Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0038187 (starvation)
 24,951 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Electron-microscopic, histochemical and endocrinologic study of aldehyde-fuchsin-positive (Gomori-positive; GP) grains of rat brain periventricular glia (GP glia) was carried out. GP structures appear as a population of osmiophilic particles, which is heterogeneous in both shape and size. Laminar structures interspersed with fine granular material were seen in the GP granules. No activity of the lysosomal and mitochondrial enzymes could be observed. The reaction for peroxidase was also negative. The GP material was stained with PAS and Ziehl-Nielsen. There are apparently no lipoid inclusions in the GP grains. The primary red-orange fluorescence distinguishes the GP glia from other structures in the rat brain. So GP grains are a specific cytoplasmic formation having some similarity to lipofuscin. There was a considerable decrease in GP grains after administration of estradiol in ovariectomized rats and also in pregnant rats. Dopamine administration and starvation caused some reduction in GP grains. In the rat hypothalamus, distribution of the main mass of GP glia corresponds with the so-called hypophysiotropic area. The possible participation of GP glia in the neuroendocrinological process is discussed.
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PMID:Studies on the structure and function of Gomori-positive glial cells in the rat hypothalamus. 97 91

Fusarium graminearum A 3/5 possesses a high affinity system (Km = 32 +/- 8 microM; mean +/- SE) for uptake of choline, which was shown to be energy-dependent and constitutive. The maximum rate of choline uptake by this system was repressed by ammonia and glucose, showing a three-fold increase in maximum activity after nitrogen (2 h) or carbon (4 h) starvation. The system was highly specific for choline with only dimethylethanolamine (Ki = 198 +/- 29 microM), betaine aldehyde (Ki = 95 +/- 14 microM) and chlorocholine (Ki = 352 +/- 40 microM) acting as competitive inhibitors. Hemicholinium-3 acted as a mixed (non-competitive) inhibitor (KIES = 1.9 +/- 0.6 microM; KIE = 3.6 +/- 1.9 microM).
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PMID:Choline transport in Fusarium graminearum A 3/5. 162 23

Frankia vesicles are differentiated during nitrogen starvation; they contain nitrogenase whether produced by free-living frankiae or by frankiae in actinorhizal root nodules. Vesicles are surrounded by envelopes of several monolayers of uncharacterized lipid. It has been suggested that the envelope limits diffusion of O2 into the vesicle cytoplasm, thereby preventing inactivation of nitrogenase. Whole vesicles were prepared on sucrose gradients and sonicated, and vesicle envelopes were isolated on top of a cushion of 40% sucrose. Transmission electron microscopy of potassium permanganate-fixed envelopes confirmed the purity of these preparations. Only the outer and inner envelope layers were visible in permanganate-fixed intact vesicles; the laminae were not visible in aldehyde-osmium-fixed, lead citrate-uranyl acetate-stained whole vesicles. However, the laminated nature of the envelope was clearly evident in sonicated vesicles and in envelope fragments fixed with KMnO4. The observations indicate that partial disruption of the vesicle envelope enables its visualization with permanganate fixation, and these observations open the way for further studies on the relationship of the vesicle surface to environmental conditions.
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PMID:Isolation and structure of the lipid envelopes from the nitrogen-fixing vesicles of Frankia sp. strain CpI1. 200 7

Ethanol is constantly formed endogenously from acetaldehyde, and level of the former can be measured in both human beings and animals. Acetaldehyde can be generated in situ from the metabolism of pyruvate, threonine, deoxyribose-5-phosphate, phosphoethanolamine, alanine and presumably from other substrates. The levels of blood and tissue endogenous ethanol change as a function of various physiologic and experimental conditions such as starvation, aging, stress, cooling, adrenalectomy, etc. and are regulated by many exogenous compounds such as antimetabolites, derivatives of amino acids, lithium salts, disulfiram, cyanamide, etc. Under free choice alcohol selection situations, the levels of endogenous ethanol in rat blood and alcohol preference by the animals are negatively correlated. Similar negative correlations have been found between the levels of blood endogenous ethanol and the frequency of delirium in alcoholic patients undergoing alcohol withdrawal. Endogenous ethanol and acetaldehyde can therefore be regarded as compounds which fulfil substrate, regulatory and modulator functions.
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PMID:Endogenous ethanol--its metabolic, behavioral and biomedical significance. 353 Feb 79

