| 1. |
- Aslam, Muhammad, et al.
(författare)
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Transgenic Overexpression of Glutathione Transferase E7 in Drosophila Attenuates Toxicity of Organic Isothiocyanates Affecting Survival and Oviposition
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Organic isothiocyanates (ITCs) are allelochemicals produced by plants in order to combat insects and other herbivores. The compounds are toxic electrophiles that can be inactivated and conjugated with intracellular glutathione in reactions catalyzed by glutathione transferases (GSTs). The Drosophila melanogaster GSTE7 was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli and purified for functional studies. The enzyme showed high catalytic activity with various isothiocyanates including phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) and allyl isothiocyanate (AITC), which in millimolar dietary concentrations conferred toxicity to adult D. melanogaster leading to death or a shortened life-span of the flies. In situ hybridization revealed a maternal contribution of GSTE7 transcripts to embryos, and strongest zygotic expression in the digestive tract. Transgenesis involving the GSTE7 gene controlled by an actin promoter produced viable flies expressing the GSTE7 transcript ubiquitously. Transgenic females show a significant extension in life-span when subjected to the same PEITC treatment as the wild-type flies. By contrast, transgenic male flies showed no significant effect in the first few days, and subsequently showed a somewhat lower survival rate. At 1 mM AITC concentration, no toxicity was noted. However, the oviposition activity was dramatically enhanced from a very low level in wild-type flies reared in the presence of 1 mM AITC to values an order of magnitude higher for the transgenic flies. The results demonstrate a clear protective effect of GSTE7 against exposure to ITC allelochemicals which can affect both life-span and fecundity of female flies.
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| 2. |
- Mazari, Aslam M. A., et al.
(författare)
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Overexpression of Glutathione Transferase E7 in Drosophila Differentially Impacts Toxicity of Organic Isothiocyanates in Males and Females
- 2014
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 9:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Organic isothiocyanates (ITCs) are allelochemicals produced by plants in order to combat insects and other herbivores. The compounds are toxic electrophiles that can be inactivated and conjugated with intracellular glutathione in reactions catalyzed by glutathione transferases (GSTs). The Drosophila melanogaster GSTE7 was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli and purified for functional studies. The enzyme showed high catalytic activity with various isothiocyanates including phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) and allyl isothiocyanate (AITC), which in millimolar dietary concentrations conferred toxicity to adult D. melanogaster leading to death or a shortened life-span of the flies. In situ hybridization revealed a maternal contribution of GSTE7 transcripts to embryos, and strongest zygotic expression in the digestive tract. Transgenesis involving the GSTE7 gene controlled by an actin promoter produced viable flies expressing the GSTE7 transcript ubiquitously. Transgenic females show a significantly increased survival when subjected to the same PEITC treatment as the wild-type flies. By contrast, transgenic male flies show a significantly lower survival rate. Oviposition activity was enhanced in transgenic flies. The effect was significant in transgenic females reared in the absence of ITCs as well as in the presence of 0.15 mM PEITC or 1 mM AITC. Thus the GSTE7 transgene elicits responses to exposure to ITC allelochemicals which differentially affect life-span and fecundity of male and female flies.
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| 3. |
- Sundberg, Kathrin, et al.
