Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:4.1.1.17 (ornithine decarboxylase)
 6,351 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

During the first 6 years after appearing in one hospital, a 92-kilobase conjugative plasmid, pBWH1, which encoded resistance to chloramphenicol and sulfonamides and determined TEM-1 beta-lactamase and 2''-aminoglycoside nucleotidyltransferase, underwent a variety of molecular changes. It was most prevalent initially in isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae, then in isolates of Serratia marcescens, and finally, after nearly disappearing, in isolates of Enterobacter cloacae. Evolutionary changes in the plasmid did not account for its shifts in species distribution, since the original molecule was found in isolates of each species. The late resurgence of pBWH1 occurred after a copy of its original molecule entered a distinctive ornithine decarboxylase-negative strain of E. cloacae, new to the hospital. The resulting transconjugant strain, chromosomally resistant to topical silver salts and to cephalosporins, and with the addition of pBWH1-encoded aminoglycoside resistance, spread in the hospital by causing an outbreak of sepsis in the burn unit, where these were commonly used antibacterial agents. Thus, an endemic plasmid became prevalent in a new host species because one of its genes supplemented the fitness of an uncommon strain of the species for a particular clinical niche.
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PMID:Molecular evolution, species distribution, and clinical consequences of an endemic aminoglycoside resistance plasmid. 301 Aug 49

The dramatic changes in morphology induced by nanomolar doses of tumor-promoting agents, especially in epithelial cells, have been noted previously (Driedger and Blumberg, 1980; Rifkin et al., 1979; Croop et al., 1980; Phaire-Washington et al., 1980; Ohuchi and Levine, 1980; Ojakian, 1981; Fey and Penman, 1984). This chapter shows the effect of the tumor promoter TPA on the underlying skeletal framework, which is involved in the maintenance of both cell and epithelial tissue morphology. It should be emphasized, however, that similar results are obtained for all the tumor promoters as well as for the complete, ultimate carcinogens examined so far. The organization of the cytoskeletal elements involved in these morphological changes is faithfully retained during the fractionation procedure employed here, as is evident from SEM and TEM analysis of Triton-extracted cells. A number of promoting agents have been compared, and the degree of disorganization viewed in these whole mounts appears to parallel the potency of the promoting agents as measured by other assays (Fey and Penman, 1984). Also, the inactive analogues of phorbol ester have no effect on cell structure (Rifkin et al., 1979; Ojakian, 1981; Fey and Penman, 1984). We suggest that the effect of TPA on the cytoskeleton occurs early as compared with many of the commonly studied biochemical responses and may indeed underlie many of the previously described cellular response to promoting agents, such as mitogenic stimulation. TPA-induced alterations in NM-IF scaffold occur in the absence of both protein and RNA synthesis (Fey and Penman, 1984). By contrast, plasminogen activator, stimulated by TPA (Wigler and Weinstein, 1976), is completely blocked by pretreatment with both cycloheximide and actinomycin D (Weinstein et al., 1977; Ojakian, 1981). Ornithine decarboxylase, another enzyme that is rapidly induced by tumor promoters, is inhibited by both cycloheximide and actinomycin D in the presence of TPA (O'Brien, 1976). Thus two of the early biochemical markers for tumor-promoter activity are separable from the induction of cytoskeletal alterations by TPA. One of the most striking features of the response to promoting agents is the adoption of the transformed phenotype, in which cells lose growth control and cease being organized into meaningful tissue structure. The alteration of desmosomal and junctional associations and the concomitant change in cytokeratin organization are clearly related to the breakdown of epithelial organization. The phenotype is completely reversible although it takes about 3 days for the mode line to reestablish normal morphology (data not shown).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:The morphological oncogenic signature. Reorganization of epithelial cytoarchitecture and metabolic regulation by tumor promoters and by transformation. 307 72

The presence of a tumour significantly changes nitrogen metabolism, including that of amino acids and polyamines, in host animals. In this study, we examine whether developing tumours affect the metabolic relationship of arginine and ornithine, precursors of polyamines, in the testosterone-induced hypertrophic mouse kidney model. Androgen-induced changes in the activity of enzymes involved with ornithine biosynthesis (arginase), its consumption (ornithine aminotransferase, OAT and ornithine decarboxylase, ODC) and the hypertrophy of host mouse kidney were not affected by the presence of an ascitic tumour (EAC) and only slightly by a mammary carcinoma (MaCa). The HPLC determined renal level of arginine and ornithine showed a striking homeostasis and was disturbed neither by testosterone nor EAC. The effect of MaCa and testosterone on the levels of both amino acids, although significant, was not very pronounced. Developing tumours, especially ascitic, altered the renal activity of OAT and ODC, but not of arginase, in testosterone-untreated mice. All examined tumours, EAC, L 1210 and MaCa actively metabolized arginine and ornithine. the tumour content of arginine which coincided with the activity of arginase, resulted in a marked increase of the ornithine/arginine ratio in tumours, when compared with kidneys. These results indicate that the androgen-induced anabolic response in mouse kidney is preserved, in spite of tumour requirements for essential metabolites.
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PMID:Tumour effect on arginine/ornithine metabolic relationship in hypertrophic mouse kidney. 906 93