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Biomedical subjects

T Aoki

Publications and source records attributed to T Aoki.

At least 1,099 records · Page 61Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Rapid in vivo inactivation by acivicin of CTP synthetase, carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase II, and amidophosphoribosyltransferase in hepatoma.

A single injection of the anti-glutamine drug, acivicin (NSC 163501), in tumor-bearing rats in 30 min decreased the activities of amidophosphoribosyltransferase, carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase II and CTP synthetase to 56, 50, and 7% of those of the controls. By 1 hr the activities were down to 32, 13 and 3% and they remained low for 12 hr, after which they slowly returned towards normal range in 72 hr. The decline of the activity of CTP synthetase (a loss of 80% in 10 min) was the most rapid, and the activity only returned to 60% of the controls by 3 days after the acivicin injection. In the hepatoma the concentrations of ATP and UTP changed little, but those of GTP and CTP rapidly decreased, reaching at the lowest point 32 and 2%, respectively, of control values 2 hr after acivicin; concentrations started to rise at 12 hr, reaching normal levels by 48 hr. The drop in enzyme activities preceded the decline in the pools of GTP and CTP. The behavior of enzyme activities and nucleotide concentrations in the host liver had a pattern similar to that in the hepatoma; however, the changes were less extensive than those in the tumor. The differential response between tumor and liver is attributed, in part at least, to the tissue L-glutamine concentration which in the hepatoma (0.5 mM) was 9 times lower than in the liver (4.5mM). The selectivity of acivicin action in inhibiting glutamine-utilizing enzymes is also demonstrated by the lack of effect on aspartate carbamoyltransferase, an enzymic activity which resides in the same complex as that of carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase II. The rapid decline in the activities of glutamine-utilizing enzymes is attributed to an inactivation of the enzymes by acivicin which functions as an active sitedirected affinity analog of L-glutamine. The rapid modulation of the enzymic phenotype and ribonucleotide concentrations by acivicin provides a useful tool for elucidating the role of enzymic and nucleotide imbalance in the commitment of cancer cells to replication and in the targeting of anticancer chemotherapy.

Amidophosphoribosyltransferase↗
PubMed1982

In vivo inactivation by acivicin of carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase II in rat hepatoma.

The antitumor drug acivicin, L-(alphaS,5S)-alpha-amino-3-chloro-4,5-dihydro-5-isoxazoleacetic acid, in vivo irreversibly inactivated carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase II(glutamine-dependent)(EC 6.3.5.5), the first and rate-limiting enzyme of de novo pyrimidine nucleotide biosynthesis, in transplantable rat hepatoma and host liver. With two injections of 0.5 mg acivicin per 100 g body weight to one group and two injections of 5 mg to another group, enzyme activity decreased to 20 and 1% in hepatoma and to 99 and 31% in liver respectively. Aspartate carbamoyltransferase (EC 2.1.3.2) activity was not affected. Acivicin in vitro selectively inactivated glutamine-dependent activity of the synthetase II from the hepatoma and liver, with an inactivation constant (Kinact) of 90 microM and a minimum inactivation half-time (T) of 0.7 min. The inactivation velocity with 10 microM acivicin was 5.0-fold stimulated by 2 mM MgATP and 18.4-fold by 2 mM MgATP plus 16.7 mM bicarbonate. MgATP at 0.5 mM caused half-maximum stimulation of the inactivation velocity. Under in vitro conditions, L-glutamine (1 mM) protected the enzyme from inactivation by 10 microM acivicin. The synthetase activity was protected in vitro by 6 mM concentrations for glycine (84%), L-glutamate (59%) and L-aspartate (51%) and by 0.5 mM UTP (35%) from inactivation by 20 microM acivicin. The results are compatible with the suggestion that acivicin is an active site-directed affinity analog of L-glutamine.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMed1982

Regulatory properties and behavior of activity of carbamoyl phosphate synthetase II (glutamine-hydrolyzing) in normal and proliferating tissues.

In rat livers and hepatomas, carbamoyl phosphate synthetase (glutamine-hydrolyzing) (EC 6.3.5.5) (synthetase II), the rate-limiting enzyme of de novo pyrimidine nucleotide biosynthesis, was separated from carbamoyl phosphate synthetase (ammonia) (EC 6.3.4.16) (synthetase I) ammonium sulfate and hydroxylapatite fractionations and gel filtration on Sephadex G-25. Both liver and hepatoma 3924A synthetase II activities were subject to feedback inhibition by UTP and to stimulation by 5-phosphoribosyl 1-pyrophosphate. UTP (0.5 mM) enhanced the apparent Km for MgATP from 2.3 to 7.6 mM, whereas 0.1 mM 5-phosphoribosyl 1-pyrophosphate reduced it to 0.5 mM. At 2 mM MgATP, 3 or 7 microM 5-phosphoribosyl 1-pyrophosphate yielded half-maximal activation (Ka) in the absence or presence of 0.5 mM UTP; UTP altered the stimulation kinetics from hyperbolic to sigmoidal. In the rat, synthetase II activities were highest in thymus, testis and spleen. In differentiating and regenerating rat livers, activities were 2.2- and 1.5-fold higher than in adult livers. In 17 hepatomas of different growth rates, synthetase II activity increased 1.3- to 9.5-fold over liver values; the rise correlated positively with tumor growth rates. Synthetase II activities also increased in a kidney tumor (5.0-fold) and in a sarcoma (18.1-fold) in the rat and in a human colon tumor (3.3-fold).

