Background Tocotrienols and tocopherols, which are synthesized in plastids of plant cells with similar functionalities, comprise vitamin E to serve as a potent lipid-soluble antioxidant plants. The synthesis tocopherols involves the condensation homogentisic acid (HGA) phytyl diphosphate (PDP) under catalysis homogentisate phytyltransferase (HPT). Tocotrienol is initiated by HGA geranylgeranyl ...

OBJECTIVE Alkaptonuria (AKU) is an ultra-rare autosomal recessive disease that currently lacks an appropriate therapy. Recently we provided experimental evidence that AKU is a secondary serum amyloid A (SAA)-based amyloidosis. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the use of antioxidants to inhibit SAA amyloid and pro-inflammatory cytokine release in AKU. METHODS We adopted a human chon...

In 1908, Sir Archibald Garrod in his Croonian lectures coined the name 'inborn errors of metabolism' to describe a group of rare metabolic disorders which appeared to be genetically determined. In 1923, he described six such conditions in a monograph-alcaptonuria, pentosuria, cystinuria, albinism, pancreatic steatorrhoea and porphyria. He predicted that a biochemical reason would be found for t...

It is well established that human serum paraoxonase (PON1) catalyzes the hydrolysis of organophosphate insecticides and nerve agents, as well as that of a number of aromatic carboxylic acid esters. Our laboratory has recently found a new class of PON1 substrates that includes at least 30 lactones and cyclic carbonate esters. The lactone substrates vary in their ring size from 4 to 7 atoms. Subs...

The inhibition of the spreading effect of hyaluronidase by the previous administration of sodium salicylate was reported by Guerra and Robles Gil (1). Subsequent investigations indicated that this phenomenon could not be explained on the basis of the direct inhibition of hyaluronidase by salicylates, since such inhibition could only be demonstrated in vitro at high salicylate concentrations (2-...

Excitatory amino acid (EAA) receptor-mediated events have recently been implicated in dopaminergic mechanisms of neurotoxicity. 2,4,5-Trihydroxyphenylalanine (6-hydroxy-DOPA, TOPA), the ortho-hydroxylated derivative of the dopamine precursor 2,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA), has recently been reported to have neurotoxic properties which are blocked by CNQX, a specific antagonist of the AMPA ...

Glutathione transferase zeta (GSTZ1-1) catalyzes the isomerization of maleylacetoacetate (MAA) to fumarylacetoacetate, the penultimate step in the tyrosine degradation pathway. GSTZ1-1 is inactivated by dichloroacetic acid (DCA), which is used for the clinical management of congenital lactic acidosis and is a drinking-water contaminant. Metabolic changes associated with chemically induced GSTZ1...

BACKGROUND Yijin-tang (YJ) has been used traditionally for the treatment of cardiovascular conditions, nausea, vomiting, gastroduodenal ulcers, and chronic gastritis. In this study, a simple and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed for the quantitation of nine bioactive compounds in YJ: homogentisic acid, liquiritin, naringin, hesperidin, neohesperidin, l...