<p>Epoxides are three-membered cyclic ethers formed in the metabolism of foreign substances and as endogenous metabolites. Epoxide hydrolases (EHs) are enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of epoxides to yield the corresponding diols. EHs have been implicated in diverse functions such as detoxification of various toxic epoxides, as well as regulation of signal substance levels.</p><p>The main goal of this thesis was to investigate and characterize the α/β hydrolase fold EH. The first part concerns the identifictaion of an EH in <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>. The second part involves detailed mechanistic and structural studies of a plant EH from potato, StEH1. </p><p>Despite the important function of EH, no EH has previously been established in <i>S. cerevisiae</i>. By sequence analysis, we have identified a new subclass of EH present in yeast and in a wide range of microorganisms. The <i>S. cerevisiae</i> protein was produced recombinantly and was shown to display low catalytic activity with tested epoxide substrates. </p><p>In plants, EHs are involved in the general defence system, both in the metabolism of the cutin layer and in stress response to pathogens. The catalytic mechanism of recombinantly expressed wild type and mutant potato EH were investigated in detail using the two enantiomers of <i>trans</i>-stilbene oxide (TSO). The proposed catalytic residues of StEH1 were confirmed. StEH1 is slightly enantioselective for the <i>S,S</i>-enantiomer of<i> trans</i>-stilbene oxide. Furthermore, distinct pH dependence of the two enantiomers probably reflects differences in the microscopic rate constants of the substrates. The detailed function of the two catalytic tyrosines was also studied. The behavior of the tyrosine pair resembles that of a bidentate Lewis acid and we conclude that these tyrosines function as Lewis acids rather then proton donors.</p><p>The three dimensional structure of StEH1 was solved, representing the first structure of a plant EH. The structure provided information about the substrate specificity of StEH1.</p>

Epoxides are three-membered cyclic ethers formed in the metabolism of foreign substances and as endogenous metabolites. Epoxide hydrolases (EHs) are enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of epoxides to yield the corresponding diols. EHs have been implicated in diverse functions such as detoxification of various toxic epoxides, as well as regulation of signal substance levels. The main goal of this thesis was to investigate and characterize the α/β hydrolase fold EH. The first part concerns the identifictaion of an EH in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The second part involves detailed mechanistic and structural studies of a plant EH from potato, StEH1. Despite the important function of EH, no EH has previously been established in S. cerevisiae. By sequence analysis, we have identified a new subclass of EH present in yeast and in a wide range of microorganisms. The S. cerevisiae protein was produced recombinantly and was shown to display low catalytic activity with tested epoxide substrates. In plants, EHs are involved in the general defence system, both in the metabolism of the cutin layer and in stress response to pathogens. The catalytic mechanism of recombinantly expressed wild type and mutant potato EH were investigated in detail using the two enantiomers of trans-stilbene oxide (TSO). The proposed catalytic residues of StEH1 were confirmed. StEH1 is slightly enantioselective for the S,S-enantiomer of trans-stilbene oxide. Furthermore, distinct pH dependence of the two enantiomers probably reflects differences in the microscopic rate constants of the substrates. The detailed function of the two catalytic tyrosines was also studied. The behavior of the tyrosine pair resembles that of a bidentate Lewis acid and we conclude that these tyrosines function as Lewis acids rather then proton donors. The three dimensional structure of StEH1 was solved, representing the first structure of a plant EH. The structure provided information about the substrate specificity of StEH1.

