Sterols are a major component of eukaryotic cell membranes. For human fungal infections caused by the filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, antifungal drugs that target sterol biosynthesis and/or function remain the standard of care. Yet, an understanding of A. fumigatus sterol biosynthesis regulatory mechanisms remains an under developed therapeutic target. The critical role of sterol bios...

ATP-binding cassette transporters ABCG5 (G5) and ABCG8 (G8) form a heterodimer that transports cholesterol and plant sterols from hepatocytes into bile. Mutations that inactivate G5 or G8 cause hypercholesterolemia and premature atherosclerosis. We showed previously that the two nucleotide-binding domains (NBDs) in the heterodimer are not functionally equivalent; sterol transport is abolished b...

Nonvesicular transport of cholesterol plays an essential role in the distribution and regulation of cholesterol within cells, but it has been difficult to identify the key intracellular cholesterol transporters. The steroidogenic acute regulatory-related lipid-transfer (START) family of proteins is involved in several pathways of nonvesicular trafficking of sterols. Among them, STARD4 has been ...

Following a recent experimental investigation of the effect of the length of the alkyl side chain in a series of cholesterol analogues (Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2013, 52, 12848-12851), we report here an atomistic molecular dynamics characterization of the behaviour of methyl-branched side chain sterols (iso series) in POPC bilayers. The studied sterols included androstenol (i-C0-sterol) and chol...

In the absence of sterol, amphotericin B at 5 x 10(-6) M caused maximum marker release from the saturated dipalmitoyl lecithin liposomes, minimum release from the unsaturated dioleoyl lecithin liposomes, and an in-between response from egg lecithin liposomes. Nystatin at 2.5 to 4.0 x 10(-5) M induced appreciable marker release from all three types of sterol-free liposomes. The amphotericin B- a...

The sterol metabolic network is emerging center stage in inflammation and immunity. Historically, observational clinical studies show that hypocholesterolemia is a common side effect of interferon (IFN) treatment. More recently, comprehensive systems-wide investigations of the macrophage IFN response reveal a direct molecular link between cholesterol metabolism and infection. Upon infection, fl...

Recent studies suggest that the sterol metabolic network participates in the interferon (IFN) antiviral response. However, the molecular mechanisms linking IFN with the sterol network and the identity of sterol mediators remain unknown. Here we report a cellular antiviral role for macrophage production of 25-hydroxycholesterol (cholest-5-en-3β,25-diol, 25HC) as a component of the sterol metabol...

Transgenic potato (Solanum tuberosum cv Désirée) plants overexpressing a soybean (Glycine max) type 1 sterol methyltransferase (GmSMT1) cDNA were generated and used to study sterol biosynthesis in relation to the production of toxic glycoalkaloids. Transgenic plants displayed an increased total sterol level in both leaves and tubers, mainly due to increased levels of the 24-ethyl sterols isofuc...

Fatty acid and sterol analysis were performed on Phytomonas serpens and Phytomonas sp. grown in chemically defined and complex medium, and P. françai cultivated in complex medium. The three species of the genus Phytomonas had qualitatively identical fatty acid patterns. Oleic, linoleic, and linolenic were the major unsaturated fatty acids. Miristic and stearic were the major saturated fatty aci...

The discovery of an acylated steryl glucoside in plant tissue in 1964 (13) raised the number of known forms of sterols in plants to four. These are the free sterols, sterol esters, steryl glycosides, and acylated steryl glycosides. Kiribuchi et al. (12) analyzed the sterol content of soybean and found that sterol ester was present in very small amount and that the sterol was mostly in the form ...