The role of urease in Helicobacter pylori adherence to and internalization by Kato III cells was investigated. Kato III cells were incubated with wild-type strains (N6 or P1), with isogenic mutants lacking urease (N6ureB::TnKm or P1ureA::TnMax5) or producing the inactive apoprotein (N6ureG::TnKm), and with urease-positive clones recovered after complementation of N6ureB::TnKm with ureAB. Bacter...

Urease represents a critical virulence factor for some bacterial species through its alkalizing effect, which helps neutralize the acidic microenvironment of the pathogen. In addition, urease serves as a nitrogen source provider for bacterial growth. Pathogenic mycobacteria express a functional urease, but its role during infection has yet to be characterized. In this study, we constructed a ur...

The identity of the enzyme urease with the octahedral globulin crystals isolated by the senior author from the jack bean in 1926 (1) has been challenged by Waldschmidt-Leitz and Steigerwaldt (2). These investigators published a paper in which they claimed that crystalline urease is not inactivated at pH 7.0 by incubation with trypsin or papain, while the protein component of the urease undergoe...

Ureaplasmas killed mice within 5 min after intravenous injection. The 50% lethal dose of whole ureaplasmal organisms was 32 micrograms per mouse, a value also found for crystalline jackbean urease. The reaction was specific to urease, since protection was afforded by intraperitoneal injection of 200 micrograms of flurofamide, a potent urease inhibitor. The finding that a similar lethal effect w...

In this study the effects of Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles and EDTA on urease activity was investigated. The effect of nano-Fe2O3 and nano-Fe3O4 on urease activity were investigated. Urease activity was studies by UV-Vis spectrophotometry at 40 °C at pH = 7.2 using sodium phosphate as buffer. Measurements were carried out using 0.075 mg/ml of urease and a range of nano-Fe2O3 and nano-F...

The soybean genome duplicated ∼14 and 45 million years ago and has many paralogous genes, including those in urease activation (emplacement of Ni and CO(2) in the active site). Activation requires the UreD and UreF proteins, each encoded by two paralogues. UreG, a third essential activation protein, is encoded by the single-copy Eu3, and eu3 mutants lack activity of both urease isozymes. eu2 ha...

In the presence of urea the neutrophilic human pathogen Helicobacter pylori survives for several hours at pH 1 with concomitant cytoplasmic pH homeostasis. To study this effect in detail, the transmembrane proton motive force and cytoplasmic urease activity of H. pylori were determined at various pH values. In the absence of urea, the organism maintained a close-to-neutral cytoplasm and an inte...

BACKGROUND Helicobacter pylori produces large amounts of urease presumably to be prepared for the rare event of a sudden acid exposure. The hypothesis that H pylori is acid sensitive and protein production is inhibited by low pH was examined. METHODS H pylori or its soluble enzymes were incubated buffered or unbuffered at a pH ranging from 2-7 in the presence of 5 mM urea for 30 minutes. Afte...

The pathogenesis associated with Helicobacter pylori infection is the result of both bacterial factors and the host response. We have previously shown that H. pylori binds to CD74 on gastric epithelial cells. In this study, we sought to identify the bacterial protein responsible for this interaction. H. pylori urease from a pool of bacterial surface proteins was found to coprecipitate with CD74...