The influence of short-term exposure to lead on the energetic status of erythrocytes in rats is reported in this study. The male Wistar rats selected for this study drank water containing 1% lead(II) acetate and/or intraperitoneal injections of 1 or 2 mg/kg body wt every 4 d starting on the eighth of the experiment, over a period of 1 mo. The whole-blood lead concentration measured after 4 wk was 1.51-35.31 microg/dL. The concentrations of adenosine, adenosine triphosphates, diphosphates, and monophosphates (ATP, ADP, and AMP), guanine triphosphates, diphosphates and monophosphates (GTP, GDP, and GMP), guanosine (Guo), inosine (Ino), inosine monophosphate (IMP), hypoxantine (Hyp), and nicotinamide dinucleotide and its phosphate (NAD(+) and NADP(+)) were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The mean concentrations of ATP, GTP, NAD(+), and NADP(+) and those of adenylate (AEC) and guanylate (GEC) were significantly reduced in erythrocytes from the animals exposed to lead when compared to untreated controls. These results suggest that a lead ion disrupts the erythrocyte energy pathways. The decreases of NAD(+) and ATP could be used as an indicator of the extent of exposure to low levels of lead.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1385/BTER:100:3:259 | DOI Listing |
Chembiochem
January 2025
University of Freiburg: Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Albertstr. 25, 79104, Freiburg, GERMANY.
Polyphosphate kinases (PPK) play crucial roles in various biological processes, including energy storage and stress responses, through their interaction with inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) and the intracellular nucleotide pool. Members of the PPK family 2 (PPK2s) catalyse polyP‑consuming phosphorylation of nucleotides. In this study, we characterised two PPK2 enzymes from Bacillus cereus (BcPPK2) and Lysinibacillus fusiformis (LfPPK2) to investigate their substrate specificity and potential for selective nucleotide synthesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRev Physiol Biochem Pharmacol
January 2025
Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
ATP synthase is a rotary motor enzyme that drives the formation of ATP from ADP and P and uses multiple electrical forces to do this. This chapter outlines the exquisite use of these electrical forces to generate the high energy phosphates on which all our lives depend. Vacuolar ATPases and the ADP/ATP carrier also are explored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInvest Ophthalmol Vis Sci
January 2025
Schepens Eye Research Institute, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Purpose: To investigate the presence of uridine-5'-triphosphate (UTP)-activated P2Y1-like nucleotide receptors (P2Y2R, P2Y4R, and P2Y6R) in conjunctival goblet cells (CGCs) and determine if they increase intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) and induce mucin secretion.
Methods: Adult, male rat conjunctiva was used for culture of CGCs. To investigate the expression of P2YRs, mRNA was extracted from CGCs and used for reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) with commercially obtained primers specific to P2Y2R, P2Y4R, and P2Y6R.
Biophys J
January 2025
Department of Chemistry, Chicago Center for Theoretical Chemistry, The James Franck Institute, and Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States. Electronic address:
Microtubules (MTs) constitute the largest components of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton and play crucial roles in various cellular processes, including mitosis and intracellular transport. The property allowing MTs to cater to such diverse roles is attributed to dynamic instability, which is coupled to the hydrolysis of GTP (guanosine-5'-triphosphate) to GDP (guanosine-5'-diphosphate) within the β-tubulin monomers. Understanding the equilibrium dynamics and the structural features of both GDP- and GTP-complexed MT tips, especially at an all-atom level, remains challenging for both experimental and computational methods because of their dynamic nature and the prohibitive computational demands of simulating large, many-protein systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmacol Ther
January 2025
Laboratório de Neuroimunologia, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Electronic address:
The purinergic P2Y receptors comprise eight G-coupled receptor (GPCR) subtypes already identified (P2Y, P2Y, P2Y, P2Y, P2Y, P2Y). P2Y receptor physiological agonists are extracellular purine and pyrimidine nucleotides such as ATP (Adenosine triphosphate), ADP (Adenosine diphosphate), UTP (Uridine triphosphate), UDP (Uridine diphosphate), and UDP-glucose. These receptors are expressed in almost all cells.
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