Glycation of proteins, nucleotides and basic phospholipids by glyoxal and methylglyoxalphysiological substrates of glyoxalase 1 -is potentially damaging to the proteome, genome and lipidome. Glyoxalase 1 suppresses glycation by these α-oxoaldehyde metabolites and thereby represents part of the enzymatic defence against glycation. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi pioneered and struggled to understand the physiological function of methylglyoxal and the glyoxalase system. We now appreciate glyoxalase 1 protects against dicarbonyl modifications of the proteome, genome and lipome. Latest research suggests there are functional modifications of this processimplying a role in cell signalling, ageing and disease.Letter from Albert Szent-Gyorgyi "I thank you for your kind lines from May 17 th , and the reprints that reached me only now. It was very long ago that I was interested in keto-aldehydes and worked on them. Since then I forgot most of what I knew. So, to my regret I am unable to advise you. Yours truly, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, MD, PhD, NL." From a letter to the author dated 7 th June 1984.Above are the words of Albert Szent-Gyorgyi in a letter replying to my request for advice on how to pursue a research career on studies of methylglyoxal and the glyoxalase system. The letter was sent from the National Foundation for Cancer Research, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA. It has been framed, along side newspaper obituary tributes to SzentGyorgyi when he died in October 1986, hanging in my office for over the last 20 years whilst I grappled with similar problems that once interested him. Our common interest was, for Szent-Gyorgyi, and still is for me the physiological significance of the glyoxalase system and its physiological substrates -primarily the reactive dicarbonyl compounds and physiological metabolites, glyoxal and methylglyoxal /1,2/ -Figure 1.
Methylglyoxal and glyoxal -physiological substrates of the glyoxalase systemThe presence and significance of reactive acyclic α-oxoaldehydes, methylglyoxal and glyoxal, in physiological systems was the subject of research before, during and after the research career of Szent-Gyorgyi. Neuberg had discovered the glyoxalase system and metabolism of methylglyoxal in 1913 /3/. Szent-Gyorgyi advanced his hypothesis of the "retine and promine" theory of control of cell proliferation /1/, and recent research views
Europe PMC Funders Author ManuscriptsEurope PMC Funders Author Manuscripts glyoxalase 1 (Glo1) as part of the enzymatic defence against glycation /2/. Methylglyoxal has been considered to be an environmental and/or bacterial toxin and metabolite /4,5/. We now know methylglyoxal is formed spontaneously from triosephosphates in all organisms with anaerobic glycolysis /6/ and from other non-enzymatic and enzymatic pathways of differing significance -depending on the organism /7/. Glyoxal is formed by lipid peroxidation and the degradation of monosaccharides, saccharide derivatives and glycated proteins /8,9/. A continuing problem in the area of research is reliable estimation ...