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

The DNA sequence of the Salmonella typhimurium metA control region is presented. S1 nuclease mapping was used to determine the transcription initiation site. By measuring beta-galactosidase levels in Escherichia coli strains lysogenized with lambda phage carrying a metA-lacZ gene fusion, the MetR protein was shown to activate the metA gene. Homocysteine, an intermediate in methionine biosynthesis, plays a negative role in the MetR-mediated activation mechanism. Gel mobility shift assays and DNase I protection experiments showed that the MetR protein binds to a DNA fragment carrying the metA control region and protects a 26-bp region beginning 9 bp upstream of the -35 promoter sequence.
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PMID:Regulation of the Salmonella typhimurium metA gene by the metR protein and homocysteine. 172 33

Regulation of the Salmonella typhimurium metR gene was studied by measuring beta-galactosidase levels in Escherichia coli strains lysogenic for a lambda bacteriophage carrying a metR-lacZ fusion. The results indicate that the metR gene is negatively regulated by its own gene product and that this autoregulation involves homocysteine as a corepressor. In addition, the results indicate that the metR gene is negatively regulated by the metJ gene product over a 70- to 80-fold range.
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PMID:Regulation of the metR gene of Salmonella typhimurium. 311 72

Cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) purification from mammalian tissues is complicated by proteolysis and enzyme aggregation. To surmount these difficulties, we cloned human CBS cDNA in tandem with the beta-galactosidase sequence of the fusion vector, pAX5-, then expressed the fusion protein, beta-galactosidase/CBS, in transformed Escherichia coli cells. Proteolytic treatment of the ammonium sulfate fraction of bacterial lysates with endoproteinase Xa liberated CBS which could then be separated from its fusion partner by DEAE-cellulose chromatography. This nearly homogeneous enzyme preparation was purified 140-fold over the crude bacterial lysate with nearly 50% recovery, and its specific activity, 210 U/mg protein, was comparable to that purified from human liver. The purified enzyme contained pyridoxal 5'-phosphate and exhibited positive cooperativity toward S-adenosyl-L-methionine (Hill coefficient = 5.2; Kact = 34 microM). Km values of the cloned enzyme in the absence of AdoMet are 3.1 and 1.1 mM for serine and homocysteine, respectively. They are virtually identical to those from human hepatic CBS. A Soret absorbance band (lambda max = 428 nm) which shifted to 448 nm after reduction with sodium dithionite revealed the presence of heme in the enzyme. Expression of the fusion protein in E. coli with subsequent purification represents the first time this enzyme has been isolated in sufficient quantities for biophysical and biochemical investigation.
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PMID:Expression of human cystathionine beta-synthase in Escherichia coli: purification and characterization. 782 2

Asymptomatic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-seropositive individuals have reduced glutathione (GSH) levels. This has led to the suggestion that elevated intracellular thiols levels may inhibit HIV replication and progression of the disease. We confirmed that N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), a cysteine prodrug which maintains intracellular GSH levels during oxidative stress, inhibits in the chronically infected U1 cells, the stimulation of HIV replication induced by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), interleukin-6 (IL-6) or granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF). However, we found no significant inhibition of PMA-mediated long terminal repeat (LTR)-directed beta-galactosidase expression in transiently transfected Jurkat T-cells. We have compared NAC effects with the effects of other GSH precursors on HIV expression. Treatment of the U1 cell line by L-2-oxo-4-thiazolidine carboxylic acid (OTC), which is converted to cysteine by 5-oxoprolinase, or by homocysteine (HC), a natural cysteine precursor, reduced the PMA-induced HIV expression, but surprisingly, markedly stimulated the expression mediated by IL-6 and GM-CSF. Several experiments to investigate the effect of OTC on LTR transactivation were carried out, but beta-galactosidase activity was never modified in a significant fashion in PMA-induced Jurkat T-cells after OTC treatment. Furthermore, HC stimulated the PMA-mediated HIV-LTR transactivation in Jurkat T-cells. GSH assays showed that treatment of U937 and Jurkat T-cells with NAC and OTC moderately increased the GSH level, while HC led to a significantly higher increase of the thiol level. In conclusion, it appeared that an increase of the GSH intracellular level did not lead solely to an inhibition of HIV replication but could also lead to an activation of viral expression. This seemed the case when HIV replication was stimulated by compounds which act mainly at a post-transcriptional level.
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PMID:Effects of glutathione precursors on human immunodeficiency virus replication. 819 36

Porcine liver betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase (BHMT; EC) was purified to homogeneity, and the Michaelis constants for betaine, dimethylacetothetin, and L-homocysteine are 23, 155, and 32 microM, respectively. The maximum rate of catalysis is 47-fold greater using dimethylacetothetin as a methyl donor compared with betaine. Partial amino acid sequence of porcine BHMT was obtained, and inosine-containing redundant oligonucleotide primers were used to amplify an 815-base pair sequence of the porcine cDNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Nondegenerate oligonucleotide primers based on the porcine cDNA were synthesized and used to isolate a 463-base pair fragment of the human cDNA by PCR. The human PCR DNA product was then used to screen a cDNA library by plaque hybridization, and cDNAs encoding human BHMT were isolated. The primary structure of the human cDNA is reported here, and the open reading frame encodes a 406-residue protein of Mr 44,969. The deduced amino acid sequence of human BHMT shows limited homology to bacterial vitamin B12-dependent methionine synthases (EC). A plasmid containing the human BHMT cDNA fused in frame to the N terminus of beta-galactosidase was transformed into Escherichia coli, and transformants expressed BHMT activity, an activity that is absent from wild type E. coli.
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PMID:Purification, kinetic properties, and cDNA cloning of mammalian betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase. 879 61

