Anthranilate phosphoribosyltransferase (TrpD) is involved in tryptophan biosynthesis, catalyzing the transfer of a phosphoribosyl group to anthranilate, leading to the generation of phosphoribosyl anthranilate. TrpD belongs to the phosphoribosyltransferase (PRT) superfamily and is the only member of the structural class IV. X-ray structures of TrpD from seven species have been solved to date. H...

High plasma levels of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT), traditionally considered an intracellular enzyme with a key role in NAD synthesis, have been reported in several oncological, inflammatory and metabolic diseases. We now show that eNAMPT can be actively released by melanoma cells in vitro. We analysed the mechanisms of its release, and we found both classical and non-classica...

Adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive error of purine metabolism resulting in the generation of 2,8-dihydroxyadenine (DHA), a highly insoluble metabolite of adenine, which can cause radiolucent urolithiasis. This is the second case of DHA stone being reported in India and the first case in India to document the mutation of the APRT gene on blood DNA a...

Residue-to-alanine mutations and a two-amino acid deletion have been made in the highly conserved catalytic loop (residues 100-109) of Salmonella typhimurium OMP synthase (orotate phosphoribosyltransferase, EC 2.4.2.10). As described previously, the K103A mutant enzyme exhibited a 10(4)-fold decrease in k(cat)/K(M) for PRPP; the K100A enzyme suffered a 50-fold decrease. Alanine mutations at His...

Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) is a promising antitumor target. Novel NAMPT inhibitors with diverse chemotypes are highly desirable for development of antitumor agents. Using high throughput screening system targeting NAMPT on a chemical library of 30000 small-molecules, we found a non-fluorescent compound F671-0003 and a fluorescent compound M049-0244 with excellent in vitro ac...

I. Cordycepin monophosphate has been shown to inhibit the activity of phosphoribosyl-pyrophosphate amidotransferase (ribosylamine-5-phosphate:pyrophosphate phosphoribosyltransferase (ghitamate-amidating), EC 2.4.2.14) obtained from both pigeon liver and Bacillus subtilis. 2. Evidence is presented for the existence of a phosphorylated derivative of cordycepin in Bacillus subtilis cells which wer...

Nicotinate mononucleotide:5,6-dimethylbenzimidazole phosphoribosyltransferase (CobT) from Salmonella typhimurium plays a central role in the synthesis of alpha-ribazole, which is a key component of the lower ligand of cobalamin. Two X-ray structures of CobT are reported here at 1.9 A resolution. First, a complex of CobT with 5,6-dimethylbenzimidazole, and second, a complex of CobT with its reac...

Using high-throughput chemical and genetic screening, Matheny and colleagues (in this issue of Chemistry & Biology) identified STF-118804, an inhibitor of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase, as a cell type-specific inhibitor of mixed-lineage leukemia with MLL chromosomal rearrangements. The approach was powerful, as is the potential for NAD as a specific cancer target.