Superoxide dismutase presence

Oxidant production is measured with the fluorogenic substrate para-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (PHPA) in the presence of superoxide dismutase and peroxidase (9). Under these conditions, superoxide is converted to H2O2 by the superoxide dismutase, and two molecules of PHPA are converted to a fluorescent diadduct by H2O2 and peroxidase. Similar assays have been devised using homovanillic acid (16) or scopoletin (17) instead of PHPA. 

Superoxide Dismutase. Again, only electron-capture is important on irradiation (78). For the Cu-Zn enzyme, Cu is converted into Cu form. In the presence of oxygen, 02 is formed in competition with Cu, and on annealing reacts to re-form Cu. Thus radiolysis has proven to be a useful method for checking the mechanism of action of this dismutase. The conclusion is that the somewhat disputed mechanism [21,22] is probably correct. 

Copper is part of several essential enzymes including tyrosinase (melanin production), dopamine beta-hydroxylase (catecholamine production), copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (free radical detoxification), and cytochrome oxidase and ceruloplasmin (iron conversion) (Aaseth and Norseth 1986). All terrestrial animals contain copper as a constituent of cytochrome c oxidase, monophenol oxidase, plasma monoamine oxidase, and copper protein complexes (Schroeder et al. 1966). Excess copper causes a variety of toxic effects, including altered permeability of cellular membranes. The primary target for free cupric ions in the cellular membranes are thiol groups that reduce cupric (Cu+2) to cuprous (Cu+1) upon simultaneous oxidation to disulfides in the membrane. Cuprous ions are reoxidized to Cu+2 in the presence of molecular oxygen molecular oxygen is thereby converted to the toxic superoxide radical O2, which induces lipoperoxidation (Aaseth and Norseth 1986). 

It was clear for some time that a number of zinc enzymes required two or more metal ions for full activity, but in the absence of X-ray structural data the location of these metal centres with regard to one another was often uncertain. When the first 3-D structures began to appear, it became clear that the metals were in close proximity. A particular feature of many of these enzymes was the presence of a bridging ligand between two of the metal sites, usually an Asp residue of the protein, which is occasionally replaced by a water molecule. While some of the sites contain only Zn ions, several contain Zn in combination with Cu (in cytosolic superoxide dismutases) Fe (in purple acid phosphatases) or Mg (in alkaline phosphatase and the aminopeptidase of lens). 

Among the primary lines of evidence for demonstrating the action of EDRF is enhanced biological activity in the presence of superoxide dismutase (Moncada et al., 1991). Furthermore, superoxide-generating compounds are well known to inactivate EDRF. When nitric oxide was proposed to be the principal form of EDRF, the reason for its inactivation by superoxide was obvious. Both superoxide... 

Thiols can also be converted to disulfides, as in the CdS-photocatalyzed conversion of cysteine to cystine In the latter reaction, the uptake of oxygen was pH dependent. Since the reaction rate was not increased in deuterium oxide and was not decreased by added azide, the authors conclude that singlet oxygen is not involved. Since superoxide dismutase inhibited the conversion, a photoinduced electron transfer is probably responsible for the observed transformations. Such organosulfide oxidations may be environmentally important since naturally occurring hematite suffers a photoassisted dissolution in the presence of thiols... 

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