Previous studies have demonstrated that mutations of highly conserved residues in the alpha subunit of Gs (alpha s) can inhibit either the intrinsic GTPase activity (glutamine-227 to leucine, Q227L) or the ability of the protein to be activated by GTP (glycine-226 to alanine, G226A). We stably transfected NIH 3T3 cells with cDNAs encoding Gi2 alpha subunit (alpha i2) containing either wild-type...

BACKGROUND T-2 toxin is a mycotoxin of type A trichothecenes produced by several fungal genera such as Fusarium species. Mycotoxins can affect both cell mediated and humoral immune compartments. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of T-2 toxin on cytokine production by mouse peritoneal macrophages and lymph node T cells. METHODS Mouse peritoneal macrophages and...

Cholera toxin treatment (up to 1 microgram/ml, 16 h) of neuroblastoma x glioma hybrid NG108-15 cells produced a decrease of some 35% in both delta opioid receptor-mediated stimulation of high-affinity GTPase activity and inhibition of forskolin-amplified adenylate cyclase. Coincident with these decreases was a down-regulation of some 35% in the delta opioid receptor population. A similar patter...

Background and Objective:Outbreak of food-borne diseases has become more and more important these days and using natural food preservers with high durability is under debate. Vegetative essence is a type of food preserver and many studies have been performed on their antimicrobial effects. The purpose of this study was to investigate antibacterial effects of lavender essence on...

Staphylococci are efficient chemical factories producing a variety of toxic products. Of the many virulence factors elaborated by these microorganisms, the alpha toxin appears to be most closely associated with tissue damage. It has been known that staphylococcal alpha toxin exerts a cytopathic effect on rabbit smooth muscle and kidney cells," mouse kidney cells,' chick embryo cells,' guinea pi...

The aim of the present research was by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy using spin trapping technique to study in vitro oxidation of severe mushroom toxin alpha amanitin and second to evaluate its in vivo effect on oxidative status in mice kidney tissue. During in vitro oxidation of alpha amanitin by PbO2 in presence of nitrosobenzene as a spin-trapping agent, a triplet EPR si...

Clostridium difficile toxin A (TcdA) and toxin B (TcdB), C. sordellii lethal toxin (TcsL) and C. novyi alpha-toxin (TcnA) are important pathogenicity factors, which represent the family of the clostridial glucosylating toxins (CGTs). Toxin A and B are associated with antibiotic-associated diarrhea and pseudomembraneous colitis. Lethal toxin is involved in toxic shock syndrome after abortion and...