoma cell lines but had little or no effect on nonpigmented and nonmelanoma cell lines. Theophylline, a cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) phosphodiesterase inhibitor, increased tyrosinase activity and potentiated the inhibition of in situ thymidylate synthase by N-Ac-4-S-CAP. The inhibition of in situ thymidylate synthase by both drugs in pigmented melanoma cells correlated with the inhibition of DNA synthesis and cell growth and was not due to an indirect effect caused by inhibition of the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase. 4-S-CAP inhibition of thymidylate synthase activity in cell free extracts required oxidation of the drug. In the presence of tyrosinase, the concentration causing a 50% inhibition of thymidylate synthase activity (IC50) in cell-free extracts was less than 10 microM, but no inhibition was observed in its absence, even at a drug concentration of 500 microM. Two reducing agents, dithioerythritol and glutathione, effectively blocked the inhibition of thymidylate synthase by oxidized 4-S-CAP. In pigmented melanoma cells containing the enzyme tyrosinase, the quinone-mediated mechanism of inhibition of DNA synthesis via inhibition of thymidylate synthase may be uniquely important in the expression of phenolic amine cytotoxicity.
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PMID:Thymidylate synthase as a target enzyme for the melanoma-specific toxicity of 4-S-cysteaminylphenol and N-acetyl-4-S-cysteaminylphenol. 150 78

The saliva of blood-sucking arthropods contains powerful pharmacologically active substances and may be a vaccine target against some vector-borne diseases. Subtractive cloning combined with biochemical approaches was used to discover activities in the salivary glands of the hematophagous fly Lutzomyia longipalpis. Sequences of nine full-length cDNA clones were obtained, five of which are possibly associated with blood-meal acquisition, each having cDNA similarity to: (i) the bed bug Cimex lectularius apyrase, (ii) a 5'-nucleotidase/phosphodiesterase, (iii) a hyaluronidase, (iv) a protein containing a carbohydrate-recognition domain (CRD), and (v) a RGD-containing peptide with no significant matches to known proteins in the BLAST databases. Following these findings, we observed that the salivary apyrase activity of L. longipalpis is indeed similar to that of Cimex apyrase in its metal requirements. The predicted isoelectric point of the putative apyrase matches the value found for Lutzomyia salivary apyrase. A 5'-nucleotidase, as well as hyaluronidase activity, was found in the salivary glands, and the CRD-containing cDNA matches the N-terminal sequence of the HPLC-purified salivary anticlotting protein. A cDNA similar to alpha-amylase was discovered and salivary enzymatic activity demonstrated for the first time in a blood-sucking arthropod. Full-length clones were also found coding for three proteins of unknown function matching, respectively, the N-terminal sequence of an abundant salivary protein, having similarity to the CAP superfamily of proteins and the Drosophila yellow protein. Finally, two partial sequences are reported that match possible housekeeping genes. Subtractive cloning will considerably enhance efforts to unravel the salivary pharmacopeia of blood-sucking arthropods.
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PMID:Toward an understanding of the biochemical and pharmacological complexity of the saliva of a hematophagous sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis. 1061 54

2',5'/3',5'-cGMP-AMP (cGAMP) is a second messenger produced in response to cytosolic dsDNA that activates the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway. We recently discovered that cGAMP is exported by cancer cells and that this extracellular signal is an immunotransmitter key to tumor detection and elimination by the innate immune system. The enhancement of extracellular cGAMP levels therefore holds great promise for managing cancer. However, there is still much more to understand about the basic biology of cGAMP before its full therapeutic potential can be realized. To answer these questions, we must be able to detect and quantitate cGAMP with an assay that is high-throughput, sensitive, and precise. Existing assays fall short of these needs. Here, we describe the development of cGAMP-Luc, a coupled enzyme assay that relies on the degradation of cGAMP to AMP by ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase phosphodiesterase 1 (ENPP1) and an optimized assay for the detection of AMP by luciferase. We also developed STING-CAP, a STING-mediated method to concentrate and purify cGAMP from any type of biological sample. We conclude that cGAMP-Luc is an economical high-throughput assay that matches the accuracy of and surpasses the detection limit of MS, the current gold standard of cGAMP quantitation. We propose that cGAMP-Luc is a powerful tool that may enable discoveries that advance insights into extracellular cGAMP levels in healthy and diseased tissues, such as cancer.
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PMID:Development of cGAMP-Luc, a sensitive and precise coupled enzyme assay to measure cGAMP in complex biological samples. 3212