Biological role of copper

Biological Roles of Copper, no. 79, Ciba Foundation Symposium, Excerpta Medica and Elsevier-North Hodand, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1980,... 

Biological Roles of Copper, CIBA Foundation Symposium 79 Excerpta Medica New York, 1980. 

Cass, A. E, G., Hill, H. A. O. Copper proteins and copper enzymes. In Biological Roles of Copper, Ciba Foundation Symposium 79, Amsterdam-Oxford-New York, Excerpta Medica, 1981, in press... 

During the past 10-15 years a great deal of effort has been put into characterizing the biological role of copper using the combined or separate techniques of biology/biochemistry and of coordination chemistry (Section 53.4.8.1). 30,1186-1196 Parallel to this has been an equally extensive effort to prepare and characterize a wealth of coordination complexes of the copper(Il) ion in an attempt to model the physical and chemical behaviour of the biological copper system (Section 53.4.8.2).30,1180 1191 1203 These two approaches are outlined in the next two sections. 

It is safe to predict that there will be major effort in understanding the biological roles of copper-containing amine oxidases and the relationship to flavin-containing amine oxidases. The diversity of amine oxidases in all forms of life and their involvement in key cellular processes in plants and mammals underline the importance of this objective. 

E.D. Harris, J.K. Rayton, J.E. Balthrop, R.A. DiSilvestro and M. Garcia-De-Quevedo, in Biological Roles of Copper-Ciba Foundation, (Excerpta Medica, lilsevier. New York, 1980) pp. 163-182. 

Interest in the biological role of copper has greatly increased as the recognition of its role in a number of key physiological processes has developed. These include its importance in elastin and collagen formation which prevent aneurisms, soft bones, and other defects 1,2), the requirement for copper in the taste response (3), and its requirement for cytochrome oxidase and related systems 4). Finally, there is perhaps the best known biological role of copper— its involvement in hemoglobin formation (5, 6, 7). I propose to deal exclusively with the latter, the role... 

Hassan, H. M. Superoxide Dismutases, in Ciba Foundation Symposium 79, Biological Roles of Copper, pp. 125, Amsterdam, Excerpta Medical 1980... 

E. Frieden, in CIBA Foundation Symposium 79 Biological Role of Copper, Exerpta Medica, Amsterdam, 1980, p. 

The need for a Greek key fold remains obscure. The apoproteins are clearly stable without metals there are examples other than immunoglobulins of Greek key folds. So far copper seems to be found in a very limited subset of structures other chapters in this volume show that zinc, for example, has a much wider variety of environments in proteins, as does iron. It may be that the copper-containing Greek key proteins represent a very small evolutionary niche. Structures of other copper proteins will undoubtedly reveal new surprises and help to clarify the essential role of copper in biological systems. 

The critical role of copper in biological systems has been recognized for a long time. Copper is an essential component for living systems, although excess intake causes symptoms such as Wilson s disease. Numerous copper-containing proteins are now known and can be categorized based on their functions as follows ... 

Oxidation Catalysis by Copper Peroxo and Superoxo Complexes. Copper ions and compounds participate in or catalyze a variety of oxidation reactions that consume 02. This is one of the several key biochemical roles of copper and much of the recent work on the subject has been done in efforts to model the biological systems. In some (non-biological) cases, e.g., the Wacker process, copper(II) itself may be the actual oxidant, but usually it serves as a carrier of oxygen. 

Biological Roles of Zinc and Copper. Zinc and copper are essential cofactors at the active site of a number of enzymes. Zinc is a component of more than 200 proteins and enzymes (Table II). Copper, sim-lleT to iron, participates both in redox reactions and as a proton doner (Table III). The normal human adult body contains approximately 50-100 mg of copper and 2.0 g of zinc. The vast majority of tissue copper is found in the liver, kidney, heart and brain. In the blood, copper exists within the red blood cell as superoxide dlsmutase and in the serum as ceruloplasmin. Copper is a component of aerobic metabolism, bone synthesis, and erythrocyte development. Zinc is found primarily in the liver, kidney, bone and prostate. Zinc is essential for normal growth of tissues, wound repair, skin structure, reproduction, taste perception, and the prevention of dwarfism. 

Role of Copper in the Enzyme System. It is now well recognized among workers in the ultratrace-metal field that copper is an essential nutrient for all forms of life, being the vital constituent of all living cells (32), The essentiality of copper is by virtue of its ability to catalyze biological oxidation whether the copper is in the protein-boimd or ionic form, although it is likely that the ionic copper is able to do this more eflBciently than the protein-bound copper (33),... 

Potter, S. Z., Valentine, J. S. (2003). The perplexing role of copper-zinc superoxide dismutase in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Eou Gehrig s disease). Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 8, 373—380. 

Copper occims in foin oxidation states, zero, monovalent, divalent, and trivalent (f). Its divalent species is the most common and most stable. Copper, particularly copper(I) and its complexes, is a catalyst in many industrial and biological processes. The majority of reactions in which copper is used as a catalyst, usually redox processes, involve monovalent copper as an intermediate amd often as the initiator of the catalytic process. The role of copper in biological processes as well as the green chemistry desire to perform catalytic processes in water stresses the importance of Cu(I) in aqueous media. 

For further reading on the role of copper in biology, see Sigel (1981). 

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