Open Biochemistry Journal

Background: There is an urgent need for new therapies to treat cancer metastasis. Fish oil, with high omega 3 fatty acid content, has shown anticancer activity and signal transduction inhibitors have shown anti-metastatic properties. Objective: To provide preliminary in vitro data on the anti-migration potential of signal transduction inhibitors and co-administered fish oil. Methods: MCF-7, TamR and FasR breast cancer cell lines were used to determine the effects of combinations of PD98059, LY294002 and fish oil in growth assays...

Introduction: We have recently demonstrated that Lys-65 of the 62GANK65 motif of E. coli RpbL12 was affinity labeled with a tRNA analogue, resulting in the loss of activity. Materials and Methods: In this report, we show that mutations operated at the position of Lys-65 led to an impairment in the activity of the mutant ribosomes, except the K65R or K65H bL12 mutants, suggesting that the only requirement of the reaction catalyzed or facilitated by RpbL12is the positive charge of the side chain of Lys-65...

Mechanism(s) involved in regulating Intratesticular Testosterone levels (iT) have assumed importance in recent years, from the point of view of hormonal contraception. Contraceptives using Testosterone (T) in combination with Progestins (P), for more effective suppression of pituitary gonadotropins thereby iT, are not 100% effective in suppressing spermatogenesis in human males, likely due to pesrsistence of Intratesticular Dihydrotestosterone (iD) in poor-responders. Several lacunae pertaining to the mechanism of action of principal male hormone T during spermatogenesis remain to be resolved...

Background: In modern society, irregular lifestyles are a problem. It is well known that Atopic Dermatitis (AD) occurs during physical stress in people with an irregular lifestyle. We evaluated the influence that day-and-night reversal physical stress has on AD. Methods: Six-week-old specific-pathogen-free and conventional NC/Nga male mice were used. For the day-and-night reversal procedure, the mice ran on a treadmill at a slow speed of 10 m/min for 12 h (between 8:00 and 20:00)...

Objective: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can regulate various genes after binding to target mRNAs. Studies on Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in relation with miRNA are much less shown. The aim of the present study was to assess the expression patterns of microRNA 106a and microRNA 362-3p in peripheral blood samples of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients including Crohn's Disease(CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). Methods: This study consisted of 32 CD, 32 UC patients and 32 controls...

Background: Among electromagnetic fields treatments used in orthopedics, extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF MF) need more detailed information about the molecular mechanisms of their effects and exposure conditions. Objective: Evaluation of the effects of an ELF MF exposure system, recently introduced among current clinical treatments for fracture healing and other bone diseases, on Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) activity and expression in a human osteosarcoma cell line (SaOS-2), as marker typically associated to osteogenesis and bone tissue regeneration...

Intoroduction: Dietary intake fundamentally provides reintegration of energy and essential nutrients to human organisms. However, its qualitative and quantitative composition strongly affects individual's health, possibly being either a preventive or a risk factor. It was shown that nutritional status resulting from long-term exposition to specific diet formulations can outstandingly reduce incidences of most common and most important diseases of the developed world, such as cardiovascular and neoplastic diseases...

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease manifested by an increase of blood glucose. Objective: To evaluate the effects of glucan and vitamin D supplementation in patients with diabetic retinopathy. Method: We evaluated the effects of 3-month supplementation with glucan and vitamin D in 54 patients with diabetic retinopathy. We measured levels of vitamin D, cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. Results: The supplementation strongly decreased the cholesterol levels and improved the levels of HDL cholesterol...

Background: Recent studies have shown that there is an increased risk of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC) with Organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs). However, the alteration in the gene expression profile has not been explored so far. The goal of the present study is to understand the probable molecular mechanism of OCPs toxicity towards discovery of dysregulation of signaling pathway associated with differential gene expression and candidate transcriptomic set of markers in the pathophysiology of EOC in OCPs exposed population...

Background: Asparaginyl endopeptidase, also known as legumain (EC 3.4.22.34) shows strong activity in the mouse kidney. Legumain is also highly expressed in tumors. DJ-1/PARK7 is a Parkinson's disease- and cancer-associated protein. DJ-1 is a coactivator of various transcription factors. Recently, we reported that transcription of the legumain gene is regulated by p53 through DJ-1. Methods: We measured the secretion levels of legumain in a conditioned medium of DJ-1 knockout cells and in serum from DJ-1 knockout mice using Western blotting and ELISA...