(författare)
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Differences in the catalytic efficiencies of allelic variants of glutathione transferase P1-1 towards carcinogenic diol epoxides of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
- 1998
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Ingår i: Carcinogenesis. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0143-3334 .- 1460-2180. ; 19:3, s. 433-436
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous studies have identified allelic variants of the human glutathione transferase (GST) Pi gene and showed that the two different encoded proteins with isoleucine (GSTP1-1/I-105) or valine (GSTP1-1/V-105) at position 105, respectively, differ significantly in their catalytic activities with model substrates. Moreover, recent epidemiological studies have demonstrated that individuals differing in the expression of these allelic variants also differ in susceptibility to tumour formation in certain organs, including such in which polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) may be etiological factors. In the present study the catalytic efficiencies (kcat/Km) of these GSTP1-1 variants were determined with a number of stereoisomeric bay-region diol epoxides, known as the ultimate mutagenic and carcinogenic metabolites of PAH, including those from chrysene, benzo[a]pyrene and dibenz[a,h]anthracene. In addition, GSTP1-1 mutants in which amino residue 105 is alanine (GSTP1-1/A-105) or tryptophan (GSTP1-1/W-105) have been constructed and characterized. GSTP1-1/V-105 was found to be more active than GSTP1-1/I-105 in conjugation reactions with the bulky diol epoxides of PAH, being up to 3-fold as active towards the anti- and syn-diol epoxide enantiomers with R-absolute configuration at the benzylic oxiranyl carbon. Comparing the four enzyme variants, GSTP1-1/A-105 generally demonstrated the highest kcat/Km value and GSTP1-1/W-105 the lowest with the anti-diol epoxides. A close correlation was observed between the volume occupied by the amino acid residue at position 105 and the value of kcat/Km. With the syn-diol epoxides, such a correlation was observed with alanine, valine and isoleucine, whereas tryptophan was associated with increased kcat/Km values. The mutational replacement of isoleucine with alanine or tryptophan at position 105 did not alter the enantio selectivity of the GSTP1-1 variants compared with the naturally occurring allelic variants GSTP1-1/I-105 and GSTP1-1/V-105. Since the amino acid at position 105 forms part of the substrate binding site (H-site) the effect of increasing bulkiness is expected to cause restricted access of the diol epoxide and proper alignment of the two reactants for efficient glutathionylation. In conclusion, the present study indicates that individuals who are homozygous for the allele GSTP1* B (coding for GSTP1-1/V-105) display a higher susceptibility to malignancy because of other factors than a decreased catalytic efficiency of GSTP1-1/V-105 in the detoxication of carcinogenic diol epoxides of benzo[a]pyrene or structurally related PAH.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Zhang, Wei
(författare)
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Directed Evolution of Glutathione Transferases with Altered Substrate Selectivity Profiles : A Laboratory Evolution Study Shedding Light on the Multidimensional Nature of Epistasis
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Directed evolution is generally regarded as a useful approach in protein engineering. By subjecting members of a mutant library to the power of Darwinian evolution, desired protein properties are obtained. Numerous reports have appeared in the literature showing the success of tailoring proteins for various applications by this method. Is it a one-way track that protein practitioners can only learn from nature to enable more efficient protein engineering? A structure-and-mechanism-based approach, supplemented with the use of reduced amino acid alphabets, was proposed as a general means for semi-rational enzyme engineering. Using human GST A2-2*E, the most active human enzyme in the bioactivation of azathioprine, as a parental enzyme to test this approach, a L107G/L108D/F222H triple-point mutant of GST A2-2*E (thereafter designated as GDH) was discovered with 70-fold increased activity, approaching the upper limit of specific activity of the GST scaffold. The approach was further experimentally verified to be more successful than intuitively choosing active-site residues in proximity to the bound substrate for the improvement of enzyme performance. By constructing all intermediates along all putative mutational paths leading from GST A2-2*E to mutant GDH and assaying them with nine alternative substrates, the fitness landscapes were found to be “rugged” in differential fashions in substrate-activity space. The multidimensional fitness landscapes stemming from functional promiscuity can lead to alternative outcomes with enzymes optimized for other features than the selectable markers that were relevant at the origin of the evolutionary process. The results in this thesis suggest that in this manner an evolutionary response to changing environmental conditions can readily be mounted. In summary, the thesis demonstrates the attractive features of the structure-and-mechanism-based semi-rational directed evolution approach for optimizing enzyme performance. Moreover, the results gained from the studies show that laboratory evolution may refine our understanding of evolutionary process in nature.
