Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:6.3.4.6 (urease)
7,490 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Urease (urea amidohydrolase, EC 3.5.1.5) was extracted from the mixed rumen bacterial fraction of bovine rumen contents and purified 60-fold by (NH4)2SO4 precipitation, calcium phosphate-gel adsorption and chromatography on hydroxyapatite. The purified enzyme had maximum activity at pH 8.0. The molecular weight was estimated to be 120000-130000. The Km for urea was 8.3 X 10(-4) M+/-1.7 X 10(-4) M. The maximum velocity was 3.2+/-0.25 mmol of urea hydrolysed/h per mg of protein. The enzyme was stabilized by 50 mM-dithiothreitol. The enzyme was not inhibited by high concentrations of EDTA or phosphate but was inhibited by Mn2+, Mg2+, Ba2+, Hg2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Ni2+ and Co2+. p-Chloromercuribenzenesulfphonate and N-ethylmaleimide inhibited the enzyme almost completely at 0.1 mM. Hydroxyurea and acetohydroxamate reversibly inhibited the enzyme. Polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis showed that the mixed rumen bacteria produce ureases which have identical molecular weights and electrophoretic mobility. No multiple forms of urease were detected.
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PMID:Purification and properties of urease from bovine rumen. 1 37

One hundred forty-eight drugs and other organic and inorganic substances were screened for their ability to inhibit the enzyme urease in an in vitro system modeled on infected urine. The reported urease-inhibiting properties of ascorbic acid, tetracyclines, and sulfanilamide were not confirmed. At least 50 per cent inhibition was observed in the presence of kanamvcin, hydroxguanidine, benzoquinone, 1,2-naphthaquinone-4-sulfonate, chloramine-T, N-bromoacetamide, copper, mercury, and fluoride. It is, however, unlikely that therapeutically effective concentrations can be attained in urine without giving dosages likely to result in toxic effects. Hydroxyurea, at the dose level used in cytotoxic therapy, may be expected to produce effective inhibition of bacterial urease in the urinary tract, providing renal function is unimpaired and providing urinary volume does not exceed 1 liter per 24 hr. Acetohydroxamic acid is potentially the most useful drug for the treatment of infection-induced urinary stone disease available at present.
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PMID:Inhibition of urease by miscellaneous ions and compounds. Implications for the therapy of infection-induced urolithiasis. 90 16

Hydroxyurea is a well known enzyme urease inhibitor. Bacteria strains producers of enzyme urease can be the cause of struvite calculosis. Clinical studies have shown that treatment with hydroxyurea can produce acid urine in patients suffering from struvite calculosis. In this work antiurease and antibacterial activity of hydroxyurea was valued in vitro against Proteus mirabilis strains. Our results seem not to agree with the ones obtained in vivo.
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PMID:Inhibitors of bacterial urease: microbiological considerations on hydroxyurea influenza virus. 676

Urease was purified (4126-fold) from Aspergillus niger (NRRL 003) to a homologous enzyme preparation with a specific activity of 1341 mumol min-1 (mg protein)-1. One species of urease was detected in A. niger, with Km = 3.0 mM, native molecular mass 250,000 Da, pH optimum of 8.0 and a high specificity for urea. Hydroxyurea was a strong competitive inhibitor of urease activity, while N-methylurea acted as a weak uncompetitive inhibitor, based on Lineweaver-Burk and Eadie-Hoftstee plots. The activity of urease was enhanced by, but not dependent on, the presence of Na2EDTA, DL-dithiothreitol (< or = 0.1 to 5.0 mM), Ca2+, Ba2+ and citrate (2 to 20 mM). Urease activity was not affected by Na+, K+, Cl-, Br-, acetate or nitrate (2 to 20 mM), but was significantly decreased in the presence of Li+, Ni2+, Mg2+, Zn2+ or I-. Urease activity decreased 26.0% after 30 min at 65 degrees C, and 86.5% and 100.0% after 5 and 1 min at 80 and 100 degrees C, respectively. Urease activity decreased 30.5% after 90 d at 4 degrees C and 21.0% after 28 d at -20 or -80 degrees C.
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PMID:Isolation and characterization of urease from Aspergillus niger. 833 11

