Pyruvate kinase enzyme

Kahn A, Marie J, Garreau H, Sprengers ED. The genetic system of the L-type pyruvate kinase forms in man. Subunit structure, interrelation and kinetic characteristics of the pyruvate kinase enzymes from erythrocytes and liver. Biochim Biophys Acta 1978 523 59-74. 

J2. Jemelin, M., Fornerod, M., Frei, J., and Prod hom, L. S., Impaired phagocytosis in leukocytes from newborn infants. A study of glycolysis and activities of phosphoglycerate kinase and pyruvate kinase. Enzyme 12, 642-646 (1971). 

The hydrolysis of glycerate-l,3-bisphosphate generates 1 mol of ATP. Recall that aerobic respiration is stimulated by relatively high ADP concentrations and inhibited by relatively high ATP concentrations. Any measurable increase in ATP concentration has the effect of depressing aerobic respiration. Also recall that ATP is an inhibitor of PFK-1 and pyruvate kinase, enzymes required to channel carbon skeletons into the citric acid cycle. 

Another activator of pyruvate kinase enzyme is 6-phosphogluconate, which is formed in the pentosphosphate pathway. The pentosphosphate pathway is particularly active in the liver during conditions of fatty-acid synthesis. The 6-phosphogluconate may well be an intervening signal between the pentosphosphate pathway and glycolysis because an increased activity of pyruvate... 

Figure 4.5 The polypeptide chain of the enzyme pyruvate kinase folds into several domains, one of which is an a/p barrel (red). One of the loop regions in this barrel domain is extended and comprises about 100 amino acid residues that fold into a separate domain (blue) built up from antiparallel P strands. The C-terminal region of about 140 residues forms a third domain (green), which is an open twisted a/p structure.

For example, each subunit of the dimeric glycolytic enzyme triosephos-phate isomerase (see Figure 4.1a) consists of one such barrel domain. The polypeptide chain has 248 residues in which the first p strand of the barrel starts at residue 6 and the last a helix of the barrel ends at residue 246. In contrast, the subunit of the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase (Figure 4.5), which was solved at 2.6 A resolution in the laboratory of Ffilary Muirhead, Bristol University, UK, is folded into four different domains. The polypeptide chain of this cat muscle enzyme has 530 residues. In Figure 4.5, residues 1-42... 

Pyruvate kinase possesses allosteric sites for numerous effectors. It is activated by AMP and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate and inhibited by ATP, acetyl-CoA, and alanine. (Note that alanine is the a-amino acid counterpart of the a-keto acid, pyruvate.) Furthermore, liver pyruvate kinase is regulated by covalent modification. Flormones such as glucagon activate a cAMP-dependent protein kinase, which transfers a phosphoryl group from ATP to the enzyme. The phos-phorylated form of pyruvate kinase is more strongly inhibited by ATP and alanine and has a higher for PEP, so that, in the presence of physiological levels of PEP, the enzyme is inactive. Then PEP is used as a substrate for glucose synthesis in the pathway (to be described in Chapter 23), instead... 

Figure 5.3 Major control points of glycolysis and the TCA cycle. Enzymes I, hexokinase II, phosphofructokinase III, pyruvate kinase IV, pyruvate dehydrogenase V, citrate synthase VI, aconitase VII, isocitrate dehydrogenase VIII, a-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase.

Let us consider Figure 5.3 again. Both pyruvate kinase and dtrate synthase (enzymes III and V) are inhibited by elevated ATP concentrations. During citric acid production ATP concentrations are likely to arise (ATP produced in glycolysis) and either of these enzymes could, if inhibited, slow down the process. In fact all of the evidence suggests that both enzymes are modified or controlled in some way such that they are insensitive to other cellular metabolites during citric add production. 

Glycolysis is regulated by three enzymes catalyzing nonequilibrium reactions hexokinase, phosphoffuc-tokinase, and pyruvate kinase. 

CK catalyzes the reversible phosphorylation of creatine in the presence of ATP and magnesium. When creatine phosphate is the substrate, the resulting creatine can be measured as the ninhydrin fluorescent compound, as in the continuous flow Auto Analyzer method. Kinetic methods based on coupled enzymatic reactions are also popular. Tanzer and Gilvarg (40) developed a kinetic method using the two exogenous enzymes pyruvate kinase and lactate dehydrogenase to measure the CK rate by following the oxidation of NADH. In this procedure the main reaction is run in a less favorable direction. 