Our previous studies showed that homocysteine (Hcy) reduces endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) numbers and impairs functional activity. However, the mechanisms by which Hcy reduces EPCs numbers and activity remain to be determined. Recent studies have demonstrated that reduced EPCs numbers and activity was associated with EPCs senescence which involved telomerase activity. Therefore, we investigated whether Hcy accelerates the onset of EPCs senescence through telomerase inactivation, leading to cellular dysfunction. EPCs were isolated from peripheral blood and characterized. After ex vivo cultivation, EPCs became senescent as determined by acidic beta-galactosidase staining. Hcy dose-dependently accelerated the onset of EPCs senescence in culture. Moreover, Hcy decreased proliferation of EPCs as assessed by BrdU incorporation assay and colony-forming capacity. To get further insights into the underlying mechanisms of these effects induced by Hcy, we measured telomerase activity and determined the phosphorylation of Akt by using western blot. Hcy significantly diminished telomerase activity and Akt phosphorylation. Taken together, the results of the present study demonstrated that Hcy accelerated the onset of EPCs senescence, leading to cellular dysfunction. The effect of Hcy might be dependent on telomerase inactivation, and Akt dephosphorylation also appeared to play a major role. In addition, atorvastatin had a preventative effect against Hcy-induced EPCs senescence.
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PMID:Homocysteine accelerates senescence and reduces proliferation of endothelial progenitor cells. 1660 Feb 90

We investigated here the effect of l-arginine on asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) or homocysteine-accelerated endothelial aging. Endothelial cells were cultured in medium containing 70micromol/L arginine until fourteenth passage. ADMA, dl-homocysteine, and l-arginine were replaced every 48h starting at the fourth passage. ADMA or homocysteine inhibited significantly the population doublings (PD) and accelerated the process of aging. Co-incubation with l-arginine enhanced PD, inhibited senescence associated beta-galactosidase activity, and increased telomerase activity. This effect was associated with an increase in NO synthesis and NO synthase protein expression. Furthermore, l-arginine-induced NO formation was accompanied by a reduction in oxidative stress and an increase in protein expression and enzyme activity of heme oxygenase (HO)-1. The NO synthase inhibitor l-NAME completely abolished the effect of l-arginine on ADMA or homocysteine-accelerated aging. These findings demonstrate that l-arginine prevents the onset of endothelial aging in ADMA or homocysteine-treated cells by increasing NO formation and consequently the induction of HO-1. This might provide a new strategy to delay ADMA or homocysteine-accelerated aging.
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PMID:Effect of L-arginine on asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) or homocysteine-accelerated endothelial cell aging. 1671 97

Current treatments for Alzheimer's disease involve inhibiting cholinesterases. Conversely, cholinesterase stimulation may be deleterious. Homocysteine is a known risk factor for Alzheimer's and vascular diseases and its active metabolite, homocysteine thiolactone, stimulates butyrylcholinesterase. Considering the opposing effects on butyrylcholinesterase of homocysteine thiolactone and cholinesterase inhibitors, understanding how these molecules alter this enzyme may provide new insights in the management of dementia. Butyrylcholinesterase does not strictly adhere to Michaelis-Menten parameters since, at higher substrate concentrations, enzyme activation occurs. The substrate activation equation for butyrylcholinesterase does not describe the effects of inhibitors or non-substrate activators. To address this, global data fitting was used to generate a flexible equation based on Michaelis-Menten principles. This methodology was first tested to model complexities encountered in inhibition by imidazole of beta-galactosidase, an enzyme that obeys Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The resulting equation was sufficiently flexible to permit expansion for modeling activation or inhibition of butyrylcholinesterase, while accounting for substrate activation of this enzyme. This versatile equation suggests that both the inhibitor and non-substrate activator examined here have little effect on the substrate-activated form of butyrylcholinesterase. Given that butyrylcholinesterase inhibition can antagonize stimulation of this enzyme by homocysteine thiolactone, cholinesterase inhibition may have a role in treating Alzheimer and vascular diseases related to hyperhomocysteinemia.
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PMID:A versatile equation to describe reversible enzyme inhibition and activation kinetics: modeling beta-galactosidase and butyrylcholinesterase. 1730 93

Homocysteine plays a key role in endothelial cell senescence associated with atherosclerosis-based cardiovascular diseases. Selaginellin, a component extracted from Selaginella pulvinata (Hook. et Grev.) Maximo, was assessed for its ability to protect human umbilical vein endothelial cells against homocysteine-induced senescence. The endothelial cells were pretreated with various concentrations (10(-7), 3 x 10(-7), or 10(-6) M) of selaginellin for 1 hour before exposure to homocysteine. Selaginellin was shown to protect endothelial cells against homocysteine-induced senescence, as determined by senescence-associated beta-galactosidase activity, telomerase activity, and cell cycle distribution. In addition, the increase in levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species and downregulation of SIRT1 gene expression induced by homocysteine were significantly reversed by selaginellin. Our study suggests that selaginellin has a protective effect against homocysteine-induced senescence through mechanisms related to antioxidation via scavenging reactive oxygen species and upregulating the expression of SIRT1 gene.
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PMID:Effects of selaginellin on homocysteine-induced senescence in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. 2022 29