Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P17174 (aspartate aminotransferase)
 14,872 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Glutamine is utilized at a high rate (fourfold higher than that of glucose) by isolated incubated lymphocytes and produces glutamate, aspartate, lactate and ammonia. The pathway for glutamine metabolism includes the reactions catalysed by glutaminase, aspartate aminotransferase, oxoglutarate dehydrogenase, succinate dehydrogenase, fumarase, malate dehydrogenase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase. In fact little if any of the carbon of the glutamine that is used is converted to acetyl-CoA for complete oxidation. For this reason, the oxidation of glutamine is only partial and, in an analogous manner to the terminology used to describe the partial oxidation of glucose to lactate as glycolysis, the term glutaminolysis is used to describe the process of partial glutamine oxidation. The role of glutaminolysis in lymphocytes and perhaps other rapidly dividing cells is to provide both nitrogen and carbon for precursors for synthesis of macromolecules (e.g. purines and pyrimidines for DNA and RNA) and also energy. However, the rate of glutamine utilization by lymphocytes is markedly in excess of the precursor requirements (which are at most 4%) and if glutamine was vitally important in energy production it would be expected that more would be converted to acetyl-CoA for complete oxidation via the Krebs cycle. Indeed most of the energy for lymphocytes may be obtained by the complete oxidation of fatty acids and ketone bodies. Consequently the role of the high rate of glutaminolysis in lymphocytes and other rapidly dividing cells may be identical to that of glycolysis: the high rates provide ideal conditions for the precise and sensitive control of the rate of use of the intermediates of these pathways for biosynthesis when required. High rates of glycolysis and glutaminolysis can be seen as part of a mechanism of control to permit synthesis of macromolecules when required without any need for extracellular signals to make more glucose or glutamine available for these cells. In order to maintain a high rate of glutaminolysis despite fluctuation in the plasma level of glutamine, the flux through the glutaminolytic pathway can be controlled and the key processes in the lymphocyte that may play a role in this process include glutamine transport across the cell and mitochondrial membranes, glutaminase and oxoglutarate dehydrogenase. Changes in the intracellular concentration of Ca2+ may play a role in control of one or more of these reactions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:Glutamine metabolism in lymphocytes: its biochemical, physiological and clinical importance. 390 97

1. The maximum activity of hexokinase in lymphocytes is similar to that of 6-phosphofructokinase, but considerably greater than that of phosphorylase, suggesting that glucose rather than glycogen is the major carbohydrate fuel for these cells. Starvation increased slightly the activities of some of the glycolytic enzymes. A local immunological challenge in vivo (a graft-versus-host reaction) increased the activities of hexokinase, 6-phosphofructokinase, pyruvate kinase and lactate dehydrogenase, confirming the importance of the glycolytic pathway in cell division. 2. The activities of the ketone-body-utilizing enzymes were lower than those of hexokinase or 6-phosphofructokinase, unlike in muscle and brain, and were not affected by starvation. It is suggested that the ketone bodies will not provide a quantitatively important alternative fuel to glucose in lymphocytes. 3. Of the enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid cycle whose activities were measured, that of oxoglutarate dehydrogenase was the lowest, yet its activity (about 4.0mumol/min per g dry wt. at 37 degrees C) was considerably greater than the flux through the cycle (0.5mumol/min per g calculated from oxygen consumption by incubated lymphocytes). The activity was decreased by starvation, but that of citrate synthase was increased by the local immunological challenge in vivo. It is suggested that the rate of the cycle would increase towards the capacity indicated by oxoglutarate dehydrogenase in proliferating lymphocytes. 4. Enzymes possibly involved in the pathway of glutamine oxidation were measured in lymphocytes, which suggests that an aminotransferase reaction(s) (probably aspartate aminotransferase) is important in the conversion of glutamate into oxoglutarate rather than glutamate dehydrogenase, and that the maximum activity of glutaminase is markedly in excess of the rate of glutamine utilization by incubated lymphocytes. The activity of glutaminase is increased by both starvation and the local immunological challenge in vivo. This last finding suggests that metabolism of glutamine via glutaminase is important in proliferating lymphocytes.
 ...
PMID:Maximum activities of some enzymes of glycolysis, the tricarboxylic acid cycle and ketone-body and glutamine utilization pathways in lymphocytes of the rat. 716 29