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Biomedical subjects

G Weber

Publications and source records attributed to G Weber.

At least 703 records · Page 39Linked to original sources
PubMed1976

Imbalance of purine metabolism in hepatomas of different growth rates as expressed in behavior of xanthine oxidase (EC 1.2.3.2).

The behavior of the rate-limiting enzyme of purine catabolism, xanthine oxidase (EC 1.2.3.2); was examined in normal liver, in 17 hepatomas of different growth rates, and in rapidly growing differentiating and regenerating liver. Xanthine oxidase activity was measured in the supernatant fluid prepared by centrifugation of 5% homogenates at 100,000 X g for 30 min. There was no uricase activity in the supernatant fluid. The affinity of xanthine oxidase to xanthine was similar in normal liver and in slow- and rapidly growing hepatomas (Km=6 to 8 muM), and theoptimum pH was 8.0; at pH 7.4, the activity was 80% of that at the pH optimum. A standard assay was worked out for the liver and hepatoma systems; the enzyme activity was linear during 60-min incubation and proportionate with amounts of protein added over a range of 0.5 to 3.0 mg. Xanthine oxidase specific activity was 9 times higher in small intestine than in liver. Activities in lung, spleen, kidney, heart, testes, and thymus were 67, 59, 21, 19, 8, and 8%, and in skeletal muscle, brain, and bone marrow activities were 5% of that of the liver. In regenerating liver, xanthine oxidase activity was not changed from that of the liver of sham-operated controls up to 96 hr after operation. The activity of the average differentiating liver cell was less than 5% of that of adult liver during the first week after birth. At postnatal ages of 18, 25, 30 and 40 days, the activity rose to 18, 46, 76, and 94%, respectively, of that of the adult liver. In starvation, hepatic xanthine oxidase activity per cell was preferentially depleted as compared to the decline in protein concentration. Upon refeeding, the enzymatic activity was restored more slowly than the protein content. Since xanthine oxidase activity was decreased in all examined hepatomas, including the slowest-growing, well-differentiated neoplasms, the altered activity of this enzyme appears to be.linked with neoplastic transformatiobosyl 1-pyrophosphate amidotransferase (EC 2.4.2.14), was increassed in the hepatomas, the reprogramming of gene expression results in an imbalance that favors the synthetic over the catabolic potential. This enzymatic imbalance should confer selective advantages to the cancer cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Enzyme pattern-directed chemotherapy: synergistic interaction of 3-deazauridine with D-galactosamine.

We tested an experimental approach in which the specialized enzymatic pattern characteristic of the tissue of origin of a tumor might be exploited to target and enhance drug selectivity. In the present work, the D-galactosamine-induced depletion of uridine 5'-triphosphate (primarily a hepatic event) was employed to enhance the growth inhibition caused by 3-deazauridine. As predicted, the drug effect was most pronounced in the slower growing, well differentiated hepatoma lines where the activities of certain hepatic metabolic pathways and enzymes, though decreased, were still operative. The interactions of D-galactosamine and cytosine arabinoside with 3-deazauridine were examined in vitro in four liver tumor cell lines and two nonhepatic lines. The effects of D-galactosamine and 3-deazauridine on the growth of the Morris hepatoma cell lines 3924A, 8999S,AND 8999R were strongly synergistic; on the Novikoff hepatoma and the nonhepatic cell lines they were only additive. The combination of 3-deazauridine with cytosine arabinoside gave approximately additive growth inhibition with all cell types, without selective toxicity towards the hepatocellular lines. Results of growth-inhibition studies with the combination of D-galactosamine and cytosine arabinoside and with combinations of all three agents are also presented. These results are analyzed in the context of the regulation of hepatic pyrimidine nucleotide metabolism and our design of enzyme pattern directed drug selectivity.

3-Deazauridine↗
PubMed1975

[Electron microscope studies on development stages of Theileria annulata (Dschunkowsky, Luhs, 1904) in the intestine and haemolymph of Hyalomma anatolicum excavatum (Koch, 1844) (author's transl)].

