Descripción: The existence of ammonium anomalies in mineralized deposits in Argentina is presented. These anomalies are given by the substitution of potassium ion by ammonium ion in certain feldspars, clay minerals and sulfates. This substitution doesn't produce physical changes either in the minerals or the host rocks. Ammonium-bearing minerals have been found in several hydrothermally altered metallic deposits. Ammonium ion is specially sensible to SWIR reflectance spectroscopy method, so it became an ideal, easy and valuable tool for ammonium anomalies detection. Although ammonium-bearing minerals are not always associated with metallic ore, they can be used as an exploration guide, being thus a very useful prospective method for metallic deposits in general. © 2006 Asociación Geológica Argentina.

Descripción: Kinetic studies were carried out using purified porphobilinogenase and deaminase preparations in the presence and absence of ammonium ions. It has been found in plots of v versus [S] that a deviation from the Michaelis-Menten hyperbola occurs with both enzymes; double-reciprocal plots were concave downward; Rs values were greater than 81; and in some cases the Hill coefficient was less than 1, indicating negative homotropic kinetics. Evidence also suggested that porphobilinogenase contains at least two substrate-binding sites per molecule of enzyme. It has also been found that ammonium ions act competitively on the first reaction of the porphobilinogenase. © 1970.

Descripción: Fructokinase (ATP:d-fructose-1-phosphate transferase, EC 2.7.1.3) from rat liver has been purified 400-fold. The purification procedure involves an acid treatment, a heat step at 65°, (NH4)2SO4 fractionation, chromatography on Sephadex G-100 and finally (NH4)2SO4 extraction. The enzyme appears nearly homogenous by density gradient centrifugation but gives a single peak in sedimentation velocity analysis. Purified liver fructokinase has a Km of 0.46-0.80 mM for fructose and 1.56-1.33 mM for MgATP at a K+ concentration of 0.4 and 0.1 M, respectively. The enzyme also phosphorylates l-sorbose and d-tagatose. No difference could be found in the phosphorylation of the pyranose and furanose forms of fructose. The enzyme is inhibited by p-chloromercuribenzoate and is stable up to 50-55°. © 1971.

Descripción: 1. 1. PBG-Deaminase obtained from Rp. palustris exhibited classical Michaelis-Menten kinetics in the absence or presence of different ions. 2. 2. Detailed kinetic studies were carried out in the presence of ammonium, phosphate and magnesium ions. 3. 3. It has been found that the different effects observed are dependent on both the substrate and the ion concentration. © 1987.

Descripción: 1. 1. Uroporphyrinogen carboxy-lyase (EC 4.1.1.d), the enzyme catalysing the decaroxylation of uroporphyrinogen to coproporphyrinogen, has been isolated from normal chicken erythrocytes. The enzyme was purified 220-fold with a yield of 24% from haemolysate supernatant by DEAE-cellulose batch treatment, (NH4)2SO4 fractionation and chromatography on DEAE-cellulose. 2. 2. The purified material appears to be homogeneous in polyacrylamide gel disc electrophoresis. 3. 3. The enzyme was heat labile and inhibited by sodium salt; the activity was enhanced by EDTA, GSH and boiled rat-liver extract. 4. 4. The influence of these chemical and physical agents on the removal of the first and second carboxyl groups from uroporphyrinogen was compared; the second group was more susceptible to these agents. 5. 5. The possibility that one or several enzymes were involved in the stepwise decarboxylation of uroporphyrinogen is discussed. 6. 6. The general name of porphyrinogen carboxy-lyase for the enzyme system is proposed because of the different porphyrinogens it can decarboxylate. © 1970.

Descripción: The entry of DENV into the host cell appears to be a very complex process which has been started to be studied in detail. In this report, the route of functional intracellular trafficking after endocytic uptake of dengue virus serotype 1 (DENV-1) strain HW, DENV-2 strain NGC and DENV-2 strain 16681 into Vero cells was studied by using a susceptibility to ammonium chloride assay, dominant negative mutants of several members of the family of cellular Rab GTPases that participate in regulation of transport through endosome vesicles and immunofluorescence colocalization. Together, the results presented demonstrate that in spite of the different internalization route among viral serotypes in Vero cells and regardless of the viral strain, DENV particles are first transported to early endosomes in a Rab5-dependent manner. Then a Rab7-dependent pathway guides DENV-2 16681 to late endosomes, whereas a yet unknown sorting event controls the transport of DENV-2 NGC, and most probably DENV-1 HW, to the perinuclear recycling compartments where fusion membrane would take place releasing nucleocapsid into the cytoplasm. Besides the demonstration of a different intracellular trafficking for two DENV-2 strains that shared the initial clathrin-independent internalization route, these studies proved for the first time the involvement of the slow recycling pathway for DENV-2 productive infection. © 2012 Acosta et al.

