Metabolizers intermediate

The interactions may be physicochemical without the participation of biological mechanisms for example, deep lung exposure to highly soluble irritative gases, such as sulfur dioxide, may become enhanced due to adsorption of the gas onto fine particles. Biological interactions may occur at all stages and body sites. For example, toxicity is increased when adverse effects are due to some reactive metabolic intermediate and exposure to another agent stimulates its metabolic activation (enzyme induction). 

Certain amino acids and their derivatives, although not found in proteins, nonetheless are biochemically important. A few of the more notable examples are shown in Figure 4.5. y-Aminobutyric acid, or GABA, is produced by the decarboxylation of glutamic acid and is a potent neurotransmitter. Histamine, which is synthesized by decarboxylation of histidine, and serotonin, which is derived from tryptophan, similarly function as neurotransmitters and regulators. /3-Alanine is found in nature in the peptides carnosine and anserine and is a component of pantothenic acid (a vitamin), which is a part of coenzyme A. Epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), derived from tyrosine, is an important hormone. Penicillamine is a constituent of the penicillin antibiotics. Ornithine, betaine, homocysteine, and homoserine are important metabolic intermediates. Citrulline is the immediate precursor of arginine. 

Phosphate esters of glucose, fructose, and other monosaccharides are important metabolic intermediates, and the ribose moiety of nucleotides such as ATP and GTP is phosphorylated at the 5 -position (Figure 7.13). 

Certain of the central pathways of intermediary metabolism, such as the citric acid cycle, and many metabolites of other pathways have dual purposes—they serve in both catabolism and anabolism. This dual nature is reflected in the designation of such pathways as amphibolic rather than solely catabolic or anabolic. In any event, in contrast to catabolism—which converges to the common intermediate, acetyl-CoA—the pathways of anabolism diverge from a small group of simple metabolic intermediates to yield a spectacular variety of cellular constituents. 

Another widely used approach to the elucidation of metabolic sequences is to feed cells a substrate or metabolic intermediate labeled with a particular isotopic form of an element that can be traced. Two sorts of isotopes are useful in this regard radioactive isotopes, such as and stable heavy isotopes, such as or (Table 18.3). Because the chemical behavior of isotopically labeled compounds is rarely distinguishable from that of their unlabeled counterparts, isotopes provide reliable tags for observing metabolic changes. The metabolic fate of a radioactively labeled substance can be traced by determining the presence and position of the radioactive atoms in intermediates derived from the labeled compound (Figure 18.13). 

What would be the consequences of a deficiency in vitamin Bi2 for fatty acid oxidation What metabolic intermediates might accumulate ... 

Self-Test 10.10B The pH of a 0.50 m aqueous solution of the metabolic intermediate homogentisic acid is 2.35. What is the K, of homogentisic acid, C7Hs(OH)2COOH ... 

Comish-Bowden, A. (1991). Failure of channelling to maintain low concentrations of metabolic intermediates. Eur. J. Biochem. 195, 103-108. 

Furthermore, the GPO procedure can also be used for a preparative synthesis of the corresponding phosphorothioate (37), phosphoramidate (38), and methylene phosphonate (39) analogs of (25) (Figure 10.20) from suitable diol precursors [106] to be used as aldolase substrates [102]. In fact, such isosteric replacements of the phosphate ester oxygen were found to be tolerable by a number of class I and class II aldolases, and only some specific enzymes failed to accept the less polar phosphonate (39) [107]. Thus, sugar phosphonates (e.g. (71)/(72)) that mimic metabolic intermediates but are hydrolytically stable to phosphatase degradation can be rapidly synthesized (Figure 10.28). 

The substrates for most enzymes are usually present at a concentration close to K. This facilitates passive control of the rates of product formation response to changes in levels of metabolic intermediates. 

The amino acids are required for protein synthesis. Some must be supplied in the diet (the essential amino acids) since they cannot be synthesized in the body. The remainder are nonessential amino acids that are supplied in the diet but can be formed from metabolic intermediates by transamination, using the amino nitrogen from other amino acids. After deamination, amino nitrogen is excreted as urea, and the carbon skeletons that remain after transamination (1) are oxidized to CO2 via the citric acid cycle, (2) form glucose (gluconeogenesis), or (3) form ketone bodies. 