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Multi-enzyme-targeted chemotherapy by acivicin and actinomycin.

On the basis of our observation of the increased specific activities of glutamine-utilizing enzymes in purine and pyrimidine metabolism in hepatoma 3924A, and because the concentration of glutamine is ten times lower in the hepatomas than in the liver, the biochemical pharmacology of the anti-glutamine agent, acivicin, was examined. (1) Acivicin competitively inhibited the activities of amidophosphoribosyl-transferase, CTP synthetase and carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase II from extracts of liver and hepatoma 3924A. (2) In addition to the competitive inhibition exerted by acivicin, evidence was obtained that this drug also irreversibly inactivated in vitro the glutamine-utilizing enzymes. It is particularly relevant for the selectivity of acivicin that the activity of aspartate carbamoyltransferase, an enzyme present in the same complex as carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase II, was not affected by the anti-glutamine agent. (3) Acivicin in vivo brought down the activities of glutamine-utilizing enzymes in a period of 10 min to 1 hr after injection. CTP synthetase activity declined to less than 10% of that observed in the uninjected rats. The decreases were not reversible by various in vitro methods, but in vivo the activities returned to normal range in 72 hr. (4) The activity of aspartate carbamoyltransferase, which exists as a multi-enzyme complex with synthetase II, was not altered by acivicin injection. Similar results were observed in transplantable sarcoma in the rat. (5) The acivicin-induced decrease in enzymic activities could not be restored by purification of the enzymes. (6) In vitro studies indicated that addition of acivicin to liver or hepatoma extracts or purified enzymes rapidly decreased enzymic activities; the activities could not be restored. These results are consistent with an interpretation that acivicin acts either as a tight-binding inhibitor or as an inactivator through alkylation of the enzymes of glutamine utilization. (7) Acivicin in combination with actinomycin provided a synergistic kill of hepatoma cells in tissue culture and also inhibited the growth of transplantable solid hepatoma 3924A in the rat. (8) The synergistic biological results of combination chemotherapy with acivicin and actinomycin can be accounted for by the action of acivicin in inhibiting GMP and CTP synthetases, resulting in a decrease in GTP and CTP content, and by the actinomycin-caused inhibition of RNA polymerase in selectively blocking the utilization of GTP and CTP.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Natural antibodies to the structural core protein (p24) of the human T-cell leukemia (lymphoma) retrovirus found in sera of leukemia patients in Japan.

In Japan, adult T-cell leukemias and lymphomas are more common than in the United States and Europe, and in the southwest part of Japan these T-cell malignancy cases appear in clusters. Therefore, we investigated the involvement in these leukemias and lymphomas of the human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV) that was previously isolated in one of our laboratories from cultured T cells of some patients in the United States with leukemias and lymphomas involving relatively mature T cells. High titers of antibodies capable of quantitative precipitation of (125)I-labeled p24, a well characterized core protein of HTLV, were detected in 12 of 12 patients with untreated adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). (One negative was a patient on chemotherapy.) Ten of the 12 positive samples were from an area where the disease is endemic. Strong precipitating antibodies were also detected in five of seven cases of T-cell malignant lymphoma (TML) which differs from ATL by having fewer leukemic cells in the peripheral blood. High antibody titers were also observed in one of five cases of acute monoblastic leukemia and one of eight cases of chronic myelogenous leukemia in the blast phase of the disease. Low to moderate titers of antibodies were detected in several categories of leukemia (two cases of blast-phase chronic myelogenous leukemia, two cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia of the null-cell type, and one case of acute myelogenous leukemia). Among all categories of leukemias, except ATL and TML, more cases were negative than positive for anti-p24 activity. All of 79 sera from normal Japanese, including 39 collected from the endemic ATL area of southwest Japan, were negative for antibodies to HTLV p24. All the positive reactivities observed were highly specific to HTLV. The only competition observed in the precipitation of HTLV p24 was with HTLV or with cell lines expressing HTLV and not with various animal retroviruses or a large number of human and subhuman primate cell lines, not known to be producing HTLV. The data strongly indicate an association of HTLV with the increased incidence of ATL in parts of Japan, probably with other forms of leukemias in Japan, and, less commonly, with certain T-cell malignancies in the United States.

Antigens, Viral↗
PubMed1982

Heterogeneic autoantibody against neurofilament protein in the sera of animals with experimental kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and natural scrapie infection.