Background: Fumarase, a significant enzyme of energy metabolism, catalyzes the reversible hydration of fumarate to L-malate. Mutations in the FH gene, encoding human fumarase, are associated with fumarate hydratase deficiency (FHD) and hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC). Fumarase assembles into a homotetramer, with four active sites. Interestingly, residues from three of the four subunits within the homotetramer comprise each active site. Hence, any mutation affecting oligomerization is predicted to disrupt enzyme activity...

Background: Virus infections are associated with significant alterations in host cells amino acids profiles that support biosynthetic demands necessary for production of viral progeny. Amino acids play an important role in the pathogenesis of all virus-related infections both as basic substrates for protein synthesis and as regulators in many metabolic pathways. Objective: Our aim was to determine the changes in plasma L-carnitine levels and its amino acid precursor (L-lysine) in HIV-infected patients...

Background: Recent evidence suggests that HIV infection, even with treatment, increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and that both chronic inflammation and traditional risk factors play key roles in HIV-associated CHD. Subjects and Methods: Patients (N=152), attending Harare HIV clinic, 26% of them male and 82% of them on antiretroviral therapy (ART), were studied. Inflammatory markers comprising of cytokines such as pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor-α, (TNF-α), anti-inflammatory interleukin 10, (IL-10) and highly sensitive C reactive protein (hsCRP) together with lipids were assayed using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), immuno-turbidimetric and enzymatic assays, respectively...

Background: Exploring under-utilized plant fruits could be of high significance for food security and nutritional requirements, therefore, it can effectively add to the overall improvement of a nation's economy. Blood plum ( Haematostaphis barteri ) is a wild edible vegetable and its fruit contains pulp and oily seed which are edible. Methods: A study was carried out to determine fatty acid profile, phospholipid and phytosterol contents as well as some physicochemical parameters of pulp and seed oils of Haematostaphis barteri (popularly known as blood plum) using standard analytical techniques...

Background: Candida rugosa Lipase (CRL) shows a very low alkaline stability that comprises its immobilization on glyoxyl-agarose, which requires pH above 10. In this way, an adaptation from the original method was used; an enzyme solution at pH 7 was slowly added at a suspension of glyoxyl-agarose prepared in bicarbonate buffer, pH 10. This change of protocol was enough for allowing the preparation of derivatives actives of CRL on glyoxyl-agarose and verifying the effect of this modified procedure on the properties of the immobilized enzyme...

Background: Heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) syndecan-1 (Sdc1) acts as a receptor for triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRLs), growth factors, chemokines and enzymes. Due to the disordered structure, its function is as diverse as its ligands. In this paper, we have analyzed hepatic and aortic arch expression of Sdc1 in ApoE-/- mice and examined their association with biochemical changes in plasma during the atheroma formation. Methods: ApoE knockout (ApoE-/- ) mice as a model of atherosclerosis were used...

BACKGROUND: Vascular Smooth Muscle cells (VSMC) enact crucial roles in early vasculogenesis and sustenance of vascular integrity. However, aberrant proliferation of VSMC followed by migration into the blood vessel wall leads to the formation of vascular lesions accounting for the degeneration and remodelling of vascular basement membrane. In diabetes, hyperglycaemia accelerates VSMC proliferation and contributes to the initiation and progression of atherosclerotic lesions. Recently, acute glucose fluctuations have been implicated in the abnormal VSMC proliferation and complications of diabetic atherosclerosis...

BACKGROUND: Some studies have indicated that human paraoxonase 1 ( PON1 ) activity shows a polymorphic distribution. The aim of this study was to determine the distribution of PON1 polymorphism in patients with Alzheimer's disease in Gorgan and compare it with a healthy control group. METHOD: The study included 100 healthy individuals and 50 patients. Enzyme activity and genetic polymorphism of PON1 were determined. RESULT: There were significant differences in distribution of genotypes and alleles among patients and control group...

BACKGROUND: Proteolysis constitutes a major post-translational modification. For example, proteases regulate the activation or inactivation of various proteins, such as enzymes, growth factors, and peptide hormones. Proteases have substrate specificity, and protease expression regulates the specific and regional activation or inactivation of several functional proteins. METHODS: We demonstrate a novel method for determining protease specificity through the use of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry with biotin-labeled substrates...

BACKGROUND: We have previously demonstrated that the eukaryote-specific ribosomal protein eL42 of the human 80S ribosome contains seven monomethylated residues, among which are the Gln-51 and Lys-53 residues contained in the 47GFGGQTK53 sequence conserved in all eukaryotic 80S ribosomes. This sequence contains the methylated and universally conserved GGQ motif common for all class-1 translation termination factors responsible for stop codon recognition and for triggering the hydrolysis of the P site-bound peptidyl-tRNA...