Background The current translational work is an outgrowth of a mechanistic framework in rodents with cognitive deficits and depressive-like traits, wherein the levels pivotal mitochondrial metabolite acetyl-L-carnitine (LAC) are decreased signal to brain abnormal activity histone acetyltransferase expression genes key for neuronal plasticity, such as mGlu2 (a inhibitor glutamate release). Yet, ...

In May 2012 Arthur Beaudet, a geneticist at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, reported a preliminary link between the deficiency of a gene that helps cells synthesize a biomolecule called carnitine and the risk of autism in some boys. Beaudet’s 2012 Inaugural Article (1) in PNAS raised the possibility that carnitine—a fatty acid-ferrying ...

The placental transport of carnitine is significant because the fetus cannot supply itself with adequate amounts of this nutrient. Carnitine deficiencies in infants can lead to symptoms ranging from muscle weakness to sudden infant death. Objectives of this study include the characterization of novel organic cation transporter 2 (OCTN2) function in the BeWo cell line and the inhibition of place...

Carnitine deficiency presents as a major problem in fatty acid oxidation. The use of a plasma carnitine assay can rapidly help to describe this deficiency. The method we describe here requires two simple steps of sample preparation, followed by automated analysis with the Beckman Synchron CX4 random-access chemistry analyzer. The goal of this method development was to reduce the cost of analysi...

Listeria monocytogenes is a ubiquitous food-borne pathogen found widely distributed in nature as well as an undesirable contaminant in a variety of fresh and processed foods. This ubiquity can be at least partly explained by the ability of the organism to grow at high osmolarity and reduced temperatures, a consequence of its ability to accumulate osmo- and cryoprotective compounds termed osmoly...

OCTN2 is a bifunctional transporter that reabsorbs filtered carnitine in a sodium-dependent manner and secretes organic cations into urine as a proton antiport mechanism. We hypothesized that inhibition of OCTN2 by anticancer drugs can influence carnitine resorption. OCTN2-mediated transport inhibition by anticancer drugs was assessed using cells transfected with human OCTN2 (hOCTN2) or mouse O...

OCTN2 is a bifunctional transporter that reabsorbs filtered carnitine in a sodium-dependent manner and secretes organic cations into urine as a proton antiportmechanism.We hypothesized that inhibition of OCTN2 by anticancer drugs can influence carnitine resorption. OCTN2-mediated transport inhibition by anticancer drugs was assessed using cells transfected with human OCTN2 (hOCTN2) or mouse Oct...