氨基酸代谢与肝性脑病

肝性脑病 (HepaticEncephalopathy)又称肝昏迷 ,即由于严重肝病引起的中枢神经系统功能紊乱 ,患者出现一系列神经精神病状 ,直至进入昏迷。在此仅从氨基酸代谢异常的角度叙述与肝性脑病的关系。     

Amino Acid Availability Regulates the Effect of Hyperinsulinemia on Skin Protein Metabolism in Pigs

The effects of amino acid supply and insulin infusion on skin protein kinetics (fractional synthesis rate (FSR), fractional breakdown rate (FBR), and net balance (NB)) in pigs were investigated. Four-month-old pigs were divided into four groups as follows: control, insulin (INS), amino acid (AA), and INS + AA groups based on the nutritional and hormonal conditions. l-[ring-¹³C₆]Phenylalanine was infused. FBR was estimated from the enrichment ratio of arterial phenylalanine to intracellular free phenylalanine. Plasma INS was increased (p < 0.05) in the INS and INS + AA groups. Plasma glucose was maintained by infusion of glucose in the groups receiving INS. The interventions did not change the NB of skin protein. However, the interventions affected the FSR and FBR differently. An infusion of INS significantly increased both FSR and FBR, although AA infusion did not. When an AA infusion was added to the infusion of insulin (INS + AA group), FSR and FBR were both lower when compared with the INS group. Our data demonstrate that in anesthetized pigs INS infusion did not exert an anabolic effect, but rather it increased AA cycling into and out of skin protein. Because co-infusion of AAs with INS ameliorated this effect, it is likely that the increased AA cycling during INS infusion was related to AA supply. Although protein kinetics were affected by both INS and AAs, none of the interventions affected the skin protein deposition. Thus, skin protein content is closely regulated under normal circumstances and is not subject to transient changes in AAs or hormonal concentrations.     

蚕蛹复合氨基酸对人肝癌细胞SMMC-7721的抑制作用

本实验探讨蚕蛹复合氨基酸对人肝癌细胞株SMMC-7721的抑制作用.实验经MTT法检测药物对人正常肝脏细胞株QSG-7701的毒性后,计算药物安全浓度.将不同浓度的蚕蛹复合氨基酸与人肝癌细胞SMMC-7721共培养,采用MTT法测定OD值,评定蚕蛹蛋白复合氨基酸对肝癌细胞株的增殖抑制作用;经Hoechst33258染色和倒置显微镜进行形态学观察以检测细胞凋亡率;流式细胞法测定细胞周期和Annexin V/PI双染色法检测细胞凋亡.细胞毒性实验表明:蚕蛹蛋白复合氨基酸的最大无毒浓度为10 mg/mL.不同浓度的蚕蛹蛋白复合氨基酸对SMMC-7721细胞均有抑制作用,各组与对照组相比差异有显著性(P＜0.05),并呈剂量和时间依赖性.Hoechst33258染色和流式细胞术结果亦证实,蚕蛹复合氨基酸能显著促进SMMC-7721细胞的凋亡.     

Tumor-Stroma Mechanics Coordinate Amino Acid Availability to Sustain Tumor Growth and Malignancy

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Effect of Penicillin on Amino Acid Fermentation

The effect of penicillin G(k) was first investigated on l-homoserine production by Micrococcus glutamicus 534-Co 147 (a threonine requiring mutant). The addition of 4 u/ml of penicillin, 7 to 9 hours after inoculation, brought about the conversion of l-homoserine to l-glutamic acid production. Similar phenomena were observed in l-lysine and l-valine fermentations. In these cases, a homoserine requiring and a leucine requiring mutant of M. glutamicus were used respectively. A marked conversion from lysine and valine to glutamate accumulation occured by penicillin addition. However, in l-isoleucine fermentation with Brevibacterium ammoniagenes ATCC 6871, no glutamate accumulation took place and isoleucine yields were remarkably decreased.     