<p> </p><p>A chemoselective catalyst is preferred in a chemical reaction where protecting groups otherwise are needed. The two lipases <em>Candida antarctica </em>lipase B and <em>Rhizomucor miehei</em> lipase showed large chemoselectivity ratios, defined as (<em>k_cat</em>/<em>K</em>_M)_OH/ (<em>k_cat</em>/<em>K</em>_M)_SH, in a transacylation reaction with ethyl octanoate as acyl donor and hexanol or hexanethiol as acyl acceptor (<strong>paper I</strong>). The chemoselectivity ratio of the uncatalyzed reaction was 120 in favour of the alcohol. Compared to the uncatalyzed reaction, the chemoselectivity was 730 times higher for <em>Candida antarctica </em>lipase B and ten times higher for <em>Rhizomucor miehei</em> lipase. The <em>K</em>_M towards the thiol was more than two orders of magnitude higher than the <em>K</em>_M towards the corresponding alcohol. This was the dominating contribution to the high chemoselectivity displayed by the two lipases. In a novel approach, <em>Candida antarctica </em>lipase B was used as catalyst for enzymatic synthesis of thiol-functionalized polyesters in a one-pot reaction without using protecting groups (<strong>paper II</strong>). Poly(e-caprolactone) with a free thiol at one of the ends was synthesized in an enzymatic ring-opening polymerization initiated with mercaptoethanol or terminated with either 3-mercaptopropionic acid or g-thiobutyrolactone.</p><p> </p>

O treinamento físico (TF) promove adaptações no sistema hematopoiético e o sítio NH2-terminal da enzima conversora de angiotensina I (ECA) hidrolisa um tetrapeptídeo hemorregulador negativo, o Acetil-Seril-Aspartil-Lisil-Prolina (Ac-SDKP). O objetivo do presente estudo foi investigar se o sítio NH2-terminal da ECA participaria nas adaptações hematopoiéticas induzidas pelo TF. Realizamos duas séries de experimentos. A primeira para determinarmos qual protocolo de TF seria o mais adequado para estudar as adaptações eritropoiéticas e a segunda para estudar o papel do sítio NH2-terminal da ECA nessas adaptações. Série de experimentos 1: ratas Wistar foram divididas em 3 grupos: controle (C), que realizaram TF (60 min/d, 5dias/sem) de 10 semanas uma vez ao dia (T1) e que realizaram o mesmo TF por 8 semanas, seguido de uma semana 2 vezes ao dia e uma semana 3 vezes ao dia (T2). Série de experimentos 2: ratas Wistar foram divididas em 4 grupos: controle (C), controle tratadas com captopril (10 mg.kg-1.dia-1) (C-Cap), treinadas sob o protocolo T2 (T2) e treinadas sob o protocolo T2 tratadas com captopril (T2-Cap). Foram medidos: 1) a pressão arterial (PA) e a freqüência cardíaca; 2) a hipertrofia cardíaca e atividade da citrato sintase; 3) o consumo máximo de oxigênio, o tempo de exercício e a distância percorrida em teste máximo; 4) a atividade catalítica dos terminais da ECA; 5) a concentração plasmática e na fração extracelular da medula óssea de Ac-SDKP; 6) o número e a proliferação de células tronco hematopoiéticas (CTH) no sangue e medula; 8) a reticulocitose e meia-vida das hemácias. As diferenças observadas apresentaram p<0,05. Série de experimentos 1: o protocolo T2 induziu maiores adaptações fisiológicas, morfológicas e funcionais em comparação ao T1. O protocolo T2 foi eficaz em promover adaptações no sistema eritropoiético como aumento no número e na capacidade proliferativa de CTH, no percentual de reticulócitos e redução na meia-vida das hemácias. O protocolo T2 aumentou a atividade catalítica do sítio NH2-terminal da ECA e reduziu a concentração plasmática e na fração extracelular da medula óssea de Ac-SDKP, o que não foi observado em T1. Série de experimentos 2: o grupo T2 apresentou aumento na atividade NH2-terminal da ECA, que foi inibido no grupo T2-Cap. A inibição do sítio NH2-terminal da ECA não influenciou a PA nem afetou as respostas ao treinamento. O grupo T2 apresentou redução na concentração plasmática e na fração extracelular da medula óssea de Ac-SDKP, enquanto no grupo T2-Cap não houve redução do Ac-SDKP no plasma e houve atenuação da redução na fração extracelular da medula óssea. Houve aumento no número e na proliferação de CTH na medula óssea e no sangue no grupo T2 e este aumento foi parcialmente inibido no grupo T2-Cap. Houve aumento na reticulocitose no grupo T2 e inibição parcial deste aumento no grupo T2-Cap. A meia-vida das hemácias foi reduzida em 50% no grupo T2, enquanto no grupo T2-Cap houve atenuação da redução. Concluímos que o protocolo de treino T2 estimula a hematopoiese pelo aumento na atividade do sítio NH2-terminal da ECA, aumento este que inativa o tetrapeptídeo Ac-SDKP. / Physical training (PT) promotes changes in the hematopoietic system and the NH2-terminal active site of angiotensin-converting enzyme I (ACE) hydrolyzes a tetrapeptide, negative hemoregulador, the acetyl-seryl-aspartyl-lysyl-proline (Ac-SDKP). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the NH2-terminal active site of ACE plays a role in the hematopoietic changes induced by PT. We conducted two series of experiments. The first in prder to determine which PT protocol would be more appropriate to study the erythropoietic adaptations and the second to study the role of the NH2-terminal site of ACE in these adaptations. Experiment series 1: female Wistar rats were divided into 3 groups: control (C), submitted to PT (60 min/d, 5d/week) for 10 weeks once a day (T1) and submitted to the same TF for 8 weeks, followed by a week 2 times a day and a week 3 times a day (T2). Experiment series 2: female Wistar rats were divided into four groups: control (C), control treated with captopril (10 mg.kg-1.day-1) (C-Cap), trained under the protocol T2 (T2) and trained under protocol T2 treated with captopril (Cap-T2). We measured: 1) blood pressure (BP) and heart rate, 2) cardiac hypertrophy and citrate synthase activity, 3) the maximum oxygen consumption, exercise time and distance in maximal test, 4) catalytic activity ACE terminals, 5) plasma and bone marrow extracellular fraction concentration of Ac-SDKP, 6) the number and proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) in the blood and marrow, 8) reticulocytosis and erythrocyte life-spam. The observed differences presented p <0.05. Experiment series 1: T2 protocol induced greater physiological, morphological and functional compared to T1. T2 protocol was effective in causing changes in the erythropoietic system such as increase the number and proliferative capacity of HSC, the percentage of reticulocytes and reduced erythrocyte life-spam. The protocol T2 increased the catalytic activity of the NH2-terminal site of ACE and decreased plasma and bone marrow extracellular fraction concentration of Ac-SDKP, which was not observed in T1. Experiment series 2: the T2 group showed an increase in the activity of the NH2-terminal ACE, which was inhibited in group T2-Cap. Inhibition of the NH2-terminal site of ACE did not influence or affect the BP responses to training. The T2 group showed a reduction in plasma and bone marrow extracellular fraction of Ac-SDKP, whereas in the T2-Cap there was no reduction of Ac-SDKP in plasma and there was attenuation of the reduction in the extracellular fraction of bone marrow. There was an increase in the number and proliferation of HSC in bone marrow and blood in the T2 group and this increase was partially inhibited in group T2-Cap. There was an increase in reticulocytosis in group T2 and partial inhibition of the increase in T2-Cap group. The erythrocyte life-spam was reduced by 50% in T2, while in the T2-Cap group there was attenuation of the reduction. We conclude that the training protocol T2 stimulates hematopoiesis by increasing the activity of the NH2-terminal site of ACE, an increase that inactivates the tetrapeptide Ac-SDKP.

O treinamento físico (TF) promove adaptações no sistema hematopoiético e o sítio NH2-terminal da enzima conversora de angiotensina I (ECA) hidrolisa um tetrapeptídeo hemorregulador negativo, o Acetil-Seril-Aspartil-Lisil-Prolina (Ac-SDKP). O objetivo do presente estudo foi investigar se o sítio NH2-terminal da ECA participaria nas adaptações hematopoiéticas induzidas pelo TF. Realizamos duas séries de experimentos. A primeira para determinarmos qual protocolo de TF seria o mais adequado para estudar as adaptações eritropoiéticas e a segunda para estudar o papel do sítio NH2-terminal da ECA nessas adaptações. Série de experimentos 1: ratas Wistar foram divididas em 3 grupos: controle (C), que realizaram TF (60 min/d, 5dias/sem) de 10 semanas uma vez ao dia (T1) e que realizaram o mesmo TF por 8 semanas, seguido de uma semana 2 vezes ao dia e uma semana 3 vezes ao dia (T2). Série de experimentos 2: ratas Wistar foram divididas em 4 grupos: controle (C), controle tratadas com captopril (10 mg.kg-1.dia-1) (C-Cap), treinadas sob o protocolo T2 (T2) e treinadas sob o protocolo T2 tratadas com captopril (T2-Cap). Foram medidos: 1) a pressão arterial (PA) e a freqüência cardíaca; 2) a hipertrofia cardíaca e atividade da citrato sintase; 3) o consumo máximo de oxigênio, o tempo de exercício e a distância percorrida em teste máximo; 4) a atividade catalítica dos terminais da ECA; 5) a concentração plasmática e na fração extracelular da medula óssea de Ac-SDKP; 6) o número e a proliferação de células tronco hematopoiéticas (CTH) no sangue e medula; 8) a reticulocitose e meia-vida das hemácias. As diferenças observadas