RESUMO
Magnesium (Mg2+) is the most prevalent divalent intracellular cation. As co-factor in many enzymatic reactions, Mg2+ is essential for protein synthesis, energy production, and DNA stability. Disturbances in intracellular Mg2+ concentrations, therefore, unequivocally result in delayed cell growth and metabolic defects. To maintain physiological Mg2+ levels, all organisms rely on balanced Mg2+ influx and efflux via Mg2+ channels and transporters. This review compares the structure and the function of prokaryotic Mg2+ transporters and their eukaryotic counterparts. In prokaryotes, cellular Mg2+ homeostasis is orchestrated via the CorA, MgtA/B, MgtE, and CorB/C Mg2+ transporters. For CorA, MgtE, and CorB/C, the motifs that form the selectivity pore are conserved during evolution. These findings suggest that CNNM proteins, the vertebrate orthologues of CorB/C, also have Mg2+ transport capacity. Whereas CorA and CorB/C proteins share the gross quaternary structure and functional properties with their respective orthologues, the MgtE channel only shares the selectivity pore with SLC41 Na+/Mg2+ transporters. In eukaryotes, TRPM6 and TRPM7 Mg2+ channels provide an additional Mg2+ transport mechanism, consisting of a fusion of channel with a kinase. The unique features these TRP channels allow the integration of hormonal, cellular, and transcriptional regulatory pathways that determine their Mg2+ transport capacity. Our review demonstrates that understanding the structure and function of prokaryotic magnesiotropic proteins aids in our basic understanding of Mg2+ transport.
Assuntos
Magnésio , Proteínas de Membrana Transportadoras , Transporte Biológico , Cátions Bivalentes/metabolismo , Magnésio/metabolismo , Proteínas de Membrana Transportadoras/metabolismo , Fosfotransferases/metabolismoRESUMO
Combined injections into experimental tumor nodules of adenovirus encoding IL-12 and certain chemokines are capable to induce immune-mediated complete regressions. In this study, we found that the combination of two adenoviruses, one encoding IL-12 and other MIP3alpha (AdCMVIL-12+AdCMVMIP3alpha) was very successful in treating CT-26-derived colon carcinomas. However, in experimental tumors generated from the pancreatic carcinoma cell line Panc02 such combined treatment induces 50% of macroscopic complete regressions, although local relapses within 1 week are almost constant. We derived cell lines from such relapsing tumors and found that experimental malignancies derived from their inoculum were not amenable to treatment in any case with AdCMVIL-12+AdCMVMIP-3alpha. Importantly, relapsing cell lines were insensitive to in vitro induction of apoptosis by IFNgamma, in clear contrast with the original Panc02 cells. Comparative analyses by cDNA arrays of relapsing cell lines versus wild-type Panc02 were performed revealing an important number of genes (383) whose expression levels were modified more than two-fold. These changes grouped in certain gene ontology categories should harbor the mechanistic explanations of the acquired selective resistance to IFNgamma.
Assuntos
Terapia Genética/métodos , Neoplasias Pancreáticas/terapia , Receptores de Quimiocinas , Evasão Tumoral/genética , Adenoviridae/genética , Animais , Apoptose , Quimiocina CCL20 , Quimiocinas CC/genética , Neoplasias do Colo/terapia , Feminino , Vetores Genéticos/administração & dosagem , Imunoterapia/métodos , Interferon gama/uso terapêutico , Interleucina-12/genética , Proteínas Inflamatórias de Macrófagos/genética , Camundongos , Camundongos Endogâmicos BALB C , Camundongos Endogâmicos C57BL , Neoplasias Experimentais/genética , Neoplasias Experimentais/imunologia , Neoplasias Experimentais/terapia , Análise de Sequência com Séries de Oligonucleotídeos , Neoplasias Pancreáticas/genética , Neoplasias Pancreáticas/imunologia , Receptores CCR6 , Receptores de Interferon/metabolismo , Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase Via Transcriptase Reversa , Transdução Genética , Células Tumorais CultivadasRESUMO
Dietary methionine is mainly metabolized in the liver where it is converted into S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet), the main biologic methyl donor. This reaction is catalyzed by methionine adenosyltransferase I/III (MAT I/III), the product of MAT1A gene, which is exclusively expressed in this organ. It was first observed that serum methionine levels were elevated in experimental models of liver damage and in liver cirrhosis in human beings. Results of further studies showed that this pathological alteration was due to reduced MAT1A gene expression and MAT I/III enzyme inactivation associated with liver injury. Synthesis of AdoMet is essential to all cells in the organism, but it is in the liver where most of the methylation reactions take place. The central role played by AdoMet in cellular function, together with the observation that AdoMet administration reduces liver damage caused by different agents and improves survival of alcohol-dependent patients with cirrhosis, led us to propose that alterations in methionine metabolism could play a role in the onset of liver disease and not just be a consequence of it. In the present work, we review the recent findings that support this hypothesis and highlight the mechanisms behind the hepatoprotective role of AdoMet.
Assuntos
Fígado/fisiologia , S-Adenosilmetionina/fisiologia , Animais , Humanos , Hepatopatias Alcoólicas/tratamento farmacológico , Hepatopatias Alcoólicas/fisiopatologia , S-Adenosilmetionina/uso terapêuticoRESUMO
The glycosyl hydrolases are an important group of enzymes that are responsible for cleaving a range of biologically significant carbohydrate compounds. Structural information on these enzymes has provided useful information on their molecular basis for the functional variations, while the characterization of the structural features that account for the high thermostability of proteins is of great scientific and biotechnological interest. To these ends we have determined the crystal structure of the beta-glycosidase from a hyperthermophilic archeon Thermosphaera aggregans. The structure is a (beta/alpha)8 barrel (TIM-barrel), as seen in other glycosyl hydrolase family 1 members, and forms a tetramer. Inspection of the active site and the surrounding area reveals two catalytic glutamate residues consistent with the retaining mechanism and the surrounding polar and aromatic residues consistent with a monosaccharide binding site. Comparison of this structure with its mesophilic counterparts implicates a variety of structural features that could contribute to the thermostability. These include an increased number of surface ion pairs, an increased number of internal water molecules and a decreased surface area upon forming an oligomeric quaternary structure.