Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.2.1.23 (beta-galactosidase)
 14,648 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Proteus mirabilis, a common agent of nosocomially acquired and catheter-associated urinary tract infection, is the most frequent cause of infection-induced bladder and kidney stones. Urease-catalyzed urea hydrolysis initiates stone formation in urine and can be inhibited by acetohydroxamic acid and other structural analogs of urea. Since P. mirabilis urease is inducible with urea, there has been some concern that urease inhibitors actually induce urease during an active infection, thus compounding the problem of elevated enzyme activity. Quantitating induction by compounds that simultaneously inhibit urease activity has been difficult. Therefore, to study these problems, we constructed a fusion of ureA (a urease subunit gene) and lacZ (the beta-galactosidase gene) within plasmid pMID1010, which encodes an inducible urease of P. mirabilis expressed in E. coli JM103 (Lac-). The fusion protein, predicted to be 117 kDa, was induced by urea and detected on Western blots (immunoblots) with anti-beta-galactosidase antiserum. Peak beta-galactosidase activity of 9.9 mumol of ONPG (o-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside) hydrolyzed per min per mg of protein, quantitated spectrophotometrically, was induced at 200 mM urea. The uninduced rate was 0.2 mumol of ONPG hydrolyzed per min per mg of protein. Induction was specific for urea, as no structural analog of urea (including acetohydroxamic acid, hydroxyurea, thiourea, hippuric acid, flurofamide, or hydroxylamine) induced fusion protein activity. These data suggest that induction by inactivation of UreR, the urease repressor protein that governs regulation of the urease operon, is specific for urea and does not respond to closely related structural analogs.
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PMID:Proteus mirabilis urease: use of a ureA-lacZ fusion demonstrates that induction is highly specific for urea. 189 50

Escherichia coli strains isolated from patients with different levels of urinary tract infection and from healthy persons were tested for their ability to haemagglutinate endo-beta-galactosidase-treated human erythrocytes. Among the 104 strains studied one revealed a strong agglutination reaction with the enzyme-treated erythrocytes. From the monosaccharides tested N-acetyl-D-glucosamine inhibited agglutination most effectively. Orosomucoid and asialo-orosomucoid had no effect on the haemagglutination whereas beta-galactosidase treated asialo-orosomucoid was inhibitory. These findings indicate that the E. coli strain studied contains a novel cell-binding activity with specificity for terminal N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residues.
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PMID:Novel cell-binding activity specific for N-acetyl-D-glucosamine in an Escherichia coli strain. 640 69

A modified scheme is proposed for biotyping Gardnerella vaginalis isolated from urinary tract of symptomatic and asymptomatic women based on detection of hippurate hydrolysis, beta-galactosidase (ONPG) and lipase, and fermentation of arabinose, galactose and xylose. Thirty biotypes were found among 73 strains. The distribution of biotypes was similar in both populations but the biotypes 1H, 5G and 7G were found more frequently in women without symptoms of urinary tract infection.
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PMID:Biotypes of Gardnerella vaginalis isolated from urinary tract. 898 6

The IgA-degrading metalloprotease, ZapA, of the urinary tract pathogen Proteus mirabilis is co-ordinately expressed along with other proteins and virulence factors during swarmer cell differentiation. In this communication, we have used zapA to monitor IgA protease expression during the differentiation of vegetative swimmer cells to fully differentiated swarmer cells. Northern blot analysis of wild-type cells and beta-galactosidase measurements using a zapA:lacZ fusion strain indicate that zapA is fully expressed only in differentiated swarmer cells. Moreover, the expression of zapA on nutrient agar medium is co-ordinately regulated in concert with the cycles of cellular differentiation, swarm migration and consolidation that produce the bull's-eye colonies typically associated with P. mirabilis. ZapA activity is not required for swarmer cell differentiation or swarming behaviour, as ZapA- strains produce wild-type colony patterns. ZapA- strains fail to degrade IgA and show decreased survival compared with the wild-type cells during infection in a mouse model of ascending urinary tract infection (UTI). These data underscore the importance of the P. mirabilis IgA-degrading metalloprotease in UTI. Analysis of the nucleotide sequences adjacent to zapA reveals four additional genes, zapE, zapB, zapC and zapD, which appear to possess functions required for ZapA activity and IgA proteolysis. Based on homology to other known proteins, these genes encode a second metalloprotease, ZapE, as well as a ZapA-specific ABC transporter system (ZapB, ZapC and ZapD). A model describing the function and interaction of each of these five proteins in the degradation of host IgA during UTI is presented.
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PMID:ZapA, the IgA-degrading metalloprotease of Proteus mirabilis, is a virulence factor expressed specifically in swarmer cells. 1036 Dec 85