Proteins mercury

Major Applications Solar cells, cosmetics, determination of aluminum, nickel, bismuth, thallium, lead, zinc, palladium, mercury, proteins, " lipids ... 

The biochemical basis for the toxicity of mercury and mercury compounds results from its ability to form covalent bonds readily with sulfur. Prior to reaction with sulfur, however, the mercury must be metabolized to the divalent cation. When the sulfur is in the form of a sulfhydryl (— SH) group, divalent mercury replaces the hydrogen atom to form mercaptides, X—Hg— SR and Hg(SR)2, where X is an electronegative radical and R is protein (36). Sulfhydryl compounds are called mercaptans because of their ability to capture mercury. Even in low concentrations divalent mercury is capable of inactivating sulfhydryl enzymes and thus causes interference with cellular metaboHsm and function (31—34). Mercury also combines with other ligands of physiological importance such as phosphoryl, carboxyl, amide, and amine groups. It is unclear whether these latter interactions contribute to its toxicity (31,36). 

MIR), requires the introduction of new x-ray scatterers into the unit cell of the crystal. These additions should be heavy atoms (so that they make a significant contribution to the diffraction pattern) there should not be too many of them (so that their positions can be located) and they should not change the structure of the molecule or of the crystal cell—in other words, the crystals should be isomorphous. In practice, isomorphous replacement is usually done by diffusing different heavy-metal complexes into the channels of preformed protein crystals. With luck the protein molecules expose side chains in these solvent channels, such as SH groups, that are able to bind heavy metals. It is also possible to replace endogenous light metals in metal-loproteins with heavier ones, e.g., zinc by mercury or calcium by samarium. 

Metallothioneins are a group of small proteins (about 6.5 kDa), found in the cytosol of cells, particularly of liver, kidney, and intestine. They have a high content of cysteine and can bind copper, zinc, cadmium, and mercury. The SH groups of cysteine are involved in binding the metals. Acute intake (eg, by injection) of copper and of certain other metals increases the amount (induction) of these proteins in tissues, as does administration of certain hormones or cytokines. These proteins may function to store the above metals in a nontoxic form and are involved in their overall metaboHsm in the body. Sequestration of copper also diminishes the amount of this metal available to generate free radicals. 

Several structurally different types of HNLs occur in nature, which likely originated hy convergent evolution from different ancestral proteins. The enzyme from almond (PaHNL) was first crystallized in 1994 and the structure was solved by multiple wavelength anomalous dispersion of a mercury derivative. The first 3D structure analysis of PaHNL was performed in 2001. ° (7 )-PaHNL from almond uses FAD as cofactor and is related to oxidoreductases it exhibits HNL activity only in the oxidized form of FAD." ... 

Liver is 1 of the tissues most frequently analyzed for contaminant residne in wildlife, but maybe 1 of the least useful because of the poor correlation between fiver mercniy concentration and effects, and because of the tendency of the liver to accumulate mercury over time (Stewart et al. 1999 Scheuhammer et al. 2001). Liver is a major site of demethylation therefore, the proportion of fiver mercury present as MeHg is not representative of exposure to MeHg. Moreover, most mercury in fiver is botmd to metallothionein or other suUydryl-bearing proteins, which immobilize it (Med-insky and Klaassen 1996 Yasutake etal. 1997 Aschner 1999). Therefore, fiver mercury residue values must be used with caution, and only when more suitable tissues are unavailable. 

El-Fawal HA, Gong Z, Little AR, Evans HL. 1996. Exposure to methyl mercury results in serum autoantibodies to neurotypic and ghotypic proteins. Neurotoxicology 17 267-276. 

Kakiuehi et al. [84] studied the adsorption properties of two types of nonionic surfactants, sorbitan fatty acid esters and sucrose alkanoate, at the water-nitrobenzene interface. These surfactants lower the interfacial capacity in the range of the applied potential with no sign of desorption. On the other hand, the remarkable adsorption-desorption capacity peak analogous to the adsorption peak seen for organic molecules at the mercury-electrolyte interface can be observed in the presence of ionic surfactants, such as triazine dye ligands for proteins [85]. 

Heavy metals with no known biological function, such as aluminum, arsenic, lead, and mercury, are nonessential metals.4-5 These metals are toxic because they can irreversibly bind to enzymes that require metal cofactors. Toxic metals readily bind to sulfhydryl groups of proteins.6-7 In fact,... 

Some metals can be converted to a less toxic form through enzyme detoxification. The most well-described example of this mechanism is the mercury resistance system, which occurs in S. aureus,43 Bacillus sp.,44 E. coli,45 Streptomyces lividans,46 and Thiobacillus ferrooxidans 47 The mer operon in these bacteria includes two different metal resistance mechanisms.48 MerA employs an enzyme detoxification approach as it encodes a mercury reductase, which converts the divalent mercury cation into elemental mercury 49 Elemental mercury is more stable and less toxic than the divalent cation. Other genes in the operon encode membrane proteins that are involved in the active transport of elemental mercury out of the cell.50 52... 

We note in passing that DNA-refilicase has an essential thiol group which is labelled by mercurials. To our knowledge no studies of the effect of platinum on the replicase have been made and this is clearly an omission which should be rectified. In some proteins platinum derivatives would seem to go for the same sites as mercury(II) reagents — a not surprising result as their chemistry is similar. 

In mammals, as in yeast, several different metallothionein isoforms are known, each with a particular tissue distribution (Vasak and Hasler, 2000). Their synthesis is regulated at the level of transcription not only by copper (as well as the other divalent metal ions cadmium, mercury and zinc) but also by hormones, notably steroid hormones, that affect cellular differentiation. Intracellular copper accumulates in metallothionein in copper overload diseases, such as Wilson s disease, forming two distinct molecular forms one with 12 Cu(I) equivalents bound, in which all 20 thiolate ligands of the protein participate in metal binding the other with eight Cu(I)/ metallothionein a molecules, with between 12-14 cysteines involved in Cu(I) coordination (Pountney et ah, 1994). Although the role of specific metallothionein isoforms in zinc homeostasis and apoptosis is established, its primary function in copper metabolism remains enigmatic (Vasak and Hasler, 2000). 

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