title: Diverse Effects of Glutathione and UPF Peptides on Antioxidant Defense System in Human Erythroleukemia Cells K562.
abstract: The main goal of the present paper was to examine the influence of the replacement of γ-Glu moiety to α-Glu in glutathione and in its antioxidative tetrapeptidic analogue UPF1 (Tyr(Me)-γ-Glu-Cys-Gly), resulting in α-GSH and UPF17 (Tyr(Me)-Glu-Cys-Gly), on the antioxidative defense system in K562 cells. UPF1 and GSH increased while UPF17 and α-GSH decreased the activity of CuZnSOD in K562 cells, at peptide concentration of 10 μM by 42% and 38% or 35% and 24%, respectively. After three-hour incubation, UPF1 increased and UPF17 decreased the intracellular level of total GSH. Additionally, it was shown that UPF1 is not degraded by γ-glutamyltranspeptidase, which performs glutathione breakdown. These results indicate that effective antioxidative character of peptides does not depend only on the reactivity of the thiol group, but also of the other functional groups, and on the spatial structure of peptides.
authors.affiliation: The Centre of Excellence of Translational Medicine, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tartu, Ravila Street 19, 50411 Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Ceslava
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kairane
authors.forename: Riina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mahlapuu
authors.forename: Kersti
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ehrlich
authors.forename: Kalle
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kilk
authors.forename: Mihkel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zilmer
authors.forename: Ursel
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Soomets