Diadenosine Tetraphosphate (Ap4A) in Health and Disease

Suliman Boulos, Ehud Razin*, Hovav Nechushtan, Inbal Rachmin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Diadenosine oligophosphates (ApnAs) were initially discovered more than 50 years ago. This group of molecules form a class of compounds derived from ATP and consist of two adenosine molecules bridged by up to six phosphate groups. The first enzymatic production of these compounds was noted by Zamecnik and colleagues in their study with purified lysyl tRNA synthetase (KARS) in mammalian cells. Multiple studies on the role of ApnAs have been published during the years following their initial discovery. However, technical difficulties hampered some of the studies, and the field has been abandoned for nearly 20 years, until the use of new molecular methods inspired new studies into the functional aspects of these nucleotides in bacterial and eukaryotic systems. In this chapter, we will discuss the role of ApnAs in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and will focus on the most investigated member of the ApnAs family, namely diadenosine tetraphosphate (Ap4A), and its role in a variety of tissues such as the heart and blood vessels, neurons, spermatocytes, neutrophils, and pancreatic cells. We conclude our chapter with a description of a putative cell signaling pathway involving KARS, whose structure can be modulated so that it is no longer involved in translation but mainly in transcription, through its ability to produce the second messenger Ap4A.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationRNA Technologies
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages207-219
Number of pages13
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Publication series

NameRNA Technologies
ISSN (Print)2197-9731
ISSN (Electronic)2197-9758

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.

Keywords

  • ApA: diadenosine triphosphate
  • ApA: diadenosine tetraphosphate
  • ApnAs: diadenosine oligophosphates
  • KARS: lysyl-tRNA-synthetase

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