Biomedical subjects

Y J Greene

Publications and source records attributed to Y J Greene.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1992

Porphyrogenic properties of the terpenes camphor, pinene, and thujone (with a note on historic implications for absinthe and the illness of Vincent van Gogh).

Camphor, alpha-pinene (the major component of turpentine), and thujone (a constituent in the liqueur called absinthe) produced an increase in porphyrin production in primary cultures of chick embryo liver cells. In the presence of desferrioxamine (an iron chelator which inhibits heme synthesis and thereby mimics the effect of the block associated with acute porphyria), the terpenes enhanced porphyrin accumulation 5- to 20-fold. They also induced synthesis of the rate-controlling enzyme for the pathway, 5-aminolevulinic acid synthase, which was monitored both spectrophotometrically and immunochemically. These effects are shared by well-known porphyrogenic chemicals such as phenobarbital and glutethimide. Camphor and glutethimide alone led to the accumulation of mostly uro- and heptacarboxylporphyrins, whereas alpha-pinene and thujone resulted in lesser accumulations of porphyrins which were predominantly copro- and protoporphyrins. In the presence of desferrioxamine, plus any of the three terpenes, the major product that accumulated was protoporphyrin. The present results indicate that the terpenes tested are porphyrogenic and hazardous to patients with underlying defects in hepatic heme synthesis. There are also implications for the illness of Vincent van Gogh and the once popular, but now banned liqueur, called absinthe.

5-Aminolevulinate Synthetase↗

PubMed1992

Dichloroacetate.

Dichloroacetate (DCA) represents a potentially novel class of oral antidiabetic agents that reduce blood glucose and lipids without stimulating insulin secretion. DCA reduces blood glucose by inhibiting hepatic glucose synthesis and stimulating glucose clearance and use by peripheral tissues. A major site of action of the drug is pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), the rate-limiting enzyme of aerobic glucose oxidation. Stimulation of PDH by DCA increases peripheral oxidation of alanine and lactate, thereby interrupting the Cori and alanine cycles and reducing the availability of three-carbon precursors for gluconeogenesis. In experimental models of ketosis, DCA reduces ketonemia and ketonuria while significantly lowering blood glucose. DCA inhibits hepatic triglyceride and cholesterol biosynthesis. Short-term studies in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes have demonstrated a capacity of the drug to markedly reduce circulating a very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations. In genetic models of insulin-dependent diabetes, oral administration of DCA significantly reduces insulin requirements and blood levels of glucose and triglycerides. Several derivatives of DCA have been synthesized and found to have biological activity in animals. Further work is required to determine whether DCA and its analogues may be safe and effective agents for chronic treatment of the carbohydrate and lipid abnormalities of human diabetes.

Animals↗

PubMed1991

Immunochemical studies of haem oxygenase. Preparation and characterization of antibodies to chick liver haem oxygenase and their use in detecting and quantifying amounts of haem oxygenase protein.

Monospecific polyclonal rabbit antibodies to a purified form of haem oxygenase of chick liver, showing sequence similarity to mammalian haem oxygenase-1, were raised and used to study characteristics of the oxygenase. The antibodies inhibited activity of the purified oxygenase, but not other enzyme components (NADPH:cytochrome reductase and biliverdin reductase) of the standard assay mixture of haem oxygenase. In addition, the antibodies inhibited activity of haem oxygenase in microsomes (microsomal fractions) from Cd(2+)-treated chick liver, spleen, testis and brain. Western (immuno-) blots of microsomal proteins of selected organs from chick, rat and man, and homogenates of chick-embryo liver-cell cultures, probed with the antibodies, showed a major protein with a molecular mass of 33-34 kDa and a lower-molecular-mass protein (28-29 kDa) of variable intensity. Studies with trypsin and selected proteinase inhibitors established that the smaller peptide was a proteolytic product of the larger. Treatment of chick-embryo liver-cell cultures with CdCl2, a potent inducer of haem oxygenase, increased the degree of proteinase-mediated cleavage of the 33 kDa protein to the lower-molecular-mass form. These results indicate that, under at least some conditions, such cultures should be homogenized in the presence of trypsin inhibitor to prevent proteolytic degradation of the enzyme and allow maximal expression of haem oxygenase activity. The antibodies also reacted with haem oxygenase from spleen, testis and brain of both chicks and rats, and the spleen of humans. A method for quantifying the amount of haem oxygenase protein was developed with use of slot-blots and laser densitometry; linearity was observed from 0 to 5 ng of haem oxygenase protein per slot, and the method was applied to sonicated cultured chick-embryo liver cells treated with Cd2+ (0.3 mM) or iron plus glutethimide. In both cases, increases in enzyme activity were of similar magnitude to increases in amounts of enzyme protein. Approximate amounts of haem oxygenase protein in microsomes of several organs from intact animals could also be estimated by the use of slot-blot-laser densitometry, and the amounts measured were increased by the addition of purified haem oxygenase to the microsomal preparations. Results of these studies indicated that haem oxygenase-1 could be detected in microsomes from all chick or rat organs studied, including testis and brain.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗

PubMed1987

Development of a noncompetitive, solid phase, bridged biotin-avidin enzyme immunoassay for measurement of human leukocyte microsomal HMG-CoA reductase protein concentration.

