A quantitative measure of consumer preferences in health care delivery.
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Consumer Behavior↗
Biomedical subjects
D A Matthews
Publications and source records attributed to D A Matthews.
Refined crystal structures of Escherichia coli and chicken liver dihydrofolate reductase containing bound trimethoprim.
Refined crystal structures are reported for complexes of Escherichia coli and chicken dihydrofolate reductase containing the antibiotic trimethoprim (TMP). Structural comparison of these two complexes reveals major geometrical differences in TMP binding that may be important in understanding the stereo-chemical basis of this inhibitor's selectivity for bacterial dihydrofolate reductases. For TMP bound to chicken dihydrofolate reductase we observe an altered binding geometry in which the 2,4-diaminopyrimidine occupies a position in closer proximity (by approximately 1 A) to helix alpha B compared to the pyrimidine position for TMP or methotrexate bound to E. coli dihydrofolate reductase. One important consequence of this deeper insertion of the pyrimidine into the active site of chicken dihydrofolate reductase is the loss of a potential hydrogen bond that would otherwise form between the carbonyl oxygen of Val-115 and the inhibitor's 4-amino group. In addition, for TMP bound to E. coli dihydrofolate reductase, the inhibitor's benzyl side chain is positioned low in the active-site pocket pointing down toward the nicotinamide-binding site, whereas, in chicken dihydrofolate reductase, the benzyl group is accommodated in a side channel running upward and away from the cofactor. As a result, the torsion angles about the C5-C7 and C7-C1' bonds for TMP bound to the bacterial reductase (177 degrees, 76 degrees) differ significantly from the corresponding angles for TMP bound to chicken dihydrofolate reductase (-85 degrees, 102 degrees). Finally, when TMP binds to the chicken holoenzyme, the Tyr-31 side chain undergoes a large conformational change (average movement is 5.4 A for all atoms beyond C beta), rotating down into a new position where it hydrogen bonds via an intervening water molecule to the backbone carbonyl oxygen of Trp-24.
Animals↗
Dihydrofolate reductase. The stereochemistry of inhibitor selectivity.
X-ray structural results are reported for 10 triazine and pyrimidine inhibitors of dihydrofolate reductase, each one studied as a ternary complex with NADPH and chicken dihydrofolate reductase. Analysis of these data and comparison with structural results from the preceding paper (Matthews, D.A., Bolin, J.T., Burridge, J.M., Filman, D.J., Volz, K.W., Kaufman, B. T., Beddell, C.R., Champness, J.N., Stammers, D.K., and Kraut, J. (1985) J. Biol. Chem. 260, 381-391) in which we contrasted binding of the antibiotic trimethoprim (TMP) to chicken dihydrofolate reductase on the one hand with its binding to Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase on the other, permit identification of differences that are important in accounting for TMP's selectivity. The crystallographic evidence strongly suggests that loss of a potential hydrogen bond between the 4-amino group of TMP and the backbone carbonyl of Val-115 when TMP binds to chicken dihydrofolate reductase but not when it binds to the E. coli reductase is the major factor responsible for this drug's more potent inhibition of bacterial dihydrofolate reductase. A key finding of the current study which is important in understanding why TMP binds differently to chicken and E. coli dihydrofolate reductases is that residues on opposite sides of the active-site cleft in chicken dihydrofolate reductase are about 1.5-2.0 A further apart than are structurally equivalent residues in the E. coli enzyme.
Animals↗
An appraisal of goals for residency training in internal medicine.
The goals for residency training in internal medicine were assessed by faculty and house staff members at one university-based program using a 38-item questionnaire based largely upon American Board of Internal Medicine criteria. The respondents rated each item according to its ideal importance, its actual emphasis in training, and the respondents' degree of satisfaction with their own level of accomplishment for that item. Faculty and house staff members shared similar perceptions of ideal goals and actual emphases of training, with both groups rating clinical judgment, gathering data, and formulating problems as the most important. Both groups also tended to rate highly as ideal goals those items that they considered to be their own professional strengths and that reflected their current respective roles in medical training. This trend was the most apparent for faculty members in ratings of academic skills and for house staff members in ratings of technical proficiency and patient management skills. The tendency to idealize one's own professional role and strengths may inhibit needed changes in residency training.
