Cholesterol-biosynthesis inhibitor stops infection

A cholesterol biosynthesis inhibitor blocks Staphylococcus aureus virulence.

Staphylococcus aureus produces hospital- and community-acquired infections, with methicillin-resistant S. aureus posing a serious public health threat. The golden carotenoid pigment of S. aureus, staphyloxanthin, promotes resistance to reactive oxygen species and host neutrophil-based killing, and early enzymatic steps in staphyloxanthin production resemble those for cholesterol biosynthesis. W...

Monacolin M, a new inhibitor of cholesterol biosynthesis.

Monacolin M, a new specific inhibitor of cholesterol biosynthesis structurally related to monacolin K (mevinolin), was isolated from cultures of a strain of Monascus ruber. The structure of monacolin M was determined to be beta-hydroxybutyryl ester of monacolin J by a combination of physical techniques. It was suggested that monacolin M is derived from monacolin J via a synthetic pathway distin...

Biosynthesis of Cholesterol

Inherited disorders of cholesterol biosynthesis.

Defects of cholesterol biosynthesis comprise a heterogeneous group of disorders, most of which have only been recently described and more are likely to follow in the near future. Mevalonic aciduria (MVA) and hyperimmunoglobulinemia D syndrome (HIDS) are due to allelic defects in mevalonate kinase, an enzyme located proximally in the pathway of cholesterol and nonsterol isoprene biosynthesis. Cl...

Limb malformations of rat fetuses exposed to a distal inhibitor of cholesterol biosynthesis.

Triparanol, an inhibitor of desmosterol Delta24 reductase, produces a high rate of limb malformations in rat fetuses exposed at gestational day 10 (gd 10) to a single oral dose (150-200 mg/kg) given to the pregnant dam. AY9944, another efficient distal inhibitor of cholesterol biosynthesis that blocks dehydrocholesterol Delta7 reductase, produces a similar degree of cholesterol depletion but fe...