Ellipticine is an alkaloid isolated from Apocynaceae plants exhibiting significant antitumor and anti-HIV activities. Cytochromes P450 (CYP) and peroxidases are the enzymes participating in metabolism of ellipticine. This process provides activation and detoxication metabolites of ellipticine. The CYP enzymes, which participate in oxidation of ellipticine in different tissues (liver, lung and kidney) of rat, a model organism simulating the fate of ellipticine in humans have already been identified. In this work, the effects of ellipticine on contents and catalytic activities of CYPs and other components of the mixed-function oxidase (MFO) system in this animal system were studied. For detection of contents of CYPs and other components of the MFO system, spectroscopic and electrochemical methods were used. To determine catalytic activities of CYPs and NADPH:cytochrome P450 reductase, reactions with specific substrates of these enzymes were utilized. The results found in this study demonstrate that expression and catalytic activity of CYP1A is induced by ellipticine in all of the tested organs (liver, kidney and lung) of rats treated with the drug. Moreover in liver, the cytochrome b5 expression is also induced. In addition, in this organ, expression and catalytic activity of CYP3A was increased by...

The opportunistic fungus Candida albicans is a commensal member of the human microflora and is the most common causative agent of fungal-related disease with particular significance in immunocompromised individuals. Emerging drug resistance is a major problem in Candida, contributed by enzymes involved in the detoxification of xenobiotics and pharmacological agents. One such enzyme, cytochrome b5 reductase (cb5r), has a high pharmacological significance owing to its role in fatty acid elongation, ergosterol (or cholesterol in mammals) biosynthesis, and cytochrome P450-mediated detoxification of xenobiotics. We have compared the kinetic, biochemical, and pharmacological characteristics of C. albicans cb5r isoforms, Cbr1 and Mcr1, as compared to the mammalian control, rat cb5r. We have observed two key structural differences between the fungal and mammalian proteins that may account for decreased thermal stability and inhibitor specificity of C. albicans Cbr1. Substrate binding affinity and catalytic efficiencies, as well as investigation in the flavin-binding environment, were comparable between the fungal and rat enzymes. In S. cerevisiae, CBR1 and MCR1 knockout strains have been challenged with environmental stressors and subsequently shown to have a role in azole and amphotericin B resistance. Our results of potential protein interactions of C. albicans Cbr1 describe proteins involved in the weak acid stress response, implying a novel role of the protein in pathogenicity. Conclusively, this report describes potential inhibitors of the fungal protein, as well as elaborating upon its important role in ergosterol biosynthesis and possible mechanisms of CYP450-mediated drug detoxification.

ABSTRACT Cytochrome b5 (CYB5) is heme protein capable of reduction of cytochromes P450 (CYP) or some other enzymes. However, his regulative capability was also observed by his apo form, i.e. in absence of heme prosthetic group in the active center. CYB5 can accept electron from cytochrome b5 reductase (CYB5R) or from cytochrome P450 reductase (CYPOR). CYPOR by itself is reduced by NADPH and is also able to forward electron to CYP independently of CYB5. CYB5R on the other hand is reduced by NADH. Efficiency of CYB5 to accept and forward an electron was studied in vitro with five different substrates - testosterone, Sudan I, aristolochic acid I (AAI), ellipticine and vandetanib. These substrates were chosen considering their characteristic reactions, which are catalyzed by their respective isoforms of CYP. The experiments with these substrates were carried out in the medium with recombinant CYPs prepared in insect cells or E. coli or in the medium with hepatic microsomes isolated from different organisms. Rats, from which the majority of these microsomes was isolated, were premedicated by different CYP inducers. The experiments were carried out in medium with NADH or NADPH in order to assess the capability of CYB5 to reduce CYP independently of CYPOR. The capability of CYB5 and CYB5R to act as a...

7 Abstract Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumor of childhood. Despite advances in cancer diagnosis and therapy, the treatment of some forms of neuroblastoma is still complicated. One of the major complications of the chemotherapy is a developed drug resistance. This master thesis deals with the effect of cytostatics on protein and gene expression of selected proteins, which may contribute to chemoresistance of the human neuroblastoma cell line UKF-NB-4. The sensitive line UKF-NB-4 and the resistant line UKF-NB-4CDDP , UKF-NB-4DOXO and UKF-NB-4ELLI were exposed to cisplatin, doxorubicin, ellipticine for 24, 48 and 72 hours. The Western blot analysis showed that cytostatic agents cisplatin, doxorubicin or ellipticine added to the sensitive neuroblastoma cell line UKF-NB-4 in amounts which are added to resistant neuroblastoma cell lines in order to maintain resistance induced expression of p53 and reduced expression of retinoblastoma protein pRb after 72 hours of cultivation. Differences in the expression of RAS protein, cytochrome P450 1A1, 3A4 and cytochrome b5 has not been shown. Changes in the expression of the studied proteins in resistant lines UKF-NB-4CDDP , UKF-NB-4DOXO and UKF-NB-4ELLI cultured with and without cytostatic agents were not detected by the Western blot analysis....

