Amethopterin and related folic antagonists inhibit the reduction of folic acid to tetrahydro folic acid (2). The clinical effects of these drugs are thought to be related in turn to the role of tetrahydro folic acid in single-carbon transfer reactions during nucleic acid synthesis (3). Recently, pteridines such as folic acid have been implicated in another area of metabolism, the conversion of ...

The structure of chicken liver dihydrofolate reductase (5,6,7,8-tetrahydrofolate:NADP+ oxidoreductase (EC 1.5.1.3)), in a ternary complex with NADPH and a phenyltriazine inhibitor, has been determined at a nominal resolution of 2.9 A. Overall backbone chain folding is very similar to that observed in Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductases. About 70% of the additional ...

Human carbonyl reductase 1 (hCBR1) is an NADPH-dependent short chain dehydrogenase/reductase with broad substrate specificity and is thought to be responsible for the in vivo reduction of quinones, prostaglandins, and other carbonyl-containing compounds including xenobiotics. In addition, hCBR1 possesses a glutathione binding site that allows for increased affinity toward GSH-conjugated molecul...

development of a stool antigen immunoassay to detect helicobacter pylori infection requires monoclonal antibody against the specific antigen. alkylhydroperoxide reductase (ahpc) of helicobacter pylori has been described as a specific and unique enzyme for h. pylori and therefore, both h. pylori ahpc and anti-ahpc could be useful in the development of serologic and stool antigen tests, for detec...

The purpose of this research project is to identify and chemically profile active extracts of a marine sponge, Clathria sp., collected from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Previously, pteridine alkaloids, sterol sulfates, and bromine-containing amides collected from various species of Clathria have shown anti-microbial and anti-cancer activities [1]. Sponge extracts were isolated through a combi...

Iron is an essential growth factor for the proliferation and differentiation of all living cells in being centrally involved in oxygen transport by hemoglobin and myoglobin, in electron transport during mitochondrial respiration as being a part of complex I and II enzymes or in the regulation of transcription via its role as central component of ribonucelotid reductase (1,2). Moroever, iron pla...