acid-phosphatase and 4-methylumbelliferyl-phosphate

This study describes the expression of acidic ectophosphatase activity on twenty isolates of C. albicans from oral cavities of HIV-infected children (HIV+) and compares them with fifteen isolates from HIV-negative children (HIV-), as well as the fungal adhesion to epithelial cells and medical records.. The activities were measured in intact cells grown in BHI medium for 48 h at 37 degrees C. Phosphatase activity was assayed at pH 5.5 using 4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate. Yeast adhesion was measured using the MA 104 epithelial cell line.. Mean values of ectophosphatase activity were 610.27 +/- 166.36 and 241.25 +/- 78.96 picomoles 4-methylumbelliferone/h/10(7) cells for HIV+ and HIV- group, respectively (P = 0.049). No correlation between C. albicans enzyme activity from HIV children with viral load and CD4 percentual was observed. Yeasts with high enzyme activity, isolated from HIV+ children showed greater adherence than yeasts with basal levels of ectophosphatases from HIV- (Spearman correlation, r = 0.8). Surface phosphatase activity was apparently involved in the adhesion to host cells, as the enhanced attachment of C. albicans to host epithelial cells was reversed by pretreatment of yeast with sodium orthovanadate (1 mM), an acid phosphatase inhibitor.. These results show that C. albicans from HIV+ has an ectophosphatase activity significantly higher than the other isolates. Yeasts expressing higher levels of surface phosphatase activity showed greater adhesion to epithelial cells. So, the activity of acidic surface phosphatases on these cells may contribute to the early mechanisms required for disease establishment.

Topics: Acid Phosphatase; Animals; Candida albicans; CD4 Lymphocyte Count; Cell Adhesion; Cell Line; Child; Enzyme Inhibitors; Epithelial Cells; HIV; HIV Seronegativity; HIV Seropositivity; Humans; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Hymecromone; Indicators and Reagents; Mouth Mucosa; Vanadates; Viral Load

Clostridium perfringens is a gram-positive anaerobe and a pathogen of medical importance. The detection of acid phosphatase activity is a powerful diagnostic indicator of the presence of C. perfringens among anaerobic isolates; however, characterization of the enzyme has not previously been reported. Provided here are details of the characterization of a soluble recombinant form of this cell-associated enzyme. The denatured enzyme was approximately 31 kDa and a homodimer in solution. It catalyzed the hydrolysis of several substrates, including para-nitrophenyl phosphate, 4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate, and 3' and 5' nucleoside monophosphates at pH 6. Calculated K(m)s ranged from 0.2 to 0.6 mM with maximum velocity ranging from 0.8 to 1.6 micromol of P(i)/s/mg. Activity was enhanced in the presence of some divalent cations but diminished in the presence of others. Wild-type enzyme was detected in all clinical C. perfringens isolates tested and found to be cell associated. The described enzyme belongs to nonspecific acid phosphatase class C but is devoid of lipid modification commonly attributed to this class.

Topics: Acid Phosphatase; Bacterial Proteins; Cations, Divalent; Clostridium perfringens; Dimerization; Enzyme Activators; Enzyme Inhibitors; Hymecromone; Kinetics; Molecular Weight; Nitrophenols; Nucleosides; Organophosphorus Compounds; Substrate Specificity

The use of 4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate (MUP) and ortho-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside (ONPG) for the identification of Clostridium perfringens was investigated. A liquid assay containing both MUP and ONPG was a highly specific alternative method for C. perfringens confirmation, reducing incubation time from 48 to only 4 h. The assay solution is easy to prepare, does not require anaerobic conditions for use, and has an extended shelf life.

