Tetrapyrroles
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Tetrapyrroles
Tetrapyrroles are a class of chemical compounds that contain four pyrrole or pyrrole-like rings. The pyrrole/pyrrole derivatives are linked by ( =- or -- units), in either a linear or a cyclic fashion. Pyrroles are a five-atom ring with four carbon atoms and one nitrogen atom. Tetrapyrroles are common cofactors in biochemistry and their biosynthesis and degradation feature prominently in the chemistry of life. Some tetrapyrroles form the active core of compounds with crucial biochemical roles in living systems, such as hemoglobin and chlorophyll. In these two molecules, in particular, the pyrrole macrocycle ring frames a metal atom, that forms a coordination compound with the pyrroles and plays a central role in the biochemical function of those molecules. Structure Linear tetrapyrroles (called bilanes) include: *Heme breakdown products (e.g., bilirubin, biliverdin) * Phycobilins (found in cyanobacteria) * Luciferins as found in dinoflagellates and euphausiid shrimps (kri ...
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Chlorin
In organic chemistry, chlorins are tetrapyrrole pigments that are partially hydrogenated porphyrins. The parent chlorin is an unstable compound which undergoes air oxidation to porphine. The name chlorin derives from chlorophyll. Chlorophylls are magnesium-containing chlorins and occur as photosynthetic pigments in chloroplasts. The reduced chlorin variants are present in bacteriochlorophylls and are named ‘bacteriochlorins’ and ‘isobacteriochlorins’. Chlorins are excellent photosensitizing agents. Various synthetic chlorins analogues such as m-tetrahydroxyphenylchlorin (mTHPC) and mono-L-aspartyl chlorin e6 are effectively employed in experimental photodynamic therapy as photosensitizer. Chlorophylls The most abundant chlorin is the photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll. Chlorophylls have a fifth, ketone-containing ring unlike the chlorins. Diverse chlorophylls exists, such as chlorophyll ''a'', chlorophyll ''b'', chlorophyll ''d'', chlorophyll ''e'', chloro ...
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Biliverdin
Biliverdin (latin for green bile) is a green tetrapyrrolic bile pigment, and is a product of heme catabolism.Boron W, Boulpaep E. Medical Physiology: a cellular and molecular approach, 2005. 984-986. Elsevier Saunders, United States. It is the pigment responsible for a greenish color sometimes seen in bruises. Metabolism Biliverdin results from the breakdown of the heme moiety of hemoglobin in erythrocytes. Macrophages break down senescent erythrocytes and break the heme down into biliverdin along with hemosiderin, in which biliverdin normally rapidly reduces to free bilirubin. Biliverdin is seen briefly in some bruises as a green color. In bruises, its breakdown into bilirubin leads to a yellowish color. Role in disease Biliverdin has been found in excess in the blood of humans suffering from hepatic diseases. Jaundice is caused by the accumulation of biliverdin or bilirubin (or both) in the circulatory system and tissues. Jaundiced skin and sclera (whites of th ...
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Bilirubin
Bilirubin (BR) (Latin for "red bile") is a red-orange compound that occurs in the normal catabolic pathway that breaks down heme in vertebrates. This catabolism is a necessary process in the body's clearance of waste products that arise from the destruction of aged or abnormal red blood cells. In the first step of bilirubin synthesis, the heme molecule is stripped from the hemoglobin molecule. Heme then passes through various processes of porphyrin catabolism, which varies according to the region of the body in which the breakdown occurs. For example, the molecules excreted in the urine differ from those in the feces. The production of biliverdin from heme is the first major step in the catabolic pathway, after which the enzyme biliverdin reductase performs the second step, producing bilirubin from biliverdin.Boron W, Boulpaep E. Medical Physiology: a cellular and molecular approach, 2005. 984–986. Elsevier Saunders, United States. Ultimately, bilirubin is broken down within ...
