Organic compounds -- part of the class 532-570 series – Organic compounds – Heterocyclic carbon compounds containing a hetero ring...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-12
2001-07-03
Solola, Taofiq A. (Department: 1626)
Organic compounds -- part of the class 532-570 series
Organic compounds
Heterocyclic carbon compounds containing a hetero ring...
Reexamination Certificate
active
06255497
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence (i.e., alcoholism) are serious public health problems of modern society. In the United States alone, an estimated 13 million adults exhibit symptoms of alcohol dependence due to excessive alcohol intake, and an additional 7 million abuse alcohol without shoving symptoms of dependence according to U.S. Government projections from studies conducted in the mid-1980s. Alcohol dependence and abuse are very expensive: in economic and medical terms, it will cost the U.S. well over $200 billion in 1991 with no prospect of falling or leveling off. The social and psychological damages inflicted on individuals as a consquence of alcohol abuse, e.g., children born with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and victims of alcohol-related accidental death, homicide, suicide, etc., are immense.
While it is generally accepted that alcoholism and alcohol abuse are afflictions with staggering international economic, social, medical, and psychological repercussions, success in preventing or otherwise ameliorating the consequences of these problems has been an elusive goal. Only very recently the public view that alcoholism and alcohol abuse are remediable solely by moral imperatives has been changed to include an awareness of alcoholism and alcohol abuse as physiological aberrations whose etiology may be understood and for which therapy may be found through scientific pursuits. Both alcohol abuse and dependence arise as a result of different, complex, and as yet incompletely understood processes. At present, alcohol research is in the mainstream of scientific efforts.
Our studies on alcohol (ethanol or ethyl alcohol) have bean based on the hypothesis that its abuse can ultimately be understood and dealt with at the molecular level. Such a molecular understanding, if achieved, would provide a basis for the identification and development of appropriate therapeutic agents. Our view hypothesizes that the clinical manifestations of alcoholism and alcohol abuse are the consequence of aberrations or defects within one or more metabolic pathways, affected by the presence of ethyl alcohol. In order to test this hypothesis, our initial studies focused on physical, chemical, and enzymatic properties of human alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), the enzyme that catalyzes alcohol oxidation according to the following reaction formula:
CH
3
CH
2
OH+NAD
+
→CH
3
CHO+NADH
In addition, our studies more recently have focused on the aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDS) which catalyze the subsequent stop in the major pathway of ethanol metabolism according to the following reaction formula:
CH
3
CHO+NAD
+
→CH
3
COOH+NADH
Prior to our research (for example, see Blair and Vallee, 1966, Biochemistry 5: 2026-2034), ADH in man was thought to exist in but one or two forms, primarily in the liver, where it was considered the exclusive enzyme for the metabolism of ethanol. Currently, four different classes of ADH encompassing over twenty ADH isozymes have been identified and isolated from human tissues. There is no reason to believe that all of these ADH isozymes are necessary to catalyze the metabolism of a single molecule, ethanol, even though all of them can interact with it. We have proposed that the normal function of these isozymes is to metabolize other types of alcohols that participate in critical, physiologically important processes, and that ethanol interferes with their function (Vallee, 1966, Therapeutic Notes 14: 71-74). Further, we predicted that individual differences in alcohol tolerance might well be based on both qualitative and quantitative differences in isozyme endowment (Vallee, 1966, supra).
Our research has established the structures, properties, tissue distribution, and developmental changes for most of the ADH isozymes, which while structurally quite similar, and presumed to have evolved from a common precursor, are functionally remarkably varied. Of the more than 120 publications from our laboratory that relate to the above subjects, the following, arranged in six categories, are especially useful for instruction in the prior art.
(i) Discovery of Isozymes:
Bosron et al., 1977, “Isolation and Characterization of an Anodic Form of Human Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase,” Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 74: 85-91; Bosron et al., 1979, “Human Liver &pgr;-Alcohol Dehydrogenase: Kinetic and Molecular Properties,” Biochemistry 18: 1101-1105; Bosron at al., 1980, “New Molecular Forms of Human Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase: Isolation and Characterization of ADH (Indianapolis),” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77: 5784-5788; Paris and Vallee, 1981, “Now Human Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase Forms with Unique Kinetic Characteristics,” Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 98, No. 1: 122-130.
