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Escherichia coli DNA photolyase mediates photorepair of pyrimidine dimers occurring in UV-damaged DNA. The enzyme contains two chromophores, 1,5-dihydroflavin adenine dinucleotide (FADH2) and 5,10-methenyltetrahydrofolylpolyglutamate (MTHF). To define the roles of the two chromophores in the photochemical reaction(s) resulting in DNA repair and the effect of DNA structure on the photocatalytic step, we determined the absolute action spectra of the enzyme containing only FADH2 (E-FADH2) or both chromophores (E-FADH2-MTHF), with double- and single-stranded substrates and with substrates of different sequences in the immediate vicinity of the thymine dimer. We found that the shape of the action spectrum of E-FADH2 matches that of the absorption spectrum with a quantum yield phi (FADH2) = 0.69. The action spectrum of E-FADH2-MTHF is also in a fairly good agreement with the absorption spectrum with phi (FADH2-MTHF) = 0.59. From these values and from the previously established properties of the two chromophores, we propose that MTHF transfers energy to FADH2 with a quantum yield of phi epsilon T = 0.8 and that 1FADH2 singlet transfers an electron to or from the dimer with a quantum yield phi ET = 0.69. The chemical nature of the chromophores did not change after several catalytic cycles. The enzyme repaired a thymine dimer in five different sequence contexts with the same efficiency. Similarly, single- and double-stranded DNAs were repaired with the same overall quantum yield.

A new spectrophotometric method is developed and applied for the study of the inhibitory effect of triamterene, hydrochlorothiazide and their combinations on the in vitro activity of dihydrofolate reductase enzyme. The method is based on incubating the drug (0.1-1.0 microM) or a buffer control with a solution containing reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (0.5 mM), magnesium chloride (1.29 mM), and folic acid as a substrate (0.01-0.1 mM) with the dihydrofolate reductase (0.25 unit). The resulting tetrahydrofolic acid is determined by first hydrolysing it by a methanol-hydrochloric acid mixture to produce p-aminobenzoyl glutamic acid, then adding p-dimethylaminocinnamic aldehyde reagent to form a stable pink coloured product. The colour is found to develop within 5 min and is stable over 12 h, with a maximum absorption at 545 nm. A linear calibration curve is formed by using standard solutions of tetrahydrofolic acid. The presence of the studied drugs did not interfere with the determination. Lineweaver-Burk plots of the reaction kinetics, in the presence of triamterene and/or hydrochlorothiazide showed a competitive inhibition of the dihydrofolate reductase in the presence of triamterene with or without hydrochlorothiazide. A 100% inhibition is obtained by 1 microM solution of triamterene at a folic acid concentration of 0.01 mM. No measurable effect of hydrochlorothiazide at the studied concentration range is demonstrated.