Topics: Acid Phosphatase; Bacterial Typing Techniques; Chromogenic Compounds; Clostridium perfringens; Culture Media; Fluorescent Dyes; Hymecromone; Nitrophenylgalactosides; Sensitivity and Specificity; Time Factors

Previously it was reported that promastigotes of virtually all pathogenic Leishmania species, except Leishmania major, release a structurally conserved soluble acid phosphatase (AcP) activity during their growth in vitro (P. S. Doyle and D. M. Dwyer, Exp. Parasitol. 77, 435-444 1993). In the current study we used a highly sensitive fluorogenic detection method to demonstrate that soluble AcPs were in fact produced by promastigotes of several different strains of L. major. These L. major AcP activities were readily immunoprecipitated with a rabbit antibody previously generated against the L. donovani AcP. Results of metabolic labeling and immunoprecipitations demonstrated that AcPs produced by the L. majors strains examined had an apparent molecular mass of approximately 77 kDa. Results of Southern hybridization analysis with an L. donovani AcP gene probe showed that the AcP gene loci were conserved in the L. major strains examined. Taken together, these results indicate that the AcP enzyme has been structurally and functionally conserved throughout the evolution of pathogenic species of Leishmania. Such conservation suggests that the AcPs play a functional role in the growth and survival of this group of important human pathogens.

Topics: Acid Phosphatase; Aniline Compounds; Animals; Antigens, Protozoan; Blotting, Southern; Conserved Sequence; DNA, Protozoan; Epitopes; Hymecromone; Indicators and Reagents; Leishmania major; Organophosphorus Compounds; Precipitin Tests; Rabbits; Solubility

The major acid phosphatase of human seminal fluid was purified to homogeneity by chromatography on Sephadex G-150, and DEAE-Sephadex, and by isoelectric focusing (pI, 4.3). This purified preparation of seminal fluid acid phosphatase blocked superoxide anion production by neutrophils stimulated with fMet-Leu-Phe (fMLP) by 50%. The phosphatase also hydrolysed myo-inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) in vitro, an intracellular second messenger which releases Ca2+ from intracellular pools, at nearly one-third the rate at which the nonphysiologic substrate 4-methylumbelliferylphosphate (MUP) was cleaved. In contrast, two phosphoinositide lipids, namely phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate and phosphatidylinositol 4-monophosphate, were poor phosphatase substrates. Following fMLP stimulation of [3H]inositol-labeled neutrophils, the quantity of IP3 produced by phosphatase-treated cells was reduced by 69%. These results indicate that the human seminal fluid acid phosphatase may compromise the neutrophil's microbicidal response to the organism by hydrolyzing a second messenger (IP3) which is directly involved in the regulation of intracellular Ca2+ concentrations. The seminal fluid phosphatase also inhibited by 85% the ability of murine natural killer (NK) cells to inactivate target cells.

Topics: Acid Phosphatase; Animals; Chromatography; Humans; Hydrolysis; Hymecromone; Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate; Inositol Phosphates; Isoelectric Focusing; Killer Cells, Natural; Male; Mice; N-Formylmethionine Leucyl-Phenylalanine; Neutrophils; Semen; Superoxides

Lysosomal acid phosphatase (AcPase) activity was measured in individual segments of rat and rabbit nephrons employing 4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate as the substrate. Generation of reaction product was linear with incubation time up to 127 min and with tubule length. Activity was much higher in glomeruli and proximal tubules of rat than rabbit kidney. In both rat and rabbit there were higher activities in juxtamedullary than in superficial glomeruli. In rats, AcPase activity decreased from S1 to S3 segments, which parallels the known decrease in the number of lysosomes. Surprisingly, in rabbits of both sexes AcPase activity in the cortical collecting duct (CCD), which contains a limited number of lysosomes, was comparable to levels measured in the S1 and S2 segments of the proximal tubule. Similarly, in the male rat values for AcPase activity in the cortical thick ascending limb, distal convoluted tubule, CCD, and medullary collecting duct paralleled those in the S3 segment. These findings suggest that a considerable amount of AcPase in the distal nephron is either extralysosomal or that the amount of lysosomal AcPase activity per unit volume is greater in distal nephron segments compared with the proximal tubule. Different K'm values for AcPase in S1 segments and CCD were found in the rabbit, suggesting the presence of different isoenzymes.

Topics: Acid Phosphatase; Animals; Female; Fluorometry; Hymecromone; Kidney Tubules; Kinetics; Male; Nephrons; Rabbits; Rats; Rats, Inbred Strains; Sex Factors; Sodium Fluoride; Time Factors

Topics: Acid Phosphatase; Ascitic Fluid; Esterases; Humans; Hymecromone; Isoelectric Focusing; Isoenzymes; Macrophages; Monocytes; Pulmonary Alveoli; Umbelliferones