Biopterin. III. Purification and characterization of enzymes involved in the cerebral synthesis of 7,8-dihydrobiopterin

Biopterin. VII. Inhibition of synthesis of reduced biopterins and its bearing on the function of cerebral tryptophan-5-hydroxylase in vivo

Repeated intraventricular injections of 2,4-diamino-6-hydroxypyrimidine (DAO-Pyr), inhibitor of D-erythro-q-dihydroneopterin triphosphate synthetase, inhibited q-BH2 synthesis from GTP, markedly increased accumulation of 2-amino-4-hydroxy-5 (or -6)-formamido-6-triphosphoribosylaminopyrimidine (FPyd-P3) and brought about a 60% decrease in the in vivo of reduced biopterin (BH2 and BH4) pool in the brain. Nevertheless, there was no effect on the rate of hydroxylation of L-tryptophan or on the 5-hydroxytryptamine level in rat brain. These data emphasized the significance of the rate of hydrogen transfer and the limitation of the concept of "unsaturation" (i.e., the absolute amount of the carrier pterin molecule) for the synthesis of neurotransmitters in vivo.

Neopterin and biopterin levels in patients with atypical forms of phenylketonuria

The pattern of unconjugated pterins in liver tissue and in urine from patients with atypical forms of phenylketonuria with hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA) has been investigated with a high performance liquid chromatographic technique. Two patients with defects in the biosynthesis of biopterin have been shown to have higher than normal levels of neopterin and lower than normal levels of biopterin. In contrast, a patient with HPA due to a deficiency of dihydropteridine reductase has the reverse urinary pattern, i.e., high biopterin, low neopterin. These results indicate that the ratio of neopterin to biopterin in urine can be of value in discriminating between HPA due to a deficiency of phenylalanine hydroxylase (classic PKU), HPA due to dihydropteridine reductase deficiency, and HPA due to a block in the biosynthesis of biopterin.

Biopterin. VI. Purification and primary amino acid sequence of mammalian D-erythro-7,8-dihydroneopterin triphosphate synthetase

An enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of 2-amino-6-(5'-triphosphoribosyl)amino-5- or 6-formamido-6-hydroxypyrimidine, but not of guanosine triphosphate, to quinonoid 6-(D-erythro-1'-2'-3'-trihydroxypropyl)dihydropterin triphosphate and formic acid has been purified to homogeneity from some mammalian brain and liver. The enzyme of a single strand is a basic protein of 9177 daltons consisting of 68 amino acid residues--except the enzyme from rat brain, which has one additional aspartic acid as residue 7. The enzyme possesses three free SH groups and, in its most active form, 1 mol of phosphate per mole of enzyme. Peptides isolated after hydrolysis with trypsin, chymotrypsin, or weak acid were separated by thin-layer chromatography and sequenced manually by Edman degradation. The complete sequence of the molecule was established as follows: (formula: see text)

Partial purification and some properties of biopterin synthase and dihydropterin oxidase from Drosophila melanogaster

An enzyme which has been named "biopterin synthase" has been discovered in Drosophila melanogaster. This enzyme, which has been purified 200-fold from extracts of Drosophila, catalyzes the conversion of sepiapterin to dihydrobiopterin, or oxidized sepiapterin to biopterin. The Km values for the two substrates are 63 microM for sepiapterin and 10 microM for oxidized sepiapterin. NADPH is required in this enzymatic reaction. An analysis of enzyme activity during development in Drosophila indicates a correlation between enzyme activity and biopterin content at various development stages. Another enzyme, called "dihyropterin oxidase," was also discovered and partially purified. This enzyme catalyzes the oxidation of dihydropterin compounds to the corresponding pterin compounds. For example, sepiapterin (a dihydroterin) is oxidized to oxidized sepiapterin in the presence of this enzyme. The only dihydropterin that has been tested that is not a substrate for this enzyme is dihydroneopterin triphosphate, the compound thought to be a precursor for all naturally occurring pterins and dihydropterins. Since the action of dihydropterin oxidase is reduced significantly when the concentration of oxygen is very low, it is likely that this enzyme uses molecular oxygen as the oxidizing agent during the oxidation of dihydropterins. Neither NAD+ or NADP+ is required. In the presence of the two enzymes dihydropterin oxidase and biopterin synthase, sepiapterin is converted to biopterin. However, in the presence of biopterin synthase alone, sepiapterin is converted to dihydrobiopterin.

Biopterin. V. De novo synthesis of dihydrobiopterin: evidence for its quinonoid structure and lack of dependence of its reduction to tetrahydrobiopterin on dihydrofolate reductase

Samples of quinonoid‐l‐erythrodihydrobiopterin (q‐BH2) and quinonoid‐6‐methyl‐dihydro‐pterin (q‐6‐MPH2) were prepared by oxidation of l‐erythro‐5,6,7,8‐tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) and 5,6,7,8‐tetrahydro‐6‐methylpterin (6‐MPH4) and separated from D‐erythro‐7,8‐dihydrobiopterin (7,8‐BH2) and 6‐methyl‐7,8‐dihydropterin (7,8‐6‐MPH2) as well as from the tetrahydropterins on phosphocellulose column by high‐pressure liquid chromatography. The quinonoid dihydropterins were identified and quantitated by scan of their ultraviolet absorption and fluorescence emission spectra through their rearrangement to their 7,8‐tautomer and also by gas chromatography of their rapidly synthesized trimethylsilyl derivative. Identification was also achieved by the enzymatic reduction of [3H]q‐BH2to [3H]BH4 by dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). Direct proof for the enzymatic synthesis of the q‐BH2 from GTP or from 2‐amino‐6‐(5′‐triphosphoribosyl)‐amino‐5‐ or ‐6‐formamido‐6‐hydroxypyrimi‐dine (FPyd‐P3) was obtained by isolation of the compound which was identical in all respects to the q‐BH2 obtained by chemical synthesis from BH4. The reduction of enzymatically synthesized q‐BH2 by dihydropteridine reductase (DHPR) to BH4 was not inhibited by methotrexate (MTX). When the enzymatically synthesized q‐BH2 was converted to 7,8‐BH2, it was reduced only by DHFR. This reduction, however, was inhibited by MTX. On the biosynthetic pathway from GTP to dihydrobiopterin, the enzyme responsible for the appearance of the quinonoid structure is the d‐erythro‐dihydroneopterin triphosphate synthetase, the product of which (quinonoid d‐erythro‐dihydroneopterin triphosphate) is converted to quinonoid dihydrobiopterin by l‐erythro‐dihydrobiopterin synthetase. Experiments in vivo established that DHFR does not participate in the reduction of dihydrobiopterin to tetra‐hydrobiopterin when the former is synthesized from GTP de novo. MTX at 5 × 10−6M exerted no inhibition on the reduction of the biosynthetic dihydrobiopterin to tetrahydrobiopterin in vivo, yet completely inhibited the reduction of intraventricularly injected tritiated dihydrofolate ([3H]FH2) to tritiated tetrahydrofolate ([3H]FH4).