AIM To determine the possibility that diabetes mellitus promotes pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma via glyceraldehyde (GA)-derived advanced glycation-end products (GA-AGEs). METHODS PANC-1, a human pancreatic cancer cell line, was treated with 1-4 mmol/L GA for 24 h. The cell viability and intracellular GA-AGEs were measured by WST-8 assay and slot blotting. Moreover, immunostaining of PANC-1 ...

Disease summary: Pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder that was first described by the neuropathologist Julius Hallervorden and the neurologist Hugo Spatz in 1922 [1]. The active involvement of Hallervorden in euthanasia in Germany during World War II and the discovery of the defective gene (mutation in pantothenate kinase 2 gene, located...

O movimento de popularização das Plantas Alimentícias Não Convencionais (PANC) no Brasil tem avançado sentido ampliar a disponibilidade desses alimentos nos mercados locais, principalmente nas feiras. presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar oferta PANC entre os(as) agricultores(as) agroecológicos(as) da feira São Lourenço do Sul, RS, e avaliar as transformações ocorridas partir iniciativa...

Recently, the search for new drugs against tuberculosis (TB) has been a hot topic and the search for new inhibitors against validated drug targets and pathways other than those currently targeted by known drugs is suggested to be the most promising way forward. Mycobacterium tuberculosis pantothenate synthetase (MTBPS) happens to be one of such targets. In a quest to carry out virtual screening...

BACKGROUND Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by dystonia, parkinsonism, and iron accumulation in the brain. Many patients with this disease have mutations in the gene encoding pantothenate kinase 2 (PANK2); these patients are said to have pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration. In this study, we compared the clinical and radiographic features...

Neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation is a group of disorders, the commonest of which is PKAN (Pantothenate kinase associated neurodegeneration). We present here, a case of 18 year old boy with progressive dementia, pyramidal and extrapyramidal involvement, dysarthria, seizures and myoclonus. The patient was diagnosed as PKAN (formerly Hallervorden Spatz disease) after "eye of tiger" a...

Pantothenate Kinase-Associated Neurodegeneration (PKAN) is a form of Neurodegeneration with Brain Iron Accumulation (NBIA) associated with mutations in the pantothenate kinase 2 gene (PANK2). Pantothenate kinases catalyze the rate-limiting step of coenzyme A synthesis and Pank2 is the only pantothenate kinase isoform in humans that is localized to mitochondria. Acanthocytosis, the occurrence of...

We studied the effects of glucagon, dibutyryl cyclic AMP and dexamethasone on the rate of [(14)C]pantothenate conversion to CoA in adult rat liver parenchymal cells in primary culture. The presence of 30nm-glucagon increased the rate by about 1.5-fold relative to control cultures (range 1.4-2.3) and 2.4-fold relative to cultures containing 1-3m-i.u. of insulin/ml. The half-maximal effect was ob...

Pantothenate kinase (PanK) is a regulatory enzyme that controls coenzyme A (CoA) biosynthesis. The association of PanK with neurodegeneration and diabetes suggests that chemical modifiers of PanK activity may be useful therapeutics. We performed a high throughput screen of >520000 compounds from the St. Jude compound library and identified new potent PanK inhibitors and activators with chemical...

Baicalein, a flavone ingredient of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, is a promising anti-cancer agent. However, its potential anti-pancreatic cancer effects and the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. In this study, we showed that Baicalein not only induced apoptosis, but also suppressed proliferation, migration and invasion of two pancreatic cancer cell lines BxPC-3 and PANC-1 in a dose- an...