TOPICAL amino acid composition

The discussion of protein solubility in Chapter 9 leads logically into the next topic because it is usually necessary to have proteins in solution in order to characterize them. Of course, some important characterization can be made by hydrolyzing the proteins (e.g., determination of the amino acid composition and sequence). What we are mainly concerned with in this chapter is the measurement of molecular composition and properties of proteins or their subimits in or close to their native state. This is required if our aim is to relate composition to fimctional properties. The classification of cereal proteins into four groups based on solubility was described in the previous chapter. This classification still proves to be valuable for researchers. However, in recent times, techniques have been developed that enable more accurate quantification of cereal protein composition. 

The topical homochirality problem is presently being investigated in several research laboratories across the world. One new object of study is systems with eutectic mixtures. The addition of chiral dicarboxylic acids that co-crystallise with chiral amino acids to aqueous mixtures of d- and L-amino acids allows tuning of the eutectic composition of the amino acids in several cases, these systems yield new eutectic compositions of 98% ee or higher. Thus, solid mixed crystals with a ratio... 

An example of an enzyme which has different isoenzyme forms is lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) which catalyzes the reversible conversion of pyruvate into lactate in the presence of the coenzyme NADH (see above). LDH is a tetramer of two different types of subunits, called H and M, which have small differences in amino acid sequence. The two subunits can combine randomly with each other, forming five isoenzymes that have the compositions H4, H3M, H2M2, HM3 and M4. The five isoenzymes can be resolved electrophoretically (see Topic B8). M subunits predominate in skeletal muscle and liver, whereas H subunits predominate in the heart. H4 and H3M isoenzymes are found predominantly in the heart and red blood cells H2M2 is found predominantly in the brain and kidney while HM3 and M4 are found predominantly in the liver and skeletal muscle. Thus, the isoenzyme pattern is characteristic of a particular tissue, a factor which is of immense diagnostic importance in medicine. Myocardial infarction, infectious hepatitis and muscle diseases involve cell death of the affected tissue, with release of the cell contents into the blood. As LDH is a soluble, cytosolic protein it is readily released in these conditions. Under normal circumstances there is little LDH in the blood. Therefore the pattern of LDH isoenzymes in the blood is indicative of the tissue that released the isoenzymes and so can be used to diagnose a condition, such as a myocardial infarction, and to monitor the progress of treatment. 

Successful enantioseparation of individual N -protected amino acids stimulated the development of a rapid method of their simultaneous enantioseparation and quantification in a mixture. A feasibility study on this topic has been recently published by Welsch et al. [69]. The two-dimensional HPLC method involves online coupling of a narrow-bore C18 reverse phase (RP) column in the first dimension (separation of racemic amino acids) to a short enantioselective column based on nonporous 1.5 pm particles modified with t-BuCQD in the second dimension (determination of enantiomer composition). Using narrow-bore column resulted in fast analysis time for example, the mixture of nine racemic N-DNB-protected amino acids was completely analyzed within 16 min. 

Patents have issued for the use of amino-acid complexes [253], copper-metallothioneins [254], compositions of copper compounds mixed with fatty acids [253], copper complexes of D-penicillamine, alkylcysteines [256, 257] and copper complexes offatty acids alone or mixed with metallic copper [258]. Compositions of copper compounds mixed with fatty acids were also claimed to be useful in the treatment of other inflammatory disorders, including cardiovascular and thrombotic disorders, menstrual cycle disorders, diabetes, endometriosis, nutritional deficiencies and malignancies [255]. Scheinberg has also obtained a Food and Drug Administration approved Investigational New Drug application for the treatment of RA with the mixed-valence copper penicillamine complex (personal communication). Preparations of Cu(II)-(oleate) are currently being sold in Europe for topical treatment of RA and other inflammatory disorders under the trade names of Kupfer and Kupfer Forte, which contains fine particles of metallic copper [258]. 

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