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

Two independent approaches were employed to explore the potential role of endogenous glucosylceramide or a closely related glucosphingolipid in mediating the cellular proliferation of Madin-Darby canine kidney cells. First, cultured cells were depleted of glucosphingolipids by exposure to a glucosylceramide synthase inhibitor, D-threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol. This agent markedly inhibited cell growth and DNA synthesis in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. Second, cells were grown in the presence of conduritol B epoxide, an inhibitor of glucosylceramide beta-D-glucosidase. Exposure of cells to this inhibitor resulted in the time-dependent accumulation of glucosylceramide with a corresponding increase in cellular proliferation. Alterations in protein kinase C activity were evaluated as a potential mechanism for these effects on growth. Both membrane- and cytosol-associated protein kinase C (PKC) activity declined under conditions of glucosylceramide synthase inhibition and increased under conditions of beta-glucosidase inhibition. The changes in PKC activity were evident after DEAE-cellulose purification. Diacylglycerol levels increased in response to both glucosylceramide synthase and beta-glucosidase inhibition. Ceramide and sphingosine levels changed only in the presence of D-threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol, increasing due to lack of conversion to glucosylceramide. However, the elevation in endogenous sphingosine was probably insufficient to account for the decrease in PKC, considering the high level of diacylglycerol in the cells. These data demonstrate an association between glucosylceramide levels, PKC activity, and cell growth.
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PMID:Modulation of renal epithelial cell growth by glucosylceramide. Association with protein kinase C, sphingosine, and diacylglycerol. 174 91

The synthesis of glucosylsphingosine (GlcSph), a glucosylceramide (GlcCer) analogue devoid of fatty acids, in cultured fibroblasts was studied by using conduritol beta epoxide (CBE), an inhibitor of beta-glucosidase, and 1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol (PDMP), an inhibitor of glucosylceramide (GlcCer) synthase (glucosyltransferase). When CBE was added to the culture medium, the intracellular beta-glucosidase activity decreased, and both GlcCer and GlcSph accumulated in the cells. After the addition of PDMP, the concentration of GlcCer decreased, while the content of GlcSph increased. When CBE and PDMP were added together, the intracellular accumulation of GlcSph to decreased to less than when CBE alone was added. Based on these results, the synthetic pathway for GlcSph was thus considered to not only be through the glucosylation of sphingosine, but also through the deacylation of GlcCer. When GlcCer (d18:1, C12:0) was added to the culture medium, the intracellular accumulation of GlcSph (d18:1) was evident, and it was also more pronounced in the presence of CBE. In addition, when GlcCer (d18:0, C12:0) was used, apparent accumulation of GlcSph (d18:0) was also observed. In order to determine whether or not the deacylase of GlcCer is identical to acid ceramidase, a deacylase of ceramide, the same experiments were carried out using fibroblasts from two patients with Farber disease, in which acid ceramidase is genetically deficient. The accumulation of GlcSph in the Farber disease fibroblasts after the loading of GlcCer for 7 days was found to be one-fifth of the control level.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:The synthetic pathway for glucosylsphingosine in cultured fibroblasts. 785 94

Glucosylceramide (GlcCer) and related glycosphingolipids have been implicated as causal elements in both the growth of cells and in the regulation of hormonal signaling. We therefore studied whether the renal hypertrophy induced by diabetes was associated with enhanced synthesis of glycosphingolipids. 16 d after the induction of diabetes, increases in renal size and concentration of glucocerebroside and ganglioside GM3 were observed paralleling an increase in UDP-Glc concentration. GlcCer synthase and beta-glucosidase-specific activities were no different between control and diabetic kidneys. The apparent Km of the GlcCer synthase with respect to UDP-Glc was 250 microM and was unchanged in the diabetic kidneys. The observed concentrations of UDP-Glc were 149 and 237 microM in control and diabetic kidneys, respectively. The UDP-Glc level is thus rate limiting with regard to GlcCer synthesis. To determine whether the changes in glycolipid content were functionally significant, diabetic and control groups were treated with the GlcCer synthase inhibitor, D-threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoyl-amino-3-morpholino-1- propanol, 2 wk after the induction of diabetes. Kidney weights in the diabetic rats treated with D-threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol were no different than the control groups. Morphometric analysis of glomerular volumes paralleled changes in renal growth. Glycosphingolipid formation may therefore represent a significant pathway for glucose utilization in early diabetic nephropathy.
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PMID:A role for glycosphingolipid accumulation in the renal hypertrophy of streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus. 845 61

The hypothesis is offered predicting that Gaucher patients could be treated with a drug that slows the synthesis of glucosylceramide, the lipid that accumulates in this disorder. The present therapeutic approach involves augmenting the defective enzyme, glucosylceramide beta-glucosidase, with exogenous beta-glucosidase isolated from human tissue. This spectacularly expensive mode of treatment should be replaceable with a suitable enzyme inhibitor that simply slows formation of the lipid and matches the rate of synthesis with the rate of the defective, slowly working beta-glucosidase. Several drugs that possess this ability are available, the best known of which is 1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol (PDMP), a designer inhibitor that resembles the synthase's substrate and product. PDMP has been found to be effective in mice, rats, fish, and a wide variety of cultured cells. Its use, at suitable dosages, seems to be harmless, although long-term tests have not been made. The lack of suitable animal models of Gaucher disease has made it difficult to test the hypothesis adequately, but PDMP does rapidly lower the levels of glucosylceramide in normal animal tissues and the animals evidently do well with the lowered levels of glucosylceramide and its more complex glycolipid metabolites.
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PMID:Treatment of Gaucher disease with an enzyme inhibitor. 873 39