小檗碱对游离脂肪酸损伤的胰岛betaTC3 细胞的保护作用*

目的：观察小檗碱对棕榈酸损伤的胰岛betaTC3 细胞是否具有保护作用,并筛查出小檗碱起保护作用的有效浓度及合适的作 用时间。方法：以胰岛betaTC3 细胞为研究对象,用棕榈酸构建脂毒性模型,MTT 法筛选小檗碱起保护作用的有效浓度及时间;流式 细胞技术检测胰岛betaTC3 细胞凋亡情况。结果：①0.001-1 umol/L小檗碱作用茁TC3细胞24、48、72 h,对细胞增殖有不同程度促进 作用（与对照组比较P＜ 0.05）;随着作用时间的延长,低浓度小檗碱对betaTC3细胞的保护作用增加,而1 umol/L浓度保护作用下 降,10 umol/L及以上浓度出现细胞毒性作用（与对照组相比P＜0.01）,并呈浓度依赖性。②棕榈酸（0.2 -1.0 mmol/L)对betaTC3细胞 的损伤作用具有浓度及时间依赖性（与对照组比较P＜0.05）。③棕榈酸处理betaTC3细胞不同时间后,小檗碱治疗组较模型组的细 胞凋亡率显著降低（P<0.01)。结论：小檗碱对脂毒性损伤的胰岛betaTC3 细胞具有保护作用,且脂毒性作用时间越短,小檗碱的保护 作用越好,随着脂毒性作用时间的延长,小檗碱的保护作用明显减弱。因此,建议临床上在脂代谢紊乱早期给予小檗碱干预以减 轻甚至逆转游离脂肪酸导致的胰岛茁细胞凋亡。     

新型氨基酸制剂对创伤大鼠血游离氨基酸的影响

观察了富含牛磺酸 (Tau)、谷氨酰胺 (Gln)以及高支链氨基酸 (HBCAA)的新型氨基酸制剂对创伤大鼠血中游离氨基酸浓度的影响。结果表明 ,创伤后三天起 ,血浆游离氨基酸总和均显著降低 ,对照组基本无改变 ;创伤后Tau、BCAA、精氨酸以及天冬氨酸等具有抗氧化和免疫调节作用的氨基酸含量明显降低 ,新处方使用一周后其浓度有效回升 ,且效果好于 17种氨基酸 ,从而有利于机体伤口的愈合。这些结果为进一步阐明复合氨基酸制剂促进创伤愈合的作用及其开发应用提供了理论依据     

平衡型氨基酸透析液对维持性血液透析患者血浆游离氨基酸含量的影响

目的:研究一种平衡型氨基酸透析液,探讨其对维持性血透患者血游离氨基酸含量的影响。方法:实验采用自身对照设计,应用蛋白水解法测定、分析应用氨基酸透析液血透前后患者血浆氨基酸含量,并同时测定应用碳酸盐透析液患者及健康人血浆游离氨基酸作为比较。结果:经碳酸盐透析后,患者血浆大多数游离氨基酸和总氨基酸含量显著降低。给予平衡氨基酸透析液能不同程度改善患者血浆游离氨基酸的含量。结论:平衡型氨基酸透析液能减少血中部分氨基酸的丢失。     

Brain Ion and Amino Acid Contents During Edema Development in Hepatic Encephalopathy

Abstract: Brain edema in hepatic encephalopathy has been associated with circulating ammonia that is metabolized to glutamine. We measured alterations in blood chemistry and brain regional specific gravity and ion and amino acid contents in models of simple hyperammonemia and liver failure induced by daily administrations of ammonium acetate (AAc) or thioacetamide (TAA), respectively. Serum and brain ammonia increased to similar levels (200 and 170% of control, respectively) in both experimental groups. Serum transaminase activities increased 10-fold in animals injected with TAA but were unchanged in animals given AAc injections. In both experimental groups glutamine was elevated in cerebral white matter, cerebral gray matter, and basal ganglia, whereas brain tissue specific gravity decreased in all brain regions, indicating edema formation. In the AAc group, we observed a decrease in glutamate and taurine contents concomitant with the development of brain edema. In these animals, cerebral gray matter specific gravity and taurine contents returned to control levels 24 h after the third AAc injection. TAA-injected animals demonstrated similar decreases in brain tissue specific gravity, whereas glutamine, glutamate, and taurine contents were all elevated. During hepatic encephalopathy, ammonia-induced changes in brain amino acid content may contribute to brain edema development.     

Word Decoding of Protein Amino Acid Sequences with Availability Analysis: A Linguistic Approach

