Other biochemically important substances

For papers published in a language other than English, and for journals not easily available in the majority of libraries. Chemical Abstracts (C.A.) citations are also added. 

4 Walton, H.F. (1976) Ion Exchange Chromatography, Halsted Press, Stroudsburg, USA. 

5 Mikes, O. (1975) in Liquid Column Chromatography (Deyl, Z., Macek, K. and Janak, J., eds.) pp. 69-87, 325-68, Elsevier, Amsterdam. 

6 MikeL O., Stamberg, J., Hejimfinek, M. and besta, K. (1979) in Laboratory Handbook of Chromatographic and Allied Methods (MikeS, O., ed.) pp. 218-333, Ellis Horwood Limited, Chicester, England. 

19 Anonymous (1981) Advanced Ion Exchange Celluloses Laboratory Manual, Whatman Chemical Separation Ltd., Springfield Mill, Maidstone, Kent, England. 

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Head of the Department, Adrien Albert (1907-89), was an international authority on biologically-active acridines, which included the antimalarial substances I had studied earlier, and now he was concerned with the purines and pyrimidines of the nucleic acids and other biochemically-important substances. My role was to extend the physico-chemical methods for studying organic structures and reactions from the electrochemical methods I had used in Oxford to the spectroscopic, using the infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometers newly available commercially. 

Due to their biological function, most endogenous metabolites and other biochemically important substances possess a variety of polar groups in their molecules. 

Katz, J. J. Anhydrous hydrogen fluoride as a solvent for proteins and other biologically important substances. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 51, 293 (1954) Anhydrous trifluoroacetic acid as a solvent for proteins. Nature 174, 509 (1954) A. L. Koch, W. A. Lamont and J. J. Katz The effect of anhydrous strong acids on ribonuclease and lysozyme. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 63, 106 (1956). 

Butts [89] presented retention data of TMS derivatives of a number of biochemically important substances, such as amines, pyrimidines, purines, imidazoles, indoles, various acids and other substances on two stationary phases, OV-1 and OV-17. He prepared the derivatives using the following procedure. A 1-mg amount of the substance was placed in a 3.5-ml septum-stoppered vial, then 100-pl portions of dry pyridine and BSTFA containing 1% of TMCS were added, the contents were stirred thoroughly and heated for 16 h at 60°C. Portions of 4 pi were injected directly into the gas chromatograph. 

Two of the four most abundant elements in living systems, hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O), combine to form water, H20. Without water there would be no life as we know it. The human body is largely made up of water. Water dissolves other life-supporting substances and transports them into and around cells. It is also a liquid in which important biochemical reactions take place. 

Enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts, speeding the rate at which biochemical reactions proceed but not altering the direction or nature of the reactions. The presence or absence of these important substances affects the biochemical conditions, which then influence the other physiologic processes in the body. Enzyme deficiencies are often inherited as autosomal recessive conditions and may be passed from parent to child. Clearly, when students begin to understand the role of the enzyme and the chemical reaction that it governs, they begin to nnderstand the intricacies of the human biological processes. 

Thus we have a continuous number of phenomena in which structural correspondence plays an important part, these phenomena belonging to different fields of science to crystal chemistry, to the science of alloys, to epitaxy, to stereospecific adsorption, to heterogenous catalysis, to enzyme reactions, to antimetabolites, to the action of physiologically active substances and to a number of other biochemical agents, as well as to immunology. Similar views were recently expressed by Seifert concerning epitaxy [16). 

Since the early 1960s, RIAs and other competitive binding assays have been developed to a remarkable array of biochemically or pharmacologically important substances and in many instances have virtually replaced other methods of measurement. RIA is commonly used to measure the low concentrations of peptide and protein hormones that occur in blood. It is widely used both in routine clinical chemistry laboratories and in research laboratories. In this section, important applications developed in the past will be surveyed and recent developments of RIA in areas such as endocrinology and pharmacology shall be reviewed in detail. 

FUNCTIONS. The specific biochemical functions of vitamin C are not clearly understood. Nevertheless, it is established as a very important substance for body welfare because of being implicated in the following roles (1) formation and maintenance of collagen, which makes for more rapid and sound healing of wounds and burns (2) metabolism of the amino acids tyrosine and tryptophan (3) absorption and movement of iron (4) metabolism of fats and lipids, and cholesterol control (5) as an antioxidant in the protection of vitamins A and E and the polyunsaturated fatty acids (6) sound teeth and bones (7) strong capillary walls and healthy blood vessels (8) metabolism of folic acid and perhaps in a number of other roles. Details follow ... 

It is generally felt that a substance is more likely to be a NT if it is unevenly distributed in the CNS although if it is widely used it will be widely distributed. Certainly the high concentration (5-10 pmol/g) of dopamine, compared with that of any other monoamine in the striatum or with dopamine in other brain areas, was indicative of its subsequently established role as a NT in that part of the CNS. This does not mean it cannot have an important function in other areas such as the mesolimbic system and parts of the cerebral cortex where it is present in much lower concentrations. In fact the concentration of the monoamines outside the striatum is very much lower than that of the amino acids but since the amino acids may have important biochemical functions that necessitate their widespread distribution, the NT component of any given level of amino acid is difficult to establish. 

In Analytical Chemistry. one of the oldest and most objective scientific disciplines, the current impetus for research comes from the needs of other disciplines and from society s need to protect itself and the environment from noxious chemicals. Analytical chemistry uses a large number of physical, chemical and biochemical principles to determine whether a particular, potentially noxious substance, the analyte, is part of specific, commercially useful and societally important matrices of substances (e.g.. 

A number of very important natural and synthetic biochemicals belong to the phenylethylamine family. Two of these compounds, dopamine and epinephrine (adrenaline), are neurotransmitters, substances that carry chemical messages through the nervous system of humans and other animals. A third phenylethylamine, tyrosine, is an essential amino acid. And a familiar phenylethylamine found in plants is mescaline, whose chemical name is 2-(3,4,5-trimethoxy-phenyl)ethylamine. The primary natural sources of mescaline are four varieties of cactus two peyote species (Lophophora wiUiamsii and Lophophora diffusa), the San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus pacha-noi), and the Peruvian Torch cactus (Trichocereus peruvianus). 

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