The effect of acetoacetate on 3-hydroxybutyrate oxidation by rat liver mitochondria

Effect of acetoacetate on 3-hydroxybutyrate oxidation by rat liver mitochondria is described. State 3 respiration is inhibited by acetoacetate, while state 4 respiration is not inhibited, though cytochrome c reduction was decreased. Acetoacetate is also non-competitive inhibitor of 3-hydroxybutyrateoxidase and 3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase activity in frozen-thawed mitochondria. The results are discussed in terms of the thermodynamic hypothesis and control strength method.     

Formation of hydrogen peroxide in the mitochondria of skeletal muscles

The generation of H2O2 in skeletal muscle mitochondria during the oxidation of NAD-dependent substrates and succinate is initiated by antimycin A but not by rotenone, which points to H2O2 formation at the respiratory chain site between the rotenone and antimycin blocks. The O2-/H2O2 ratio for alpha-ketoglutarate and succinate oxidation is approximately 1.4, which suggests that in skeletal muscle mitochondria H2O2 is predominantly formed via the superoxide radical generation. Heart and skeletal muscle mitochondria appeared to have the similar values of Vmax for H2O2 production; the catalase activity in skeletal muscle mitochondria is much lower.     

Ethidium and azidoethidium oligonucleotide derivatives: Synthesis,complementary complex formation and sequence-specific photomodification of the single-stranded and double-stranded target oligo- and polynucleotides

Oligodeoxyribonucleotide derivatives containing ethidium or azidoethidium residues attached to 3′ and/or 5′ end were prepared. These derivatives formed tight specific complexes with complementary oligodeoxyribonucleotides where each attached ethidium residue led to an increase of complex T_m by 20–30°C. Tandem complexes of two oligodeoxyribonucleotides containing ethidium residues with an oligodeoxyribonucleotide having two adjacent complementary sequences for these Oligonucleotide were investigated. Photoinduced reactions of a number of ethidium and azidoethidium oligodeoxyribonucleotide derivatives with target complementary single-stranded and double-stranded oligo- and polydeoxyribonucleotides were investigated. The irradiation led to direct photocleavage of the target oligo- or polynucleotide, to formation of hidden (piperidine cleavable) modifications of the target of formation of covalent adducts between ethidium oligodeoxyribonucleotide derivative and the target. In a number of experiments, azidoethidium dyes were demonstrated to be considerably stronger photosensitizers than ethidium ones. Depending on the nature of the target (single- or double-stranded DNA) and on the irradiation conditions, the total damages to the target oligo- or polydeoxyribonucleotides ranged from 10–70% (for ethidium dyes) to 30–80% (for azidoethidium dyes).     

The Reaction Rates of NO with Horseradish Peroxidase Compounds I and II

In this study the reactions between nitric oxide (NO) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) compounds I and II were investigated. The reaction between compound I and NO has biphasic kinetics with a clearly dominant initial fast phase and an apparent second-order rate constant of (7.0 +/- 0.3) x 10(5) M(-1) s(-1) for the fast phase. The reaction of compound II and NO was found to have an apparent second-order rate constant of k(app) = (1.3 +/- 0.1) x 10(6) M(-1) s(-1) or (7.4 +/- 0.7) x 10(5) M(-1) s(-1) when measured at 409 nm (the isosbestic point between HRP and HRP-NO) and 419 nm (lambda(max) of compound II and HRP-NO), respectively. Interestingly, the reaction of compound II with NO is unusually high relative to that of compound I, which is usually the much faster reaction. Since horseradish peroxidase is prototypical of mammalian peroxidases with respect to the oxidation of small substrates, these results may have important implications regarding the lifetime and biochemistry of NO in vivo after inflammation where both NO and H(2)O(2) generation are increased several fold.