APRT from erythrocytes of HGPRT deficient patients: kinetic, regulatory and thermostability properties

Extreme pathway analysis reveals the organizing rules of metabolic regulation

Cellular systems shift metabolic states by adjusting gene expression and enzyme activities to adapt to physiological and environmental changes. Biochemical and genetic studies are identifying how metabolic regulation affects the selection of metabolic phenotypes. However, how metabolism influences its regulatory architecture still remains unexplored. We present a new method of extreme pathway analysis (the minimal set of conically independent metabolic pathways) to deduce regulatory structures from pure pathway information. Applying our method to metabolic networks of human red blood cells and Escherichia coli, we shed light on how metabolic regulation are organized by showing which reactions within metabolic networks are more prone to transcriptional or allosteric regulation. Applied to a human genome-scale metabolic system, our method detects disease-associated reactions. Thus, our study deepens the understanding of the organizing principle of cellular metabolic regulation and may contribute to metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and disease treatment.

Interplay between adenylate metabolizing enzymes and AMP-activated protein kinase

Purine nucleotides are involved in a variety of cellular functions, such as energy storage and transfer, and signalling, in addition to being the precursors of nucleic acids and cofactors of many biochemical reactions. They can be generated through two separate pathways, the de novo biosynthesis pathway and the salvage pathway. De novo purine biosynthesis leads to the formation of IMP, from which the adenylate and guanylate pools are generated by two additional steps. The salvage pathways utilize hypoxanthine, guanine and adenine to generate the corresponding mononucleotides. Despite several decades of research on the subject, new and surprising findings on purine metabolism are constantly being reported, and some aspects still need to be elucidated. Recently, purine biosynthesis has been linked to the metabolic pathways regulated by AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). AMPK is the master regulator of cellular energy homeostasis, and its activity depends on the AMP : ATP ratio. The cellular energy status and AMPK activation are connected by AMP, an allosteric activator of AMPK. Hence, an indirect strategy to affect AMPK activity would be to target the pathways that generate AMP in the cell. Herein, we report an up-to-date review of the interplay between AMPK and adenylate metabolizing enzymes. Some aspects of inborn errors of purine metabolism are also discussed.

The purine metabolism of human erythrocytes

This review summarizes currently available information about a crucial part of erythrocyte metabolism, that is, purine nucleotide conversions and their relationships with other conversion pathways. We describe the cellular resynthesis, interconversion, and degradation of purine compounds, and also the regulatory mechanisms in the conversion pathways. We also mention purine metabolism disorders and their clinical consequences. The literature is fragmentary because studies have concentrated only on selected aspects of purine metabolism; hence the need for a synthetic approach.

Purine nucleotides and their metabolites in erythrocytes of streptozotocin diabetic rats

OBJECTIVES

In the present study it was tried to obtain a complete overview of purine nucleotide metabolism in erythrocytes of streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetes mellitus rats.

METHODS

Erythrocyte levels of the main nucleotides (ATP, ADP, AMP, GTP, GDP, GMP, IMP, NAD+, NADP+), nucleosides (Ado, Guo, Ino) and the base Hyp were measured using the HPLC method. The parameters that can be deduced from their concentrations: TAN, TGN and AEC, GEC expressed by the ratio of high/low energy nucleoside phosphates were calculated. The effects of streptozotocin-induced diabetes on the concentration and metabolism of rat erythrocyte purine and pyridine nucleotides and the activity of Na+, K+-ATPase as well as Ca2+-ATPase were investigated.

RESULTS

Increased dephosphorylation of adenine nucleotides (found as the increased concentration of Ado and Hyp and the decrease in AEC value) and the decrease in ATP and TAN and the changes in the concentrations of NAD+ and NADP+ suggest serious purine and pyridine metabolism disruptions in diabetic erythrocytes and decrease in ATPases activity.

CONCLUSION

The observations suggest that purine nucleotide degradation is markedly accelerated in erythrocytes of STZ diabetic rats.