Showing papers in "Molecular Aspects of Medicine in 2009"

TL;DR: Dysregulation of GSH synthesis is increasingly being recognized as contributing to the pathogenesis of many pathological conditions, including diabetes mellitus, pulmonary fibrosis, cholestatic liver injury, endotoxemia and drug-resistant tumor cells.

TL;DR: The purpose here is to provide a brief overview of some of the important aspects of glutathione metabolism as part of this special issue that will provide a more comprehensive review of the state of knowledge regarding this essential molecule.

TL;DR: This review tries to summarize the current knowledge on the proteasome and the ubiquitin-proteasomal system, including the cellular functions of this system.

TL;DR: Variability in GCL expression is associated with several disease phenotypes and transgenic mouse and rat models promise to be highly useful for investigating the relationships between GCL activity, GSH synthesis, and disease in humans.

TL;DR: The redox regulation either can switch on/off or regulate the threshold for some crucial events in these pathways, including TNF-alpha and Fas signaling, NF-kappaB, JNK and mitochondrial apoptotic pathways, are reviewed.

TL;DR: The global distribution of anthrax is largely determined by soils with high calcium levels and a pH above 6.1, which foster spore survival, and it is speculated that the spore exosporium probably plays a key part by restricting dispersal and thereby increasing the probability of a grazing animal acquiring a lethal dose.

TL;DR: The current knowledge about the role of GSH in redox signaling, GSH biosynthesis and particularly the regulation of transcription factor Nrf2 by GSH and downstream signaling during oxidative stress and inflammation in various pulmonary diseases are featured.

TL;DR: This review will concentrate on the major cellular oxysterols, summarising their location, generation, metabolism and elimination, as well as providing insights into the latest research into their regulatory roles in cholesterol homeostasis.

TL;DR: The purpose of this review is to highlight the structural and molecular bases of CAR and PXR impact on human health, providing information on mechanisms through which diet, chemical exposure, and environment ultimately impact health and disease.

TL;DR: The evidence that Mrps contribute to the regulation of cellular GSH levels and the thiol-redox state, and thus to the many biochemical processes that are influenced by this tripeptide is summarized.

TL;DR: The possibility that the flux of 27-OHC from the circulation into the brain represents the missing link between AD and hypercholesterolemia is explored, and the possibility that modification of this flux may be a therapeutic strategy is discussed.

TL;DR: A substantial accumulation of polar lipids in cytoplasmic multilamellar structures was observed, demonstrating that cytotoxic oxysterols were phospholipidosis inducers, contributing to a better understanding of the associated pathologies, so that new treatments and drugs can be designed.

TL;DR: An overview of the current understanding of anthrax toxin effects in animal models and the cytotoxicity induced by LT in different cells and a brief reexamination of early historic findings on toxin in vivo effects is presented.

TL;DR: The information provided in the present review suggests an important role of nuclear glutathione as a key regulator of epigenetic events that may be critical in the regulation of cell proliferation.

TL;DR: A charge state-dependent Brownian ratchet mechanism has been proposed to explain how the pore translocates EF and LF, which may function in concert with molecular chaperonins to effect delivery of effector proteins in catalytically active form to the cytosolic compartment of host cells.

TL;DR: The epidemiology of anthrax is becoming understood better with new systems coming on stream for distinguishing different genotypes and this is covered in detail, including clinical signs and pathology in animals.

TL;DR: The developmental nature of B. anthracis and its pathogenic (mammalian host) and environmental (soil) lifestyles of make it an interesting model for study of niche-specific bacterial gene expression and physiology.

TL;DR: Oxysterols were also shown to interact with the Insig proteins, revealing a mechanism by which they regulate the transport and maturation of sterol-regulatory element binding proteins as well as the stability of a rate-limiting sterol biosynthetic enzyme.

TL;DR: A pathological level of cholesterol oxidation in the vasculature may be the missing molecular link between hypercholesterolemia and the formation of atherosclerotic lesions.

TL;DR: The non-conventional role of GSH and its analogs as antiviral drugs is discussed in this chapter.

TL;DR: The specific effects of the lethal and edema toxins of B. anthracis on the activation and function of phagocytes, dendritic cells and lymphocytes are reviewed.

TL;DR: The anatomy of the spore is unique among bacteria, being comprised of a series of specialized concentric shells, each of which provides specific critical functions, and detailed molecular analysis of these shells has shed considerable light on how each layer determines specific spore properties.

TL;DR: Comparison of the biochemical and structural characteristics of these two AC toxins with host ACs reveal that they have diverse strategies of catalytic activation, yet use the same two-metal-ion catalytic mechanism.

TL;DR: There are few polymorphic nucleotides among B. anthracis strains reflecting the short evolutionary time since its derivation from a B. cereus-like ancestor and an exception has been observed in a large inversion in an attenuated strain suggesting that chromosome co-linearity is important to the natural biology of this pathogen.

TL;DR: Data is summarized supporting the notion that LXR is also involved in the regulation of inflammatory processes and what consequences of receptor activation on transcription regulation has and how these processes coordinate cholesterol metabolism and transport in macrophages.

TL;DR: What is known about the molecular details of the protective antigen (PA) toxin subunit interaction with either the ANTXR1 and AN TXR2 cellular receptors is summarized, and how receptor-type can dictate the low pH threshold of PA pore formation is summarized.

TL;DR: The structural features at the basis of the activities of LF are reviewed here with particular attention to the proteolytic activity and to the identification of specific inhibitors.

TL;DR: This review considers criteria which can lead to the most appropriate choice of a given animal species for modelling human anthrax and highlights the positive input and limitations of different models and shows that they are not mutually exclusive.

TL;DR: A review of the current literature indicates that elements from each of these three structures, as well as membrane components, have been studied, and focuses on well-studied polymers or proteins.

TL;DR: This review seeks to summarize work that has been done to build on the current PA-based vaccine methodology and to evaluate the search for future anthrax prophylaxis strategies.