Since plasma pyridoxal-x-5'o-phosphate (PLP) levels are used to assess vitamin B6 status low levels are frequently interpreted to indicate B6 deficiency. However plasma PLP is in a dynamic equilibrium with pyridoxal (PL) through the action of non specific alkaline phosphatases (ALP). The object of this study was to monitor possible disturbances of this equilibrium in whole blood during acute prolonged fasting (40 hrs) and the subsequent repletion period in 16 healthy male dogs. Mean plasma PLP decreased by 15 percent (p less than 0.025) and PL increased by 20 percent (p less than 0.05) at the end of the starvation period and returned to baseline values after 48 hrs of refeeding. However total plasma aldehyde (PLP and PL) B6 vitamer concentrations remained unchanged throughout the investigation period. A 35 percent increase in haemolysate PL was the only significant change (p less than 0.0005) in PLP and PL levels observed in erythrocytes during fasting. It is concluded that the use of plasma PLP alone to assess vitamin B6 status may be misleading in conditions with a disturbed plasma PLP/PL equilibrium.
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PMID:The effect of acute prolonged starvation on the concentrations of vitamin B6 aldehyde derivatives in whole blood. 380 10

Folic acid is a chemoattractant for the slime mold Dictyostelium minutum V3. The activity of extracellular folic acid is regulated by a folic acid C9-N10 splitting enzyme (FAS). The products were identified as pterin-6-aldehyde and p-amino-benzoylglutamic acid. The enzyme was stabilized by EDTA. For the extracellular enzyme, the Km was 10(-7) M, and the optimal pH was 4.0. During starvation, FAS activity was mainly secreted into the medium; after 3 h, a plateau was reached. The membrane-bound activity was constant, but only 12% of the extracellular activity at 3 h. Intracellular activity also increased up to 3 h to a level of 23% of the extracellular FAS. The substrate recognition of FAS was found to be based on 4-O or N3 or both, N5 or N8 or both, N10, and the p-aminobenzoic acid moiety, whereas 2-NH2, N1, and the glutamic acid moiety were not recognized. Other slime mold species were found to secrete FAS with 20-fold or more reduced activity than D. minutum V3.
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PMID:Characterization of the folic acid C9-N10-cleaving enzyme of Dictyostelium minutum V3. 684 18

The widespread distribution of enzymes classed as semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidases (SSAO enzymes) throughout a very wide range of eukaryotic as well as prokaryotic organisms encourages the aspirations of those who wish to demonstrate physiological, pathological or pharmacological importance. Such enzymes are found in several tissues of mammals, both freely soluble, as in blood plasma, and membrane-bound, for example, in smooth muscle and adipose tissue. While they are capable of deaminating many amines with the production of an aldehyde and hydrogen peroxide, doubt still surrounds the identity of the most important endogenous substrates for these enzymes. At present, methylamine and aminoacetone appear to head the list of candidates. The possibility that SSAO enzymes can convert amine substrates to highly toxic metabolites is illustrated by the production of acrolein from the xenobiotic amine, allylamine and formaldehyde and methylglyoxal from methylamine and aminoacetone, respectively. Activities of SSAO enzymes may be influenced by physiological changes, such as pregnancy or pathologically by disease states, including diabetes, tumours and burns. Increased deamination of aminoacetone by tissue and plasma SSAO enzymes as a result of its increased production from L-threonine in conditions such as exhaustion, starvation and diabetes mellitus may be harmful. Such dangers could be mitigated either physiologically by a compensatory reduction in SSAO activity or pharmacologically by treatment with inhibitors of SSAO.
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PMID:Some aspects of the pathophysiology of semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase enzymes. 858 67

