The purine nucleoside cycle in cell-free extracts of rat brain: evidence for the occurrence of an inosine and a guanosine cycle with distinct metabolic roles.

The purine nucleoside cycle is a cyclic pathway composed of three cytosolic enzymes, hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase, IMP-GMP specific 5'-nucleotidase, and purine-nucleoside phosphorylase. It may be considered a 'futile cycle', whose net reaction is the hydrolysis of 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate to inorganic pyrophosphate and ribose 1-phosphate. The availability of a highly purified preparation of cytosolic 5'-nucleotidase prompted us to reconstitute the purine nucleoside cycle. Its kinetics were strikingly similar to those observed when dialyzed extracts of rat brain were used. Thus, when the cycle is started by addition of inorganic phospate (Pi) and hypoxanthine or inosine (the 'inosine cycle'), steady-state levels of the intermediates are observed and the cycle 'turns over' as far as 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate is being consumed. In the presence of ATP, which acts both as an activator of IMP-GMP-specific 5'-nucleotidase and as substrate of nucleoside mono- and di-phosphokinases, no IDP and ITP are formed. The inosine cycle is further favored by the extremely low xanthine oxidase activity. Evidence is presented that ribose 1-phosphate needed to salvage pyrimidine bases in rat brain may arise, at least in part, from the 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate hydrolysis as catalyzed by the inosine cycle, showing that it may function as a link between purine and pyrimidine salvage. When the cycle is started by addition of Pi and guanine (the 'guanosine cycle'), xanthine and xanthosine are formed, in addition to GMP and guanosine, showing that the guanosine cycle 'turns over' in conjunction with the recycling of ribose 1-phosphate for nucleoside interconversion. In the presence of ATP, GDP and GTP are also formed, and the velocity of the cycle is drastically reduced, suggesting that it might metabolically modulate the salvage synthesis of guanyl nucleotides.

Thiol/disulfide interconversion in bovine lens aldose reductase induced by intermediates of glutathione turnover.

The effectiveness of cysteine and cysteinylglycine to act as protein thiolating agents was investigated using bovine lens aldose reductase (ALR2) as the protein target. Disulfides of both thiol compounds appear to be very effective as ALR2 thiolating agents. Cysteine- and CysGly-modified ALR2 forms (Cys-ALR2 and CysGly-ALR2, respectively) are characterized by the presence of a mixed disulfide bond involving Cys298, as demonstrated by a combined electrospray mass spectrometry and Edman degradation approach. Both Cys-ALR2 and CysGly-ALR2 essentially retain the ability to reduce glyceraldehyde but lose the susceptibility to inhibition by Sorbinil and other ALR2 inhibitors. Cys-ALR2 and CysGly-ALR2 are easily reduced back to the native enzyme form by dithiothreitol and GSH treatment; on the contrary, Cys and 2-mercaptoethanol appear to act as protein trans-thiolating agents, rather than reducing agents. The treatment at 37 degrees C of both Cys-ALR2 and CysGly-ALR2, unlikely what observed for glutathionyl-modified ALR2 (GS-ALR2), promotes the generation of an intramolecular disulfide bond between Cys298 and Cys303 residues. A rationale for the special susceptibility of Cys-ALR2 and CysGly-ALR2, as compared to GS-ALR2, to the thermally induced intramolecular rearrangement is given on the basis of a molecular dynamic and energy minimization approach. A pathway of thiol/disulfide interconversion for bovine lens ALR2 induced, in oxidative conditions, by physiological thiol compounds is proposed.