A high-performance liquid chromatography assay for Dyrk1a, a Down syndrome-associated kinase.

Down syndrome is the most common aneuploidy. It is caused by the presence of an extra copy of chromosome 21. Several studies indicate that aberrant expression of the kinase Dyrk1a (dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1a) is implicated in Down syndrome, in particular in the onset of mental retardation. Moreover, elevated Dyrk1a activity may also be a risk factor for other neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Over the past years, Dyrk1a has appeared as a potential drug target. Availability of sensitive and quantitative enzyme assays is of prime importance to understand the role of Dyrk1a and to develop specific inhibitors. Here, we describe a new method to measure Dyrk1a activity based on the separation and quantification of specific fluorescent peptides (substrate and phosphorylated product) by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Kinetic and mechanistic analyses using well-known inhibitors of Dyrk1a confirmed the reliability of this approach. In addition, this assay was further validated using brain extracts of mice models expressing different copies of the Dyrk1a gene. Our results indicate that this novel Dyrk1a assay is simple, sensitive, and specific. It avoids the use of radioactivity-based approaches that, until now, have been widely employed to measure Dyrk1a activity.

Acrolein, an α,ß-unsaturated aldehyde, irreversibly inhibits the acetylation of aromatic amine xenobiotics by human arylamine N-acetyltransferase 1.

Acrolein is an electrophilic α,ß-unsaturated aldehyde of industrial, pharmaceutic, and toxicologic importance to which we are exposed in environmental, occupational, and therapeutic situations. Acrolein is known to exert different biologic effects through reactions with cellular macromolecules such as DNA, certain proteins, or glutathione. In many situations (such as in tobacco smoke or other fumes), exposure to acrolein occurs concomitantly with other compounds such as aromatic amine chemicals. Interestingly, it has been shown that acrolein could impact the cellular metabolism of aromatic xenobiotics through an indirect mechanism based on the transcriptional induction of phase II xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes. Here we report a novel mechanism by which acrolein acts on the metabolism of aromatic foreign chemicals. We provide molecular, kinetic, and cellular evidence that acrolein can react directly and irreversibly with arylamine N-acetyltransferases, a major family of xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes involved in the metabolization of aromatic amine chemicals. Formation of an acrolein adduct with a catalytic cysteine residue in the active site is responsible for the impairment of aromatic amine acetylation by the enzyme. This biochemical process may represent an additional mechanism by which acrolein impacts the metabolism and fate of aromatic amine drugs and pollutants.