Production of the two phospholipases C (PLCs) in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 is induced under conditions of phosphate limitation, or by the osmoprotectants choline or glycine betaine. Tn5 mutagenesis was performed on strain PAO1 to isolate mutants deficient in choline-dependent induction of PLC. Two mutants, Tn5T1 and Tn5G19, were identified which produce decreased levels of PLC in phosphate-replete media supplemented with choline. A total of 136 and 496 bp of flanking DNA from Tn5G19 and Tn5T1 was cloned by an inverse polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced. The DNA flanking the Tn5T1 insertion contains an open reading frame predicted to encode a peptide that is approx. 60% identical to the N-terminus of a previously identified protein (P35) of unknown function from Escherichia coli. The P35 gene, which is located in the nusA-infB operon in E. coll, was designated orp (osmoprotectant regulator of PLC). Haemolytic titres, total PlcH protein and beta-galactosidase activity expressed from a chromosomally inserted plcH-lacZ operon fusion were reduced in strain Tn5T1 in comparison with the parental strain (PAO1) carrying the same fusion. However, this mutant expressed several-fold higher levels of plcH message than strain PAO1 in the presence of choline, while the phosphate-starvation-dependent transcript of plcH could not be detected in this mutant. The defects in Tn5T1 are complemented by a DNA fragment, isolated from a genomic library of PAO1, that carries the orp gene. The deduced amino acid sequence of the DNA fragment cloned from Tn5G19 exhibits 84% identity with the betB gene product of E. coli that has betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase activity. This enzyme catalyses the conversion of betaine aldehyde to glycine-betaine. Unlike the parental strain, the Tn5G19 mutant could not utilize choline as a sole carbon, nitrogen and energy source, and it was deficient in betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase activity. Also, consistent with a disruption of betB in Tn5G19, choline inhibited growth of this strain in media containing 0.7 M NaCl, while glycine-betaine restores growth to wild-type levels. The defects in Tn5G19 are complemented by a DNA fragment from PAO1 that carries the betB gene. The orp gene is located between 0.6 to 6.6 min while betB is located between 10.5 to 12.5 min on the chromosome of PAO1.
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PMID:Molecular characterization of mutants affected in the osmoprotectant-dependent induction of phospholipase C in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. 900 19

The alkylsulfatase AtsK from Pseudomonas putida S-313 belongs to the widespread and versatile non-heme iron(II) alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase superfamily and catalyzes the oxygenolytic cleavage of a variety of different alkyl sulfate esters to the corresponding aldehyde and sulfate. The enzyme is only expressed under sulfur starvation conditions, providing a selective advantage for bacterial growth in soils and rhizosphere. Here we describe the crystal structure of AtsK in the apo form and in three complexes: with the cosubstrate alpha-ketoglutarate, with alpha-ketoglutarate and iron, and finally with alpha-ketoglutarate, iron, and an alkyl sulfate ester used as substrate in catalytic studies. The overall fold of the enzyme is closely related to that of the taurine/alpha-ketoglutarate dioxygenase TauD and is similar to the fold observed for other members of the enzyme superfamily. From comparison of these structures with the crystal structure of AtsK and its complexes, we propose a general mechanism for the catalytic cycle of the alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase superfamily.
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PMID:Crystal structure of the alkylsulfatase AtsK: insights into the catalytic mechanism of the Fe(II) alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase superfamily. 1502 59

The two-component alkanesulfonate monooxygenase system from Escherichia coli includes an FMN reductase (SsuE) and an FMNH2-dependent alkanesulfonate monooxygenase (SsuD) involved in the acquisition of sulfur from alkanesulfonates during sulfur starvation. The SsuD enzyme directly catalyzes the oxidation of alkanesulfonate to aldehyde and sulfite in the presence of O2 and FMNH2. The goal of these studies was to investigate the kinetic mechanism of SsuD through rapid reaction kinetics and substrate binding studies. The SsuD enzyme shows a clear preference for FMNH2 (Kd, 0.32 +/- 0.15 microM) compared to FMN (Kd, 10.2 +/- 0.4 microM) with a 1:1 binding stoichiometry for each form of the flavin. The kinetic trace of premixed SsuD and FMNH2 mixed with oxygenated buffer was best fit to a double exponential with no observed formation of the C4a-(hydro)peroxyflavin. However, when FMNH2 was mixed with SsuD and oxygenated buffer an initial fast phase (kobs, 12.9 s-1) was observed, suggesting that the mixing order is critical for the accumulation of the C4a-(hydro)peroxyflavin. Results from fluorimetric titrations with octanesulfonate imply that reduced flavin must bind first to promote octanesulfonate binding. When octanesulfonate was included in the kinetic studies the C4a-(hydro)peroxyflavin was observed at 370 nm when FMNH2 was not premixed with SsuD, which correlated with an increase in octanal product. There was a clear hyperbolic dependence on octanesulfonate binding, indicating that octanesulfonate binds in rapid equilibrium, and further results indicated there was a second isomerization step following binding. These results suggest that an ordered substrate binding mechanism is important in the desulfonation reaction by SsuD with reduced flavin binding first followed by either O2 or octanesulfonate.
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PMID:Catalytic importance of the substrate binding order for the FMNH2-dependent alkanesulfonate monooxygenase enzyme. 1819 99


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