Search results for "glutamine"

2018

Amino acid usage in a proteome depends mostly on its taxonomy, as it does the codon usage in transcriptomes. Here, we explore the level of variation in the codon usage of a specific amino acid, glutamine, in relation to the number of consecutive glutamine residues. We show that CAG triplets are consistently more abundant in short glutamine homorepeats (polyQ, four to eight residues) than in shorter glutamine stretches (one to three residues), leading to the evolutionary growth of the repeat region in a CAG-dependent manner. The length of orthologous polyQ regions is mostly stable in primates, particularly the short ones. Interestingly, given a short polyQ the CAG usage is higher in unstable…

Myeloma-Induced Alterations of Glutamine Metabolism Impair Bone Microenvironment Niche in Multiple Myeloma Patients

2018

Abstract Multiple myeloma (MM) cells are characterized by tight dependence on the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment that exerts a permissive role on cell growth and survival. In turn, MM cells markedly modify their microenvironment leading, in particular, to the development of osteolytic bone lesions. Recently, we demonstrated that metabolic alterations is a major feature of MM cells showing that BM plasma of MM patients is characterized by lower levels of Glutamine (Gln) and higher levels of Glutamate (Glu) and ammonium when compared with patients with smoldering MM (SMM) and Monoclonal Gammopathy of Uncertain Significance (MGUS). In the majority of MM patients MM cells are Gln-addicted si…

Between Interactions and Aggregates: The PolyQ Balance

2021

Abstract Polyglutamine regions (polyQ) are highly abundant consecutive runs of glutamine residues. They have been generally studied in relation to the so-called polyQ-associated diseases, characterized by protein aggregation caused by the expansion of the polyglutamine tract via a CAG-slippage mechanism. However, more than 4800 human proteins contain a polyQ, and only 9 of these regions are known to be associated with disease. Computational sequence studies and experimental structure determinations are completing a more interesting picture in which polyQ emerge as a motif for modulation of protein-protein interactions. But long polyQ regions may lead to an excess of interactions, and produc…

Neurochemical alterations in women with borderline personality disorder and comorbid attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

2010

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with structural and functional brain changes. Recent models and findings refer to alterations of glutamate and total N-acetylaspartate (tNAA) in this condition.Absolute quantities of tNAA, creatine, glutamate, glutamine, myoinositol and total choline were measured using 3 Tesla magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the left anterior cingulate cortex and the left cerebellum in 14 unmedicated women with BPD and comorbid attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 18 healthy women. Both groups were matched with respect to age, education and premorbid intelligence.In the anterior cingulate, we found significantly higher tNAA and glutamate…

Anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies in patients with abnormal liver tests: is it always coeliac disease?

2005

Coeliac disease (CD) is found in 5-10% of patients with chronically abnormal liver tests and no obvious cause of liver disease. In this population the efficacy of screening for CD by anti-tissue transglutaminase (anti-tTG) may be impaired by the high rate of positive anti-tTG found in chronic liver disease.To evaluate the prevalence of coeliac disease and the role of anti-tTG in patients with non-viral, non-autoimmune chronic and no obvious cause of liver damage.Out of 2,512 consecutive patients with abnormal liver tests, 168 (118 men, 50 women; mean age 40.7 +/- 12.6 years) were defined, on the basis of clinical data and liver biopsy, as NAFLD or cryptogenic chronic hepatitis. All were tes…

The effects of prebiotics on microbial dysbiosis, butyrate production and immunity in HIV-infected subjects

2017

Altered interactions between the gut mucosa and bacteria during HIV infection seem to contribute to chronic immune dysfunction. A deeper understanding of how nutritional interventions could ameliorate gut dysbiosis is needed. Forty-four subjects, including 12 HIV+ viremic untreated (VU) patients, 23 antiretroviral therapy-treated (ART(+)) virally suppressed patients (15 immunological responders and 8 non-responders) and 9 HIV- controls (HIV-), were blindly randomized to receive either prebiotics (scGOS/lcFOS/glutamine) or placebo (34/10) over 6 weeks in this pilot study. We assessed fecal microbiota composition using deep 16S rRNA gene sequencing and several immunological and genetic marker…

Association of CYP2R1 rs10766197 with MS risk and disease progression

2017

Background MS is a neurodegenerative autoimmune disease resulting from a complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Among these, vitamin D and genetic variants associated with vitamin D-metabolism gain great attention. The aim of our study was to assess five SNPs in NADSYN1 and CYP2R1 genes in relation to serum 25-OH-vitamin D3 levels in MS patients and controls. Methods 25-OH-vitamin D3 levels and genotyping of CYP2R1- and NADSYN1-SNPs were investigated both in MS patients and in healthy controls. Results The analysis revealed lower 25-OH-vitamin D3 concentrations in MS patients than in controls and an association of rs10766197 CYP2R1 SNP with MS risk. After stratifying MS p…

A comprehensive untargeted metabonomic analysis of human steatotic liver tissue by RP and HILIC chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry reveals i…

2011

Steatosis, or excessive accumulation of lipids in the liver, is a generally accepted previous step to the development of more severe conditions like nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis. We aimed, to characterize the metabolic profile that defines simple steatosis in human tissue and to identify potential disturbances in the hepatic metabolism that could favor the switch to progressive liver damage. A total of 46 samples, 23 from steatotic and 23 from nonsteatotic human livers, were analyzed following a holistic LC-MS-based metabonomic analysis that combines RP and HILIC chromatographic separations. Multivariate statistical data analysis satisfactorily classified samples an…

A Narrative Review about Nutritional Management and Prevention of Oral Mucositis in Haematology and Oncology Cancer Patients Undergoing Antineoplasti…

2021

Cancer is a prevalent disease worldwide, and treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy sometimes lead to adverse events. Oral mucositis is one of the most disabling adverse events, and clinical guidelines do not take into account nutritional interventions. The primary endpoint was to gather the evidence about the efficacy of nutritional interventions in the prevention and/or treatment of antineoplastic-induced oral mucositis in oncological patients. A bibliographic review was carried out in the PubMed data base by combining MeSH terms with Boolean operators. Articles were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria; 50 final articles were found. Although further evidence is ne…

Transglutaminase Type II Plays a Protective Role in Hepatic Injury

2003

The up-regulation of "tissue" transglutaminase (TG2) gene has been shown to occur in various pathologies and can lead to severe liver injury; however, its role in the onset of liver damage has not yet been clarified. To address this issue, we have used two experimental settings: carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4))-induced liver injury in wild-type and TG2 knockout mice; and liver biopsies obtained from a large cohort of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients. Mice lacking TG2 failed to clear the hepatic necrotic tissue formed in response to prolonged CCl(4) exposure (5 weeks) and 60% of them died before the end of the treatment. By contrast, wild-type mice were able to recover after the toxic …