Although uptake and accumulation of most amino acids from the external medium seems to be irreversible, amino acids are excreted into the medium whenever they are overproduced above a given threshold by yeast cells [6], This can occur under a number of specific conditions, namely in mutants with impaired regulation of amino acid biosynthesis, or in the presence of mutations preventing substrate catabolism, or when growth occurs in the presence of metabolic intermediates. It can even occur when growth is arrested under conditions where amino acid synthesis can continue. 

Tanghe T, W Dhooge, W Verstraete (2000) Formation of the metabolic intermediate 2,4,5-trimethyl-2-pentanol during incubation of a Sphingomonas sp. strain with the xeno-estrogenic octylphenol. Biodegradation 11 11-19. 

Blasco R, E Moore, V Wray, D Pieper, K Timmis, F Castillo (1999) 3-Nitroadipoate, a metabolic intermediate for mineralization of 2,4-dinitrophenol by a new strain of a. Rhodococcus species. J Bacterial 181 149-152. 

Aliphatic acids such as butyric acid have been previously implicated as being allelopathic compounds (46, 47, 23). Chou and Patrick (23) isolated butyric acid from soil amended with rye and showed that it was phytotoxic. Hydroxy acids have also been shown to possess phytotoxic properties (48) but have not been implicated in any allelopathic associations. Since SHBA is a stereo isomer, and the enantiomer was not identified because of impurity, all bioassays were run using a racemic mixture. The D-(-) stereo isomer of SHBA has been isolated from both microorganisms and root nodules of legumes and is suspected to be a metabolic intermediate in these systems (49). It is likely that only one enantiomer was present in the extract therefore, the true phytotoxic potential of this compound awaits clarification of the phytotoxicity of the individual enantiomers. 

Three compounds acetoacetate, P-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone, are known as ketone bodies. They are suboxidized metabolic intermediates, chiefly those of fatty acids and of the carbon skeletons of the so-called ketogenic amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, lysine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan). The ketone body production, or ketogenesis, is effected in the hepatic mitochondria (in other tissues, ketogenesis is inoperative). Two pathways are possible for ketogenesis. The more active of the two is the hydroxymethyl glutarate cycle which is named after the key intermediate involved in this cycle. The other one is the deacylase cycle. In activity, this cycle is inferior to the former one. Acetyl-CoA is the starting compound for the biosynthesis of ketone bodies. 

In Fig. 5, the biosynthetic pathways for the production of PHA with novel composition of hydroxyalkanoates and the enzymes involved are shown. The level of metabolic intermediates, which is determined by the cellular metabolic activities, is important for the synthesis of a desired PHA. Having the engineered metabolic pathways at hand, PHA synthase plays an important role affecting the composition of PHAs, because of substrate specificity of PHA synthase. 

The systematic work carried out by Fetzner group with enzymatic catalysis resulted in the identification of four pathways of aerobic degradation of quinoline (and its derivatives) [326], shown in Fig. 23. The four pathways are named on the basis of the metabolic intermediates identified in the respective pathways, some steps and reactions have been considered in previously described pathways, but are included here to show the comprehensive nature of this work. 

Salmonella typhimurium. Although most nitro PAHs are direct-acting mutagens in Salmonella typhimurium, these compounds must be metabolized to bind covalently to DNA (71,92,112). S. typhimurium contains a family of nitroreductases which are capable of reducing nitro PAHs, and strains which are deficient in these enzymes generally show decreased sensitivity toward nitro PAH-induced mutations (27,92,113-114). These observations suggest that reduced metabolic intermediates may be the critical reactive electrophiles. 

Mayhew, B.S., Jones, D.R. and Hall, S.D. (2000) An in vitro model for predicting in vivo inhibition of cytochrome P450 3A4 by metabolic intermediate complex formation. Drug Metabolism and Disposition, 28 (9), 1031-1037. 

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