2-Amino-nicotinamides, oxidation

Niacin was discovered as a nutrient during studies of pellagra. It is not strictly a vitamin since it can be synthesized in the body from the essential amino acid tryptophan. Two compounds, nicotinic acid and nicotinamide, have the biologic activity of niacin its metabolic function is as the nicotinamide ring of the coenzymes NAD and NADP in oxidation-reduction reactions (Figure 45-11). About 60 mg of tryptophan is equivalent to 1 mg of dietary niacin. The niacin content of foods is expressed as mg niacin equivalents = mg preformed niacin + 1/60 X mg tryptophan. Because most of the niacin in cereals is biologically unavailable, this is discounted. 

The first examples of mechanism must be divided into two principal classes the chemistry of enzymes that require coenzymes, and that of enzymes without cofactors. The first class includes the enzymes of amino-acid metabolism that use pyridoxal phosphate, the oxidation-reduction enzymes that require nicotinamide adenine dinucleotides for activity, and enzymes that require thiamin or biotin. The second class includes the serine esterases and peptidases, some enzymes of sugar metabolism, enzymes that function by way of enamines as intermediates, and ribonuclease. An understanding of the mechanisms for all of these was well underway, although not completed, before 1963. 

Niacin, a water-soluble vitamin vital for oxidation by living cells, functions in the body as a component of two important coenzymes nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP). NAD and NADP are involved in the release of energy from carbohydrate, fat, and protein, and in the synthesis of protein, fat, and pentoses for nucleic acid formation. Milk is a poor source of preformed niacin, containing about 0.08 mg per 100 g. However, milk s niacin value is considerably greater than indicated by its niacin content (Horwitt et al. 1981). Not only is the niacin in milk fully available, but the amino acid tryptophan in milk can be used by the body for the synthesis of niacin. For every 60 mg of tryptophan consumed, the body synthesizes 1 mg of niacin. Therefore, the niacin equivalents in 100 g milk equal 0.856 mg including that from pre-... 

Several of the B vitamins function as coenzymes or as precursors of coenzymes some of these have been mentioned previously. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) which, in conjunction with the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, oxidizes ethanol to ethanal (Section 15-6C), also is the oxidant in the citric acid cycle (Section 20-10B). The precursor to NAD is the B vitamin, niacin or nicotinic acid (Section 23-2). Riboflavin (vitamin B2) is a precursor of flavin adenine nucleotide FAD, a coenzyme in redox processes rather like NAD (Section 15-6C). Another example of a coenzyme is pyri-doxal (vitamin B6), mentioned in connection with the deamination and decarboxylation of amino acids (Section 25-5C). Yet another is coenzyme A (CoASH), which is essential for metabolism and biosynthesis (Sections 18-8F, 20-10B, and 30-5A). 

Biochemically, the niacin coenzymes function as cofactors for a number of dehydrogenases due to their oxidation-reduction capabilities (19,93,96). They are involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fatty acids, and amino acids. Nicotinamide can also participate in nonredox reactions, such as the ribosylation of ADP. 

Tissue also contains some endogenous species that exhibit fluorescence, such as aromatic amino acids present in proteins (phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan), pyridine nucleotide enzyme cofactors (e.g., oxidized nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, NADH pyridoxal phosphate flavin adenine dinucleotide, FAD), and cross-links between the collagen and the elastin in extracellular matrix.100 These typically possess excitation maxima in the ultraviolet, short natural lifetimes, and low quantum yields (see Table 10.1 for examples), but their characteristics strongly depend on whether they are bound to proteins. Excitation of these molecules would elicit background emission that would contaminate the emission due to implanted sensors, resulting in baseline offsets or even major spectral shifts in extreme cases therefore, it is necessary to carefully select fluorophores for implants. It is also noteworthy that the lifetimes are fairly short, such that use of longer lifetime emitters in sensors would allow lifetime-resolved measurements to extract sensor emission from overriding tissue fluorescence. 