Ammonia (NH4OH) generated by urease from urea in the Helicobacter pylori (Hp)-infected stomach is considered as a one of the major pathogenic factors in the Hp-associated gastritis but the mechanism of the deleterious action of NH4OH on gastric mucosa has not been fully explained. In this study, the gastric mucosa was exposed to topical NH4OH in various concentrations (15-250 mM) (series A) and to NH4OH in a small concentration followed by a high concentration (250 mM) of NH4OH (series B) or to the combination of urea and urease to generate NH4OH (series C) followed by 250 mM NH4OH in order to determine the "mild irritant" and protective properties of this substance on the mucosa. Administration of NH4OH alone resulted in a concentration-dependent mucosal damage starting at 30 mM and reaching at 250 mM the degree similar to that obtained with 100% ethanol. The acute mucosal damage by NH4OH was accompanied by the fall in gastric blood flow reaching nadir at 250 mM NH4OH of about 30% of the normal value. When the mucosa was first exposed to low concentration of NH4OH (15 mM) and then insulted with its larger concentration (250 mM), the lesion area was markedly reduced as compared to that obtained with 250 mM NH4OH alone and this effect was accompanied by a significant rise in the GBF. This adaptive cytoprotection by 15 mM NH4OH was reversed, in part, by the pretreatment with indomethacin to inhibit prostaglandins (PG) or L-NAME to suppress nitric oxide (NO) formation or after capsaicin-induced denervation of sensory nerves. Blockade of endogenous sulfhydryls (SH) by N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) eliminated this adaptive cytoprotection but the suppression of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), a key enzyme in polyamine biosynthesis, by alpha-difluoro methylornithine (DFMO) failed to influence the protection and accompanying hyperemia afforded by NH4OH in low concentration. The combination of urea (2%) and urease (100 U), which raised the gastric luminal NH4OH concentration by about 5-folds, also reduced significantly the lesions provoked by 250 mM NH4OH. This protection and accompanying hyperemia induced was significantly attenuated by the pretreatment with indomethacin or hydroxyurea, a potent urease inhibitor. Hydroxyurea abolished completely the rise in luminal NH4OH produced by the combined treatment of urea plus urease. We conclude that 1) NH4OH in high concentration damages the gastric mucosa but when applied at lower concentration or generated in the stomach by urea-urease system, acts as local mild irritant to induce adaptive cytoprotection that probably involves PG, sensory nerves and arginine-NO-pathaway.
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PMID:Urea-urease system in cytoprotection against acute mucosal damage. 877 94

Coccidioides immitis, the causative agent of San Joaquin Valley fever (coccidioidomycosis), produces a urease which has been suggested to contribute to the virulence of this fungal pathogen. Urease catalyzes the hydrolysis of urea and has been proposed to at least partly account for alkalinity of the microenvironment in which C. immitis grows due to the release of ammonia and ammonium ions. The C. immitis urease was purified to homogeneity (1048-fold) from the mycelial cytosol by chromatographic fractionation. The sequence of 12 N-terminal amino-acid residues of the purified, native polypeptide was identical to that predicted by the translated urease gene sequence which has been reported. The isolated enzyme exhibited a specific activity in the presence of urea of 1750 micromol min(-1) mg(-1) protein, has a native molecular mass of 450 kDa, revealed a Km for urea of 4.1 mM, had a pH optimum of 8.0 and is heat stable. Hydroxyurea, acetohydroxamic acid (AHA) and boric acid each inhibited activity of the purified enzyme. Urease activity was enhanced by the presence of 5-10 mM concentrations of Mg2+ or Mn2+, but inhibited by Li+, Ni2+, Cu2+ or Zn2+. The reversible urease inhibitor, AHA, blocked enzyme activity in the crude mycelial cytosolic fraction when added at a concentration of 10 mM. On the other hand, 10 mM AHA added to 4-day-old mycelial cultures only partially decreased the amount of ammonium detected in the culture medium. It is evident, therefore, that C. immitis urease activity does not account for the total amount of ammonia secreted during in vitro growth of the pathogen. Other metabolic sources of ammonia, which may also contribute to the virulence of C. immitis, are under investigation.
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PMID:Purification and characterization of urease isolated from the pathogenic fungus Coccidioides immitis. 1186 12

Hydroxyurea has emerged as a new therapy for sickle cell disease but a complete mechanistic description of its beneficial actions does not exist. Patients taking hydroxyurea show evidence for the in vivo conversion of hydroxyurea to nitric oxide (NO), which also has drawn interest as a sickle cell disease treatment. While the chemical oxidation of hydroxyurea produces NO or NO-related products, NO formation from the reactions of hydroxyurea and hemoglobin do not occur fast enough to account for the observed increases in patients taking hydroxyurea. Both horseradish peroxidase and catalase catalyze the rapid formation of nitric oxide and nitroxyl (HNO) from hydroxyurea. In these reactions, hydroxyurea is converted to an acyl nitroso species that hydrolyzes to form HNO. The ferric heme protein then oxidizes HNO to NO that combines with the heme iron to form a ferrous-NO complex that may act as an NO donor. In general, acyl nitroso compounds, regardless of the method of their preparation, hydrolyze to form HNO and the corresponding carboxylic acid derivative. Similarly, the incubation of blood and hydroxyurea with urease rapidly form NO-related species suggesting the initial urease-mediated hydrolysis of hydroxyurea to hydroxylamine, which then reacts quickly with hemoglobin to form these products. These studies present two NO releasing mechanisms from hydroxyurea that are kinetically competent with clinical observations.
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PMID:N-hydroxyurea and acyl nitroso compounds as nitroxyl (HNO) and nitric oxide (NO) donors. 1610 27

