The anchors of mature glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae contain either ceramide or diacylglycerol with a C26:0 fatty acid in the sn2 position. The primary GPI lipid added to newly synthesized proteins in the ER consists of diacylglycerol with conventional C16 and C18 fatty acids. Here we show that GUP1 is essential for the synthesis of the C26:0-co...

Nanocarrier-based anti-tumor drugs hold great promise for reducing side effects and improving tumor-site drug retention in the treatment of solid tumors. However, therapeutic outcomes are still limited, primarily due to a lack of drug penetration within most tumor tissues. Herein, we propose a strategy using a nanocarrier-based combination of vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) and cytotoxic drug...

0

Cytochrome P450 2J2 (CYP2J2) epoxygenase converts arachidonic acid to four regioisomeric epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) that exert multiple biological effects in the cardiovascular system and in various human solid cancers. However, it is unknown whether this enzyme is expressed or plays any role in malignant hematological diseases. In this study, we found strong and highly selective CYP2J2 e...

The proton pumping H(+)-ATPase, Pma1p, is an abundant and very long-lived polytopic protein of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae plasma membrane. Pma1p constitutes a major cargo of the secretory pathway and thus serves as an excellent model to study plasma membrane biogenesis. We have previously shown that newly synthesized Pma1p is mistargeted to the vacuole in an elo3Delta mutant that affects the ...

Three photoaffinity labeled derivatives of epothilone D were prepared by total synthesis, using efficient novel asymmetric synthesis methods for the preparation of two important synthetic building blocks. The key step for the asymmetric synthesis of (S,E)-3-(tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-4-methyl-5-(2-methylthiazol-4-yl)pent-4-enal involved a ketone reduction with (R)-Me-CBS-oxazaborolidine. For ...

Very long chain fatty acids (VLCFA), either free or as components of glycerolipids and sphingolipids, are present in many organs. Elongation of very long chain fatty acids-4 (ELOVL4) belongs to a family of 6 members of putative fatty acid elongases that are involved in the formation of VLCFA. Mutations in ELOVL4 were found to be responsible for an autosomal dominant form of Stargardt's-like mac...

Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging demonstrated the change of glucose consumption of tumor cells, but problems with specificity and difficulties in early detection of tumor response to chemotherapy have led to the development of new PET tracers. Fluorine-18-fluorothymidine ((18)F-FLT) images cellular proliferation by entering the salvage pathwa...