Mmol/ml, respectively) compared to N (7.99±0.60 Amol/ml).Phosphatidylcholine was decreased in A (62.64±2.20% PL) compared to N (76.27±2.05% PL). Phosphatidylglycerol was 11.58±1.21% PL in N and was decreased to 6.48±1.43% PL in A. SP-A was 123.64±20.66 zg/ml in N and was decreased to 49.28±21.68 jg/ml in AR and to 29.88±8.49 jg/ml in A. SP-B was 1.28±0.33 jig/ml in N and was decreased to 0.57±0.24 ,ug/ml in A. ST,,. was increased in AR (15.1±2.53 dyn/cm) and A (29.04±2.05 dyn/cm) compared to N (7.44±1.61 dyn/cm).

Lung surfactant is deficient in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We performed a randomized, prospective, controlled, open-label clinical study of administration of a bovine surfactant to patients with ARDS to obtain preliminary information about its safety and efficacy. Patients received either surfactant by endotracheal instillation in addition to standard therapy or standard therapy only. Three different groups of patients receiving surfactant were studied: patients receiving up to eight doses of 50 mg phospholipids/kg, those receiving up to eight doses of 100 mg phospholipids/kg, and those receiving up to four doses of 100 mg phospholipids/kg. Outcome measures included ventilatory support parameters, arterial blood gases, organ system failures, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) analyses, immunologic analyses, survival, and adverse events during the 28-d study period. Fifty-nine study patients were evaluable; 43 in the surfactant group and 16 in the control group. The FI(O2) at 120 h after treatment began was significantly decreased only for patients who received up to four doses of 100 mg phospholipids/kg surfactant as compared with control patients (p = 0.011). Mortality in the same group of patients was 18.8%, as compared with 43.8% in the control group (p = 0.075). The surfactant instillation was generally well tolerated, and no safety concerns were identified. This pilot study presents preliminary evidence that surfactant might have therapeutic benefit for patients with ARDS, and provides rationale for further clinical study of this agent.

Chemiluminescence (CL) is an important method for quantification and analysis of various macromolecules. A wide range of CL agents such as luminol, hydrogen peroxide, fluorescein, dioxetanes and derivatives of oxalate, and acridinium dyes are used according to their biological specificity and utility. This review describes the application of luminol chemiluminescence (LCL) in forensic, biomedical, and clinical sciences. LCL is a very useful detection method due to its selectivity, simplicity, low cost, and high sensitivity. LCL has a dynamic range of applications, including quantification and detection of macro and micromolecules such as proteins, carbohydrates, DNA, and RNA. Luminol-based methods are used in environmental monitoring as biosensors, in the pharmaceutical industry for cellular localization and as biological tracers, and in reporter gene-based assays and several other immunoassays. Here, we also provide information about different compounds that may enhance or inhibit the LCL along with the effect of pH and concentration on LCL. This review covers most of the significant information related to the applications of luminol in different fields.

The multifunctional proline utilization A (PutA) flavoenzyme from Escherichia coli performs the oxidation of proline to glutamate in two catalytic steps using separate proline dehydrogenase (PRODH) and Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate (P5C) dehydrogenase domains. In the first reaction, the oxidation of proline is coupled to the reduction of ubiquinone (CoQ) by the PRODH domain, which has a β8α8-barrel structure that is conserved in bacterial and eukaryotic PRODH enzymes. The structural requirements of the benzoquinone moiety were examined by steady-state kinetics using CoQ analogs. PutA displayed activity with all the analogs tested; the highest kcat/Km was obtained with CoQ2. The kinetic mechanism of the PRODH reaction was investigated use a variety of steady-state approaches. Initial velocity patterns measured using proline and CoQ1, combined with dead-end and product inhibition studies, suggested a two-site ping-pong mechanism for PutA. The kinetic parameters for PutA were not strongly influenced by solvent viscosity suggesting that diffusive steps do not significantly limit the overall reaction rate. In summary, the kinetic data reported here, along with analysis of the crystal structure data for the PRODH domain, suggest that the proline:ubiquinone oxidoreductase reaction of PutA occurs via a rapid equilibrium ping-pong mechanism with proline and ubiquinone binding at two distinct sites.

