Salvage pathway pyrimidine

As with purines, there is indirect evidence from studies in vitro that regenerating tetrathyridia of M. corti can synthesise pyrimidines de novo (315). Furthermore, aspartate transcarbamylase, the first enzyme in the pathway, has been demonstrated in Moniezia benedini (39), while five of the six pathway enzymes have been measured in H. diminuta (326). It appears, therefore, that at least some cestodes have the capacity to synthesise pyrimidines by the biosynthetic route. Little is known of pyrimidine salvage pathways in cestodes, although the key enzyme thymidine kinase has been... 

The pyrimidine salvage pathway, which uses preformed pyrimidine bases from dietary sources or from nucleotide turnover, is of minor importance in... 

A primary site of regulation is the synthesis of PRPP. PRPP synthetase is negatively affected by GDP and, at a distinct allosteric site, by ADR Thus, the simultaneous binding of an oxypurine (eg., GDP) and an aminopurine (eg., ADP) can occur with the result being a synergistic inhibition of the enzyme. This enzyme is not the committed step of purine biosynthesis PRPP is also used in pyrimidine synthesis and both the purine and pyrimidine salvage pathways. 

S ATP + uridine <3-5> (<3> rate-limiting enzyme in anabolism of uridine and cytidine [10] <3> rate limiting enzyme of pyrimidine salvage pathway [10] <4,5> first enzyme of pyrimidine salvage pathway [6] <3> enzyme is part of the anabolic pathway by which the preformed pyrimidine nucleosides are salvaged for nucleic acid biosynthesis [8]) (Reversibility <3-6> [6, 8, 10]) [6, 8, 10]... 

LaFon SW, Nelson DJ, Berens RL et al. Purine and pyrimidine salvage pathways in Leishmania donovani. Biochem Pharmacol 1982 31(2) 231-238. 

The salvage pathway utilizes preformed pyrimidines and purines for the synthesis of nucleic acids and is highly active in various types of cells. Uridine kinase plays a key role in the pyrimidine salvage pathway and its concentration is considered to reflect the relative efficiency of the system in utilizing preformed pyrimidines [74]. Adenosine kinase plays a similar role in making use of preformed purines [75]. It should be noted, however, that uridine and adenosine kinases are not the only enzymes involved in the salvage pathway and other deoxynucleoside kinases, phosphorylases, and phosphoribosyltransferases [76] also have important roles. 

One of the interesting features of dCD is that its catalytic activity depends on the feedback regulation based on the ratio of dCTP to dTTP, which are both the end products of the pyrimidine salvage pathway, wherein dCTP functions as an activator and dTTP, as an inhibitor. Both dCTP and dTTP appear to... 

In many cells, the capacity for de novo synthesis to supply purines and pyrimidines is insufficient, and the salvage pathway is essential for adequate nucleotide synthesis. In patients with Lesch-Nyhan disease, an enzyme for purine salvage (hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate transferase, HPRT) is absent. People with this genetic deficiency have CNS deterioration, mental retardation, and spastic cerebral palsy associated with compulsive self-mutilation, Cells in the basal ganglia of the brain (fine motor control) normally have very high HPRT activity. These patients also all have hyperuricemia because purines cannot be salvaged. 

De novo synthesis of purines and pyrimidines yields the monophosphates IMP and UMP, respectively (see p. 188). All other nucleotides and deoxynucleotides are synthesized from these two precursors. An overview of the pathways involved is presented here further details are given on p. 417. Nucleotide synthesis by recycling of bases (the salvage pathway) is discussed on p. 186. 

A. Salvage pathways allow synthesis of nucleotides from free purines or pyrimidines that arise from nucleic acid degradation or dietary sources, which is more economical for the cell than de novo synthesis. 

Purine and Pyrimidine Bases Are Recycled by Salvage Pathways... 

Free purine and pyrimidine bases are constantly released in cells during the metabolic degradation of nucleotides. Free purines are in large part salvaged and reused to make nucleotides, in a pathway much simpler than the de novo synthesis of purine nucleotides described earlier. One of the primary salvage pathways consists of a single reaction catalyzed by adenosine phosphoribosyltransferase, in which free adenine reacts with PRPP to yield the corresponding adenine nucleotide ... 

