Metabolism of Homocysteine-thiolactone in Plants

Urinary excretion of homocysteine-thiolactone in humans.

BACKGROUND A metabolite of homocysteine (Hcy), the thioester Hcy-thiolactone, has been implicated in coronary heart disease in humans. Because inadvertent reactions of Hcy-thiolactone with proteins can lead to cell and tissue damage, the ability to detoxify or eliminate Hcy-thiolactone is essential for biological integrity. We examined the hypothesis that the human body eliminates Hcy-thiolacto...

Homocysteine thiolactone affects protein ubiquitination in yeast.

The formation of homocysteine thiolactone (HcyTl) from homocysteine occurs in all examined so far organisms including bacteria, yeast, and humans. Protein N-homocysteinylation at the ε-amino group of lysine is an adverse result of HcyTl accumulation. Since tagging of proteins by ubiquitination before their proteasomal degradation takes place at the same residue, we wondered how N-homocysteinyla...

Metabolism of homocysteine thiolactone in human cell cultures. Possible mechanism for pathological consequences of elevated homocysteine levels.

Editing of the non-protein amino acid homocysteine, a frequent type of error-correcting process in amino acid selection for protein synthesis by an aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase, results in formation of a cyclic thioester, homocysteine thiolactone. Here it is shown that human cells in which homocysteine metabolism is deregulated by a mutation in the cystathionine beta-synthase gene and/or by an ant...

Mechanism action of homocysteine and its thiolactone in haemostasis system

The preparation of [35S]homocysteine thiolactone free of [35S]methionine.

The unambiguous study of homocysteine metabolism requires a source of [355]homocysteine completely free from contaminating [35S]methionine. Until now, such a reagent has not been readily available. Homocysteine is an important metabolite involved in methionine, cysteine and methylation metabolism. Homocysteine can be methylated to form methionine with either 5-methyltetrahydrofolate [1] or beta...