Ellipticine is an alkaloid with antitumor activity, whose mechanism of action is based on intercalation into DNA, inhibition of topoisomerase II and formation of covalent adducts with DNA, after its enzymatic activation by cytochromes P450 and/or peroxidases. Ellipticine is oxidized by cytochromes P450 to form up to five metabolites (7-hydroxy-, 9-hydroxy, 12- hydroxy-, 13-hydroxyellipticine and N2 -oxide ellipticine). 9-Hydroxy- and 7- hydroxyellipticine are considered to be detoxification metabolites, whereas 12-hydroxy-, 13- hydroxyellipticine and N2 -oxide of ellipticine are considered as activation metabolites, which are responsible for formation of covalent DNA adducts. The aim of this thesis was to examine the efficiency of human recombinant cytochromes P450 expressed in eukaryotic (SupersomesTM ) and two prokaryotic expression systems (Bactosomes) in oxidation of ellipticine. Cytochromes P450 expressed in prokaryotic systems differed in the amounts of "coexpressed" NADPH:CYP reductase. The resulting ellipticine metabolites were analyzed by HPLC. The results obtained in this thesis demonstrate that human cytochromes P450 2C9/2D6/2C19 expressed in prokaryotic or eukaryotic systems oxidize ellipticine to form up to four metabolites: 9-hydroxy-, 12-hydroxy-, 13-hydroxyellipticine and N2 -oxide...

13 Abstract An environmental pollutant and a human carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) is after its activation with cytochrome P450 (CYP) able to covalently bind to DNA. In the thesis, one of the target was to investigate an influence of individual components of mixed function monooxygenase (MFO) system on metabolism of benzo[a]pyrene and generation of adducts of activated BaP with DNA. The study was particularly focused to increase our knowledge on the effect of cyt b5 on metabolism of BaP by cytochrome P450 1A1 (CYP1A1) and its potential to serve as a donor of electrons during the reaction cycle of this cytochrome P450. The effect of cyt b5 on generation of BaP metabolites and adducts of BaP with DNA was investigated. In addition the effect of two different expression systems for cytochrome P450 1A1 (prokaryotic and eukaryotic) was also studied. The influence of cyt b5 on oxidation another xenobiotic compound, a plant alkaloid ellipticine that exhibit antitumor activities, was also investigated. Its pharmacological efficiency, as well as side effects depends on its metabolic activation by cytochrome P450. CYP3A4 is very important for ellipticine activation and therefore this enzyme was used in our experiments. Furthermore, a suitability of rat as a model organism mimicking the metabolic fate of BaP...

The yeasts Pichia pastoris and Kluyveromyces lactis were used to express several recombinant human proteins for further biochemical characterization. Two substitution variants of recombinant human enteropeptidase light chain (rhEPL) were engineered to modify the extended substrate specificity of this serine protease. Both were secreted as active enzymes in excess of 1.7 mg/L in P. pastoris fermentation broth. The substitution variant rhEPL R96Q showed significantly reduced specificities for the preferred substrate sequences DDDDK and DDDDR; however, the rhEPL Y174R variant displayed improved specificities for these substrate sequences relative to all other reported variants of this enzyme. The neutrophil serine proteases human cathepsin G (hCatG) and human neutrophil elastase (HNE) were expressed in P. pastoris and HNE was also expressed in K. lactis. The recombinant variants rhCatG and rHNE, with intact C-terminal extensions, were expressed as fusion proteins with the soluble heme-binding domain of cytochrome B5 (CytB5) and an N-terminal hexahistidine (6xHis) tag for purification. The CytB5 domain was linked to the native N-termini of active rhCatG and rHNE by the EPLcleavable substrate sequence DDDDK~I, where ~ is the sessile bond. These fusion proteins were directed for secretion. The yeast P. pastoris expressed up to 3.5 mg/L of EPL-activable rHNE in fermentation broth; however, only 200 μg/L of rhCatG could be produced by this method. Recombinant expression in K. lactis never surpassed 100 μg/L of activable rHNE. The CytB5 fusion domain was present in the heme-bound form, conferring a red color and 410 nm absorbance peak to solutions containing the fusion proteins. This absorbance pattern was most readily visible during the purification of CytB5-rHNE from P. pastoris. Human C-reactive protein (hCRP) and the substitution variant CRP E42Q were expressed in recombinant form and secreted by P. pastoris. Both products were found to bind phosphocholine (PCh) in the same manner as native hCRP. Difficulties encountered during purification revealed that wild type recombinant CRP (rCRP) was produced at 2 different molecular masses. The P. pastoris recombinant expression system yielded better results than K. lactis. Bioreactor-scale fermentation in a 5 L vessel facilitated expression and characterization of these recombinant proteins.

