During the search for new psychotropic drugs, a group of pyrazinoindole derivatives have been synthetized at the All Union Chemical Pharmaceutical Research Institute. Especially effective and having antidepressant activities is the hydrochloride of 1,10-trimethylene-8-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrazino (1,2-a) indole, named pyrazidol. Pyrazidol differs from any already known antidepressant for i...

Non-enzymatic deamination of serine and cysteine is catalyzed by pyridoxal and certain metal salts at 100” (2). This finding suggested that pyridoxal phosphate might be involved in the enzymatic deamination of these amino acids. Vitamin B, has already been implicated in the desulfhydration of cysteine by rat liver (3) and of cysteine and homocysteine by bacteria (4). Several similarities of cys...

Schmidt (1) was the first to extract an enzyme catalyzing the deamination of 5-adenylic acid. He demonstrated the presence of adenosine and adenylic acid deaminases in NaHC03 extracts of saline-washed minced rabbit muscle. Purification of the preparation by adsorption with alumina removed the adenosine deaminase, thus demonstrating that deamination of adenylic acid and adenosine is catalyzed by...

Adenosine exerts neuromodulatory functions with mostly inhibitory effects, being considered an endogenous anticonvulsant. The hydrolysis of ATP by ectonucleotidases is an important source of adenosine, and adenosine deaminase (ADA) contributes to the regulation of this nucleoside concentration through its deamination. In this study, we tested the effect of pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizu...

The location and nature of the linkage between peptidoglycan and oligoglucans in the cell wall of Mesorhizobium loti HAMBI 1148 have been defined by the analysis of nitrous acid deamination of peptidoglycan glucosaminyl residues. The MurNH(2)-Glc(n) fraction was obtained after converting deaminoacylated and N-deacetylated muramyl residues in the cell wall preparation to lactam forms which were ...

Non-enzymatic deamination of serine and cysteine is catalyzed by pyridoxal and certain metal salts at 100” (2). This finding suggested that pyridoxal phosphate might be involved in the enzymatic deamination of these amino acids. Vitamin B, has already been implicated in the desulfhydration of cysteine by rat liver (3) and of cysteine and homocysteine by bacteria (4). Several similarities of cys...

Activation-induced cytidine deaminase is required for the DNA cleavage step of Ig class switch recombination (CSR). However, its molecular mechanism is controversial. RNA-editing hypothesis postulates that activation-induced cytidine deaminase deaminates cytosine in an unknown mRNA to generate a new mRNA encoding an endonuclease for CSR and thus predicts that DNA cleavage depends on de novo pro...

MRE11/RAD50/NBS1 (MRN) is a ubiquitous complex that participates in the response to DNA damage and in immunoglobulin (Ig) gene diversification. Ig gene diversification is initiated by deamination of cytosine to uracil, followed by removal of uracil to create an abasic (AP) site. We find that MRE11 associates specifically with rearranged Ig genes in hypermutating B cells, whereas APE1, the major...

Biogenic mono-, di- and poly-amines are widely distributed among living organisms. The amines fulfil many important functions in the human body both in the periphery and brain. Some authors suggest that foods rich in biogenic amines, especially histamine, present high health hazards for consumers. However, this is conditional on a range of other factors. The alimentary tract is well equipped wi...

The DNA strands in most prokaryotic genomes experience strand-biased spontaneous mutation, especially C-->T mutations produced by deamination that occur preferentially in the leading strand. This has often been invoked to account for the asymmetry in nucleotide composition, typically measured by GC skew, between the leading and the lagging strand. Casting such strand asymmetry in the framework ...