Methods were developed for determination of human mononuclear leukocyte HMG-CoA reductase protein concentration by a noncompetitive, solid phase, bridged biotin-avidin enzyme immunoassay procedure. Leukocyte microsomal HMG-CoA reductase, first immobilized onto a nitrocellulose filter, is sequentially reacted with 1) monospecific, polyclonal rabbit anti-rat liver HMG-CoA reductase antiserum, which crossreacts with the human liver and leukocyte enzymes; 2) biotinylated donkey anti-rabbit immunoglobulin; 3) a streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase conjugate; and 4) 4-chloro-1-naphthol and H2O2 to visualize the quantity of horseradish peroxidase bound to the immunocomplex. Color development was proportional to the quantity of either purified liver or leukocyte microsomal HMG-CoA reductase applied to the nitrocellulose. Color development was not observed, however, when HMG-CoA reductase was omitted from the nitrocellulose, when one of the reactant species was omitted from the incubation reactions, or when anti-rat liver HMG-CoA reductase antiserum was pre-absorbed with either rat liver or human leukocyte HMG-CoA reductase. Immunoreactivity of microsomal HMG-CoA reductase was independent of the phosphorylation state of the enzyme, but was inversely related to the concentration of thiol-reducing agents present in the microsomal preparation up to 4 mM. Further increases in thiol-reductant failed to produce changes in immunoreactivity. Freshly isolated mononuclear leukocyte microsomal HMG-CoA reductase protein concentration in leukocytes from 31 healthy, normocholesterolemic subjects was a linear function of HMG-CoA reductase activity (R = 0.65; P less than 0.001). The catalytic efficiency of the freshly isolated mononuclear leukocyte enzyme was 313 +/- 34 pmol of mevalonate formed per min of incubation at 37 degrees C per mg immunoreactive protein. This methodology, in conjunction with that recently developed to measure human leukocyte HMG-CoA reductase activity (1984. J. Lipid Res. 25: 967-978), should prove useful in discriminating between HMG-CoA reductase regulatory mechanisms involving changes in enzyme protein concentration and those resulting from changes in enzyme catalytic efficiency.

Animals↗

PubMed1986

Inhibition of human leukocyte 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase activity by ascorbic acid. An effect mediated by the free radical monodehydroascorbate.

3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase activity in microsomes isolated from cultured lymphoid (IM-9) cells or freshly isolated human leukocytes was markedly decreased by either ascorbic acid or its oxidized derivative, dehydroascorbate. Inhibition of IM-9 leukocyte HMG-CoA reductase activity was log linear between 0.01 and 10 mM ascorbic acid (25 and 81% inhibition, respectively) and 0.1 and 10 mM dehydroascorbate (5 and 75% inhibition, respectively). Inhibition was noncompetitive with respect to HMG-CoA (Km = 10.2 microM (RS); ascorbic acid, Ki = 6.4 mM; dehydroascorbate, Ki = 15 mM) and competitive with respect to NADPH (Km = 16.3 microM; acetic acid, Ki = 6.3 mM; dehydroascorbate, Ki = 3.1 mM). Ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbate are interconverted through the free radical intermediate monodehydroascorbate. Reducing agents are required to convert dehydroascorbate to monodehydroascorbate, but prevent formation of the free radical from ascorbate. In microsomes from IM-9 cells, the reducing agent, dithiothreitol, abolished HMG-CoA reductase inhibition by ascorbate but enhanced inhibition by dehydroascorbate. In addition, the concentration of monodehydroascorbate present in ascorbate solutions was directly proportional to the degree of HMG-CoA reductase inhibition by 1.0 mM ascorbate. Fifty per cent inhibition of enzyme activity occurred at a monodehydroascorbate concentration of 14 microM. These data indicate that monodehydroascorbate mediates inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase by both ascorbate and dehydroascorbate. This effect does not appear to be due to free radical-induced membrane lipid modification, however, since both ascorbate and dehydroascorbate inhibited the protease-solubilized, partially purified human liver enzyme. Since inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase occurs at physiological concentrations of ascorbic acid in the human leukocyte (0.2-1.72 mM), this vitamin may be important in the regulation of endogenous cholesterol synthesis in man.

Ascorbic Acid↗

PubMed1985

Ascorbic acid regulation of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase activity and cholesterol synthesis in guinea pig liver.

Guinea pigs fed a normal diet show the expected diurnal variation in 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase activity. Vitamin C deficiency, however, suppresses the diurnal peak activity of reductase, due to a decrease in active (unphosphorylated) enzyme. Inhibition of reductase is paralleled by both a fall in hepatic cholesterol synthesis and a rise in serum cholesterol. Incubation of normal guinea pig hepatic microsomes with physiologic and supraphysiologic concentrations of sodium ascorbate also leads to a concentration-dependent inhibition of reductase activity. Thus, dietary extremes of vitamin C may exert similar effects on reductase activity and cholesterolgenesis. Moreover, the changes in enzyme activity induced by ascorbic acid appear to be due in part to a direct effect of the vitamin on the microsomally bound enzyme.

Animals↗