PURPOSE (11)C-Choline-positron emission tomography (PET) has been exploited to detect the aberrant choline metabolism in tumors. Radiolabeled choline uptake within the imaging time is primarily a function of transport, phosphorylation, and oxidation. Rapid choline oxidation, however, complicates interpretation of PET data. In this study, we investigated the biologic basis of the oxidation of de...

The structural gene (FDH1) coding for NAD(+)-dependent formate dehydrogenase (FDH) was cloned from a genomic library of Candida boidinii, and the FDH1 gene was disrupted in the C. boidinii genome (fdh1 delta) by one-step gene disruption. In a batch culture experiment, although the fdh1 delta strain was still able to grow on methanol, its growth was greatly inhibited and a toxic level of formate...

Infants born to heroin- and cocaine-addicted mothers have been reported to have a lower incidence of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) compared with nonaddicted infants. However, it is not known whether these are direct drug-mediated effects or secondary phenomena. We therefore investigated the effect of opioids and cocaine on fetal rat lung maturation in vitro. Using 18- to 20-d fetal rat lu...

I n PNAS, Craciun and Balskus (1) combine biochemical intuition with modern genome mining techniques to discover the elusive enzyme responsible for catalyzing the degradation of choline (1, Scheme 1). Choline is an essential nutrient in higher organisms that is required for the biosynthesis of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and the head group of several phospholipids, and that serves as a s...

UNLABELLED PET with [methyl-(11)C]-choline (11C-choline) can be useful for detecting well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that is not 18F-FDG-avid. This study was designed to examine the relationship between choline metabolism and choline tracer uptake in HCC for PET with 11C-choline. METHODS Dynamic PET scans of 11C-choline were acquired using the woodchuck models of HCC. After...

The majority of the dehydrogenases of mammalian mitochondria are linked to the respiratory chain (cytochrome system) by way of pyridine nucleotides. Although the intramitochondrial pyridine nucleotide appears to be tightly bound in intact mitochondrial preparations (1) and thus does not function as a mobile coenzyme, the requirement of these dehydrogenases for added diphosphopyridine nucleotide...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa can grow to very high-cell-density (HCD) during infection of the cystic fibrosis (CF) lung. Phosphatidylcholine (PC), the major component of lung surfactant, has been hypothesized to support HCD growth of P. aeruginosa in vivo. The phosphorylcholine headgroup, a glycerol molecule, and two long-chain fatty acids (FAs) are released by enzymatic cleavage of PC by bacterial p...

Introduction: Orbital metastasis of prostate cancer (PC) is very rare and even more unique in castration-resistant PC (CRPC). In this scenario, choline positron emission tomography/computed tomography (choline PET/CT) is the gold-standard restaging method of choice available in our setting, and new anti-androgens treatments show improvement in overall survival. Case presentation: We report the...