Clinical Competence↗
Dr. Marjory Warren and the origin of British geriatrics.
The life and works of the pioneer British geriatrician, Marjory Warren, are worthy of closer examination. The transformation of a Public Assistance Institution into her unit at the West Middlesex Hospital in 1935 represented the first organized geriatric medicine service in the United Kingdom. She promoted multidisciplinary rehabilitation and holistic appreciation of elderly patients, and emphasized the economic, social, and moral problems associated with their care. She was particularly concerned with the rehabilitation of hemiplegics and amputees, preventive medicine, patient responsibility, and home nursing. She underscored the need for geriatrics to maintain a close link with general medicine and its training programs. Her innovative methods, influential writings, committee work, and personal force were instrumental in the evolution of modern British geriatrics and rehabilitation medicine.
England↗
Species-specific second antibodies reduce spurious staining in immunocytochemistry.
Spurious staining related to the second (linking) antibodies was observed in immunocytochemical specimens processed with an unlabeled antibody method. Some of this staining was suspected to result from species cross-reactivity of the second antibodies with endogenous immunoglobulin Gs in the tissue. Therefore, species-specific second antibodies were obtained, and the staining patterns of tissue processed with such antibodies were compared with those of tissue processed with standard (nonspecies-specific) second antibodies. In these studies, a monoclonal antibody to choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) was utilized as the primary antibody, and a similarly prepared monoclonal antibody that did not react with ChAT served as a control antibody. Spurious staining that included staining of discrete tissue and cellular components as well as amorphous background staining was present in both control and experimental tissue processed with standard second antibodies. Such staining was virtually eliminated in tissue processed with species-specific second antibodies. In specimens from the central nervous system, for example, species-specific second antibodies greatly reduced dark staining within the area postrema, in the pia-arachnoid membranes, and around blood vessels as well as the staining of small dot-like structures within some large neurons. In addition, the general level of background staining was reduced in both adult and developing tissues, thus permitting clearer visualization of many positively stained structures. In peripheral tissues such as skeletal muscle, spurious staining of connective tissue elements was eliminated, allowing the observation of previously occluded ChAT-positive structures such as nerve fibers and motor end-plates. Thus, species-specific second antibodies appear to be very useful for immunocytochemistry, particularly when the primary antibody and the tissue to be studied are from closely related species.
Animals↗
Crystal structures of Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductase refined at 1.7 A resolution. I. General features and binding of methotrexate.
X-ray data have been extended to 1.7 A for a binary complex of Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase with methotrexate and a ternary complex of Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductase with methotrexate and NADPH. Models for both structures have been refined to R factors of 0.15 and include parameters for fixed and liquid solvent. The two species of dihydrofolate reductase resemble one another even more closely than was thought to be the case prior to refinement. Several new structural features have also been discovered. Among them are a cis peptide linking Gly-97 and Gly-98 (L. Casei numbering) in both species, an alpha helix involving residues 43 through 50 in the E. coli enzyme, and the existence of what may be a specific hydration site on exposed alpha helices. Refinement has led to a revised description of the details of methotrexate binding. We now see that a fixed water molecule mediates the interaction between methotrexate's 2-amino group and Thr-116 (L. casei numbering) and that the inhibitor's 4-amino group makes two hydrogen bonds with the enzyme (instead of one). Other revisions are also discussed. A hypothetical model for substrate binding is proposed in which the pteridine ring is turned upside down while all protein and solvent atoms remain fixed. Asp-26 in this model is hydrogen bonded to the substrate's 2-amino group and to N3.
Binding Sites↗
Crystal structures of Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductase refined at 1.7 A resolution. II. Environment of bound NADPH and implications for catalysis.
New details of NADPH binding to Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductase have become visible as a result of crystallographic refinement to an R factor of 0.152 at 1.7 A resolution. Conformational torsion angles for bound NADPH have been extensively revised and specific interatomic contacts responsible for cofactor binding have been identified. In addition, several structurally conserved water molecules are seen to mediate the protein-ligand interaction. In the nicotinamide binding site three oxygen atoms of the enzyme lie in the plane of the pyridine ring and close to ring carbons 2, 4, and 6. The placement of these polar groups suggests that the enzyme stabilizes a C4-carbonium electronic isomer of oxidized nicotinamide in the transition state. Pyramidalization of ring nitrogen N1 in the transition state might be promoted by a fixed water molecule positioned to donate a hydrogen bond to the N1 lone pair orbital. Pyramidalization could also relieve an unfavorable steric contact due to the observed rotation of the nicotinamide's carboxamide group by 180 degrees from its most stable conformation.