We evaluated the role of sphingolipids as potential mediators of the renal epithelial growth response to growth in high-glucose media. The mouse cortical tubule (MCT) cell line was studied under high-glucose (450 mg/dl) and normal glucose (100 mg/dl) conditions. In cells plated at low-density, high-glucose media stimulated cell proliferation as measured by DNA, protein, and cell number and [3H]thymidine incorporation with a corresponding increase in glucosylceramide (GlcCer). The GlcCer synthase inhibitor, 1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol (PDMP), blocked the proliferative response to high glucose in association with a decrease in endogenous GlcCer and an increase in ceramide concentrations. Addition of N-acetylsphingosine, a short-chain homologue of natural ceramides, increased the levels of endogenous ceramides and inhibited proliferation. In contrast, the beta-glucosidase inhibitor conduritol B epoxide resulted in increased cell GlcCer but did not increase proliferation. We conclude that MCT cells proliferate when grown in the presence of high glucose. GlcCer levels increase and ceramide levels decrease in concert with the proliferative response. Pharmacologically increasing endogenous levels of ceramide inhibits the proliferative response to high glucose, but increasing endogenous levels of GlcCer does not stimulate proliferation.
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PMID:Glycosphingolipid synthesis and proliferation in a renal cell line grown in high glucose. 878 Feb 51

Agrobacterium tumefaciens beta-glucosidase, Cbg1 was extensively characterised and found to be a retaining aryl-glucosidase and an aryl-xylosidase. Cbg1s specificity for p-nitrophenyl beta-d-xylopyranoside was 73% that for p-nitrophenyl beta-d-glucopyranoside when measured by the ratio kcat/Km. The enzyme also hydrolysed p-nitrophenyl beta-d-fucopyranoside, and p-nitrophenyl beta-d-galactopyranoside with moderate efficiency. The enzyme released only terminal glucose from p-nitrophenyl beta-cellobioside and had a 20 000-fold preference for its natural substrate coniferin over cellobiose as indicated by the ratio kcat/Km. The enzyme was activated in the presence of 20 mM 1-propanol, 1-butanol, 1-pentanol, 1-hexanol, 1-heptanol, and 1-octanol. In the case of butanol this activation was investigated and shown to be due to transglycosylation activity with over 80% of p-nitrophenyl beta-d-glucopyranoside being converted to 1-butyl beta-d-glucopyranoside in the presence of Cbg1 and 100 mM 1-butanol.
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PMID:Agrobacterium tumefaciens beta-glucosidase is also an effective beta-xylosidase, and has a high transglycosylation activity in the presence of alcohols. 963 May 31

To clarify the metabolic bases of characteristic increases in the concentrations of glucosylceramide (CMH) and GM3 in peroxisome-defective mutant Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells (Z65), we measured the ceramide glucosyltransferase (CGT) and beta-glucosidase activities in Z65 and CHO-K1 cells, and found that the former enzyme was responsible for the accumulation of CMH in Z65 cells. Inhibition of CGT by D,L-threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol (PDMP) caused a marked reduction in a incorporation of [3-14C]serine to CMH in both CHO-K1 and Z65 cells, but resulted in the accumulation of ceramide in Z65 cells in a concentration higher than that in CHO-K1 cells. Then, we cloned the cDNA encoding CGT from CHO-K1 cells, which exhibited sequence homology with the human gene product (98.7%). Northern blot analysis of CGT revealed increased expression of it in Z65 cells compared with that in CHO-K1 cells, which probably caused the simultaneous increase in GM3. With an immunohistochemical procedure, GM3 was found to be more strongly expressed in the cell membrane of Z65 cells than in CHO-K1 cells.
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PMID:Molecular cloning of Chinese hamster ceramide glucosyltransferase and its enhanced expression in peroxisome-defective mutant Z65 cells. 1213 66

The biosynthetic activity of yeast Pichia etchellsii beta-glucosidase II (BglII) expressed in recombinant Escherichia coli was utilized for synthesis of cellooligosaccharides, alkyl and terpene glucosides. Cellooligosaccharides with a degree of polymerization of 3 and greater were resolved by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) using an ethyl acetate:1-propanol:2-propanol:water (8:5:1:1) solvent system followed by visualization with 0.2% naphthoresorcinol reagent. Using 2M cellobiose and 15 IU of partially purified BglII, 57 mmol/L of oligosaccharides (comprising mostly cellotriose and cellopentaose) was synthesized in 16 h. Similarly, alkyl glucosides with chain lengths from 6 to 10 carbons were synthesized and products extracted to near purity by ethyl acetate extraction. The same extraction method was employed to separate, to near purity, various monoterpenyl (nerol, geraniol, citronellol) glucosides. A reliable and simple method for separation of cellooligosaccharides using a combination of Bio-Gel P-2 gel filtration and charcoal celite adsorption chromatography was developed. The cellooligosaccharides were separated to purity as confirmed by TLC. The enzyme was among the very few that could synthesize a wide variety of glycoconjugates.
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PMID:Enzymatic synthesis of oligosaccharides, alkyl and terpenyl glucosides, by recombinant Escherichia coli-expressed Pichia etchellsii beta-glucosidase II. 1530 55