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Human serum albumin was able to hydrolyze the organophosphorus compounds paraoxon, chlorpyrifos-oxon, and diazoxon at toxicologically relevant concentrations. Human serum displayed two paraoxon hydrolyzing activities: the so-called paraoxonase, which is associated with the lipoprotein fraction and is calcium dependent and EDTA sensitive, and the activity associated with albumin, which is EDTA resistant and sensitive to fatty acids. Human serum albumin hydrolyzed these compounds with the same relative efficacy as lipoproteins (chlorpyrifos-oxon > diazoxon > paraoxon). The capability of detoxication of activity associated with human serum albumin was similar or even higher than paraoxonase associated with lipoproteins in the case of paraoxon at concentrations as low as those noted in an acute in vivo intoxication. However, paraoxonase activity associated with lipoprotein was more effective than paraoxonase activity associated with albumin at toxicologically relevant chlorpyrifos-oxon concentrations. These results explain why mice deficient in paraoxonase associated with lipoprotein are not more sensitive to paraoxon than wild animals.

Human serum (HS) and human serum albumin (HSA) were able to hydrolyse the carbamate carbaryl. Carbarylase activity found in HSA was slightly activated by 1 mM Zn2+, Mn2+, Cd2+, Ni2+ and Na+ and by 0.01 mM Pb2+. The organophosphorus compounds paraoxon and O-hexyl O-2,5-dichlorophenyl phosphoramidate, caprylic acid, palmitic acid and the carboxyl ester p-nitrophenyl butyrate inhibited the hydrolysis of carbaryl by HSA, being in the last case a competitive inhibition. Using selective amino acid reagents, we concluded that Cys, Trp, Arg and Tyr seem to play important roles in the carbarylase activity of HSA. In addition, Tyr and Arg seem to be located in the active centre of the enzyme since carbaryl protected the activity from the inhibition. It was concluded that HSA hydrolyses carbaryl by a mechanism similar to that described for rabbit serum albumin based in transient carbamylation of a Tyr residue. The extrapolation of the hydrolysis rate to physiological albumin concentrations suggests that albumin might be playing a critical role in the detoxication of carbaryl.

Neuropathy target esterase (NTE) is the suggested "target" molecule involved in the initiation of organophosphorus-induced delayed polyneuropathy. Sciatic nerve NTE was separated into particulate (P-NTE) and soluble (S-NTE) fractions by ultracentrifugation at 100,000 g for 1 h in 0.32 M sucrose and compared with the corresponding brain extract. Total sciatic NTE activity was 80-100 nmol/min/g tissue from which 50-60% was recovered in the soluble supernatant fraction and the remaining 40-50% in the pellet fraction. About 90% of brain tissue activity (approximately 1,800 nmol/min/g tissue) was recovered as P-NTE. A similar distribution was obtained when more drastic centrifugation without sucrose was performed. P-NTE and S-NTE were distributed with the membrane and cytosolic markers assayed, respectively, glucose-6-phosphatase, Na+,K(+)-ATPase, 5'-nucleotidase, phospholipids, and lactate dehydrogenase. When the pH during the centrifugation was increased from 6.4 to 11, recovered P-NTE activity decreased from 1,750 to 118 nmol/min/g tissue for brain and from 31 to 12 nmol/min/g for sciatic nerve. However, S-NTE activity and total nonfractionated control activity were only slightly affected by the same pH treatment. The distribution pattern encountered may be better understood as representing two different proteins than an equilibrium between soluble and membrane-bound portions of a single protein, with P-NTE activity depending on a membrane factor from which it is separated through fractionation at high pH.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)