Wilson's disease is a severe human disorder of copper homoeostasis. The disease is associated with various mutations in the ATP7B gene that encodes a copper-transporting ATPase, and a massive accumulation of copper in the liver and several other tissues. The most frequent disease manifestations include a wide spectrum of liver pathologies as well as neurological and psychiatric abnormalities. A...

A Ca(2+)-ATPase gene was cloned from the genomic libraries of Plasmodium falciparum. From the deduced amino acid sequence of the gene, a 139 kDa protein with a total of 1228 amino acids was predicted. Sequence of a partial cDNA clone of the gene identified two introns near the 3'-end at the regions identical to the regions assumed for the Ca(2+)-ATPase gene of P. yoelii, a rodent malaria specie...

Pathogenic bacteria have evolved copper homeostasis and resistance systems for fighting copper toxicity imposed by the human immune system. Streptococcus pneumoniae is a respiratory pathogen that encodes an obligatorily membrane-anchored Cu(i) binding protein, CupA, and a P1B-type ATPase efflux transporter, CopA. The soluble, cytoplasmic domain of CupA (sCupA) contains a binuclear Cu(i) cluster...

BACKGROUND Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for monogenic diseases by use of PCR-based strategies requires precise quantification of mutant fetal alleles circulating in the maternal plasma. The study describes the development and validation of a novel assay termed circulating single-molecule amplification and resequencing technology (cSMART) for counting single allelic molecules in plasma. H...

Cu and Fe metabolism are known to be linked, but the interactions during pregnancy are less well studied. In the present study we used rats to examine the effect of Cu deficiency during pregnancy on Fe and Cu levels in maternal and fetal tissue and on the gene expression profile of proteins involved in Cu and Fe metabolism in the placenta. Rats were fed diets with different Cu contents before a...

BACKGROUND Wilson disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder. The WD gene, ATP7B, encodes a copper-transporting ATPase involved in the transport of copper into the plasma protein ceruloplasmin and in excretion of copper from the liver. ATP7B mutations cause copper to accumulate in the liver and brain. OBJECTIVES We examined the ATP7B mutation spectrum in Wilson disease patients in Iran. ...

ATP7A and ATP7B are copper-transporting P-type ATPases that are essential to eukaryotic copper homeostasis and must traffic between intracellular compartments to carry out their functions. Previously, we identified a nine-amino acid sequence (F37-E45) in the NH(2) terminus of ATP7B that is required to retain the protein in the Golgi when copper levels are low and target it apically in polarized...

The human copper exporters ATP7A and ATP7B contain domains common to all P-type ATPases as well as class-specific features such as six sequential heavy-metal binding domains (HMBD1-HMBD6) and a type-specific constellation of transmembrane helices. Despite the medical significance of ATP7A and ATP7B related to Menkes and Wilson diseases, respectively, structural information has only been availab...