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| 6. |
- Zuo, Shusheng, 1968-
(författare)
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Quantitation, Purification and Reconstitution of the Red Blood Cell Glucose Transporter GLUT1
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The human glucose transporter GLUT1 facilitates glucose to be accumulated on the other side of the cell membrane. The functional state of GLUT1 is uncertain due to diversity of the reports. In this thesis, the activity of red blood cell GLUT1 was extensively studied to further characterize this protein.The human red blood cell membranes were stripped to become vesicles with low-ionic alkaline solution in the presence or absence of dithioerithritol. The supernatant of partially solubilized membrane vesicles provided approximately 65% of the vesicle proteins. GLUT1 purified from this supernatant showed a little high-affinity cytochalasin B binding activity. On the other hand, the vesicles stripped with dithioerythritol provided mostly monomeric GLUT1 and those without dithioerythritol provided monomeric and oligomeric GLUT1. MALDI-ToF-MS detected variant GLUT1 fragments between the two preparations. Residual endogenous phospholipids per GLUT1 also showed difference. However, the equilibrium exchange of glucose was retained for both GLUT1 preparations. Cytochalasin B-binding activity of GLUT1 in streptoavidin-biotin-immobilized red blood cells showed that both dissociation constant and binding sites per GLUT1 fell between those of wheat germ lectin-immobilized red blood cells with or without polylysine coating, which indicated the switching of two cytochalasin B-binding states of GLUT1. It is concluded that GLUT1 in red blood cells contains approximately two equal portions, monomeric with high-affinity cytochalasin B-binding activity and oligomeric without high-affinity cytochalasin B-binding activity. In the partial solubilization of the membrane vesicles, GLUT1 which does not have high-affinity cytochalasin B-binding activity is pooled. This might provide a resolution to select oligomerically and functionally different GLUT1 for crystallization.In addition a modified micro-Bradford assay with CaPE precipitation was developed to achieve a routine quantitation method for membrane proteins and the effects of cholesterol and PEG(5000)-DSPE on reconstituted GLUT1 were preliminarily determined.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Ajayi, Abiodun
(författare)
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Study of molecular mechanism(s) underlying neurodegeneration in SCA7 disease : Role of NOX enzymes and oxidative stress
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG trinucleotide expansion in the SCA7/ATXN7 gene resulting in progressive ataxia and retinal dystrophy. SCA7 belongs to a group of neurodegenerative disorders called polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases, that share the common feature of glutamine tract expansions within otherwise unrelated proteins. Common suggested mechanisms by which polyQ disorders induce toxicity include aggregation and induction of oxidative stress.In this work, we examined the connection between oxidative stress and toxicity in SCA7 disease. We showed that expression of mutant ataxin-7 (ATXN7) results in elevated level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress, leading to toxicity. Our results also revealed that the oxidative stress further contributes to mutant ATXN7 aggregation. We showed, for the first time, that the source of the ROS in mutant ATXN7 cells is thorough the activation of the NOX1 enzyme. Interestingly, our results further revealed that the increased level of NOX1 activity and expression by mutant ATXN7 results in a metabolic shift similar to the Warburg effect. Treatments with antioxidants or a NOX1 specific inhibitor decreased the ROS level, restored the metabolic shift and ameliorated the ATXN7 induced toxicity. Taken together, we suggest that mutant ATXN7 specifically activate NOX1 enzyme and that antioxidants treatment or NOX1 specific inhibition could be a potential therapeutic strategy for SCA7.
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| 9. |
- Akoachere, Monique, et al.
(författare)
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Characterization of the glyoxalases of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum and comparison with their human counterparts.
- 2005
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Ingår i: Biol Chem. - 1431-6730. ; 386:1, s. 41-52
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The glyoxalase system consisting of glyoxalase I (GloI) and glyoxalase II (GloII) constitutes a glutathione-dependent intracellular pathway converting toxic 2-oxoaldehydes, such as methylglyoxal, to the corresponding 2-hydroxyacids. Here we describe a complete glyoxalase system in the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The biochemical, kinetic and structural properties of cytosolic GloI (cGloI) and two GloIIs (cytosolic GloII named cGloII, and tGloII preceded by a targeting sequence) were directly compared with the respective isofunctional host enzymes. cGloI and cGloII exhibit lower K(m) values and higher catalytic efficiencies (k(cat)/K(m) ) than the human counterparts, pointing to the importance of the system in malarial parasites. A Tyr185Phe mutant of cGloII shows a 2.5-fold increase in K(m) , proving the contribution of Tyr185 to substrate binding. Molecular models suggest very similar active sites/metal binding sites of parasite and host cell enzymes. However, a fourth protein, which has highest similarities to GloI, was found to be unique for malarial parasites; it is likely to act in the apicoplast, and has as yet undefined substrate specificity. Various S-(N-hydroxy-N-arylcarbamoyl)glutathiones tested as P. falciparum Glo inhibitors were active in the lower nanomolar range. The Glo system of Plasmodium will be further evaluated as a target for the development of antimalarial drugs.
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| 10. |
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