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Uroporphyrinogen III
Uroporphyrinogen III is a tetrapyrrole, the first macrocyclic intermediate in the biosynthesis of heme, chlorophyll, vitamin B12, and siroheme. It is a colorless compound, like other porphyrinogens. Structure The molecular structure of uroporphyrinogen III can be described as a hexahydroporphine core, where each pyrrole ring has the hydrogen atoms on its two outermost carbons replaced by an acetic acid group (, "A") and a propionic acid group (, "P"). The groups are attached in an asymmetric way: going around the macrocycle, the order is AP-AP-AP-PA. Biosynthesis and metabolism In the general porphyrin biosynthesis pathway, uroporphyrinogen III is derived from the linear tetrapyrrole preuroporphyrinogen (a substituted hydroxymethylbilane) by the action of the enzyme uroporphyrinogen-III cosynthase. The conversion entails a reversal of the last pyrrole unit (thus swapping the acetic and propionic acid groups) and a condensation reaction that closes the macrocycl ...
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Biliverdin
Biliverdin (latin for green bile) is a green tetrapyrrolic bile pigment, and is a product of heme catabolism.Boron W, Boulpaep E. Medical Physiology: a cellular and molecular approach, 2005. 984-986. Elsevier Saunders, United States. It is the pigment responsible for a greenish color sometimes seen in bruises. Metabolism Biliverdin results from the breakdown of the heme moiety of hemoglobin in erythrocytes. Macrophages break down senescent erythrocytes and break the heme down into biliverdin along with hemosiderin, in which biliverdin normally rapidly reduces to free bilirubin. Biliverdin is seen briefly in some bruises as a green color. In bruises, its breakdown into bilirubin leads to a yellowish color. Role in disease Biliverdin has been found in excess in the blood of humans suffering from hepatic diseases. Jaundice is caused by the accumulation of biliverdin or bilirubin (or both) in the circulatory system and tissues. Jaundiced skin and sclera (whites of th ...
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Bilirubin
Bilirubin (BR) (Latin for "red bile") is a red-orange compound that occurs in the normal catabolic pathway that breaks down heme in vertebrates. This catabolism is a necessary process in the body's clearance of waste products that arise from the destruction of aged or abnormal red blood cells. In the first step of bilirubin synthesis, the heme molecule is stripped from the hemoglobin molecule. Heme then passes through various processes of porphyrin catabolism, which varies according to the region of the body in which the breakdown occurs. For example, the molecules excreted in the urine differ from those in the feces. The production of biliverdin from heme is the first major step in the catabolic pathway, after which the enzyme biliverdin reductase performs the second step, producing bilirubin from biliverdin.Boron W, Boulpaep E. Medical Physiology: a cellular and molecular approach, 2005. 984–986. Elsevier Saunders, United States. Ultimately, bilirubin is broken down within ...
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Phycoerythrobilin
Phycoerythrobilin is a red phycobilin, i.e. an open tetrapyrrole chromophore found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of red algae, glaucophytes and some cryptomonads. Phycoerythrobilin is present in the phycobiliprotein phycoerythrin, of which it is the terminal acceptor of energy. The amount of phycoerythrobilin in phycoerythrins varies a lot, depending on the considered organism. In some Rhodophytes and oceanic cyanobacteria, phycoerythrobilin is also present in the phycocyanin Phycocyanin is a pigment-protein complex from the light-harvesting phycobiliprotein family, along with allophycocyanin and phycoerythrin. It is an accessory pigment to chlorophyll. All phycobiliproteins are water-soluble, so they cannot exist ..., then termed R-Phycocyanin. Like all phycobilins, phycoerythrobilin is covalently linked to these phycobiliproteins by a thioether bond. References * External links Chemical Structure of phycoerythrobilin {{Tetrapyrroles Tetrapyrroles Pho ...
