OBJECTIVES We investigated whether abnormal pteridine metabolism is related to coronary endothelial dysfunction in insulin-resistant subjects. BACKGROUND Depletion of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH(4)) and elevation of the 7,8-dihydrobiopterin (BH(2)) (activating and inactivating cofactors of nitric oxide synthase [NOS], respectively) contribute to impairment of NO-dependent vasodilation through red...

Plants are the main source of folate in human diets, but many fruits, tubers, and seeds are poor in this vitamin, and folate deficiency is a worldwide problem. Plants synthesize folate from pteridine, p-aminobenzoate (PABA), and glutamate moieties. Pteridine synthesis capacity is known to drop in ripening tomato fruit; therefore, we countered this decline by fruit-specific overexpression of GTP...

In 1954, Albert (2) suggested that purmes may be biological precursors of pteridine compounds. This suggestion was made as a result of his demonstration that purines can be transformed chemically into pteridines under mild conditions in the presence of glyoxal. The first experimental evidence that the biogenesis of purines and pteridines are biologically related was provided by Weygand and Wald...

The protozoan Trypanosoma brucei has a functional pteridine reductase (TbPTR1), an NADPH-dependent short-chain reductase that participates in the salvage of pterins, which are essential for parasite growth. PTR1 displays broad-spectrum activity with pterins and folates, provides a metabolic bypass for inhibition of the trypanosomatid dihydrofolate reductase and therefore compromises the use of ...

The first reaction is catalyzed by phenylalanine hydroxylase and the second reaction, which generates the reduced form of pteridine cofactor (biopterin), is catalyzed by dihydropteridine reductase (l-3). A direct assay of phenylalanine hydroxylase can be achieved by supplying optimal concentrations of reduced pteridine cofactor or an analog of the reduced cofactor (6,7-dimethyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahyd...

X-ray data have been extended to 1.7 A for a binary complex of Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase with methotrexate and a ternary complex of Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductase with methotrexate and NADPH. Models for both structures have been refined to R factors of 0.15 and include parameters for fixed and liquid solvent. The two species of dihydrofolate reductase resemble one an...

Circular and linear amplicons were analyzed in detail in Leishmania tropica cells resistant to methotrexate (MTX). Both types of elements presented sequences related to the H locus and coexisted in resistant cells. The linear amplicons appeared first during the selection process (at 10 microM MTX) and varied with regard to size and structure in cells exposed to increasing concentrations of drug...