BACKGROUND Several thiocholine alkanoyl esters were newly synthesized and explored as substrates for the assay of human serum cholinesterase after being subjected to the Ellman reaction (Arch Biochem Biophys 1958;74:443-50 and Arch Biochem Biophys 1959;82:70-7). METHODS We synthesized thiocholine ester iodides by the method of Renshow et al. (J Am Chem Soc 1938;60:1765-70). We examined solubi...

Background: Human serum paraoxonase 1 (PON1) hydrolyzes organophosphate (OP) compounds and so significantly alters an individual’s susceptibility to the toxicity of these chemicals. The study was designed to assess the serum PON1 activity in a series of patients with OP poisoning. Methods: Suspected OP poisoning patients presented within 6 hours of...

Frog skin cholinesterase is largely of the serum (pseudocholinesterase) type. For whole skin, the activity at 10 --1 ~ AcChC1 is 4.9/~l./mg. N/hr. Tela subcutanea isolated by dissection exhibits an activity of 65 #l./mg. N/hr. at 10 --j ~ AcChC1. Since about one-tenth of the nitrogen of the skin is located in the tela subcutanea, it is estimated that more than 90 per cent of the enzyme is assoc...

Human cholinesterase has recently been sequenced and cloned. It is a glycoprotein of 4 identical subunits, each subunit containing 9 carbohydrate chains and 3.5 disuljide bonds. Protein folding is likely to be very similar in human cholinesterase and Torpedo acetylcholinesterase. The cholinesterases have no significant sequence homology with the serine proteases and seem to belong to a separate...

We report our study on serum cholinesterase in vegetable growers, a risk occupation in a rural area of Thailand. In this study, 70 subjects (35 vegetable growers and 35 controls) were studied. The mean blood cholinesterase level in vegetable growers (17.7±7.0 U/ml) was significantly lower than that of the control group (24.7±12.4 U/ml) (p=0.01).