apresentaram p<0,05. Série de experimentos 1: o protocolo T2 induziu maiores adaptações fisiológicas, morfológicas e funcionais em comparação ao T1. O protocolo T2 foi eficaz em promover adaptações no sistema eritropoiético como aumento no número e na capacidade proliferativa de CTH, no percentual de reticulócitos e redução na meia-vida das hemácias. O protocolo T2 aumentou a atividade catalítica do sítio NH2-terminal da ECA e reduziu a concentração plasmática e na fração extracelular da medula óssea de Ac-SDKP, o que não foi observado em T1. Série de experimentos 2: o grupo T2 apresentou aumento na atividade NH2-terminal da ECA, que foi inibido no grupo T2-Cap. A inibição do sítio NH2-terminal da ECA não influenciou a PA nem afetou as respostas ao treinamento. O grupo T2 apresentou redução na concentração plasmática e na fração extracelular da medula óssea de Ac-SDKP, enquanto no grupo T2-Cap não houve redução do Ac-SDKP no plasma e houve atenuação da redução na fração extracelular da medula óssea. Houve aumento no número e na proliferação de CTH na medula óssea e no sangue no grupo T2 e este aumento foi parcialmente inibido no grupo T2-Cap. Houve aumento na reticulocitose no grupo T2 e inibição parcial deste aumento no grupo T2-Cap. A meia-vida das hemácias foi reduzida em 50% no grupo T2, enquanto no grupo T2-Cap houve atenuação da redução. Concluímos que o protocolo de treino T2 estimula a hematopoiese pelo aumento na atividade do sítio NH2-terminal da ECA, aumento este que inativa o tetrapeptídeo Ac-SDKP. / Physical training (PT) promotes changes in the hematopoietic system and the NH2-terminal active site of angiotensin-converting enzyme I (ACE) hydrolyzes a tetrapeptide, negative hemoregulador, the acetyl-seryl-aspartyl-lysyl-proline (Ac-SDKP). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the NH2-terminal active site of ACE plays a role in the hematopoietic changes induced by PT. We conducted two series of experiments. The first in prder to determine which PT protocol would be more appropriate to study the erythropoietic adaptations and the second to study the role of the NH2-terminal site of ACE in these adaptations. Experiment series 1: female Wistar rats were divided into 3 groups: control (C), submitted to PT (60 min/d, 5d/week) for 10 weeks once a day (T1) and submitted to the same TF for 8 weeks, followed by a week 2 times a day and a week 3 times a day (T2). Experiment series 2: female Wistar rats were divided into four groups: control (C), control treated with captopril (10 mg.kg-1.day-1) (C-Cap), trained under the protocol T2 (T2) and trained under protocol T2 treated with captopril (Cap-T2). We measured: 1) blood pressure (BP) and heart rate, 2) cardiac hypertrophy and citrate synthase activity, 3) the maximum oxygen consumption, exercise time and distance in maximal test, 4) catalytic activity ACE terminals, 5) plasma and bone marrow extracellular fraction concentration of Ac-SDKP, 6) the number and proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) in the blood and marrow, 8) reticulocytosis and erythrocyte life-spam. The observed differences presented p <0.05. Experiment series 1: T2 protocol induced greater physiological, morphological and functional compared to T1. T2 protocol was effective in causing changes in the erythropoietic system such as increase the number and proliferative capacity of HSC, the percentage of reticulocytes and reduced erythrocyte life-spam. The protocol T2 increased the catalytic activity of the NH2-terminal site of ACE and decreased plasma and bone marrow extracellular fraction concentration of Ac-SDKP, which was not observed in T1. Experiment series 2: the T2 group showed an increase in the activity of the NH2-terminal ACE, which was inhibited in group T2-Cap. Inhibition of the NH2-terminal site of ACE did not influence or affect the BP responses to training. The T2 group showed a reduction in plasma and bone marrow extracellular fraction of Ac-SDKP, whereas in the T2-Cap there was no reduction of Ac-SDKP in plasma and there was attenuation of the reduction in the extracellular fraction of bone marrow. There was an increase in the number and proliferation of HSC in bone marrow and blood in the T2 group and this increase was partially inhibited in group T2-Cap. There was an increase in reticulocytosis in group T2 and partial inhibition of the increase in T2-Cap group. The erythrocyte life-spam was reduced by 50% in T2, while in the T2-Cap group there was attenuation of the reduction. We conclude that the training protocol T2 stimulates hematopoiesis by increasing the activity of the NH2-terminal site of ACE, an increase that inactivates the tetrapeptide Ac-SDKP.

