The glycolytic enzyme triosephosphate isomerase (TPI; EC 5.3.1.1) of Staphylococcus aureus is a candidate adhesion molecule for the interaction between the bacterium and the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. TPI may recognize the mannan backbone of glucuronoxylomannan (GXM) of C. neoformans. We purified TPI from extracts of S. aureus surface proteins to investigate its binding by surface...

An amino acid residue, Asp446, was found to be essential for the enzymic activity of UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT). We obtained a rat phenol UGT (UGT1*06) cDNA (named Ysh) from male rat liver by reverse-transcription (RT)-PCR using pfu polymerase. A mutant Ysh having two different bases, A1337G and G1384A (named Ysh A1337GC1384A), that result in two amino acid substitutions, D446G and V462M...

Incubation of mouse thymocytes with mitogenic concentrations of concanavalin A causes a 2-fold increase in cell-surface-associated (but not total cell) sialyltransferase activity (ectosialyltransferase, CMP-N-acetylneuraminate:D-galactosyl-glycoprotein N-acetylneuraminyltransferase, EC 2.4.99.1) as judged by incorporation of [14C]sialic acid into endogenous cell acceptors and into added desialy...

The role of phospholipase on the mechanism of doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy was investigated in the heart mitochondria of Wistar rats. In the in vivo study, rats were divided into 3 groups: 1, the control group, untreated; 2, the doxorubicin 1-day group, in which doxorubicin (4 mg/kg) was injected s.c. once; and 3, the doxorubicin 4-day group, in which doxorubicin (4 mg/kg) was injected on...

Reactive oxygen species lead to lipid peroxidation and specific oxidation of some specific enzymes, proteins and other macromolecules, thus affecting many intra- and intercellular systems. Recently, antioxidant functions have been linked to anti-inflammatory properties. Cell defences against toxic oxygen include antioxidant enzymes. We studied the enzymic antioxidant capacity in human blood of ...

To identify the actual substrate of the glutathione-dependent sulfur dioxygenase (EC 1.13.11.18) elemental sulfur oxidation of the meso-acidophilic Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans strains DSM 504 and K6, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans strain R1 and Acidiphilium acidophilum DSM 700 was analysed. Extraordinarily high specific sulfur dioxygenase activities up to 460 nmol x min(-1) (mg protein)(-1) w...

1. Homogenates of the mucosa of the small intestine of the guinea pig were separated by fractional sedimentation into seven different fractions. The enzymic properties of some of these subcellular fractions were compared with those obtained from the mucosa of the small intestine of the rabbit and cat. 2. The enzymic properties of the low-speed sediment (15000g-min.) were investigated and it was...

1. Series of colorimetric dynamic assays allowed the study of the inhibition of cholinesterases by F(-) ions in vitro, by using, as sources of enzyme, whole human blood, human serum, homogenized rat brain and two preparations of red blood cells (human and bovine) whose enzymic purity was ascertained. 2. The first evidence of inhibition of human serum pseudocholinesterase by fluoride was noticed...

The structural properties of carbohydrate metabolism are being studied. The present contribution focuses mainly on those processes involving the transfer of carbon fragments among sugars. It is shown how enzymatic activities fix the way the system self-organizes stoichiometrically at the steady state. It is proven that there exists a specific correspondence between the set of all possible enzym...

The mutagenicity of niridazole for Salmonella typhimurium depends upon the enzymic reduction of the nitro function. The response of niridazole nitroreductase-deficient bacteria to niridazole is reduced to 4.4 and 0.19% that exhibited by the enzyme-proficient parent strain when the deficiency is the result of a base substitution and frame-shift mutation, respectively. The results are taken to in...