Abstract

Mammalian glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) is a housekeeping enzyme central to the metabolism of glutamate. Its activity is potently inhibited by GTP (IC(50) = 0.1-0.3 μM) and thought to be controlled by the need of the cell in ATP. Estrogens are also known to inhibit mammalian GDH, but at relatively high concentrations. Because, in addition to this housekeeping human (h) GDH1, humans have acquired via a duplication event an hGDH2 isoform expressed in human cortical astrocytes, we tested here the interaction of estrogens with the two human isoenzymes. The results showed that, under base-line conditions, diethylstilbestrol potently inhibited hGDH2 (IC(50) = 0.08 ± 0.01 μM) and with ∼18-fold lower affinity hGDH1 (IC(50) = 1.67 ± 0.06 μM; p < 0.001). Similarly, 17β-estradiol showed a ∼18-fold higher affinity for hGDH2 (IC(50) = 1.53 ± 0.24 μM) than for hGDH1 (IC(50) = 26.94 ± 1.07 μM; p < 0.001). Also, estriol and progesterone were more potent inhibitors of hGDH2 than hGDH1. Structure/function analyses revealed that the evolutionary R443S substitution, which confers low basal activity, was largely responsible for sensitivity of hGDH2 to estrogens. Inhibition of both human GDHs by estrogens was inversely related to their state of activation induced by ADP, with the slope of this correlation being steeper for hGDH2 than for hGDH1. Also, the study of hGDH1 and hGDH2 mutants displaying different states of activation revealed that the affinity of estrogen for these enzymes correlated inversely (R = 0.99; p = 0.0001) with basal catalytic activity. Because astrocytes are known to synthesize estrogens, these hormones, by interacting potently with hGDH2 in its closed state, may contribute to regulation of glutamate metabolism in brain.

Highlights

  • Metabolic enzymes [6, 7]

  • Functional analyses of the recombinant mutants, obtained by expression of the mutant DNAs in Sf21 cells, revealed that substitution of Ser for Arg443 was the single amino acid change that conferred a marked sensitivity to estrogens (Table 1); the sensitivity of the R443S mutant to estrogens exceeded that of the wild-type hGDH2 (Table 1)

  • The results showed that replacement of Arg443 by Ser was the only evolutionary amino acid change that made the enzyme markedly sensitive to estrogens; the R443S mutant proved to be substantially more sensitive to estrogens than the wild-type hGDH2

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Summary

Introduction

Metabolic enzymes [6, 7]. Of these, mammalian glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH)2 (EC 1.4.1.3) was originally shown to be modified by estrogens [8, 9]. Functional analyses of the purified enzymes confirmed the data obtained on crude extracts by showing that estrogens interacted more potently with the wildtype hGDH2 than with the wild-type hGDH1 (Table 2 and Fig. 2).

Results
Conclusion

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