HIV-1 protease (PR) inhibitors (PIs) are important anti-HIV drugs for the treatment of AIDS and have shown great success in reducing mortality and prolonging the life of HIV-infected individuals. However, the rapid development of drug resistance is one of the major factors causing the reduced effectiveness of PIs. Consequently, various drug resistant mutants of HIV-1 PR have been extensively studied to gain insight into the mechanisms of drug resistance. In this study, the crystal structures, dimer stabilities, and kinetics data have been analyzed for wild type PR and over 10 resistant mutants including PRL24I, PRI32V, PRM46L, PRG48V, PRI50V, PRF53L, PRI54V, PRI54M, PRG73S and PRL90M. These mutations lie in varied structural regions of PR: adjacent to the active site, in the inhibitor binding site, the flap or at protein surface. The enzymatic activity and inhibition were altered in mutant PR to various degrees. Crystal structures of the mutants complexed with a substrate analog inhibitor or drugs indinavir, saquinavir and darunavir were determined at resolutions of 0.84 – 1.50 Å. Each mutant revealed distinct structural changes, which are usually located at the mutated residue, the flap and inhibitor binding sites. Moreover, darunavir was shown to bind to PR at a new site on the flap surface in PRI32V and PRM46L. The existence of this additional inhibitor binding site may explain the high effectiveness of darunavir on drug resistant mutants. Moreover, the unliganded structure PRF53L had a wider separation at the tips of the flaps than in unliganded wild type PR. The absence of flap interactions in PRF53L suggests a novel mechanism for drug resistance. Therefore, this study enhanced our understanding of the role of individual residues in the development of drug resistance and the structural basis of drug resistance mechanisms. Atomic resolution crystal structures are valuable for the design of more potent protease inhibitors to overcome the drug resistance problem.

The study of enzyme binding sites is an essential but rather demanding process of increased complexity since the amino acids lining these areas are not rigid. At the same time, the minimization of side effects and the specificity of new ligands is a great challenge in the structure-based drug design approach. Using glycogen phosphorylase - a validated target for the development of new antidiabetic agents - as a case study, this project focuses on the examination of side-chain conformations of amino acids that play a key role in the catalytic site of the enzyme. Specifically, different rotamers of each amino acid were collected to build a dataset of different conformations of the catalytic site. The rotamers were filtered by their probability of occurrence and subsequently, all rotamers that create steric clashes were rejected. Then, these conformations were clustered based on their similarity. Three different clustering algorithms and multiple numbers of clusters were tested using the silhouette scores evaluation for the clustering process. In order to measure the similarity, the Euclidean metric was used which due to the correspondence of the coordinates between the conformations was very similar to the cRMSD metric. Two-level clustering was applied to the dataset for more in-depth observations. According to the clustering results, specific aminoacids with major geometrical variations in their rotamers play the most important role in the separation of the clusters. Additionally, all rotamers of an amino acid can be grouped based on their structure, something that was confirmed using “Chimera” software as a visualization tool. To this end, the ultimate aim of this study is to examine whether the clustering of conformations produces clusters with points geometrically similar to each other, in order to identify near neighbors, i.e. conformations that are quite similar in structure but do not play a determinant role in the function and those that are quite diverse and could be further exploited.

