Direct inhibition

Calcitonin is secreted when abnormally high calcium levels occur in plasma. Although plasma concentrations are normally minute (<100 pg/mL), they increase two- to threefold after calcium infusion. Calcitonin has a short plasma half-life (ca 10 min). Certain thyroid tumors are the result of CT concentrations 50—500 times normal. The mechanism of action is a direct inhibition of bone resorption. Calcitonin is used clinically in various diseases in which hypercalcemia is present, eg, Paget s disease (46). 

Ficellomycin was found to inhibit semiconservative DNA replication in Eschir-ichia coli, and this was found not to be due to direct inhibition of DNA polymerase [166]. It has been suggested that ficellomycin may exert its biological activity by alkylation of DNA [165], in common with the azinomyins. The biosynthesis of ficellomycin has not been studied, but it seems highly probable that its 1-azabicy-clo[3.1.0]hexane ring system will arise from a pathway related to that for the azinomycins. 

One example of a naturally occurring diazirine, duazomycin A (137 Scheme 11.20), has been reported, isolated in 1985 from a Streptomyces species during a screen for herbicidal compounds [196], It was fotind to inhibit de novo starch synthesis and it was suggested that this is due to direct inhibition of protein synthesis. Duazomycin A is structurally related to 6-diazo-5-oxo-L-norleucine (138), also reported as a natural product from Streptomyces [197], which acts as a glutamine antagonist and inhibits purine biosynthesis [198],... 

By themselves, potassium-sparing agents are relatively weak antihypertensives. In general, there are four ways to reduce the activity of the RAS. The first way is the use of p-blockers to reduce renin release from the juxtaglomerular (JG). The second way, the direct inhibition of the activity of renin, although being actively investigated has not been successful in the clinical arena thus far. The third way is to inhibit the activity of the... 

Ralitrexed is a folate analog with greater selectivity. It easily crosses the cell membrane and undergoes polyglutamation. Within tissues, ralitrexed may be stored up to 29 days. It directly inhibits thymidylate synthase, the key enzyme for synthesizing thymidine triphosphate (TTP). The drug has been described to induce apoptosis in tumor cells. Ralitrexed is used for the treatment of colon carcinomas. 

Direct inhibition of P450 enzymatic activity is the most common reason for drug-drug interactions. 

The pharmacology of amphetamine is considerably more complex. It does not only block monoamine reuptake, but also directly inhibits the vesicular monoamine transporter, causing an increase in cytosolic but not vesicular dopamine concentration. This may lead to reverse transport of the amines via the membrane-bound transporters. Further mechanisms of amphetamine action are direct MAO inhibition and indirect release of both dopamine and serotonin in the striatum. 

In addition to direct inhibition of the vesicular transport protein, storage of neurotransmitters can be reduced by dissipation of the proton electrochemical gradient. Bafilomycin (a specific inhibitor of the vacuolar H+-ATPase), as well as the proton ionophores carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP) and carbonylcyanide p-(trifluoromethoxy) phenylhy-drazone (FCCP) are used experimentally to reduce the vesicular storage of neurotransmitters. Weak bases including amphetamines and ammonium chloride are used to selectively reduce ApH. 

Hamasaki K, Nakao K, Matsumoto K, Ichikawa T, Ishikawa H, Eguchi K (2003) Short interfering RNA-directed inhibition of hepatitis B vims replication. EEBS Lett 543 51-54 He ML, Zheng B, Peng Y, Peiris IS, Poon LL, Yuen KY, Lin MC, Kung HP, Guan Y (2003) Inhibition of SARS-associated coronavims infection and replication by RNA interference. JAMA 290 2665-2666... 

Nishitsuji H, Kohara M, Kannagi M, Masuda T (2006) Effective suppression of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 through a combination of short- or long-hairpin RNAs targeting essential sequences for retroviral integration, J Virol 80 7658-7666 Novina CD, Murray ME, Dykxhoorn DM, Beresford PJ, Riess J, Lee SK, Collman RG, Lieberman J, Shankar P, Sharp PA (2002) siRNA-directed inhibition of HlV-1 infection, Nat Med 8 681-686... 