Cultured soybean (Glycine max, Kanrich variety) cells grow with 25 mm urea as the sole nitrogen source but at a slower rate than with the Murashige and Skoog (MS) (Physiol. Plant. 15: 473-497, 1962) nitrogen source of 18.8 mm KNO(3) and 20.6 mm NH(4)NO(3). Growth with urea is restricted by 18.8 mm NO(3) (-), 50 mm methylammonia, 10 mm citrate or 100 mum hydroxyurea, substances which are much less restrictive or nonrestrictive in the presence of ammonia nitrogen source. The restrictive conditions of urea assimilation were examined as possible bases for selection schemes to recover urease-overproducing mutants. Since urease has higher methionine levels than the soybean seed proteins among which it is found, such selections may be a model for improving seed protein quality by plant cell culture techniques.Callus will not grow with 1 mm urea plus 18.8 mm KNO(3). Urease levels decrease 80% within two divisions after transfer from MS nitrogen source to 1 mm urea plus 18.8 mm KNO(3). Hydroxyurea is a potent inhibitor of soybean urease and this appears to be the basis for its inhibition of urea utilization by callus cells.Stationary phase suspension cultures grown with MS nitrogen source exhibit trace or zero urease levels. Soon after transfer to fresh medium (24 hours after escape from lag), urease levels increase in the presence of both MS or urea nitrogen source. However, the increase is 10 to 20 times greater in the presence of urea. NH(4)Cl (50 mm) lowers urease induction by 50% whereas 50 mm methylammonium chloride results in more drastic reductions in urea-stimulated urease levels. Citrate (10 mm) completely blocks urease synthesis in the presence of urea.Ammonia and methylammonia do not inhibit soybean urease nor do they appreciably inhibit urea uptake by suspension cultures. It appears likely that methylammonia inhibits urea utilization in cultured soybean cells primarily due to its "repressive" effect on urease synthesis.Citrate does not inhibit urease activity in vitro and exhibits only a partial inhibition (0-50% in several experiments) of urea uptake. It appears likely that the citrate elimination of urease production by cultured soybean cells is due to its chelation of trace Ni(2+) in the growth medium. Dixon et al. (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 97: 4131-4133, 1975) have reported that jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis) urease contains nickel at the active site.
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PMID:Nitrogen metabolism in soybean tissue culture: I. Assimilation of urea. 1665 77

Germinating jack bean cotyledons liberated (14)CO2 when fed (14)C-guanidoxy-canavanine but did not accumulate any (14)C-compounds other than the applied canavanine. This suggested that the canavanine was being degraded by the action of canavanase to canaline and urea, the urea then being converted to ammonia and carbon dioxide by the action of urease. Hydroxyurea and acetohydroxamic acid (both inhibitors of urease activity) strongly inhibited the liberation of (14)CO2 from (14)C-guanidoxy-canavanine by the cotyledons but neither compound induced the accumulation of (14)C-urea within the tissues. This inhibitory action of hydroxyurea on (14)CO2 output was thought to be due at least in part, to this inhibition of canavanase activity.
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PMID:The degradation of canavanine by jack bean cotyledons. 2449 52

Hydroxyurea (HU) was approved to be used in the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD) because of its anti-sickling potential. However, there is variability in HU response among SCD patients and this can be due to physiological, socioeconomic, environmental, metabolic and/or genetic factors. The present review focuses on the latter two. Three quantitative trait loci, HBG2, BCL11A and HMIP, have been suggested as important markers for HU response. Other genes (ASS1, KLF10, HAO2, MAP3K5, PDE7B, TOX, NOS1, NOS2A, FLT1, ARG1, ARG2, UGT1A1, OR51B5/6, SIN3A, SALL2, SAR1A, UTB, OCTN1, CYP2C9, AQP9, MPO, CYP2E1, and GSTT1) have also been considered. Studies implicate catalase, urease, horseradish peroxidase and enzymes of CYP450 family in HU metabolism. However, little is known about these enzymes. Therefore, further studies are needed to elucidate the metabolic pathway of HU, which will facilitate pharmacogenomic studies and help in identification of candidate genes for predicting HU response.
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PMID:Hydroxyurea in the management of sickle cell disease: pharmacogenomics and enzymatic metabolism. 3020 97


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