Polypeptide chain initiation inhibitors

Clemens, M. J., 1976, Functional relationships between reticulocyte polypeptide chain initiation factor (IF-MP) and the translational inhibitor involved in regulation of protein synthesis by haemin, Eur. J. Biochem. 66 413. 

An essential part of the rationale presented above under (a) consists of the identification of altered products of mitochondrial protein synthesis as a result of the mutation. Although this is not a sufficient criterion for mitochondrial specification (since an altered protein might arise as a result of a mutational alteration in a component of the mitochondrial protein-synthesizing machinery, i.e., one of the mt r- or tRNAs, (as in poky Neu-rospora), it is a necessary one. We have therefore devoted considerable effort to demonstrating the capability of the mitochondria in the mutant to perform some form of protein synthesis. We did this by showing that they were capable of incorporating (1) labeled formate into formylmethionyl-puromycin as a measure of mitochondrial polypeptide-chain initiations (see also next section) (2) labeled leucine into mitochondrial membrane proteins in a reaction that is insensitive to cycloheximide (CHX), but sensitive to chloramphenicol (CAP) and (3) that continued exposure of cells to the latter led to their conversion to petite phenocopies, s5 of characteristic aspects of their phenotype, such as the presence of cytochrome b, and that this change was reversed on removal of the inhibitor (see also Table I). 

The mode of chain initiation in the synthesis of hyaluronic acid is not yet clear. In group A Streptococcus, inhibitors of protein synthesis do not interfere with the synthesis of hyaluronic acid, a result suggesting the absence of polypeptide backbone from streptococcal hyaluronic acid. Although the endogenous hyaluronic acid is bound to membrane(s), it can be separated from the membrane under mild conditions. ... 

However, this case is extremely rare in nature. An example is the noncompetitive inhibition of phenyllactate versus an amide substrate for carboxypeptidase. In this case, the initial collision complex of substrate and enzyme has an interaction with the terminal carboxyl and the arginine on the enzyme, as well as with the rest of the polypeptide chain, but the aromatic group of the terminal amino add is not in Ae specificity pocket. For it to seat itself requires twisting of the amide bond, which is the rate limiting and energy requiring step of the reaction. Thus, phenyllactate can slip into this pocket and prevent proper seating of the substrate. With an ester substrate, where rotation of the ester bond is not hindered, the collision complex has the specificity pocket filled, and phenyllactate is a competitive inhibitor (Auld Holmquist, 1974). 

One way of searching for the presence of inhibitors of polypeptide initiation in infected cells was to add cytoplasmic fractions from virus infected cells to a cell-free system from rabbit reticulocytes. This system initiates the synthesis of new polypeptide chains at a very high rate. Cytoplasm from poliovirus infected HeLa cells, but not from uninfected cells, inhibited protein synthesis in the reticulocyte lysate (59) The inhibitor was isolated and identified as double-stranded (ds) RNA (60). To study the effect of ds RNA on host and viral protein synthesis, a cell-free system from HeLa cells was developed which initiated translation on endogenous cellular or viral mRNA. When added to this system, the ds RNA was found to inhibit the translation of both cellular and viral mRNAs (61). Furthermore, measurement of the amount of ds RNA present in cells early in infection (61, 62) revealed that an insufficient quantity was present to act as a direct agent of protein synthesis inhibition. 

Boronic acids (5a) were among the first examples of low-molecular-weight, reversible inhibitors of serine proteinases [151, 152]. Significant inhibition was initially demonstrated against a-chymotrypsin. Unlike the carbonyl-derived reversible inhibitors, which require a polypeptide or peptide-like chain, activity was found with simple alkylboronic acids (e.g. the value for PhCH2CH2B(OH)2 with a-chymotrypsin was = 40 //M) [153], Weak inhibition of elastase (PPE) was first reported for a series of arylboronic acids, for example, (10-1) [123]. Some of the boron-based inhibitors Figure 2.5) were tested as either the difluoroboranes (5b) or as the pinacol boronate esters (5c). These modifications were employed because they were more readily synthesized and/or purified than the boronic acids. For both of these derivatives inhibition was shown to be due to in situ hydrolysis to the parent boronic acid (5a) [154, 155]. 

The vertebrate NPY family contains such prominent members as pancreatic polypeptide (PP), characterized initially from chicken where PP is synthesized and released from the endocrine cells of the pancreatic islets [204], neuropeptide Y (NPY) found in porcine brain [205] and peptide YY (PYY) isolated from porcine intestine [206]. Such peptides are characterized by a chain length of 36 amino acids and Tyr-amide at the C-terminus. Whereas NPY is exclusively expressed in neurons of mammals and is known to control processes such as stimulation of food intake, vasoconstriction, sexual behaviour and circadian rhythm, PP and PPY are synthesized in endocrine cells of the gut and are inhibitors of gut motility and of the secretion of exocrine products from the pancreas. 

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