Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P02794 (ferritin)
 17,525 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Mammalian ribonucleotide reductase, which occupies a key position in the synthesis of DNA, is a highly controlled enzyme activity, because it is solely responsible for the de novo reduction of ribonucleoside diphosphates to their corresponding deoxyribonucleoside diphosphate forms, required for DNA synthesis. Ribonucleotide reductase consists of two dissimilar protein components often called M1 and M2, which are independently regulated during cell proliferation. The M1 component contains multiple effector binding sites and is responsible for the complex allosteric regulation of the enzyme, whereas the M2 protein contains nonheme iron and a unique tyrosyl-free radical required for ribonucleotide reduction. Since the reaction is rate limiting for DNA synthesis, ribonucleotide reductase plays an important role in regulating cell division, and hence, cell proliferation. There are many inhibitors of ribonucleotide reductase and perhaps the most valuable one from a cell biology, biochemistry, and clinical point of view is the hydroxamic acid, hydroxyurea. This drug has also been very useful as a selective agent for isolating a variety of mammalian mutant cell lines altered in ribonucleotide reductase gene expression. Regulatory, structural, and biological characteristics of ribonucleotide reductase are reviewed, including evidence that ribonucleotide reductase, particularly the M2 protein, has an important early role to play in tumor promotion. In addition, modifications in the expressions of genes altered in hydroxyurea-resistant mutants and cultured in the absence or presence of hydroxyurea are discussed, with emphasis on changes in M2 protein, M1 protein, and the iron-storage protein ferritin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Regulation and drug resistance mechanisms of mammalian ribonucleotide reductase, and the significance to DNA synthesis. 208 32

The ferritin-like superfamily comprises of several protein groups that utilize dinuclear metal sites for various functions, from iron storage to challenging oxidations of substrates. Ribonucleotide reductase R2 proteins use the metal site for the generation of a free radical required for the reduction of ribonucleotides to deoxyriboinucleotides, the building blocks of DNA. This ubiquitous and essential reaction has been studied for over four decades and the R2 proteins were, until recently, generally believed to employ the same cofactor and mechanism for radical generation. In this reaction, a stable tyrosyl radical is produced following activation and cleavage of molecular oxygen at a dinuclear iron site in the protein. Discoveries in the last few years have now firmly established that the radical generating reaction is not conserved among the R2 proteins but that different subgroups, that are structurally very similar, instead employ di-manganese or heterodinuclear Mn-Fe cofactors as radical generators. This is remarkable considering that the protein must exercise a strict control over oxygen activation, reactive metal-oxygen intermediate species and the resulting redox potential of the produced radical equivalent. Given the differences in redox properties between Mn and Fe, use of a different metal for this reaction requires associated adaptations of the R2 protein scaffold and the activation mechanism. Further analysis of the differences in protein sequence between R2 subgroups have also led to the discovery of new groups of R2-like proteins with completely different functions, expanding the chemical repertoire of the ferritin-like superfamily. This review describes the discoveries leading up to the identification of the different Mn-containing R2 protein groups and our current understanding of them. Hypotheses regarding the biochemical rationale to develop these chemically complex alternative solutions are also discussed.
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PMID:Metal use in ribonucleotide reductase R2, di-iron, di-manganese and heterodinuclear--an intricate bioinorganic workaround to use different metals for the same reaction. 2126 92

Ribonucleotide reductase (RR) is the rate-limiting enzyme that controls the deoxynucleotide triphosphate synthesis and it is an important target of cancer treatment, since it is expressed in tumor cells in proportion to their proliferation rate, their invasiveness and poor prognosis. Didox, a derivative of hydroxyurea (HU), is one of the most potent pharmaceutical inhibitors of this enzyme, with low in vivo side effects. It inhibits the activity of the subunit RRM2 and deoxyribonucleotides (dNTPs) synthesis, and it seems to show iron-chelating activity. In the present work, we mainly investigated the iron-chelating properties of didox using the HA22T/VGH cell line, as a model of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We confirmed that didox induced cell death and that this effect was suppressed by iron supplementation. Interestingly, cell treatments with didox caused changes of cellular iron content, TfR1 and ferritin levels comparable to those caused by the iron chelators, deferoxamine (DFO) and deferiprone (DFP). Chemical studies showed that didox has an affinity binding to Fe3+ comparable to that of DFO and DFP, although with slower kinetic. Structural modeling indicated that didox is a bidentated iron chelator with two theoretical possible positions for the binding and among them that with the two hydroxyls of the catechol group acting as ligands is the more likely one. The iron chelating property of didox may contribute to its antitumor activity not only blocking the formation of the tyrosil radical on Tyr122 (such as HU) on RRM2 (essential for its activity) but also sequestering the iron needed by this enzyme and to the cell proliferation.
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PMID:The Antitumor Didox Acts as an Iron Chelator in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells. 3148 Jun 99