The amino acid sequences of proteins determine their three-dimensional structures and functions. However, how sequence information is related to structures and functions is still enigmatic. In this study, we show that at least a part of the sequence information can be extracted by treating amino acid sequences of proteins as a collection of English words, based on a working hypothesis that amino acid sequences of proteins are composed of short constituent amino acid sequences (SCSs) or “words”. We first confirmed that the English language highly likely follows Zipf''s law, a special case of power law. We found that the rank-frequency plot of SCSs in proteins exhibits a similar distribution when low-rank tails are excluded. In comparison with natural English and “compressed” English without spaces between words, amino acid sequences of proteins show larger linear ranges and smaller exponents with heavier low-rank tails, demonstrating that the SCS distribution in proteins is largely scale-free. A distribution pattern of SCSs in proteins is similar among species, but species-specific features are also present. Based on the availability scores of SCSs, we found that sequence motifs are enriched in high-availability sites (i.e., “key words”) and vice versa. In fact, the highest availability peak within a given protein sequence often directly corresponds to a sequence motif. The amino acid composition of high-availability sites within motifs is different from that of entire motifs and all protein sequences, suggesting the possible functional importance of specific SCSs and their compositional amino acids within motifs. We anticipate that our availability-based word decoding approach is complementary to sequence alignment approaches in predicting functionally important sites of unknown proteins from their amino acid sequences.     

基于氨基酸分类的基本氨基酸秩序的研究

在分析了基本氛基酸分类的基础上,提出基本氛基酸存在着一种参考排列秩序,以此固定的氛基酸排列秩序为参考标准,分析蛋白质一级结构相对此参考秩序的变化规律,能够找到构成蛋白质的二级结构的某些信息．     

Effect of Gamma Irradiation on the Amino Acid of Potatoes

The free amino acids of potatoes irradiated with the doses of 7,000, 15,000 and 30,000 rad were determined by ion-exchange chromatography.

After 15 days storage following irradiation, it was shown that the concentration of asparatic acid, proline and aliphatic amino acids increased with increasing irradiation doses, while that of basic amino acids and glutamic acid especially decreased. However, after 105 days of storage, the similarity of the free amino acid content of irradiated potatoes to that of non-irradiated and non-stored potatoes was observed.

On the concentration of protein-bound amino acids, there were no significant differences between non-irradiated and 15,000 rad irradiated potatoes.     

烧伤患者血浆和红细胞游离氨基酸变化及输注氨基酸对其变化的影响

动态测定烧伤患者血浆及红细胞内游离氨基酸的含量 ,探讨输入外源性氨基酸后对血及红细胞内游离氨基酸的影响。以日立 835— 5 0型氨基酸自动分析仪测定烧伤患者血浆及红细胞内游离氨基酸含量。结果发现烧伤患者血浆总游离氨基酸浓度从伤后到 2 1天均显著降低 (P <0 .0 5～ 0 .0 1) ;赖、苯丙和苯丙 酪氨酸比值显著升高 (P <0 .0 5～ 0 .0 1) ;色、组、精、丙、甘、苏、脯和丝氨酸比值显著降低 (P <0 .0 5～ 0 .0 1) ;缬、亮、异亮、酪、胱和支链氨基酸伤后早期降低。烧伤患者红细胞内总游离氨基酸含量不同程度降低 ,其中 1、3、7天降低显著 (P <0 .0 5～ 0 .0 1) ;红细胞内苯丙和苯丙 酪氨酸比值未见显著性升高 ;色、蛋、精、脯氨酸含量很低或基本未测出。输注复合氨基酸注射液后未能显著改善患者血及红细胞内游离氨基酸含量。结果提示烧伤患者红细胞内游离氨基酸含量的变化趋势与血浆游离氨基酸变化趋势基本一致 ;烧伤后红细胞内苯丙氨酸及苯丙 酪氨酸比值有别于血浆变化。本研究条件下补充外源性氨基酸未能显著改变烧伤患者血浆及红细胞内游离氨基酸的含量     

Effect of Selenium on Lipid and Amino Acid Metabolism in Yeast Cells

Biological Trace Element Research - This article discusses the effect of selenium in aqueous solutions on aspects of lipid and amino acid metabolism in the cell biomass of Saccharomyces cerevisiae...     

Mapping of Sugar and Amino Acid Availability in Soil around Roots with Bacterial Sensors of Sucrose and Tryptophan

We developed a technique to map the availability of sugars and amino acids along live roots in an intact soil-root matrix with native microbial soil flora and fauna present. It will allow us to study interactions between root exudates and soil microorganisms at the fine spatial scale necessary to evaluate mechanisms of nitrogen cycling in the rhizosphere. Erwinia herbicola 299R harboring a promoterless ice nucleation reporter gene, driven by either of two nutrient-responsive promoters, was used as a biosensor. Strain 299RTice exhibits tryptophan-dependent ice nucleation activity, while strain 299R(p61RYice) expresses ice nucleation activity proportional to sucrose concentration in its environment. Both biosensors exhibited up to 100-fold differences in ice nucleation activity in response to varying substrate abundance in culture. The biosensors were introduced into the rhizosphere of the annual grass Avena barbata and, as a control, into bulk soil. Neither strain exhibited significant ice nucleation activity in the bulk soil. Both tryptophan and sucrose were detected in the rhizosphere, but they showed different spatial patterns. Tryptophan was apparently most abundant in soil around roots 12 to 16 cm from the tip, while sucrose was most abundant in soil near the root tip. The largest numbers of bacteria (determined by acridine orange staining and direct microscopy) occurred near root sections with the highest apparent sucrose or tryptophan exudation. High sucrose availability at the root tip is consistent with leakage of photosynthate from immature, rapidly growing root tissues, while tryptophan loss from older root sections may result from lateral root perforation of the root epidermis.     

