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Oxythiamine is an antivitamin derivative of thiamine that after phosphorylation to oxythiamine pyro phosphate can bind to the active centres of thiamine-dependent enzymes. In the present study, the effect of oxythiamine on the viability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the activity of thiamine pyrophosphate dependent enzymes in yeast cells has been investigated. We observed a decrease in pyruvate decarboxylase specific activity on both a control and an oxythiamine medium after the first 6 h of culture. The cytosolic enzymes transketolase and pyruvate decarboxylase decreased their specific activity in the presence of oxythiamine but only during the beginning of the cultivation. However, after 12 h of cultivation, oxythiamine-treated cells showed higher specific activity of cytosolic enzymes. More over, it was established by SDS-PAGE that the high specific activity of pyruvate decarboxylase was followed by an increase in the amount of the enzyme protein. In contrast, the mitochondrial enzymes, pyruvate dehydrogenase and 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complexes, were inhibited by oxythiamine during the entire experiment. Our results suggest that the observed strong decrease in growth rate and viability of yeast on medium with oxythiamine may be due to stronger inhibition of mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase than of cytosolic enzymes.

In this minireview the main mechanism of control of mammalian pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) activity by phosphorylation-dephosphorylation is presented in the first place. The information recently obtained in several laboratories includes new data about isoforms of the PDH converting enzymes (kinase and phosphatase) and their action in view of short-term regulation of PDHC. Moreover, interesting influence of exogenous thiamine diphosphate (TDP) and some divalent cations, especially Mn(2+), on the kinetic parameters of PDHC saturated with endogenous tightly bound TDP, is discussed. This influence causes a shortening of the lag-phase of the catalyzed reaction and a strong decrease of the K(m) value of PDHC mainly for pyruvate. There are weighty arguments that the effects have an allosteric nature. Thus, besides reversible phosphorylation, also direct manifold increase of mammalian PDHC affinity for the substrate by cofactors seems an important aspect of its regulation.

The question of regulation of alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex (KGDHC) has been considered in the biochemical literature very rarely. Moreover, such information is not usually accurate, especially in biochemical textbooks. From the mini-review of research works published during the last 25 years, the following basic view is clear: a) animal KGDHC is very sensitive to ADP, P(i), and Ca2+; b) these positive effectors increase manifold the affinity of KGDHC to alpha-ketoglutarate; c) KGDHC is inhibited by ATP, NADH, and succinyl-CoA; d) the ATP effect is realized in several ways, probably mainly via opposition versus ADP activation; e) NADH, besides inhibiting dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase component competitively versus NAD+, decreases the affinity of alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase to substrate and inactivates it; f) thioredoxin protects KGDHC from self-inactivation during catalysis; g) bacterial and plant KGDHC is activated by AMP instead of ADP. These main effects form the basis of short-term regulation of KGDHC.

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