Heterogeneic autoantibodies against axonal neurofilament proteins of mature mouse neurons grown in vitro were detected by the indirect immunofluorescence technique in 12.7% (9 of 71) of the sera from nonhuman primates infected with kuru, in 14.5% (17 of 117) and 4% (1 of 25), respectively, of the sera from nonhuman primates and laboratory rodents infected with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and in 35% (7 of 20) of the sera from sheep naturally infected with scrapie. Autoantibody titers ranged from 1:16 to 1:512 in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease-infected animals, 1:32 to 1:512 in kuru-infected animals, and 1:64 to 1:1,024 in sheep with natural scrapie. The sera from 11 monkeys and 17 hamsters infected with scrapie and from 19 chimpanzees inoculated with brain tissues from humans with other neurological diseases did not contain autoantibodies. Of the 41 chimpanzees with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, 6 had autoantibodies against neurofilament proteins before experimental inoculation, whereas 6 others developed autoantibodies after inoculation, 4 developed autoantibodies during the asymptomatic phase, and 2 developed autoantibodies during the terminal clinical phase. Of the 48 chimpanzees with kuru, 2 had autoantibodies before inoculation, 6 developed autoantibodies after inoculation, 3 developed autoantibodies during the asymptomatic phase, and 3 developed autoantibodies during the terminal clinical phase. Among the normal nonhuman primate controls, 4.6% (9 of 195) had autoantibodies. In contrast, no autoantibodies were detected in 49 control rodents and 13 control sheep. The increased incidence of autoantibodies against neurofilament proteins in animals with kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie constitutes the first evidence of an immunological reaction in this group of atypical infections caused by unconventional viruses and suggests that neurofilaments may be involved in pathogenesis.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Glycine cleavage system in ketotic hyperglycinemia: a reduction of H-protein activity.

Glycine cleavage activity was compared in the livers from three cases of ketotic hyperglycinemia (two cases of propionic acidemia and one case of methylmalonic acidemia) and three controls. In one case of propionic acidemia, glycine cleavage activity (5.2 nmole/mg protein/hr) was normal in the liver obtained at biopsy when the patient was well controlled by the treatment with low protein diet (0.8 g/kg/day) and the level of serum glycine was lowered to normal. In the two other cases of ketotic hyperglycinemia, glycine cleavage activity was significantly reduced in the liver obtained at autopsy when the patients died in the state of metabolic acidosis. Its activity in the liver of one case of propionic acidemia (0.7 nmole/mg protein/hr) was 6-26% of that in controls (2.7-10.8 nmole/mg protein/hr), and 2-7% in the case of methylmalonic acidemia (0.2 nmole/mg protein/hr). Analysing of the individual components of the glycine cleavage system, a marked decrease in the activity of H-protein was revealed in the livers of the both patients; it (0.2 nmole/mg protein/hr) was only 3-4% of that in controls (4.9-6.3 nmole/mg Protein/hr). These findings suggest that the reduction of the glycine cleavage system in the liver of ketotic hyperglycinemia occurs secondarily as speculated previously and is caused mainly by a decrease of H-protein activity.

Acidosis↗
PubMed1982

Comparison of cytosolic and mitochondrial enzyme alterations in the livers of propionic or methylmalonic acidemia: a reduction of cytochrome oxidase activity.

The activities of mitochondrial, cytosolic and microsomal enzymes in liver specimens obtained from three patients with propionic or methylmalonic acidemia were compared with those of control patients who had died from unrelated causes. Only the activity of cytochrome oxidase (mitochondrial enzyme) was significantly reduced in the patients of propionic acidemia and methylmalonic acidemia who were in the state of metabolic acidosis; in two patients the activity was less than 30% of that in controls, but in the other patient of propionic acidemia, who was under the treatment with a low protein diet (0.8 g/kg/day), the activity was 50% of that in controls. The metabolites of branched chain amino acids (tiglic acid, propionic acid, methylmalonic acid, succinic acid, tiglyl-CoA and propionyl CoA) exhibited no inhibitory effect on the cytochrome oxidase activity of the sonicated rat liver mitochondria. The reduction of cytochrome oxidase activity found in these organic acidemias may be caused secondarily by some unknown mechanism.

Amino Acid Metabolism, Inborn Errors↗
PubMed1982

A complete selective C1q deficiency in a patient with discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE).

A 32 year old male patient with discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) was found to have a complete, selective deficiency of C1q subcomponent of the complement assessed either by haemolytic assay or by protein determination. Addition of highly purified C1q completely restored the complement haemolytic activity of the patient's serum. Neither C1q precipitin nor anti-complementary activity was detected. Lymphocytes isolated from the patient's peripheral blood, however, bound as many C1q molecules as those of healthy control individuals. The patient is in good health except for skin lesions. A low level of circulating immune complexes was detected in his serum, but no C1q molecules were bound. Serum complement activities of the patient's mother and two other siblings were within the normal range. An impaired synthesis of C1q protein was strongly suggested as the cause of C1q deficiency in this patient's serum.

Adult↗