Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.2.1.21 (beta-glucosidase)
 3,280 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The toxic glycosides vicine and convicine which are present in fababeans have been implicated in favism, an anaemic disease of humans. Vicine and convicine concentrations are reduced by growth of Lactobacillus plantarum on fababean suspensions. The glycosides are eliminated from the fababean substrate by the growth of the filamentous fungus Fusarium graminearum. Incubation of fababean suspension with concentrated culture filtrate of Aspergillus oryzae, induced for extracellular beta-glucosidase production, results in complete degradation of the glycosides. This study suggests a potential use of micro-organisms or microbial enzymes for detoxification of fababeans.
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PMID:Hydrolysis of vicine and convicine from fababeans by microbial beta-glucosidase enzymes. 164 2

Favism is a severe, acute haemolytic anaemia which occurs in about 20% of G6PD deficient subjects after ingestion of fava beans. Since not all G6PD deficient subjects are sensitive to fava beans, the possibility has been suggested that extra erythrocytic factors may play an important role in the susceptibility to haemolytic favism. To test the hypothesis that an autosomal enzyme is involved in the pathogenesis of favism, we carried out a beta-glucosidase assay in small intestine biopsies from normal subjects and G6PD deficient subjects with or without favism. Beta-glucosidase might be involved in the absorption and metabolism of fava beans and a quantitative polymorphism could explain the different susceptibility to fava beans of G6PD deficient subjects. Our observation showed no consistent quantitative polymorphism of beta-glucosidase in the subjects examined.
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PMID:Favism: looking for an autosomal gene associated with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. 643 90

A new method for the quantitation of the favism-inducing agents in legumes is described. The procedure involves differential extraction of the glucosides vicine and convicine with acetic acid (25%), followed by an enzymatic hydrolysis by beta-glucosidase under anaerobic conditions. Each of the aglycone moieties, isouramil and divicine, anaerobically reduces two molecules of o-ferriphenanthroline to o-ferrophenanthroline. This reaction is readily followed spectrophotometrically at 515 nm. Using this procedure, it was found that in various strains of Vicia faba, the level of these two glucosides comprises approximately 0.5% of the wet weight of the seeds. In contrast, these glucosides could not be detected in either green peas or chick peas.
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PMID:A novel method for quantitation of favism-inducing agents in legumes. 684 90

Vicine is a glucoside from broad beans (Vicia faba) that is hydrolyzed upon ingestion to the unstable aglycon divicine, the autoxidation of which has been implicated in the onset of hemolysis in favism,possibly via production of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide. The autoxidation of divicine proceeds through a series of reactions involving the formation of a radical species. In this study divicine radicals were produced either by incubation of vicine with beta-glucosidase or by boiling vicine in hydrochloric acid. On the basis of electron spin resonance spectra, it was shown that the two treatments produce different radicals. By spectral simulation the acid-produced radical was demonstrated to be a deaminodivicine. The autoxidation rates of the two radicals were determined from the disappearence of their electron spin resonance signals in the presence of air: at physiological pH the enzymatically produced divicine radical was much more stable to oxygen than the chemically produced radical. The two radicals may thus be expected to behave differently in a biological system. The repercussions of these findings could be considerable, given that most of the pharmacological and biochemical studies on vicine action have been done with the chemically produced compound, which is shown here to be an unphysiological intermediate.
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PMID:Electron spin resonance characterization of the radicals produced by enzymatic or chemical cleavage of vicine. 1917 87