Binding Sites↗
Crystal structure of avian dihydrofolate reductase containing phenyltriazine and NADPH.
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Animals↗
Isolation of rat brain subcellular fraction enriched in putative neurotransmitter receptors and synaptic junctions.
A simple reliable method was developed for the rapid isolation of a synaptic plasma membrane-enriched fraction from rat brain. The procedure involves the direct lysis of a crude mitochondrial fraction followed by a combined flotation-sedimentation density gradient centrifugation in a fixed-angle centrifuge rotor. All fractions have been characterized with respect to relative enrichment of (Na+-K+)ATPase activity as well as putative cholinergic neurotransmitter receptors determined by [125I]alpha-bungarotoxin and [3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate binding. The 2- to 4-fold relative enrichment of putative receptor binding sites correlated well with the 4-fold enrichment of morphologically identifiable synaptic junctions in the synaptic plasma membrane enriched fraction.
Animals↗
Quantitative relationships of five putative neurotransmitter receptor sites in rat hippocampal formation.
The hippocampus is well suited for studies of the interrelationships of various neurotransmitter systems in the CNS by reason of its simple laminated organization, defined connections, and variety of identified neurotransmitters. We have studied the biochemical and pharmacological properties of five radiolabeled ligand binding sites in a membrane fraction prepared from rat hippocampal formation. These binding sites are thought to identify recognition sites for neurotransmitter receptors. The rank order of ligand binding sites is [3H]muscimol > [3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate > [3H]dihydroergocryptine > [3H]dihydroalprenolol > 125I-labeled alpha-bungarotoxin. All ligands have a single, saturable, high-affinity binding site. Pharmacological characterization of the ligand binding sites indicates properties consistent with the identification of these sites as neurotransmitter receptors.
Animals↗
Proton magnetic resonance studies on Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase. Assignment of histidine C-2 protons in binary complexes with folates on the basis of the crystal structure with methotrexate and on chemical modifications.
The effects of pH upon the C-2 resonances of the 5 histidine residues of Escherichia coli MB 1428 dihydrofolate reductase in binary complexes with methotrexate, aminopterin, folate, methopterin, and trimethoprim were studied by 300-MHz 1H nmr spectroscopy. Three of the five histidine residues, labeled 1, 2, and 3, exhibited similar pK' values and chemical shifts for their C-2 protons in the five binary complexes. One histidine, 4, was quite different in the folate complex and the last histidine, 5 was quite different in the trimethoprim complex. For all five binary complexes, each histidine had a pK' which was significantly different from the other 4 histidines of that complex. Titration of the binary methotrexate complex of a 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoate)-modified enzyme showed that 2 histidines were not perturbed by this modification of Cys 152, and that the alkaline form of histidine 2, the acid form of histidine 4, and, to a lesser extent, the acid form of histidine 3 were slightly perturbed. Titration of the binary methotrexate complex of a N-bromosuccinimide-modified enzyme demonstrated that this modification slightly affected all of the histidines and drastically affected histidine 5. Histidines 3 and 5 of the binary methotrexate complex reacted rapidly with the histidine-specific reagent, ethoxyformic anhydride, while histidines 2 and 4 reacted at a moderate rate and histidine 1 reacted slowly if at all. The local electrostatic environments of the 5 histidine residues as deduced from the crystal structure of the binary complex of the enzyme with methotrexate (Matthews, D.A., Alden, R.A., Bolin, J.T., Freer, S.T., Hamlin, R., Xuong, N., Kraut, J., Poe, M., Williams, M.N., and Hoogsteen, K. (1977) Science 197, 594-597) were used as the basis for proposed assignments of the five histidine C-2 nmr resonances. The assignments were: 1, pK' 7.9 to 8.2, His 124; 2, pK' 7.2 to 7.4, His 141; 3, pK' 6.5 to 6.7, His 149; 4, pK' 5.7 to 6.3, His 114; and 5, pK' 5.2 to 5.9, His 45. The effect of the chemical modifications upon the enzyme's histidine residues were consistent with the assignments, but no direct chemical evidence in support of the assignments was obtained. It was proposed that, since the crystallographic data provided consistent assignments of the histidine nmr data for both native and chemically modified enzyme, the local environment of each of the 5 histidine residues was similar in the crystal and in solution.