CP4 is a collagenous glycoprotein (43 kDa, reduced) synthesized by rat type II pulmonary epithelial cells in primary culture (Persson et al., 1988). In order to better characterize this protein, CP4 was isolated from rat bronchoalveolar lavage and EDTA extracts of lung surfactant by adsorption to barium sulfate and elution with sodium citrate followed by reverse-phase HPLC. Amino acid analysis of purified CP4 demonstrated 4-hydroxyproline (Hyp), hydroxylysine (Hyl), and acid-labile components coeluting with Hyl glycosides. In addition, gas-phase amino-terminal microsequencing of two CP4 CNBr peptides demonstrated nonoverlapping collagenous sequences comprised of nine and six Gly-X-Y triplets, containing a total of four residues of Hyp and two of Hyl. There was less than 50% sequence homology of these peptides with the cDNA-derived sequence of the collagenous domain of rat SP-A. Two-dimensional IEF/SDS-PAGE resolved the protein into a charge train of basic isoforms (pI approximately 6-8), similar to those of newly synthesized CP4 and the class D surfactant proteins (Phelps & Taeusch, 1985). Gel filtration of nondenatured CP4 on 4% agarose showed a high apparent molecular mass complex comprised of disulfide-bonded trimers of the 43-kDa subunits. Antibodies to purified lavage CP4 showed specific binding to newly synthesized and surfactant-associated CP4. We propose that CP4 be designated "surfactant protein D" (SP-D) in accordance with an accepted nomenclature for surfactant-associated proteins.

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The multifunctional proline utilization A (PutA) flavoenzyme from Escherichia coli catalyzes the oxidation of proline to glutamate in two reaction steps using separate proline dehydrogenase (PRODH) and Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate (P5C) dehydrogenase domains. Here, the kinetic mechanism of PRODH in PutA is studied by stopped-flow kinetics to determine microscopic rate constants for the proline:ubiquinone oxidoreductase mechanism. Stopped-flow data for proline reduction of the flavin cofactor (reductive half-reaction) and oxidation of reduced flavin by CoQ1 (oxidative half-reaction) were best-fit by a double exponential from which maximum observable rate constants and apparent equilibrium dissociation constants were determined. Flavin semiquinone was not observed in the reductive or oxidative reactions. Microscopic rate constants for steps in the reductive and oxidative half-reactions were obtained by globally fitting the stopped-flow data to a simulated mechanism that includes a chemical step followed by an isomerization event. A microscopic rate constant of 27.5 s−1 was determined for proline reduction of the flavin cofactor followed by an isomerization step of 2.2 s−1. The isomerization step is proposed to report on a previously identified flavin-dependent conformational change (Zhang, W. et al. (2007) Biochemistry 46, 483–491) that is important for PutA functional switching but is not kinetically relevant to the in vitro mechanism. Using CoQ1, a soluble analog of ubiquinone, a rate constant of 5.4 s−1 was obtained for the oxidation of flavin, thus indicating that this oxidative step is rate-limiting for kcat during catalytic turnover. Steady-state kinetic constants calculated from the microscopic rate constants agree with the experimental kcat and kcat/Km parameters.

Type II hyperprolinemia is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by a deficiency in Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase (P5CDH, aka ALDH4A1), the aldehyde dehydrogenase that catalyzes the oxidation of glutamate semialdehyde to glutamate. Here we report the first structure of human P5CDH and investigate the impact of the hyperprolinemia-associated mutation of Ser352 to Leu on the structure and catalytic properties of the enzyme. The 2.5 Å resolution crystal structure of human P5CDH was determined using experimental phasing. Structures of the mutant enzymes S352A (2.4 Å) and S352L (2.85 Å) were determined to elucidate the structural consequences of altering Ser352. Structures of the 93%-identical mouse P5CDH complexed with sulfate ion (1.3 Å resolution), glutamate (1.5 Å), and NAD+ (1.5 Å) were determined to obtain high resolution views of the active site. Together, the structures show that Ser352 occupies a hydrophilic pocket and is connected via water-mediated hydrogen bonds to catalytic Cys348. Mutation of Ser352 to Leu is shown to abolish catalytic activity and eliminate NAD+ binding. Analysis of the S352A mutant shows that these functional defects are caused by the introduction of the nonpolar Leu352 side chain rather than the removal of the Ser352 hydroxyl. The S352L structure shows that the mutation induces a dramatic 8-Å rearrangement of the catalytic loop. Because of this conformational change, Ser349 is not positioned to interact with the aldehyde substrate, conserved Glu447 is no longer poised to bind NAD+, and Cys348 faces the wrong direction for nucleophilic attack. These structural alterations render the enzyme inactive.