What is DetoxiProt
DetoxiProt is an integrated database aims to provide a useful and comprehensive gene resource for detoxification proteins or toxin metabolizing enzymes. Toxin here includes all endogenous and exogenous substance that is toxic to the organism. Most of these substance can lead the cell to produce large amount of active oxygen species (ROS) after been absorbed, including the the hydroxyl radical (OH·), the superoxide anion radical (O2-·), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), peroxide radicals (ROO·), singlet oxygen (1O2) etc. These ROS can impair normal functions of ribonucleotide, proteins, carbohydrate and lipid. They may interfere the adaptive cellular responses such as antioxidative mechanism and DNA repair, and even cause the cell death. Thus detoxification is an essential self-protection mechanism for the cell. Many kinds of proteins and enzymes can neutralize the toxicity of these toxins and enhance their solubility, so that it can be eliminated and discharged from the cell.
The detoxification proteins can be mainly classified into Phase I enzymes, Phase II enzymes and antioxidant enzymes according to their functional mechanisms. The Phase I reaction includes the oxidation reaction, reduction reaction and hydrolysis. The Phase II reaction includes the glutathione conjugation, sulfating, acetylization and methylation etc. The biotransformation of toxins or xenobiotics (eg. drugs, pollutants, toxins, ethanol and pesticides) by Phase I and Phase II detoxification proteins (also known as xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes) is an essential process in avoiding the accumulation of reactive compounds that could produce cellular injury or tissue dysfunction. Besides these, there also exits an oxidation resistance system in the cell, which mainly includes enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defenses. These proteins can partially eliminate the active oxygen species procuced by exogenous toxin or produced during the endogenous detoxification processes. Due to the importance of detoxification proteins for human physiology, pharmacology and food safety, we introduced the DetoxiProt, a brand-new database for storing and annotating of sequences, structures, substrates, inducers and inhibitors of all detoxification proteins.
A total of 5956 protein entries within 628 organisms were included in the database to date. Especially for nine model organisms (human, chimpanzee, house mouse, Norway rat, chicken, African clawed frog, zebrafish, fruitfly and nematode), most of the information were collected by consulting the references. All of the information of the DetoxiProt is freely available to users.
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