Free guanine and hypo xanthine (the deamination product of adenine Fig. 22-45) are salvaged in the same way by hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase. A similar salvage pathway exists for pyrimidine bases in microorganisms, and possibly in mammals. 

Just as orotic acid is converted to a ribonucleotide in step e of Fig. 25-14, other free pyrimidine and purine bases can react with PRPP to give monoribonucleotides plus PP . The reversible reactions, which are catalyzed by phosphoribosyltransferases (ribonucleotide pyrophosphorylases), are important components of the salvage pathways by which purine and pyrimidine bases freed by the degradation of nucleic acids are recycled.273 However, thymine is usually not reused. Thymine will react with deoxribose 1-P to form thymidine plus inorganic phosphate (thymidine phosphorylase), and thymidine is rapidly... 

Like purine nucleotides, pyrimidine nucleotides can be synthesized either de novo or by the salvage pathways from nucleobases or nucleosides. However, salvage is less efficient because, except in the case of utilization of uracil by bacteria, and to some extent by mammalian cells, pyrimidine nucleobases are not converted to nucleotides directly but only via nucleosides. 

Salvage pathway. A family of reactions that permits nucleosides or purine and pyrimidine bases resulting from the partial breakdown of nucleic acids, to be reutilized in nucleic acid synthesis. 

Purine and pyrimidine nucleotides are essential components of many biochemical molecules, from DNA and RNA to ATP and NAD. In recent years, the pyrimidine and especially the purine metabolism of parasitic helminths have been investigated extensively, mainly because they are different from the pathways in the mammalian host such that they have potential as targets for chemotherapeutic attack. For a review of purine and pyrimidine pathways in parasitic helminths and protozoa, see Berens et al. (1995). Although parasitic helminths do not synthesize purines de novo, but obtain them from the host, they do possess elaborate purine salvage pathways for a more economical management of this resource. Pyrimidines, on the other hand, are synthesized de novo by all parasitic flat-worms studied so far and, as with mammalian... 

The so-called salvage pathways are available in many cells to scavenge free purine and pyrimidine bases, nucleosides, and mononucleotides and to convert these to metabolically useful di- and trinucleotides. The function of these pathways is to avoid the costly (energy) and lengthy de novo purine and pyrimidine biosynthetic processes. In some cells, in fact, the salvage pathways yield a greater quantity of nucleotides than the de novo pathways. The substrates for salvage reactions may come from dietary sources or from normal nucleic acid turnover processes. 

Nucleosides are formed by the reaction of a purine or pyrimidine base with ribose-l-phosphate, and in mammals, this provides the most effective salvage pathway for pyrimidines ... 

In addition to major nucleosides and bases, modified nucleosides and bases have also been isolated from tRNA hydrolysates and in physiological fluids of man. Unlike the major nucleic acid components, the methylated or otherwise structurally altered purine and pyrimidine compounds are not recycled in the salvage pathways but are excreted. It has been suggested that the measurement of these modified compounds may provide an indicator of the rate of tRNA metabolism. Furthermore, the altered patterns of excretion for these compounds may be used as biomarkers for the detection of disease states and aberrations in metabolic pathways. 

The pathways for the biosynthesis of nucleotides fall into two classes de novo pathways and salvage pathways (Figure 25.1). In de novo (from scratch) pathways, the nucleotide bases are assembled from simpler compounds. The framework for a pyrimidine base is assembled first and then attached to ribose. In contrast, the framework for a purine base is synthesized piece by piece directly onto a ribose-based structure. These pathways comprise a small number of elementary reactions that are repeated with variation to generate different nucleotides, as might be expected for pathways that appeared very early in evolution. In salvage pathways, preformed bases are recovered and reconnected to a ribose unit. 

Similar salvage pathways exist for pyrimidines. Pyrimidine phosphoribosyltransferase will reconnect uracil, but not cytosine, to PRPP. 

PRPP is the activated intermediate in the synthesis of phosphoribosylamine in the de novo pathway of purine formation of purine nucleotides from free bases by the salvage pathway of orotidylate in the formation of pyrimidines of nicotinate ribonucleotide of phosphoribosyl ATP in the pathway leading to histidine and of phosphoribosylanthranilate in the pathway leading to tryptophan. 

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