Niacin ia a nutritional term applied to both nicotinic acid and nicotinamide and to a mixture of the two. Their structures and those of their coenzymes are given in Table 6.1. Numerous redox reactions use NAD+ and NADP+ or NADH and NADPH. The latter are used largely in reactions designed to reductively synthesize various substances, mostly in the extramitochondrial areas of the cell. NAD+, on the other hand, is used largely in its oxidized form in catabolic redox reactions. The rat liver cytosol NADPH/NADP+ ratio is about 80, whereas its NADH/NAD+ ratio is only 8 x 10 4. Table 6.3 lists some biochemical reactions in which these cofactors participate. It shows that they are of crucial importance in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and amino acids. 

NAD is used in post translational modification of a variety of proteins, nc>tab y some of the proteins of the chromosomes. The chromosomes are composed of DNA, histones, and nonhistone proteins. The histones, which are distinguished by their high content of basic amino acids, serve as a scaffold and maintain the coiled and folded structure of the DNA. The other proteins are used in regulating the expression of specific genes. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase catalyzes the attachment of ADP-rlbose to various chromostimal pniteins. This modification, shown in Figure 9.65A, is more dramatic than a simple methylalion or phosphorj lation. The enzyme uses NAD as a substrate. Here, NAD docs not serve its usual role as an Oxidant or reductant. The ADP-ribosyl moiety of NAD is donated to the acceptor protein. A molecule of nicotinamide is discharged with each event of... 

Inactivation of alcohol dehydrogenase from yeast with 14C-labeled [3-(3-bromoacetylpyridinio)-propyl]-adenosine pyrophosphate followed by oxidation showed the presence of 1-carboxymethyl histidine66. After inactivation of the enzyme with labeled [3-(4-bromoacetylpyridinio)-propyl]-adenosine pyrophosphate followed by oxidation, S-carboxymethyl cysteine was identified in the protein. In the case of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, treatment with either coenzyme analogue leads to the modification of the cysteine residue. Treatment with [14C]nicotinamide-5-bromo-4-methylimidazole dinucleotide did not reveal any modified amino-acid-residues. The labeled nicotinamide residue split off during the recovery of the inactivated enzyme. Attempts to synthesize an inactivator labeled with a 14C-acetyl residue did not give satisfactory yields. If the enzyme-coenzyme derivative was treated with tritiated sodium boron hydride, tritium could be introduced (Fig. 22). Studies with... 

When one of the substrates is water (i.e., when the process is one of hydrolysis), with the reaction taking place in aqueous solution, only a fraction of the total number of water molecules present participates in the reaction. The small change in the concentration of water has no effect on the rate of reaction and these pseudo-one substrate reactions are described by one-substi ate kinetics. More generally the concentrations of both substrates may be variable, and both may affect the rate of reaction. Among the bisubstrate reactions important in clinical enzymology are the reactions catalyzed by dehydrogenases, in which the second substrate is a specific coenzyme, such as the oxidized or reduced forms of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, (NADH), or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate, (NADPH), and the amino-group transfers catalyzed by the aminotransferases. 

Glutamate dehydrogenase A mitochondrial enzyme present in all tissues that metabolizes amino acids. It catalyzes the oxidative deamination of glutamate to a-ketoglutarate using NAD+ as the electron acceptor to also produce nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and ammonia. The enzyme uses the reducing equivalents of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) to perform the reverse reaction. 

There are no amino acid residues in the nicotinamide binding pocket that can be equivalent in function to Glu-140 or His-195 in LDH (126). The higher affinity at neutral pH for NADH compared to NAD+ can be correlated to the hydrophobic environment in this pocket. Such an environment would be expected to favor binding of the neutral nicotinamide moiety of the reduced coenzyme. The importance of the pXa shift of the water molecule bound to zinc for the stabilization of the binding of oxidized coenzyme at higher pH is discussed in Section II,1,1. 

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