Descripción: 1. 1.|Porphobilinogenase has been isolated and purified from cow liver and its components, porphobilinogen deaminase and uroporphyrinogen isomerase, have been separated from each other and purified. 2. 2.|The effect of NH4+ was studied. The deaminase exhibited classical Michaelis-Menten kinetics in the absence or presence of NH4+, which at high concentrations behaved as a noncompetitive inhibitor of the deaminase. As expected from Hill plots, n = 1 both in the absence or presence of NH4+. Instead, when activity of porpho bilinogenase is plotted versus porphobilinogen concentration, sigmoid curves are obtained; but the presence of NH4+ at different concentrations altered the kinetic parameters of this enzymic system, again showing normal kinetics. In addition, n values were found to be 2 for porphobilinogen per porphobilinogenase molecule and 1 in the presence of NH4+ which behaves as a competitive inhibitor of the isomerase. Results are discussed in relation to the allosteric theories of monod et al.1,2 and liver porphobilinogenase is proposed to be an allosteric protein. 3. 3.|The presence of an ultrafiltrable factor which stimulates uroporphyrinogen formation from porphobilinogen has been revealed. © 1969.

Descripción: 1. 1. A method for the isolation and purification of porphobilinogenase, porphobilinogen deaminase and uroporphyrinogen isomerase from avian erythrocytes is described. 2. 2. Some properties of the isolated enzymes were studied. The optimal pH for porphobilinogenase and deaminase was 7.4. Purified porphobilinogenase was resolved into three bands on starch gel electrophoresis. The molecular weight of the purified enzymes was determined by gel filtration. The presence of porphobilinogen or NH4 + at certain concentrations afforded protection against heat inactivation of isomerase, the heat labile enzyme. Initial porphyrin formation by porphobilinogenase was linear with time. 3. 3. The action of various compounds added to the system was studied. Thiol reagents inhibited both porphobilinogenase and deaminase, indicating the presence of thiol groups essential for activity. NH4 +, hydroxylamine, adenine, ADP, ATP, some dicarboxylic acids and 2-methoxy-5-nitrotropone inhibited deaminase. © 1971.

Descripción: 1. 1. A method for purifying human erythrocytes ALA-D, using a mixture of n-butanol and chloroform, which denature hemoglobin, followed by ammonium sulphate fractionation and affinity chromatography yielding a 1600-fold purified enzyme, is described. 2. 2. By oxidation of Sephadex G-25 with NaIO4, a polyaldehyde, is obtained which can be covalently bound to the ALA-D; however the immobilized enzyme is inactive, because essential ε{lunate}-amino groups at the active site were involved in the coupling. Similar experiments with another enzyme, Rhodanese, resulted in an active insolubilized preparation. 3. 3. By suspending the carrier-enzyme in buffer, slow solubilization with simultaneous release of protein occurs, indicating that this approach might find important therapeutical applications in the treatment of enzyme deficiencies. © 1980.

Descripción: Background: Compound A (CpdA) is a dissociating non-steroidal glucocorticoid receptor (GR) ligand which has anti-inflammatory properties exerted by down-modulating proinflammatory gene expression. By favouring GR monomer formation, CpdA does not enhance glucocorticoid (GC) response element-driven gene expression, resulting in a reduced side effect profile as compared to GCs. Considering the importance of Th1/Th2 balance in the final outcome of immune and inflammatory responses, we analyzed how selective GR modulation differentially regulates the activity of T-bet and GATA-3, master drivers of Th1 and Th2 differentiation, respectively. Results: Using Western analysis and reporter gene assays, we show in murine T cells that, similar to GCs, CpdA inhibits T-bet activity via a transrepressive mechanism. Different from GCs, CpdA induces GATA-3 activity by p38 MAPK-induction of GATA-3 phosphorylation and nuclear translocation. CpdA effects are reversed by the GR antagonist RU38486, proving the involvement of GR in these actions. ELISA assays demonstrate that modulation of T-bet and GATA-3 impacts on cytokine production shown by a decrease in IFN-γ and an increase in IL-5 production, respectively. Conclusions: Taken together, through their effect favoring Th2 over Th1 responses, particular dissociated GR ligands, for which CpdA represents a paradigm, hold potential for the application in Th1-mediated immune disorders. © 2012 Liberman et al.