Amino Acid Changes in Autopsied Brain Tissue from Cirrhotic Patients with Hepatic Encephalopathy

Brain tissue was obtained at autopsy from nine cirrhotic patients dying in hepatic coma and from an equal number of controls, free from neurological, psychiatric, or hepatic diseases, matched for age and time interval from death to freezing of dissected brain samples. Glutamine, glutamate, aspartate, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels were measured in homogenates of cerebral cortex (prefrontal and frontal), caudate nuclei, hypothalamus, cerebellum (cortex and vermis), and medulla oblongata as their o-phthalaldehyde derivatives by HPLC using fluorescence detection. Glutamine concentrations were found to be elevated two- to fourfold in all brain structures, the largest increases being observed in prefrontal cortex and medulla oblongata. Glutamate levels were selectively decreased in prefrontal cortex (by 20%), caudate nuclei (by 27%), and cerebellar vermis (by 17%) from cirrhotic patients. On the other hand, GABA content of autopsied brain tissue from these patients was found to be within normal limits in all brain structures. It is suggested that such region-selective reductions of glutamate may reflect loss of the amino acid from the releasable (neurotransmitter) pool. These findings may be of significance in the pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy resulting from chronic liver disease.     

Effect of Tenuazonic Acid on In Vitro Amino Acid Incorporation by Rice Embryo Ribosomes

Deacetylcephalosporin C negative mutants, lacking a certain step in the pathway of deacetylcephalosporin C biosynthesis, were obtained from the deacetylcephalosporin C producing mutant No. 40 of Cephalosporium acremonium by treatment with N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. Among these mutants, the strain No. 40-20 was found to mainly accumulate a cephalosporin compound other than deacetylcephalosporin C and cephalosporin C. The cephalosporin was isolated as crystals from the culture broth of the mutant No. 40-20, and identified as deacetoxycephalosporin C, possessing a D-a-aminoadipyl side chain at C-7, by physical, chemical and biological methods. The profile of deacetoxycephalosporin C fermentation and the examination of the biochemical reduction of deacetylcephalosporin C led us to the conclusion that deacetoxycephalosporin C would be produced through de novo synthesis by this mutant.     

Predicting the Functional Effect of Amino Acid Substitutions and Indels

As next-generation sequencing projects generate massive genome-wide sequence variation data, bioinformatics tools are being developed to provide computational predictions on the functional effects of sequence variations and narrow down the search of casual variants for disease phenotypes. Different classes of sequence variations at the nucleotide level are involved in human diseases, including substitutions, insertions, deletions, frameshifts, and non-sense mutations. Frameshifts and non-sense mutations are likely to cause a negative effect on protein function. Existing prediction tools primarily focus on studying the deleterious effects of single amino acid substitutions through examining amino acid conservation at the position of interest among related sequences, an approach that is not directly applicable to insertions or deletions. Here, we introduce a versatile alignment-based score as a new metric to predict the damaging effects of variations not limited to single amino acid substitutions but also in-frame insertions, deletions, and multiple amino acid substitutions. This alignment-based score measures the change in sequence similarity of a query sequence to a protein sequence homolog before and after the introduction of an amino acid variation to the query sequence. Our results showed that the scoring scheme performs well in separating disease-associated variants (n = 21,662) from common polymorphisms (n = 37,022) for UniProt human protein variations, and also in separating deleterious variants (n = 15,179) from neutral variants (n = 17,891) for UniProt non-human protein variations. In our approach, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for the human and non-human protein variation datasets is ∼0.85. We also observed that the alignment-based score correlates with the deleteriousness of a sequence variation. In summary, we have developed a new algorithm, PROVEAN (Protein Variation Effect Analyzer), which provides a generalized approach to predict the functional effects of protein sequence variations including single or multiple amino acid substitutions, and in-frame insertions and deletions. The PROVEAN tool is available online at http://provean.jcvi.org.