(ii) Discovery of New Physiological and Toxicological Substrates:
Wacker at al., 1965, “Treatment of Ethylene Glycol Poisoning with Ethyl Alcohol,” JAMA 194: 1231-1233; Frey and Vallee, 1980, “Digitalis Metabolism and Human Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77: 924-927; Mårdh et al., 1985, “Human Class I Alcohol Dehydrogenases Catalyze the Oxidation of Glycols in the Metabolism of Norepinephrine,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 82: 4979-4982; Mårdh et al., 1986a, “Testosterone Allosterically Regulates Ethanol Oxidation by Homo- and Heterodimeric &ggr;-Subunit-Containing Isozymes of Human Alcohol Dehydrogenase,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 83: 2836-2840; Consalvi at al., 1986, “Human Alcohol Dehydrogenases and Serotonin Metabolism,” Biochem. Biophys. Res. Com. 139: 1009-1016; Mårdh and Vallee, 1986b, “Human Class I Alcohol Dehydrogenases Catalyze the Interconversion of Alcohols and Aldehydes in the Metabolism of Dopamine,” Biochemistry 25: 7279-7282; Mårdh at al., 1986c, “Human Class II (&pgr;) Alcohol Dehydrogenase Has a Redox-Specific Function in Norepinephrine Metabolism,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 83: 8908-8912; Mårdh et al., 1987, “Thyroid Hormones Selectively Modulate Human Alcohol Dehydrogenase Isozyme Catalyzed Ethanol Oxidation,” Biochemistry 26: 7585-7588; McEvily at al., 1988, “3&bgr;-Hydroxy-5&bgr;-steroid Dehydrogenase Activity of Human Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase Is Specific to &ggr;-Subunits,” Biochemistry 27: 4284-4288; Keung, 1991, “Human Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenases Catalyze the Oxidation of the Intermediary Alcohols of the Shunt Pathway of Mevalonate Metabolism,” Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 174: 701-707.
(iii) Development of New Methods for Isolation and Characterization:
Lange and Vallee, 1976, “Double-Ternary Complex Affinity Chromatography: Preparation of Alcohol Dehydrogenases,” Biochemistry 15: 4681-4686; Keung et al., 1985, “Identification of Human Alcohol Dehydrogenase Isozymes by Disc Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis in 7M Urea,” Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 151: 92-96; Montavon et al., 1989, “A Human Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Specific for Class I, II, and III Isozymes,” Anal. Biochem. 176: 48-56.
(iv) Characterization of Isozymes:
von Wartburg et al., 1964, “Human Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase. Kinetic and Physicochemical Properties,” Biochemistry 3: 1775-1782; Blair and Vallee, 1966, supra; Lange et al., 1976, “Human Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase: Purification, Composition, and Catalytic Features,” Biochemistry 15: 4687-4693; Wagner et al., 1983, “Kinetic Properties of Human Alcohol Dehydrogenase: Oxidation of Alcohols by Class I Isoenzymes,” Biochemistry 22: 1857-1863; Wagner et al., 1984, “Physical and Enzymatic Properties of a Class III Isozyme of Human Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase: &khgr;-ADH,” Biochemistry 23: 2193-2199; Ditlow et al., 1984, “Physical and Enzymatic Properties of a Class II Alcohol Dehydrogenase Isozyme of Human Liver: &pgr;-ADH,” Biochemistry 23: 6363-6368; Fong and Keung(a), 1987, “Substrate Specificity of Human Class I Alcohol Dehydrogenase Homo- and Heterodimers Containing the &bgr;
2
(Oriental) Subunits,” Biochem. 26: 5726-5732; Fong and Keung(b), 1987, “&bgr;
2
(Oriental) Human Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenases Do Not Exhibit Subunit Interaction: oxidation of C
Keung Wing-Ming
Vallee Bert L.
Banner & Witcoff , Ltd.
Solola Taofiq A.
The Endowment for Research in Human Biology, Inc.
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