A newly discovered cysteine protease, Prp, has been shown to perform an essential, site-specific cleavage of ribosomal protein L27 in Staphylococcus aureus. In Firmicutes and related bacteria, ribosomal protein L27 is encoded with a conserved N-terminal extension that must be removed to expose residues critical for ribosome function. Uncleavable and pre-cleaved variants were unable to complement an L27 deletion in S. aureus, indicating that this N-terminal processing event is essential and likely plays an important regulatory role. The gene encoding the responsible protease (prp) has been shown to be essential, and is found in all organisms encoding the N-terminal extension of L27. Cleavage of L27 by Prp represents a new target for potential antibiotic therapy. In order to characterize this protease, Prp has been overexpressed and purified. Using an assay we have developed, based on cleavage of a fluorogenic peptide derived from the conserved L27 cleavage sequence, we have undertaken an analysis of the enzyme kinetics and substrate specificity for Prp cleavage and tested predictions made based on a structural model using active-site mutants.

<p>Degradation of the mRNA 3'-end located poly(A) tail is an important step for mRNA decay in mammalian cells. Thus, to understand mRNA decay in detail, it is important to identify the catalytic activities involved in degrading poly(A). We identified and purified a 54-kDa polypeptide responsible for poly(A)-specific 3' exonuclease activity in calf thymus extracts. The 54-kDa polypeptide is a proteolytic fragment of the poly(A)-specific ribonuclease (PARN) 74-kDa polypeptide. PARN is a divalent metal ion dependent, poly(A)-specific, oligomeric, processive and cap interacting 3' exonuclease. An active deadenylation complex, consisting of the poly(A)-tailed RNA substrate and PARN, has been identified. The interaction with the 5'-end cap structure stimulates PARN activity and also amplifies the processivity of the deadenylation reaction. Furthermore, the cap binding site and the active site of PARN are separate from each other. To characterise the active site of PARN, we per-formed side-directed mutagenesis, Fe²⁺-mediated hydroxyl radical cleavage and metal ion switch experiments. We have demonstrated that the conserved acidic amino acid residues D28, E30, D292 and D382 of human PARN are essential for PARN activity and that these amino acid residues are directly involved in the co-ordination of at least two metal ions in the active site of PARN. Phosphorothioate modification on RNA substrates revealed that the pro-R oxygen atom of the scissile phosphate group interacts directly with the metal ion(s). Based on our studies, we propose a model for the action of PARN. Similarly to what has been observed for ribozymes, aminoglycoside antibiotics inhibit PARN activity, most likely by the displacement of catalytically important divalent metal ions. Among the aminoglycoside antibiotics tested, neomycin B is the most potent inhibitor. We speculate that inhibition of enzymes using similar catalytic mechanisms as PARN could be a reason for the toxic side effects caused by aminoglycoside antibiotics in clinical practice. </p>

<p>An <i>in vitro</i> method was developed for measuring aromatase, based on binding of competitive aromatase inhibitor [¹¹C]vorozole to the active site of the enzyme. [¹¹C]Vorozole displayed high, specific binding <i>in vitro</i> to human placenta and human granulosa cells (GC), both fresh and frozen/thawed cells, provided correct procedures were used. High, specific binding was also observed in pig and rat ovaries, whereas binding in other tissues was unspecific and usually low. Aromatase concentrations measured by [¹¹C]vorozole binding correlated well to aromatase activity measured by [³H]water release from 1β[³H]androstenedione. </p><p>In human GC <i>in vitro</i>, low concentrations of 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT), but not of other androgens, stimulated aromatase activity measured by [³H]water release but had no effects on aromatase concentration measured by [¹¹C]vorozole binding. DHT may interact with aromatase differently than other androgens, perhaps by changing aromatase affinity to precursor. </p><p>In the rat estrous cycle, aromatase activity in ovarian homogenate, measured by [³H]water release, together with serum androstenedione and estradiol-17β, peaked between 6 and 13 h after onset of the light period of proestrus, the former activity being independent of radioactive substrate concentration. [¹¹C]Vorozole binding characteristics changed more rapidly than <i>de novo</i> synthesis of the enzyme. [¹¹C]Vorozole binding K_dshowed close inverse correlation to aromatase activity in ovarian homogenate and to serum estradiol-17β. Rapid changes in substrate affinity rather than changes in substrate concentration or <i>de novo</i> synthesis of the enzyme may thus be important for regulation of ovarian aromatase. </p><p>The [¹¹C]vorozole <i>in vivo</i> technique yields additional information compared with traditional in vitro techniques. </p>