Identification and characterization of human cardiolipin synthase.

The mitochondrial phospholipid cardiolipin is synthesized from cytidinediphosphate-diacylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol, a process catalyzed by the enzyme cardiolipin synthase. In this study, we identified a human candidate gene/cDNA for cardiolipin synthase, C20orf155. Expression of this candidate cDNA in the (cardiolipin synthase-deficient) crd1Delta yeast confirmed that it indeed encodes human cardiolipin synthase. Purified mitochondria of the crd1Delta expressing human cardiolipin synthase were used to characterize the enzyme. It has an alkaline pH optimum, requires divalent cations for activity and appears to have a different substrate preference for cytidinediphosphate-diacylglycerol species when compared to phosphatidylglycerol species. The possible implications for CL synthesis and remodeling are discussed.

Enzymatic synthesis of [3H]Cytidine 5'-diphospho-1, 2-diacyl-sn-glycerol.

Cytidine 5'-diphospho-1,2-diacyl-sn-glycerol (CDP-diacylglycerol; CDP-DG) is an important intermediate in the biosynthesis of the major glycerophosphate-based phospholipids of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. This compound is expensive to purchase and inefficient to prepare chemically. Radiolabeled CDP-diacylglycerol is unavailable commercially. We describe a simple and inexpensive method to synthesize [3H]CDP-DG enzymatically. The three-step enzymatic procedure includes phosphorylation of [3H]glycerol to sn-[3H]glycerol 3-phosphate (G3P) by glycerokinase,acylation of [3H]G3P to [3H]phosphatidic acid (PA) by G3P acyltransferase, and conversion of [3H]PA and CTP to [3H]CDP-DG by CDP-DG synthase. This procedure is considerably less labor intensive and less expensive than is chemical synthesis, and the yield is at least 30%.

Immunotargeting of liposomes containing lipophilic antitumor prodrugs.

Potential therapeutic applications of recently developed liposomes with a reduced affinity to the reticuloendothelial systems and a prolonged circulation time as targeting systems for lipophilic prodrugs were examined. In these studies, liposomes composed of phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol, additionally containing monosialoganglioside (GM1) or polyethylene glycol conjugated to phosphatidylethanolamine (PEG-PE), were used. Three antitumor lipophilic prodrugs, N-trifluoroacetyl-adriamycin-14-valerate (AD32), araC-diphosphate-diglyceride (araCdPdG), and 3',5'-o-dipalmitoyl-5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine (dpFUdR), were used to examine the effect of lipophilic prodrug incorporation into long-circulating liposomes and immunoliposomes on their biodistribution in mouse. Biodistribution studies with antibody-free liposomes containing lipophilic prodrugs showed that the activities of GM1 or PEG2000-PE in prolonging the circulation time of liposomes appeared to be preserved in the presence of each of the three lipophilic prodrugs at a drug/lipid molar ratio of 3:97. The effect of lipophilic prodrug incorporation on target binding of immunoliposomes was then examined using a mouse model. Incorporation of AD232 or dpFUdR into immunoliposomes, directed to the normal endothelium, did not affect the targetability of immunoliposomes, suggesting a potential effectiveness of these lipophilic prodrug-containing immunoliposomes in therapy for lung tumors. On the contrary, incorporation of araCdPdG resulted in significantly reduced target binding of immunoliposomes by yet unknown mechanism(s).

Antiviral nucleoside diphosphate diglycerides: improved synthesis and facilitated purification.

Cytidine diphosphate diglyceride and its analogs have previously been synthesized by condensing phosphatidic acid with the monophosphomorpholidates of the various nucleosides. Yields have been low and purification of the product has been difficult. We report here an improved method for the synthesis of nucleoside diphosphate diglycerides with potential antiviral activity. Phosphatidic acid was activated with morpholine in the presence of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide to phosphatidic acid morpholidate. This compound was condensed with the 5'-monophosphate of the anti-HIV agents 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine, 3'-deoxythymidine or 2',3'-dideoxycytidine, and the monophosphate of the anti-HSV agent acyclovir. The resulting nucleoside diphosphate diglycerides are potential candidates for improved antiviral action when compared to the parent nucleoside analogs. Compared to the older method for the preparation of cytidine diphosphate diglyceride and analogs thereof, the new method has several advantages: reaction times are reduced from several days to several hours and the yield of the reactions is generally increased from 20-40% to between 50 and 80%. In addition, the purification of the compounds is greatly facilitated due to the small amount of phosphatidic acid remaining in the reaction mixture.

Fatty acid remodelling of phosphatidylinositol under conditions of de novo synthesis in rat liver microsomes.

Phosphatidylinositol (PI) is initially synthesized in mammalian cells with a fatty acid composition similar to that of its precursor, primarily monounsaturated forms of cytidine diphosphodiglyceride (CDP-DAG). However, at the steady state, over 80% of PI exists in the 1-stearoyl, 2-arachidonoyl form. The fatty acid remodelling of PI is due to a number of deacylation/reacylation mechanisms. In the preceding paper we demonstrated that de novo synthesized PI is rapidly deacylated and subsequently reacylated. In this report we present further evidence that cycles of deacylation and reacylation are involved in the remodelling of PI. Incubation of microsomes with CDP-DAG of different fatty acid composition results in quantitative and qualitative differences in lysoPI formation. Additionally, analyses of the resulting lysoPI and PI species reveal that multiple species of fatty acids are incorporated into the 1-position of both PI and lysoPI. Addition of acylation cofactors (fatty acyl CoAs or ATP plus CoA) potentiate reacylation in this system. The addition of stearoyl or myristoyl CoA during de novo synthesis of PI results in the incorporation of these added fatty acids into the I-positive of PI. In addition, some evidence is presented that multiple mechanisms for remodelling of the 1-position of PI may be active in the microsomes, including ATP- and CoA-dependent acylation, ATP-independent, CoA-dependent acylation and CoA-independent mechanisms. Finally, the disappearance of only a subset of lysoPI species upon the addition of acylation cofactors suggests that the reacylation step exhibits some substrate specificity.