For the first time developmental stages of Theileria within the intestine and haemolymph of ticks were studied by electron microscopy. On the 1st-6th day post repletionem the intestine of the ticks contained humerous tages, which were very similar to microgamonts and microgametes of haemosporidia. Later, on the 14th-19th day p.r. ookinete-like stages ere found in the haemolymph of ticks. From these results it seemed likely that gamogony of Theileria takes place in the intestine of ticks. In more detail: The microgamont-like stages were spindle-shaped; they measured about 8-12 mu in length with a diameter of about. 08 mu in their middle region...

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Lifetime and rotational relaxation time of dansylgalactoside bound to the lac carrier protein.

The results presented in this paper demonstrate that the excited state lifetime, anisotropy, and rotational relaxation time of 2'-(N-dansyl)aninoethyl 1-thio-beta-D-galactopyranoside (DG2) increase when the probe is bound specifically to the lac carrier protein in "energized" Escherichia coli membrane vesicles. Although the probe also binds nonspecifically to the vesicle membrane, such binding is independent of the lac carrier protein and is unaffected by "energization" of the vesicles. The experiments provide further evidence that the dansylgalactosides are useful probes for the beta-galactoside transport system and support the hypothesis that the changes in dansylgalactoside fluorescence observed on "energization" of membrane vesicles reflect changes in the binding of the probe.

Bacterial Proteins↗
PubMed1975

Malignant transformation-linked imbalance: decreased xanthine oxidase activity in hepatomas.

Xanthine oxidase was decreased 2- to 10-fold in all examined rat hepatomas irrespective of the malignancy; growth rate and degrees of histological differentiation of the neoplasms. The affinity to substrate (KM=6-8 muM) and the pH optimum (8.0) of the liver and hepatoma enzymes were the same. The reprogramming of gene expression, as manifested in the decreased activity of this key purine metabolizing enzyme, appears to be specific to neoplastic transformation. Since glutamine PRPP amidotransferase activity was increased but the opposing enzyme, xanthine oxidase, was decreased in all the hepatomas, the reprogramming of gene expression results in an imbalance that favors synthesis against catabolism. This enzymatic imbalance should confer selective advantages to the cancer cells.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1975

Quantitative demonstration of the reciprocity of ligand effects in the ternary complex of chicken heart lactate dehydrogenase with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide oxalate.

The reciprocity of effects of two ligands simultaneously bound to a protein as a ternary complex may be proven by measurements of four standard free energies of binding. Two of these are for the binding of each ligand in the absence of the other, and the other two for the binding of each ligand in the presence of saturating amounts of the other (conditional free energies). These four quantities have been measured for the complexes of oxalate and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide with chick heart lactate dehydrogenase. The differences between conditional and unconditional free energies are: oxalate, -1.1 +/- 0.3 kcal; NADH,-1.3 +/- 0.2 kcal, thus proving the reciprocity within experimental error.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Cooperativity of binding of anilinonaphthalenesulfonate to serum albumin induced by a second ligand.

When a ligand X is multiply bound to energetically identical, noninteracting sites of a protein, cooperative binding of this ligand can be induced by the presence of a second ligand Y. This effect should appear whenever multiple interactions exist between the bound X and Y ligands, and vanish when the concentration of Y is made sufficiently large to ensure Y saturation at all concentrations of X. These predictions have been verified for the binding of 8-anilino-1-naphthalenesulfonate to serum albumin, when Y, the effector ion, is 3,5-dihydroxybenzoate. In the presence of 2mM dihydroxybenzoate, the Hill coefficient for anilinonaphthalenesulfonate binding rose steadily from 1 to 1.5 as the number of molecules of ligand bound increased from 1 to 3.3 per albumin molecule. The theory of interactions between isolated ligands, applied in the previous paper (D. A. Kolb and G. Weber (1975), Biochemistry, preceding paper in this issue), is extended to cases of multiple interactions, and applied here to show that the experimental results are tolerably well reproduced for a model in which four anilinonaphthalensulfonate molecules are homogeneously coupled to four molecules of dihydroxybenzoate by free energies of 3.0 and 3.5 thermal units.

Anilino Naphthalenesulfonates↗