Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:4.6.1.2 (guanylate cyclase)
 8,497 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Snake envenomation employs three well integrated strategies: prey immobilization via hypotension, prey immobilization via paralysis, and prey digestion. Purines (adenosine, guanosine and inosine) evidently play a central role in the envenomation strategies of most advanced snakes. Purines constitute the perfect multifunctional toxins, participating simultaneously in all three envenomation strategies. Because they are endogenous regulatory compounds in all vertebrates, it is impossible for any prey organism to develop resistance to them. Purine generation from endogenous precursors in the prey explains the presence of many hitherto unexplained enzyme activities in snake venoms: 5'-nucleotidase, endonucleases (including ribonuclease), phosphodiesterase, ATPase, ADPase, phosphomonoesterase, and NADase. Phospholipases A(2), cytotoxins, myotoxins, and heparinase also participate in purine liberation, in addition to their better known functions. Adenosine contributes to prey immobilization by activation of neuronal adenosine A(1) receptors, suppressing acetylcholine release from motor neurons and excitatory neurotransmitters from central sites. It also exacerbates venom-induced hypotension by activating A(2) receptors in the vasculature. Adenosine and inosine both activate mast cell A(3) receptors, liberating vasoactive substances and increasing vascular permeability. Guanosine probably contributes to hypotension, by augmenting vascular endothelial cGMP levels via an unknown mechanism. Novel functions are suggested for toxins that act upon blood coagulation factors, including nitric oxide production, using the prey's carboxypeptidases. Leucine aminopeptidase may link venom hemorrhagic metalloproteases and endogenous chymotrypsin-like proteases with venom L-amino acid oxidase (LAO), accelerating the latter. The primary function of LAO is probably to promote prey hypotension by activating soluble guanylate cyclase in the presence of superoxide dismutase. LAO's apoptotic activity, too slow to be relevant to prey capture, is undoubtedly secondary and probably serves principally a digestive function. It is concluded that the principal function of L-type Ca(2+) channel antagonists and muscarinic toxins, in Dendroaspis venoms, and acetylcholinesterase in other elapid venoms, is to promote hypotension. Venom dipeptidyl peptidase IV-like enzymes probably also contribute to hypotension by destroying vasoconstrictive peptides such as Peptide YY, neuropeptide Y and substance P. Purines apparently bind to other toxins which then serve as molecular chaperones to deposit the bound purines at specific subsets of purine receptors. The assignment of pharmacological activities such as transient neurotransmitter suppression, histamine release and antinociception, to a variety of proteinaceous toxins, is probably erroneous. Such effects are probably due instead to purines bound to these toxins, and/or to free venom purines.
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PMID:Ophidian envenomation strategies and the role of purines. 1173 31

A novel membrane guanylyl cyclase (membrane GC), OlGC8, was identified in the medaka fish Oryzias latipes by the isolation of full-length cDNA (4958 bp) and genomic DNA (14.3 kbp) clones. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that OlGC8 does not belong in any known vertebrate membrane GC subfamily. OlGC8 consists of an extracellular domain (214 residues), a transmembrane segment (19 residues), and an intracellular protein kinase-like domain (284 residues) and a cyclase catalytic domain (228 residues), although the extracellular domain is about half the length (around 450 residues) of other known vertebrate membrane GCs. OlGC8 transiently expressed in COS-7 cells exhibited only basal guanylyl cyclase activity. None of the known ligands (rat ANP, BNP, CNP, and C-ANF) and various medaka fish tissue extracts, which activated OlGC1, OlGC2, and OlGC7 differentially, stimulated basal activity, suggesting that OlGC8 is an orphan receptor. The OlGC8 gene consists of 24 exons and exists as a single copy on the medaka fish genome. Northern blot hybridization showed that a 5 kb-OlGC8 mRNA was expressed in the kidney and the testis at a high level and a 3.3 kb-OlGC8 mRNA was expressed only in the brain. The RNase protection, RNA Ligase-Mediated Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends (RLM-RACE), and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analyses demonstrated that the 3.3 kb-OlGC8 mRNA detected in the brain is transcribed from the second transcription initiation site, and contains an intron at the position prior to the catalytic domain, the translation product of which appears to be a protein lacking the cyclase catalytic domain.
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PMID:Expression and genomic organization of a medaka fish novel membrane form of guanylyl cyclase/orphan receptor. 1277 30

A cDNA clone encoding the soluble guanylyl cyclase alpha2 subunit was isolated from medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) and designated as OlGCS-alpha2. The OlGCS-alpha2 cDNA was 3,192 bp in length and the open reading frame (ORF) encodes a protein of 805 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence has high similarity to that of the mammalian alpha2 subunit gene except for the N-terminal regulatory domain. The C-terminal 5 amino acids, "RETSL", which have been reported to interact with the post synaptic density protein (PSD)-95 were conserved. An RNase protection assay with adult fish organs showed that OlGCS-alpha2 was expressed mainly in the brain and testis. The complete nucleotide sequence (about 41 kbp) of the OlGCS-alpha2 genomic DNA clone isolated from a medaka fish BAC library indicated that the OlGCS-alpha2 gene consisted of 9 exons and 8 introns. The 5'-flanking region and larger introns, such as introns 1, 4, and 7, contained the several fragments conserved in the nucleotide sequences of Rex6 (non-long terminal repeat retrotransposon), MHC class I genomic region, and OlGC1, the medaka fish homolog of the mammalian guanylyl cyclase B gene. Linkage analysis on the medaka fish chromosome demonstrated that the OlGCS-alpha2 gene was mapped to LG13; this mapping position was different from those for the OlGCS-alpha1 and OlGCS-beta1 genes (LG1).
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PMID:Genomic structure and expression of the soluble guanylyl cyclase alpha2 subunit gene in the medaka fish Oryzias latipes. 1456 52


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