Methionine enzyme activity

Homocystinuria can be treated in some cases by the administration of pyridoxine (vitamin Bs), which is a cofactor for the cystathionine synthase reaction. Some patients respond to the administration of pharmacological doses of pyridoxine (25-100 mg daily) with a reduction of plasma homocysteine and methionine. Pyridoxine responsiveness appears to be hereditary, with sibs tending to show a concordant pattern and a milder clinical syndrome. Pyridoxine sensitivity can be documented by enzyme assay in skin fibroblasts. The precise biochemical mechanism of the pyridoxine effect is not well understood but it may not reflect a mutation resulting in diminished affinity of the enzyme for cofactor, because even high concentrations of pyridoxal phosphate do not restore mutant enzyme activity to a control level. 

In cobalamin-E (cblE) disease there is a failure of methyl-B12 to bind to methionine synthase. It is not known if this reflects a primary defect of methionine synthase or the absence of a separate enzyme activity. Patients manifest megaloblastic changes with a pancytopenia, homocystinuria and hypomethioninemia. There is no methylmalonic aciduria. Patients usually become clinically manifest during infancy with vomiting, developmental retardation and lethargy. They respond well to injections of hydroxocobalamin. 

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) catalyzes the NAD(P)H-dependent reduction of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate (CH2-THF) to 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (CH3-THF). CH3-THF then serves as a methyl donor for the synthesis of methionine. The MTHFR proteins and genes from mammalian liver and E. coli have been characterized,12"15 and MTHFR genes have been identified in S. cerevisiae16 and other organisms. The MTHFR of E. coli (MetF) is a homotetramer of 33-kDa subunits that prefers NADH as reductant,12 whereas mammalian MTHFRs are homodimers of 77-kDa subunits that prefer NADPH and are allosterically inhibited by AdoMet.13,14 Mammalian MTHFRs have a two-domain structure the amino-terminal domain shows 30% sequence identity to E. coli MetF, and is catalytic the carboxyterminal domain has been implicated in AdoMet-mediated inhibition of enzyme activity.13,14... 

L-lysine, L-threonine or L-methionine protect the enzymic activity against heat inactivation [8]... 

A number of residues may be replaced with other amino acids without apparent change in enzymic activity. These replacements include nor-leucine for methionine at positions 26 and 32 87), phenylalanine for tyrosine 27 92), and glycine for histidine 46 85). As mentioned above, deletion of histidine 8 is without deleterious effect. The two remaining residues of histidine at positions 121 and 124 may also be ruled out as components of the active site since the former is, stereoehemically, far on the other side of the molecule and the latter is replaced by leucine in nuclease from the Foggi strain of Staphylococcus aureus. 

Iodoacetic acid, A-bromosuccinimide, and H202 were found to be strongly inhibitory, whereas iodoacetamide was only slightly inhibitory and diisopropylfluorophosphate was not inhibitory. These results suggest that tryptophan, methionine, and/or histidine, but not serine, are involved in the enzymic activity (43). 

The biochemistry of coenzyme B12 generally revolves around either mutase enzyme activity, involving functional group migration, notably by stereospecific 1,2-shifts (Scheme 2.8), or methylation by methionine synthetase. The general mechanism for the mutase activity is a radical-based one and has been established by EPR spectroscopy to be of the general form shown in Scheme 2.9. 

The bacterial ferredoxins, in general, are similar to each other in amino acid content, but differ in detail with each ferredoxin having a characteristic composition. Each contains about fifty total amino acid residues with an abundance of acidic and a paucity of basic amino acids. The abundance of acidic residues accounts for the affinity of ferredoxin for DEAE-cellulose and its low isoelectric point (Lovenberg, Buchanan, and Rabinowitz (65)). Each of the bacterial ferredoxins lacks histidine, methionine, tryptophan, and at least one additional amino acid, which is characteristic of a particular ferredoxin. The possible significance of these differences in either the conformation or function of these proteins has not been established, although minor differences in enzymic activity do exist (Lovenberg, Buchanan, and Rabinowitz (65)). 