Pyruvate kinase (PK) is one of the three postulated rate-controlling enzymes of glycolysis. The high-energy phosphate of phosphoenolpyruvate is transferred to ADP by this enzyme, which requires for its activity both monovalent and divalent cations. Enolpyruvate formed in this reaction is converted spontaneously to the keto form of pyruvate with the synthesis of one ATP molecule. PK has four isozymes in mammals M, M2, L, and R. The M2 type, which is considered to be the prototype, is the only form detected in early fetal tissues and is expressed in many adult tissues. This form is progressively replaced by the M( type in the skeletal muscle, heart, and brain by the L type in the liver and by the R type in red blood cells during development or differentiation (M26). The M, and M2 isozymes display Michaelis-Menten kinetics with respect to phosphoenolpyruvate. The Mj isozyme is not affected by fructose-1,6-diphosphate (F-1,6-DP) and the M2 is al-losterically activated by this compound. Type L and R exhibit cooperatively in... 

L2. Lakomek, M Huppke, P Neubauer, B Pekrun, A., Winkler, H., and Schroter, W., Mutations in the R-type pyruvate kinase gene and altered enzyme kinetic properties in patients with hemolytic anemia due to pyruvate kinase deficiency. Ann. Hematol. 68,253-260 (1994). 

VI. Valentine, W. N Tanaka, K. R., and Miwa, S A specific erythrocyte glycolytic enzyme defect (pyruvate kinase) in three subjects with congenital non-spherocytic hemolytic anemia. Trans. Assoc. Am. Physicians 74, 100-110 (1961). 

The Jirst indirect route in glucose synthesis involves the formation of phosphoenolpyruvate from pyruvate without the intervention of pyruvate kinase. This route is catalyzed by two enzymes. At first, pyruvate is converted into oxaloacetate. This reaction occurs in the mitochondria as the pyruvate molecules enter them, and is catalyzed by pyruvate carboxylase according to the scheme... 

In biological systems, therefore, the behavior of Li+ is predicted to be similar to that of Na+ and K+ in some cases, and to that of Mg2+ and Ca2+ in others [12]. Indeed, research has demonstrated numerous systems in which one or more of these cations is normally intrinsically involved, including ion transport pathways and enzyme activities, in which Li+ has mimicked the actions of these cations, sometimes producing inhibitory or stimulatory effects. For example, Li+ can replace Na+ in the ATP-dependent system which controls the transport of Na+ through the endoplasmic reticulum Li+ inhibits the activity of some Mg2+-dependent enzymes in vitro, such as pyruvate kinase and inositol monophosphate phosphatase Li+ affects the activity of some Ca2+-dependent enzymes— it increases the levels of activated Ca2+-ATPase in human erythrocyte membranes ex vivo and inhibits tryptophan hydroxylase. 

H. G. Holzhtitter, G. Jacobasch, and A. Bisdorff, Mathematical modeling of metabolic pathways affected by an enzyme deficiency. A mathematical model of glycolysis in normal and pyruvate kinase deficient red blood cells. Eur. J. Biochem. 149(1), 101 111 (1985). 

In addition to the aforementioned allenic steroids, prostaglandins, amino acids and nucleoside analogs, a number of other functionalized allenes have been employed (albeit with limited success) in enzyme inhibition (Scheme 18.56) [154-159]. Thus, the 7-vinylidenecephalosporin 164 and related allenes did not show the expected activity as inhibitors of human leukocyte elastase, but a weak inhibition of porcine pancreas elastase [156], Similarly disappointing were the immunosuppressive activity of the allenic mycophenolic acid derivative 165 [157] and the inhibition of 12-lipoxygenase by the carboxylic acid 166 [158]. In contrast, the carboxyallenyl phosphate 167 turned out to be a potent inhibitor of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and pyruvate kinase [159]. Hydrolysis of this allenic phosphate probably leads to 2-oxobut-3-enoate, which then undergoes an irreversible Michael addition with suitable nucleophilic side chains of the enzyme. 

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