Cytochromes P450 are the major xenobiotics converting enzymes. They are classified as mixed function monooxygenases (MFO). Isoform 1A1 is a extrahepatic form found mainly in the lung and other tissues. It is strongly induced by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives via the Ah receptor. As a marker reaction for this enzyme can be used hydroxylation of Sudan I, which has previously been widely used as a azo dye in industry, but since 1980s it is banned for coloring food and cosmetics for its negative influence on the organism. NADPH:cytochrome P450 reductase is the major electron donor for cytochrome P450 catalyzed monooxygenation reactions. Another electron carrier for cytochrome P450 catalyzed reactions is cytochrome b5. It was shown that cytochrome b5 can stimulate, inhibit or have no effect on P450 catalyzed reactions. This thesis aims to evaluate the influence of the ration between NADPH:cytochrome P450 reductase and cytochrome b5 on cytochrome P450 1A1 catalyzed Sudan I hydroxylation. The main goal is to characterize the influence of electron donor and electron transfer ratios on hydroxylation of Sudan I, and to determine the kinetic parameters KM and VMAX for selected protein ratios. Partial aims of the thesis were to characterize the recombinant proteins used in this study...

Cytochromes P450 (CYP) are a superfamily of heme proteins distributed widely throughout nature, involved in metabolism of a broad variety of substrates and catalyzing a variety of interesting chemical reactions. They play a central role in metabolism of chemotherapeutic agents. Several prodrug antitumor agents have been found as CYP substrates. Ellipticine, an alkaloid found in Apocynaceae plants, is an example of such type of pro-drug. Here, we investigate the efficiencies of human recombinant CYPs expressed in eukaryotic and prokaryotic expression systems, namely in SupersomesTM , microsomes isolated from insect cells transfected with baculovirus construct containing cDNA of human CYP1A1, 1A2 and 3A4 with NADPH:CYP reductase or in Bactosomes, the membrane fraction of E. coli transfected with cDNA of the same human CYP enzymes and NADPH:CYP reductase to oxidize their marker substrates and ellipticine. Cytochrome b5, an aditional component of the mixed function oxidase system, which metabolize xenobiotics was also expressed in some of the systems. The results found in this work demonstrate that human CYP1A1, 1A2 or 3A4 expressed in both eukaryotic and procaryotic systems oxidize their marker substrates (EROD for CYP1A1/2, MROD for CYP1A2 and testosterone 6β-hydroxylation for CYP3A4). They also oxidize...

Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) is a human carcinogen, which is metabolized by a variety of enzyms such as cytochrome P450 (CYP) and epoxide hydrolase. The aim of this work was to study BaP metabolism in vitro by the hepatic microsomal system of rats treated with CYP inducers and by human cytochrome P450 1A1 (CYP1A1) expressed in eukaryotic and prokaryotic systems. An eukaryotic expression system consisted of microsomes isolated from insect cells, whereas a prokaryotic expression system was formed by the membrane fragments of E. coli. In the case of recombinant human CYP1A1, we investigated the influence of cytochrome b5, NADPH:cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR) and epoxide hydrolase in BaP oxidation. Isolation and purification of rabbit hepatic CPR was another aim of this work. BaP metabolites were separated by HPLC. The results found in this work demostrate the fact that hepatic microsomal systems of rats treated with an inducer of CYP1A (Sudan I), an inducer of CYP2B (phenobarbital) and an inducer of CYP3A (PCN) exhibit higher efficiency of BaP oxidation than microsomes of control rats. BaP is oxidized by human CYP1A1 expressed in the eukaryotic system to six metabolites (BaP-9,10-dihydrodiol, BaP metabolite with unknown structure, BaP-7,8-dihydrodiol, BaP-1,6-dion, BaP-3,6-dion, BaP-3-ol), whereas by human...