A three-part study to investigate the incidence and potential etiologies of tadalafil-associated back pain or myalgia.

The potential mechanisms underlying back pain and/or myalgia experienced by men taking tadalafil were investigated. An integrated analysis of 10 placebo-controlled tadalafil clinical trials (N=1846) showed that the incidence of back pain and/or myalgia was 9.4% in patients receiving tadalafil 10 mg (N=394), 8.3% in patients receiving tadalafil 20 mg (N=883) and 3.7% in placebo-treated patients (N=569). One (0.3%) patient receiving tadalafil 10 mg, six (0.7%) patients receiving tadalafil 20 mg, and no patients receiving placebo discontinued treatment due to back pain and/or myalgia. In a prospective study in healthy volunteers, no substantial changes were observed in laboratory markers indicative of inflammation or muscle damage, and tadalafil did not affect renal plasma flow nor produce lumbar or gluteal myositis by positron emission tomography scan or magnetic resonance imaging. Although the mechanism of back pain and/or myalgia remains unknown, these events appear to be self-limiting and a general effect of phosphodiesterase 5 inhibition.

Cloning and characterization of the adenine phosphoribosyltransferase-encoding gene (APT1) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

We have cloned, sequenced and characterized the APT1 (adenine phosphoribosyltransferase) gene from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The APT1 sequence includes an open reading frame encoding 221 amino acids and is contained within a 1322-bp insert that complements APRT-deficient mutants to wild-type levels of enzyme activity. Analysis by primer extension revealed multiple transcription start points (tsp) and a major tsp 21-bp upstream from the ATG start codon. A transcript initiated at the major tsp would yield a 700-nt mRNA which is in agreement with the size observed by Northern analysis. Sequence comparison indicates that the yeast enzyme shares strong similarities with other known APRT of bacterial, invertebrate, plant and mammalian origins.

Adenine deaminase and adenine utilization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Compared with other purine salvage and nitrogen catabolism enzymatic activities, adenine deaminase (adenine aminohydrolase [AAH]; EC 3.5.4.2) activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is uniquely regulated. AAH specific activity is not induced by adenine and is reduced sevenfold when cells are cultivated in medium containing proline in place of ammonium as the sole nitrogen source. Exogenous adenine enters metabolic pathways primarily via the function of either AAH or adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT; EC 2.4.2.7). Exogenous adenosine cannot normally be utilized as a purine source. Strains efficiently utilized adenosine or inosine when grown in pH 4.5 medium containing Triton X-100. A recessive mutation permitting utilization of adenosine or inosine in standard media was isolated. In both situations, growth of purine auxotrophs required either AAH or APRT activity. With medium containing either ammonium or proline as a nitrogen source, minimum doubling times of purine auxotrophs deficient in either APRT or AAH were measured. In proline-based medium, AAH and APRT permitted equal utilization of exogenous adenine. In ammonium-based medium, the absence of APRT increased the minimum doubling time by 50%. Similar experiments using sufficient exogenous histidine to feedback inhibit histidine biosynthesis failed to affect the growth rates of adenine auxotrophs blocked in AAH or APRT, indicating that the histidine-biosynthetic pathway does not play a significant role in adenine utilization. The gene that encodes AAH in S. cerevisiae was isolated by complementation using yeast strain XD1-1, which is deficient in AAH, APRT, and purine synthesis. A 1.36-kb EcoRI-SphI fragment was demonstrated to contain the structural gene for AAH by expressing this DNA in Escherichia coli under control of the trp promoter-operator. Northern (RNA) studies using the AAH-, APRT-, and CDC3-coding regions indicated that AAH regulation was not mediated at the level of transcription or mRNA degradation.

Generation of biologically active interleukin-1 beta by proteolytic cleavage of the inactive precursor.

Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) is derived from an inactive precursor by proteolytic cleavage. To study IL-1 beta processing, we expressed the precursor in Escherichia coli, partially purified it, and used it as a substrate for various potentially relevant protease preparations. The precursor alone was virtually inactive, but incubation with membranes from human monocytes or myeloid cell lines yielded a 500-fold increase in IL-1 bioactivity. Western blot analysis of the incubated material showed that the 31,000-Da precursor is broken down to three major products, ranging from 17,400 to about 19,000 Da. The most active of these products is the smallest one, and it co-migrates during electrophoresis with mature IL-1 beta. Four purified known proteases were also tested for their effect on precursor IL-1 beta, and none of these products co-migrated with the mature protein. Chymotrypsin and Staphylococcus aureus protease yielded slightly larger products, which were highly active. Elastase and trypsin yielded substantially larger products, and these had little IL-1 activity. The products of three of the known proteases were identified by NH2-terminal sequencing. These results show conclusively that proteolysis of precursor IL-1 beta generates biological activity and that the cleavage must occur close to the mature NH2 terminus.

Human interleukin-3 and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor: site-specific mutagenesis and expression in yeast.

The two human colony stimulating factors, interleukin-3 and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor, have been molecularly cloned and expressed as secreted proteins in yeast. In both cases, non-glycosylated and glycosylated forms of the molecules were produced. Removal of N-linked glycosylation sites from the genes by site-directed mutagenesis prevented addition of most of the sugar residues, but revealed a low level of residual O-linked glycosylation on a portion of the molecules. No difference in specific biological activity was found between the different forms of the proteins. It was found that a significant proportion of human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor was degraded by the yeast KEX2 protease that was cleaving after the dibasic sequence Arg-Arg at positions 23-24 of the mature protein. Site-specific mutagenesis was employed to change this sequence to Leu-Arg, and this change resulted in greatly increased expression levels of full length protein and biological activity.

Expression, purification and characterization of recombinant murine granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and bovine interleukin-2 from yeast.

Expression and secretion of two lymphokines, murine granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (MuGM-CSF) and bovine interleukin-2 (BoIL-2), to levels of 50-60 mg per liter were achieved by placing these cDNAs in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae expression vector that utilized the yeast alcohol dehydrogenase-2 promoter and alpha-factor leader peptide. These lymphokines were purified to homogeneity by direct application of the crude yeast medium to reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Despite the fact that both lymphokines contain at least one N-glycosylation site and have identical N-terminal residues (Ala-Pro-Thr), recombinant (R) GM-CSF was found to be heterogeneously glycosylated by yeast while RBoIL-2 was secreted without glycosylation. Additionally, approximately 40% of the RGM-CSF was found to be proteolytically cleaved after the second amino acid residue, while RBoIL-2 was found to be intact.

Transcription initiation at the tryptophanase promoter of Escherichia coli K-12.

Restriction fragments containing the region preceding the tryptophanase structural gene, tnaA, were used as templates for in vitro transcription experiments. A transcription initiation site was detected that was dependent on the catabolite gene activator protein (CAP) plus cyclic AMP (cAMP). The mRNA produced in vitro was fingerprinted, and the nucleotide at which transcription was initiated was localized to the vicinity of two guanine residues 316 and 318 base pairs upstream of tnaA. A region exhibiting extensive difold symmetry and homology to the CAP binding site adjacent to the lactose operon promoter exists approximately 60 base pairs preceding the site of transcription initiation. Two HinfI restriction sites are located in this region. Restriction enzyme cleavage at these sites was prevented when DNA containing the promoter region was preincubated with CAP and cAMP. RNA polymerase was incapable of protecting these sites against this cleavage. CAP and cAMP addition did not protect against cleavage at a DdeI restriction site located in the -20 region of the promoter. RNA polymerase did protect against DdeI cleavage but only in the presence of CAP and cAMP. Thus, transcription initiation at the tryptophanase promoter involves cAMP-dependent, CAP-facilitated binding of RNA polymerase to the DNA.

Nucleotide sequence of the structural gene for tryptophanase of Escherichia coli K-12.

The tryptophanase structural gene, tnaA, of Escherichia coli K-12 was cloned and sequenced. The size, amino acid composition, and sequence of the protein predicted from the nucleotide sequence agree with protein structure data previously acquired by others for the tryptophanase of E. coli B. Physiological data indicated that the region controlling expression of tnaA was present in the cloned segment. Sequence data suggested that a second structural gene of unknown function was located distal to tnaA and may be in the same operon. The pattern of codon usage in tnaA was intermediate between codon usage in four of the ribosomal protein structural genes and the structural genes for three of the tryptophan biosynthetic proteins.