On the mode of action of thymosin

Thymosin was administered to CBA mice which had been depleted of recirculating small lymphocytes by combining ALS and thymectomy or through lethal irradiation of thymectomised mice reconstituted with syngeneic bone marrow. The population of recirculating small lymphocytes was monitored by determining the numbers of “lymph node localising” cells in the lymphoid organs of treated animals. In no case was there any evidence that thymosin treatment accelerated the recovery of recirculating lymphocytes. Moreover, it was not possible to show that bone marrow cells incubated with thymosin acquired theta-positivity.We conclude that thymosin does not act by augmenting the production of mature recirculating small lymphocytes.     

NAD-glycohydrolase activity of botulinum C2 toxin: a possible role of component I in the mode of action of the toxin

C2 toxin (C2T) elaborated by Clostridium botulinum types C and D is composed of two separate protein components, designated components I and II, which individually have little activity, but, when mixed and treated with trypsin, exert the potent activity. The present study provides the evidence that component I of the toxin catalyzes the hydrolysis of NAD into nicotinamide and ADP-ribose, whereas component II does not, indicating that component I of C2T has NAD-glycohydrolase activity, which ability is shared with cholera and diphtheria toxins. However, C2T affected neither glycerol production of fat cells nor protein synthesis in cell-free system. Component I of C2T in the presence of [alpha-32P]NAD radiolabeled a protein of Mr 46,000 in the supernatant fractions of mouse tissue homogenates; the protein was abundant in brain, lung and intestine, whereas there was little or none of the protein in muscle. These results indicate that component I can catalyze the covalent attachment of the ADP-ribose moiety of NAD to intracellular protein, which differs from those modified with cholera and diphtheria toxins. The present data, together with previous findings, suggest that the biological activity of C2T is elicited by ADP-ribosylation activity of component I, which is internalized into the cells after binding to the receptor site introduced with the binding of component II to the cell surface membrane.     

On the mode of action of fungal cellulases

Summary The mode of action of the cellulolytic enzymes of two strong cellulose decomposing fungi, Penicillium oxalicum Curie et Thom and Helminthosporium cyclops Drechsler, was studied. The culture filtrates and enzyme preparations obtained from them showed high cellulase activity and very weak cellobiase activity. The cellulolytic system of both experimental organisms seems to be multicomponent. The cellulase component showed its activity mainly extracellulary and the cellobiase component, mainly intracellulary. It seems, therefore, that during growth of both fungi on a cellulose medium, the extracellular cellulase acts hydrolytically on the cellulose substrate forming cellobiose which is further acted upon by intracellular cellobiase to form glucose. Paper chromatographic assay of the products of the enzymatic reaction sub-stantiated this conclusion.