S-adenosyl-L methionine (ADO-Met) dependent DNA methyl transferase catalyzed the transfer of a methyl group from AdoMet to a specific nucleotide within the DNA helix (Cheng et al., 1993). In a concerted reaction in the enzyme active site (Fig X) with a simultaneous addition of methyl residue of AdoMet to the cytosine ring and with an elimination of the ring proton by a water molecule requires involving seven heavy nuclei (two ofCys 81, four of AdoMet and one of water. An estimation with aid of Eq. 2.44 leads to value of the reaction synchronization factor asyn 10 4, that does not rule out the concerted mechanism, if the activation energy is less than 10 kcal/mole Nevertheless, a... 

Recently, mutagenesis of the amino acids involved in the H-channel has been reported (Pfitzner et al., 1998 Lee et al., 2000). However, no appreciable effect for many of these mutations has been obtained with regard to enzyme activity and proton-pumping function. Mutagenesis of the amino acids involved in the water pathway would not have any significant effect on the function of this enzyme, since most of the mutated amino acids are likely to widen the water pathway. On the other hand, mutation of Arg-38 with methionine essentially abolishes the enzyme activity (Kannt et al., 1999). 

The most extensively studied polymorphic alleles are those of 5,10-methylenetetrahydofolate reductase (MTHFR), the enzyme responsible for the irreversible reduction of 5,10-MTHF to 5-methyltetrahydrofoiate (5-MTHF), the methyl donor of homocysteine to methionine. A single point C to T mutation at base pair 677 (C677T), causing a substitution of valine for alanine, leads to a thermolabile protein with reduced enzymatic activity. The homozygous T/T enzyme has an incidence of around 12% in Asian and Caucasian populations, and a loss of enzyme activity of about 50%, and the heterozygous C/T variant can have an incidence of up to 50% in some populations, with a lesser degree of enzyme inactivity. ... 

The metliylenetetraliydrofolate reductase enzyme reduces 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate to form 5-methyltetrahy-drofolate, which provides methyl groups necessary for homocysteine remetliylation to methionine. The severity of the enzyme defect and of clinical symptoms varies considerably. Completely absent enzyme activity results in neonatal apneic episodes, myoclonus leading to coma, and death, whereas partial deficiency may result in mental retardation and seizures. Premature cardiovascular disease or peripheral neuropathy could be the only manifestation. A common polymorphism (677C>T) is associated with enzyme thermal lability and mild elevation of homocysteine in the presence of folate insufficiency, implicating a risk for both vascular disease and neural tube defects. ... 

INDOLMYCIN (20) is formed from pyruvate, and two enzymes active in initial stages of Its biosynthesis have been studied. They are a transaminase and aC-methyltransferase. The hypothetical route to indolmycin is by indole pyruvate, 3-methyl-indolepyruvate, indolmycenic acid (reduced alpha oxo group) and finally indolmycin which probably takes its amidine group from an arginine molecule 79. The closely related [pyrrolo (1,4) benzodiazepines] 80>81,82 antitumor antibiotics, anthramycin, tomaymycin and sibiromycin are formed from tryptophan (via the kynurenine pathway ), tyrosine and methionine-derived methyl groups 80.si.sz. 

Methylation is the addition of a carbon atom to a molecule, usually causing a change in the function of the methylated molecule. For example, methylation of the neurotransmitter dopamine by catechol-O-methyltransferase renders it inactive. With only two exceptions, 5-adenosylmethionine (SAM), an activated form of the essential amino acid methionine, is the methyl donor for each of the more than 150 methylation reactions, which regulate a large number of cellular functions. One exception is methylation of homocysteine (HCY) to methionine by the cobalamin (vitamin Bi2)-dependent enzyme methionine synthase, which utilizes 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (methylfolate) as the methyl donor, serving to complete the methionine cycle of methylation, as illustrated in Fig. 1 (lower right). Notably, HCY formation from S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) is reversible and, as a result, any decrease in methionine synthase activity will be reflected as an increase in both HCY and SAH. This is significant because SAH interferes with SAM-dependent methylation reactions, and a decrease in methionine synthase activity will decrease all of these reactions. Clearly methionine synthase exerts a powerful influence over cell function via its control over methylation. 

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