Hormone hydroxylation

In some types of secretory vesicles, such as chromaffin vesicles of the adrenal medulla, ascorbate serves as a one-electron donor for hormone hydroxylation by intravesicular monooxygenases, yielding AFR. Since ascorbate is present in limited amounts inside chromaffin granules and its uptake into the vesicles is too slow to explain the observed monooxygenase activity, it must be regenerated and recycled using cytosolic reducing equivalents. Ascorbate and cytochrome have been identified as the cytosolic donor and the transmembrane electron carrier, respectively (Njus et al., 1990). 

Amino acid-derived hormones include the catecholamines, epinephrine and norepinephrine (qv), and the thyroid hormones, thyroxine and triiodothyronine (see Thyroid AND ANTITHYROID PREPARATIONS). Catecholamines are synthesized from the amino acid tyrosine by a series of enzymatic reactions that include hydroxylations, decarboxylations, and methylations. Thyroid hormones also are derived from tyrosine iodination of the tyrosine residues on a large protein backbone results in the production of active hormone. 

Although it is being found that vitamin D metaboUtes play a role ia many different biological functions, metaboHsm primarily occurs to maintain the calcium homeostasis of the body. When calcium semm levels fall below the normal range, 1 a,25-dihydroxy-vitainin is made when calcium levels are at or above this level, 24,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol is made, and 1 a-hydroxylase activity is discontiaued. The calcium homeostasis mechanism iavolves a hypocalcemic stimulus, which iaduces the secretion of parathyroid hormone. This causes phosphate diuresis ia the kidney, which stimulates the 1 a-hydroxylase activity and causes the hydroxylation of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D to 1 a,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol. Parathyroid hormone and 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol act at the bone site cooperatively to stimulate calcium mobilization from the bone (see Hormones). Calcium blood levels are also iafluenced by the effects of the metaboUte on intestinal absorption and renal resorption. 

In the early 1930 s, when the prime research aim was the commercial synthesis of the sex hormones (whose structures had just been elucidated), the principal raw material available was cholesterol extracted from the spinal cord or brain of cattle or from sheep wool grease. This sterol (as its 3-acetate 5,6-dibromide) was subjected to a rather drastic chromic acid oxidation, which produced a variety of acidic, ketonic and hydroxylated products derived mainly by attack on the alkyl side-chain. The principal ketonic material, 3j -hydroxyandrost-5-en-17-one, was obtained in yields of only about 7% another useful ketone, 3 -hydroxypregn-5-en-20-one (pregnenolone) was obtained in much lower yield. The chief acidic product was 3j -hydroxy-androst-5-ene-17j -carboxylic acid. All three of these materials were then further converted by various chemical transformations into steroid hormones and synthetic analogs ... 

Animal cells can modify arachidonic acid and other polyunsaturated fatty acids, in processes often involving cyclization and oxygenation, to produce so-called local hormones that (1) exert their effects at very low concentrations and (2) usually act near their sites of synthesis. These substances include the prostaglandins (PG) (Figure 25.27) as well as thromboxanes (Tx), leukotrienes, and other hydroxyeicosanoic acids. Thromboxanes, discovered in blood platelets (thrombocytes), are cyclic ethers (TxBg is actually a hemiacetal see Figure 25.27) with a hydroxyl group at C-15. 

Pregnenolone is transported from the mitochondria to the ER, where a hydroxyl oxidation and migration of the double bond yield progesterone. Pregnenolone synthesis in the adrenal cortex is activated by adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), a peptide of 39 amino acid residues secreted by the anterior pituitary gland. 

Prostaglandin F, a hormone that causes uterine contraction during childbirth, has the following structure. Are the two hydroxyl groups (-OH) on the cyclopentane ring cis or trans to each other What about the two carbon chains attached to the ring ... 

Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cyclic AMP), a modulator of hormone action, is related to AMP (Problem 29.24) but has its phosphate group linked to two hydroxyl groups at C3 and C5 of the sugar. Draw the structure of cyclic AMP. 

A number of peptide hormones have a carboxyl terminal amide which is derived from a glycine terminal residue. This glycine is hydroxylated on the a-carbon by a copper-containing enzyme, peptidylglycine hydroxylase, which, again, requires ascorbate for reduction of Cu ". ... 

Their hydroxylated products are more water-soluble than their generally lipophilic substrates, facilitating excretion Liver contains highest amounts, but found In most If not all tissues. Including small Intestine, brain, and lung Located in the smooth endoplasmic reticulum or in mitochondria (steroidogenic hormones)... 

Caterpillars and other moulting insects excrete the hormone a-ecdysone which at moulting time becomes hydroxylated to 20-hydroxyecdysone (20-E), which in turn triggers the moulting process enabling the insect to shed its exoskeleton and resume feeding. Rohm and Hass have developed a novel insecticide, tebufenozide (Formula 9.5) which mimics 20-E, binding to the same site. The consequence of this is that the insect stops... 

Sinee steroid hormones can only be obtained in small quantities direetly from mammals, attempts were made to synthesize them fiom plant sterols whieh ean be obtained eheaply and economically in large quantities. However, all adrenoeortieal steroids are eharaeterized by the presence of an oxygen at position 11 in the steroid nueleus. Thus, although it is easy to hydroxylate a steroidal eompound it is extremely diffieult to obtain site-specific hydroxylation, so that many of the routes used for synthesizing the desired steroid are lengthy, complex and eonsequently expensive. This problem was... 

Effects on Vitamin D Metabolism. Lead interferes with the conversion of vitamin D to its hormonal form, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. This conversion takes place via hydroxylation to 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the liver followed by 1-hydroxylation in the mitochondria of the renal tubule by a complex cytochrome P-450 system (Mahaffey et al. 1982 Rosen and Chesney 1983). Evidence for this effect comes primarily from studies of children with high lead exposure. 

Reduction of N()2 to NO Reduction of N20 to N2 Copper storage Transcription factor Hydroxylation of Dopa Production of Protoporphyrin IX Hormone signalling Oxidation to methanol Production of signal peptides Copper pump Copper transfer... 

The alcohol moiety is produced in a different manner from that of the acid moiety. The alcohol moiety resembles the plant hormone jasmonic acid (JA) (26) generated from linolenoyl moiety of lipids via (13,S )-hydroperoxy-linolenic acid (22), (12.13,S )-epoxylinolenic acid (23), and 12-oxo-cis-10.15-phytodienoic acid (24) by the oxylipin or octadecanoid pathway (Fig. 3) [31]. In fact, 13C was incorporated at pyrethrolone (1) carbon positions that agreed with those predicted to be labeled when the alcohol moiety is produced via the pathway (Fig. 3) [30]. Figure 3 illustrates that m-jasmone (25) is hydroxylated to yield jasmololone (4), which is then dehydrogenated to yield pyrethrolone (5). However, it has not yet been determined if this is actually the case. 

Steroids, compounds with a cyclopenta[a]phenanthrene skeleton (15), include a wide range of natural products such as sterols (e.g., cholesterol), sex hormones, adrenocorticoid hormones, cardiac glycosides and vitamin D [31]. Sterols are steroids having a hydroxyl group at position 3 of the basic skeleton. Steroids can be found both in plants and in animals. 

With the exception of two dehydrogenases, all of the steroidogenic enzymes belong to the cytochrome P-450 (abbreviated as CYP) family of enzymes. The CYP enzymes are often involved with redox or hydroxylation reactions, and are also found in the liver where they are key players in biotransformation reactions (see Section 6.4). Different members of the CYP family are therefore involved with both synthesis in adrenal and gonads and hepatic inactivation of steroid hormones. 

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