Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P04040 (Catalase)
 3,577 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Recently, some knowledge of metabolic pathways, rather than individual enzyme activities of M. leprae, is becoming available. Ultimately this may be useful in devising culture media for M. leprae. Knowledge restricted to individual reactions may be misleading. For instance, the detection of GlcNacase and beta-glucuronidase and the subcellular localization of hyaluronic acid led to attempts to cultivate M. leprae on hyaluronic-acid based medium. Subsequent investigations suggested that there was no pathway for the breakdown of hyaluronic acid in M. leprae. The biochemical pathways for breaking down glucose and glycerol seem to be complete, and thus similar to many bacteria, but there is an unusually high level of one enzyme, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGDH). Although 6-phosphogluconate is oxidized by M. leprae, and this is an unusual activity, reflecting very high levels of 6PGDH, glycerol may be a preferable energy source (on the basis of rates of oxidation by suspensions) for M. leprae in attempts to cultivate the bacterium. The utilization of 6-phosphogluconate might be important for other aspects of M. leprae metabolism not yet investigated (e.g., pentose metabolism) or it may be an adaption, not needed in vitro, to its existence in host macrophages. Alternatively, its oxidation may be a way of rapidly generating NADPH at critical times for the bacterium. Other unusual activities which have been reported are the presence of an enzyme characteristic of chemoautotrophism , completely surprising in view of the biology of M. leprae. This report needs to be confirmed--some aspects, in fact, have failed to be confirmed. o-Diphenoloxidase activity is unique, among mycobacteria, to M. leprae, but there is still doubt over whether or not it is an enzymatic activity and its function is unknown. A transpeptidase which may be involved in cell wall synthesis, recently demonstrated in M. leprae, is a typical mycobacterial enzyme. It is now known that iron could be supplied to M. leprae in potential media in the form of ferriexochelin from M. neoaurum . Two "deletions" in the metabolic processes of M. leprae have been observed. Catalase appears to be absent in M. leprae; its addition to media stimulates the growth of some organisms since peroxides form in the bacteriological media . Purine synthesis de novo occurred at a very low rate compared with purine scavenging. Whether this is an adaption to growth in vivo is not known.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:Metabolism in Mycobacterium leprae: its relation to other research on M. leprae and to aspects of metabolism in other mycobacteria and intracellular parasites. 614 38

The developmental profile of certain enzymatic antioxidants as well as the generation of reactive oxygen species was studied in the rat cerebral microvessels during first three weeks of life and the levels were compared to those present in adults. The data showed a higher generation of superoxide anion (+67%) and H2O2 (+200%) at postnatal day (PND) 21. Superoxide anion production was significantly lower (-24%) at PND 14 and almost comparable to adult values at PND 7. The activity of superoxide dismutase increased with development and attained an adult level at PND 21. Catalase was higher in neonates with a maximum activity at PND 7 and 14 (+68, 69%). The measurement of microvessel glutathione and glutathione-related antioxidant enzymes showed that glutathione level was higher at PND 7, which declined to an adult level at PND 14. Se-dependent GPx showed a marked increase between PND 14 and 21, however, it declined in adults. The activity of Se-independent glutathione peroxidase was very low in cerebral microvessels. Glutathione reductase activity in 7-day-old, that was comparable to adult level, declined at PND 14 and 21. The level of glutathione S-transferase was higher (+43%) at PND 21. The activity of microvessel marker enzyme gamma-glutatmyl transpeptidase increased with age, whereas, alkaline phosphatase showed a slight increase up to PND 14 and thereafter it declined. Lipid peroxidation was found to be significantly lower (-18%) at PND 21 as compared to adults. It may be concluded that developing cerebral microvessels contain high levels of several antioxidant enzymes that are more or equal to those present in adult brain microvessels.
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PMID:Developmental pattern of reactive oxygen species generation and antioxidative defense machinery in rat cerebral microvessels. 1056 84