Search results for "REDUCTASE"
showing 10 items of 798 documents
Anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities of hydroxytyrosol on different tumour cells: the role of extracellular production of hydrogen peroxide
2011
Several recently published data suggest that the anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic properties of hydroxytyrosol [3,4-dihydroxyphenyl ethanol (3,4-DHPEA)] on HL60 cells may be mediated by the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the culture medium. The aim of this study was to clarify the role played by H2O2 in the chemopreventive activities of 3,4-DHPEA on breast (MDA and MCF-7), prostate (LNCap and PC3) and colon (SW480 and HCT116) cancer cell lines and to investigate the effects of cell culture medium components and the possible mechanisms at the basis of the H2O2-producing properties of 3,4-DHPEA. The proliferation was measured by the MTT assay and the apoptosis by both fluores…
The Low Energy-Coupling Respiration in Zymomonas mobilis Accelerates Flux in the Entner-Doudoroff Pathway.
2015
Performing oxidative phosphorylation is the primary role of respiratory chain both in bacteria and eukaryotes. Yet, the branched respiratory chains of prokaryotes contain alternative, low energy-coupling electron pathways, which serve for functions other than oxidative ATP generation (like those of respiratory protection, adaptation to low-oxygen media, redox balancing, etc.), some of which are still poorly understood. We here demonstrate that withdrawal of reducing equivalents by the energetically uncoupled respiratory chain of the bacterium Zymomonas mobilis accelerates its fermentative catabolism, increasing the glucose consumption rate. This is in contrast to what has been observed in o…
The metabolic syndrome: Definition, diagnosis and management
2008
The metabolic syndrome (MetS) constitutes a major public health problem in the developed countries.(1) It is cited with different names, such as syndrome X, insulin resistance syndrome, Reaven's syndrome or CHAOS (Australia). MetS increases the cardiovascular risk, but with specific lifestyle changes and individualized drug treatment the development of serious vascular complications can be avoided. In the last years, MetS has become a prevalent clinical condition. Therefore, it is necessary to create a complete document on the diagnosis and clinical management of MetS to avoid the confusion that derives from the vast amount of scientific papers, different revisions and definitions of the sy…
The methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase C677T polymorphism and the risk of congenital heart diseases: a literature review
2014
Congenital Heart Diseases (CHDs) are the most commonand serious developmental anomaly and the leading non-infectious cause of mortality in the first year of life. Despite the advances in diagnosis and treatment, understanding of the developmental causes and aetiologies of CHDs has been limited. The hyperhomocysteinemia is one of the proved risk factors related to the occurrence of CHDs. The connection between cardiac defects, folate and hyperhomocysteinemia could be explained by a mutation in the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene. Indeed, the C677T MTHFR mutation produces a thermolabile variant of MTHFR with reduced enzymatic action resulting in higher plasma levels of homocy…
Finding the missing link between diversity and activity using denitrifying bacteria as a model functional community
2005
The recent development and application of numerous methods mainly based on 16S rDNA analyses have brought insights into the questions of which and how many bacterial populations can be found in a given ecosystem. A new and challenging question for microbial ecologists has emerged from the exploration of this diversity: what is its significance for ecosystem functioning? We propose the denitrifying bacteria as a model microbial community for understanding the relationship between community structure and activity, and have summarized the recent progress in studies of this functional community.
Relationship between the target antigen of liver-kidney microsomal (LKM) autoantibodies and rat isoenzymes of cytochrome P-450
1988
Chronic active hepatitis (CAH) is a clinical syndrome of different etiologies. Liver-kidney microsomal (LKM) autoantibodies characterize a subgroup of HBsAg negative CAH, which is considered to be an autoimmune liver disease. By immunoblotting analysis (IB) LKM positive sera have been shown to react strongly with a poly-peptide band at 50 kD. Therefore we investigated various rat microsomal enzymes with a molecular weight around 50 kD as potential candidate target antigens. These included epoxide hydrolase, cytochrome P-450 reductase, and phenobarbital-inducible isoenzymes of cytochrome P-450 (PB1, PB2, PB3a, PB3b). By radioimmunoassay (RIA) and IB LKM positive sera were shown to react with…
Quantification of denitrifying bacteria in soils by nirK gene targeted real-time PCR.
2004
Abstract Denitrification, the reduction of nitrate to nitrous oxide or dinitrogen, is the major biological mechanism by which fixed nitrogen returns to the atmosphere from soil and water. Microorganisms capable of denitrification are widely distributed in the environment but little is known about their abundance since quantification is performed using fastidious and time-consuming MPN-based approaches. We used real-time PCR to quantify the denitrifying nitrite reductase gene (nirK), a key enzyme of the denitrifying pathway catalyzing the reduction of soluble nitrogen oxide to gaseous form. The real-time PCR assay was linear over 7 orders of magnitude and sensitive down to 102 copies by assa…
Denitrification in pathogenic bacteria : for better or worst ?
2005
A large variety of physiological and taxonomic groups have the ability to use nitrogen oxides as alternative electron acceptors. Brucella spp. is an alpha-proteobacteriaceae that induces a persistent disease in some mammals. Recent work has revealed that a denitrifying gene cluster is important in the interaction of Brucella neotomoae with its host.
Wine yeast peroxiredoxin TSA1 plays a role in growth, stress response and trehalose metabolism in biomass propagation
2020
This article belongs to the Special Issue Wine Yeast 1.0.
Molecular characterization of Italian Candida parapsilosis isolates reveals the cryptic presence of the newly described species Candida orthopsilosis…
2012
The authors report the molecular characterization of Candida parapsilosis isolates recovered from the blood and venous central catheter tips of patients admitted to different care units of the Polyclinic Hospital, University of Messina, Italy. Among 97 presumed C. parapsilosis isolates examined, 94 were identified as C. parapsilosis sensu stricto and the remaining 3 isolates were found to belong to the cryptic species Candida orthopsilosis which was recovered only from blood cultures of neonates (<30 days old) born prematurely. No C. metapsilosis was found in this study. This study emphasizes the role of C. parapsilosis as an important nosocomial pathogen, and it also describes, for the fir…