Binding Sites↗
Dihydrofolate reductase from Lactobacillus casei. Stereochemistry of NADPH binding.
The NADPH molecule binds to dihydrofolate reductase in an extended conformation. Several of the individual dihedral angles, especially in the adenine mononucleotide portion of the coenzyme, differ from their minimum energy conformations. The ribose phosphate portions of the coenzyme are involved in numerous specific hydrogen-bonded and charge-charge interactions. The adenine ring resides in an apparently nonspecific hydrophobic cleft and the nicotinamide ring is bound within an intricately constructed cavity, one wall of which includes the pyrazine ring of bound methotrexate. Two rather extended loops (residues 10 to 24 and 117 to 135) connecting beta A to alpha B and beta F to beta G, respectively, move 2 to 3 A when NADPH binds to dihydrofolate reductase. No overall structural homology is evident between the dinucleotide binding domains of dihydrofolate reductase on the one hand and the four NAD+-dependent dehydrogenases of known structure on the other. However, binding does occur in both cases at the carboxyl edge of a region of parallel beta sheet flanked by a pair of alpha helices.
Binding Sites↗
Interpretation of nuclear magnetic resonance spectra for Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductase based on the X-ray structure of the enzyme-methotrexate-NADPH complex.
The three-dimensional molecular structure of Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductase complexed with NADPH and methotrexate has been used to interpret published magnetic resonance spectra for this enzyme. Proton resonances from histidine residues and 19F resonances from fluorine-labeled fluorotyrosine and fluorotryptophan dihydrofolate reductase have been assigned in several cases to specific amino acids in the primary sequence. Furthermore, the 31P signals from the pyrophosphate moiety of bound NADPH have been assigned and the large upfield shift for 13C-labeled (at the carboxamide carbon) NADP+ upon binding to the reductase has been explained in terms of desolvation effects.
Lacticaseibacillus casei↗
Dihydrofolate reductase from Lactobacillus casei. X-ray structure of the enzyme methotrexate.NADPH complex.
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Amino Acid Sequence↗
Re-examination of the charge relay system in subtilisin comparison with other serine proteases.
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Chemical Phenomena↗
Dihydrofolate reductase: x-ray structure of the binary complex with methotrexate.
A central eight-stranded beta-pleated sheet is the main feature of the polypeptide backbone folding in dihydrofolate reductase. The innermost four strands and two bridging helices are geometrically similar to but are connected in a different way from those in the dinucleotide binding domains found in nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide-linked dehydrogenases. Methotrexate is bound in a 15-angstrom-deep cavity with the pteridine ring buried in a primarily hydrophobic pocket, although a strong interaction occurs between the side chain of aspartic acid 27 and N(1), N(8), and the 2-amino group of methotrexate.
Binding Sites↗
Genetically-associated variations in the development of hippocampal pyramidal neurons may produce differences in mossy fiber connectivity.
The neuronal generation patterns of hippocampal pyramids were analyzed in two inbred strains of house mice (SM/J and BALB/cJ) using triated thymidine radioautography. These two strains of mice possess markedly different patterns of mossy fiber synapses upon pyramidal neurons within a specific segment of regio inferior. The results of this study show that this same segment of regio inferior also displays markedly different patterns of pyramidal neuron generation in the two strains. Specifically, the pyramids of this segment of regio inferior are generated according to the typical "inside-out" sequence in SM/J mice, but this pattern is reversed into an "outside-in" sequence in BALB/cJ mice. Remaining segment of regio inferior, and all of regio superior, is formed in an inside-out sequence in both strains. These results strongly suggest that altered temporal patterns of pyramidal neuron generation may play a major role in determining mossy fiber connectivity patterns.
Animals↗