Descripción: In this study, carried out in San Antonio Bay (Northern Argentinean Patagonia), we aimed to understand the relative importance of bottom-up and top-down controls on macroalgal blooms in a macrotidal system with high nutrient supply and high consumer abundance. Our results show that nutrients, pH, and O 2 concentrations were higher during low tide. A field experiment showed that the biomass accumulation rate of Ulva lactuca ranged from 6 to 12% d -1 and was reduced by herbivory by 60%. The biomass accumulation rate did not differ in thalli with different initial internal nutrient pools. There was a negative relationship between the percentage of algae consumed and the N content in algal tissues, suggesting compensatory feeding by herbivores. Herbivory reduced the biomass accumulation rate of U. lactuca when PO 4 3- or no nutrients were added, but not when NO 3 - was added. In the absence of herbivory, the addition of nutrients did not increase U. lactuca biomass accumulation rate. These results suggest that nutrients remain high enough for adequate time intervals to be assimilated by macroalgae and support blooms. Large water exchange during tidal changes, however, can diminish the potential negative effects of macroalgal accumulation (oxygen depletion, high ammonium concentrations) on herbivores such that herbivores can have a large impact on macroalgae. © Inter-Research 2011.

Descripción: Some of the Biomphalaria species living in Chaco, such as B. straminea and B. tenagophila, are natural transmitters of schistosomiasis in Brazil, while those of the genus Drepanotrema are not intermediate hosts of the disease. The aim of the present work was to analyze the importance of a selected set of environmental variables in explaining patterns of distributions and relative abundance of planorbid gastropod assemblages. The study sites were located in urban areas of Resistencia City, Chaco Province, and the environmental variables measured were substratum (macrophytes), water quality (pH, O2, nutrients, among others), as well as other gastropods (Ancylidae, Hydrobiidae and Ampullaridae). Seasonal samplings were carried out in four distinct environments. Thirty-one quantitative samples of gastropods and environmental variables were obtained. In canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), seven environmental variables were retained after a stepwise forward selection, from a total of 26, including [N-NH4+], O2%, and the macrophytes Eichhornia crassipes, Pistia stratiotes, Panicum elephantipes, Hydrocotyle ranunculoides and Canna glauca. They explained 62% of the variation in planorbid association. Canna glauca was the most significant variable, being positively correlated with all of the species of Drepanotrema. Axis I separates B. tenagophila from B. straminea, along a gradient related to increasing O 2% and P. elephantipes abundance, as well as decreasing [N-NH 4+] and P. stratiotes. Axis II separates D. lucidum, D. anatinum and D. cimex from the other planorbid species along a gradient associated with decreasing abundances of H. ranunculoides and C. glauca. Some common aquatic macrophytes, and to a lesser extent, dissolved oxygen and ammonium in water, may be useful indicators of favorable environmental conditions for potential intermediate hosts of schistosomiasis in Chaco Region.

Descripción: The Saccharomyces cerevisiae UGA4 gene, which encodes the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and δ-aminolaevulinic acid (ALA) permease, is well known to be regulated by the nitrogen source. Its expression levels are low in the presence of a rich nitrogen source but are higher when a poor nitrogen source is used. In addition, GABA can induce UGA4 expression when cells are grown with proline but not when they are grown with ammonium. Although vast amounts of evidence have been gathered about UGA4 regulation by nitrogen, little is known about its regulation by the carbon source. Using glucose and acetate as rich and poor carbon source respectively, this work aimed to shed light on hitherto unclear aspects of the regulation of this gene. In poor nitrogen conditions, cells grown with acetate were found to have higher UGA4 basal expression levels than those grown with glucose, and did not show UGA4 induction in response to GABA. Analysis of the expression and subcellular localization of the transcription factors that regulate UGA4 as well as partial deletions and site-directed mutations of the UGA4 promoter region suggested that there are two parallel pathways that act in regulating this gene by the carbon source. Furthermore, the results demonstrate the existence of a new factor operating in UGA4 regulation. © 2007 SGM.