Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase

About: Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2527 publications have been published within this topic receiving 58034 citations. The topic is also known as: glucose-6-phosphate 1-dehydrogenase & G6PD.

Glucose-6-phosphate Dehydrogenase

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6P-DH), which was first isolated from erythrocytes and from fermenting yeast by Warburg et al., who carried out an extensive purification and characterization of the enzyme. Blood cells, adipose tissue, and lactating mammary gland are especially rich sources of the enzyme. Some human and animal tumors contain high activity of the enzyme. G6P-DH is applied in biochemistry and clinical chemistry. Triethanolamine buffer (50 mM, pH 7.5) containing 5 mM EDTA has proved best. Measurements are made on tissue samples with 0.67 mM G-6-P and 0.5 mM NADP, which are optimum concentrations for the enzyme from erythrocytes. G6P-DH is inhibited by primaquine and other 8-aminoquinolines (antimalarial drugs) in millimolar concentration, as well as by phenylhydrazine. Nevertheless, the therapeutic concentration of these substances is more than tenfold lower and therefore, they have no significant effect on the measurements.

Further studies on the properties and assay of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase of rat liver.

Abstract: Renewed interest in the direct oxidative pathway of glucose 6-phosphate metabolism during the last few years has revealed that this pathway is by no means restricted to erythrocytes, yeast and microorganisms. The triphosphopyridine-nucleotide(TPN)-specific glucose 6-phosphate and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenases are also widely distributed in mammalian tissues (Dickens & Glock, 1950, 1951; Horecker & Smyrniotis, 1951), in a variety of lower plants and animals (Cohen, 1950) and also in higher plants (Conn & Vennesland, 1951; Gibbs, 1952). The significance of this pathway in animal tissues, its physiological control and the relative importance of the direct oxidative and glycolytic routes of carbohydrate metabolism are still, however, chiefly matters of conjecture. An essential preliminary step to such an investigation is to devise a satisfactory procedure for the assay of glucose 6-phosphate and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenases in animal tissues and it was with this object in view that the present work was undertaken.

p53 regulates biosynthesis through direct inactivation of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase

Abstract: Cancer cells consume large quantities of glucose and primarily use glycolysis for ATP production, even in the presence of adequate oxygen. This metabolic signature (aerobic glycolysis or the Warburg effect) enables cancer cells to direct glucose to biosynthesis, supporting their rapid growth and proliferation. However, both causes of the Warburg effect and its connection to biosynthesis are not well understood. Here we show that the tumour suppressor p53, the most frequently mutated gene in human tumours, inhibits the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP). Through the PPP, p53 suppresses glucose consumption, NADPH production and biosynthesis. The p53 protein binds to glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), the first and rate-limiting enzyme of the PPP, and prevents the formation of the active dimer. Tumour-associated p53 mutants lack the G6PD-inhibitory activity. Therefore, enhanced PPP glucose flux due to p53 inactivation may increase glucose consumption and direct glucose towards biosynthesis in tumour cells.

Targeted disruption of the housekeeping gene encoding glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD): G6PD is dispensable for pentose synthesis but essential for defense against oxidative stress

Abstract: Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) is a housekeeping enzyme encoded in mammals by an X-linked gene. It has important functions in intermediary metabolism because it catalyzes the first step in the pentose phosphate pathway and provides reductive potential in the form of NADPH. In human populations, many mutant G6PD alleles (some present at polymorphic frequencies) cause a partial loss of G6PD activity and a variety of hemolytic anemias, which vary from mild to severe. All these mutants have some residual enzyme activity, and no large deletions in the G6PD gene have ever been found. To test which, if any, function of G6PD is essential, we have disrupted the G6PD gene in male mouse embryonic stem cells by targeted homologous recombination. We have isolated numerous clones, shown to be recombinant by Southern blot analysis, in which G6PD activity is undetectable. We have extensively characterized individual clones and found that they are extremely sensitive to H2O2 and to the sulfydryl group oxidizing agent, diamide. Their markedly impaired cloning efficiency is restored by reducing the oxygen tension. We conclude that G6PD activity is dispensable for pentose synthesis, but is essential to protect cells against even mild oxidative stress.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase: a "housekeeping" enzyme subject to tissue-specific regulation by hormones, nutrients, and oxidant stress.

Abstract: The enzyme, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH, EC1.1.1.49), has long been considered and studied as the archetypical X-linked "housekeeping" enzyme that is present in all cells, where it plays the key role in regulating carbon flow through the pentose phosphate pathway. Specifically, the enzyme catalyzes the first reaction in the pathway leading to the production of pentose phosphates and reducing power in the form of NADPH for reductive biosynthesis and maintenance of the redox state of the cell. It was in this latter function that the crucial importance of the enzyme was first appreciated with the description of the human deficiency syndrome. While the gene can be considered to be a constitutively expressed "housekeeping" gene in many tissues, there are several other tissues (liver, adipose, lung, and proliferating cells) wherein modulation of cellular G6PDH activity represents an important component of the integrated response to external stimuli (hormones, growth factors, nutrients, and oxidant stress). In this regard, adaptive regulation of G6PDH has been found to be exerted at transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. However, the regulation observed is tissue-specific, which elicits the central question of this review, "How can the G6PDH gene be constitutively expressed in some tissues while displaying adaptive regulation in others when there exists a single transcription unit for the gene?" Future studies utilizing cloned genomic fragments of the human and other mammalian G6PDH genes should provide answers to this question.