Information relevant to the mechanism of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction can, in general, only be obtained from irreversible inhibitors which react specifically at the active site and thereby inactivate the enzyme. As active-site-directed inhibition is treated in detail in Ref. 142 general aspects will be discussed here only briefly. In order to be suitable as an active-site-directed inhibitor, a compound must fulfil the following requirements. 

The wide scope of the application of conduritol epoxides for the active-site-directed inhibition is seen from the data given in Table XI. Only a few... 

Tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) is a major physiologic inhibitor of coagulation. It is a protein that circulates in the blood associated with lipoproteins. TFPI directly inhibits factor Xa by binding to the enzyme near its active site. This factor Xa-TFPI complex then inhibits the factor Vlla-tissue factor complex. 

Recent evidence indicates that the 5-HT transporter is subject to post-translational regulatory changes in much the same way as neurotransmitter receptors (Blakeley et al. 1998). Protein kinase A and protein kinase C (PKC), at least, are known to be involved in this process. Phosphorylation of the transporter by PKC reduces the Fmax for 5-HT uptake and leads to sequestration of the transporter into the cell, suggesting that this enzyme has a key role in its intracellular trafficking. Since this phosphorylation is reduced when substrates that are themselves transported across the membrane bind to the transporter (e.g. 5-HT and fi -amphetamine), it seems that the transport of 5-HT is itself linked with the phosphorylation process. Possibly, this process serves as a homeostatic mechanism which ensures that the supply of functional transporters matches the demand for transmitter uptake. By contrast, ligands that are not transported (e.g. cocaine and the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)) prevent the inhibition of phosphorylation by transported ligands. Thus, such inhibitors would reduce 5-HT uptake both by their direct inhibition of the transporter and by disinhibition of its phosphorylation (Ramamoorthy and Blakely 1999). 

Opioids act in the brain and within the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, where their actions are better understood. The actions of opioids important for analgesia and their side-effects involve pre- and postsynaptic effects (1) reduced transmitter release from nerve terminals so that neurons are less excited by excitatory transmitters, and (2) direct inhibitions of neuronal firing so that the information flow from the neuron is reduced but also inhibitions of inhibitory neurons leading to disinhibition. This dual action of opioids can result in a total block of sensory inputs as they arrive in the spinal cord (Fig. 21.5). Thus any new drug would have to equal this dual action in controlling both transmitter release and neuronal firing. 

It is very seldom that only a single substrate is present. It is therefore important to examine how the regulation of degradative pathways may be affected and, in particular, whether the simultaneous presence of other contaminants has an adverse effect. In addition, some of the components of a contaminant may directly inhibit degradation by toxification of the relevant organism. The example of azaarenes in groundwater at a wood preservation site that inhibit PAH degradation (Lantz et al. 1997) is noted in Chapter 14. 

Nitric oxide may also be an antioxidant by virtue of the feet that it can directly inhibit NADPH oxidase and thus prevent superoxide production (Clancy etaJ., 1992). This inhibition was reported to be independent of the reaction between nitric oxide and superoxide, which might be expected to be pro-oxidant (see Section 2.2.3). 

In the NF-kB pathway with celastrol 76, the inhibition of the iKBa degradation is due to the upstream blockage of the kinase activity and not by the direct inhibition of proteasome activity. On the contrary, direct inhibition of proteasome activity was observed with celastrol 76 and pristimerin 2 in prostate cancer cells.90-92 Both triterpene QMs directly inhibited the activity of the 20S subunits of proteasome at 2.5 iM and induced the accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins over time in cells,... 

There are numerous reports of allelopathy in the literature, but often the identity of the allelochemical(s) is unknown. There are, however, many cases where specific compounds or groups of compounds have been implicated as allelopathic agents. Table 1 summarizes some examples of sources and identities of allelochemicals that directly inhibit plant growth. These secondary compounds have been implicated as a driving force in ecological succession ( 1 ). 

The biochemical mechanism of Mos action is not yet established. Mos has been found to phosphorylate cyclin B in vitro, and it is possible that this phosphorylation directly inhibits cyclin B proteolysis (Roy et al., 1990). However, such a direct effect of phosphorylation on cyclin B stability remains to be demonstrated, and it is alternatively possible that Mos inhibits (directly or indirectly) the proteolytic pathway responsible for cyclin B degradation. Mos has recently been found to stimulate mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAP kinase) in Xenopus oocytes,... 

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