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Bilane
In organic chemistry, bilane is a compound with the formula or . It is a tetrapyrrole, a class of compounds with four independent pyrrole rings. Specifically, the molecule can be described as four pyrrole molecules connected in an open chain by three methylene bridges at carbons adjacent to the nitrogens, replacing the respective hydrogens. The name is also used for the class of compounds formally derived from bilane proper by replacement of some additional hydrogen atoms by various functional groups. Natural bilanes usually have side chains substituted on the two carbons in each pyrrole ring that are not adjacent to the nitrogens. Artificial bilanes may be substituted on the bridging carbons (called ''meso'' positions). The parent (unsubstituted) bilane is difficult to prepare and unstable,Claudia Ryppa, Mathias O. Senge, Sabine S. Hatscher, Erich Kleinpeter, Philipp Wacker, Uwe Schilde, and Arno Wiehe (2005): "Synthesis of Mono‐ and Disubstituted Porphyrins: A‐ and 5 ...
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Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll (also chlorophyl) is any of several related green pigments found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Its name is derived from the Greek words , ("pale green") and , ("leaf"). Chlorophyll allow plants to absorb energy from light. Chlorophylls absorb light most strongly in the blue portion of the electromagnetic spectrum as well as the red portion. Conversely, it is a poor absorber of green and near-green portions of the spectrum. Hence chlorophyll-containing tissues appear green because green light, diffusively reflected by structures like cell walls, is less absorbed. Two types of chlorophyll exist in the photosystems of green plants: chlorophyll ''a'' and ''b''. History Chlorophyll was first isolated and named by Joseph Bienaimé Caventou and Pierre Joseph Pelletier in 1817. The presence of magnesium in chlorophyll was discovered in 1906, and was that element's first detection in living tissue. After initial work done by German c ...
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Corrin
Corrin is a heterocyclic compound. It is the parent macrocycle related to the substituted derivative that is found in vitamin B12. Its name reflects that it is the "core" of vitamin B12 ( cobalamins).Nelson, D. L.; Cox, M. M. "Lehninger, Principles of Biochemistry" 3rd Ed. Worth Publishing: New York, 2000. . There are two chiral centres, which in natural compounds like cobalamin have the same stereochemistry. Coordination chemistry Upon deprotonation, the corrinoid ring is capable of binding cobalt. In vitamin B12, the resulting complex also features a benzimidazole-derived ligand, and the sixth site on the octahedron serves as the catalytic center. The corrin ring resembles the porphyrin ring, which occurs in hemoglobin. Both feature four pyrrole-like subunits organized into a ring with a largely conjugated structure of alternating double and single bonds. In contrast to porphyrins, corrins lack one of the carbon groups that link the pyrrole-like units into a fully ...
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Cobalamin
Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin involved in metabolism. It is one of eight B vitamins. It is required by animals, which use it as a cofactor in DNA synthesis, in both fatty acid and amino acid metabolism. It is important in the normal functioning of the nervous system via its role in the synthesis of myelin, and in the circulatory system in the maturation of red blood cells in the bone marrow. Plants do not need cobalamin and carry out the reactions with enzymes that are not dependent on it. Vitamin B12 is the most chemically complex of all vitamins, and for humans, the only vitamin that must be sourced from animal-derived foods or from supplements. Only some archaea and bacteria can synthesize vitamin B12. Most people in developed countries get enough B12 from the consumption of meat or foods with animal sources. Foods containing vitamin B12 include meat, clams, liver, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products. Many breakfast cereals ar ...
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Heme
Heme, or haem (pronounced / hi:m/ ), is a precursor to hemoglobin, which is necessary to bind oxygen in the bloodstream. Heme is biosynthesized in both the bone marrow and the liver. In biochemical terms, heme is a coordination complex "consisting of an iron ion coordinated to a porphyrin acting as a tetradentate ligand, and to one or two axial ligands." The definition is loose, and many depictions omit the axial ligands. Among the metalloporphyrins deployed by metalloproteins as prosthetic groups, heme is one of the most widely used and defines a family of proteins known as hemoproteins. Hemes are most commonly recognized as components of hemoglobin, the red pigment in blood, but are also found in a number of other biologically important hemoproteins such as myoglobin, cytochromes, catalases, heme peroxidase, and endothelial nitric oxide synthase. The word ''haem'' is derived from Greek ''haima'' meaning "blood". Function Hemoproteins have diverse biological f ...
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