BACKGROUND Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are well-known environmental contaminants which are associated with chronic diseases. As foods are the major sources of human exposure to toxic pollutants, we developed an integrated dietary and education program to eliminate the chemical toxin throughout the human body. The present study evaluated effects of the dietary detoxification program on ...

Members of the cytochrome P450 family are important metabolic enzymes that are present in all metazoans. Genes encoding cytochrome P450s form a multi-gene family, and the number of genes varies widely among species. The enzymes are classified as either biosynthesis- or detoxification-type, depending on their substrates, but their origin and evolution have not been fully understood. In order to ...

The mutagenicity of various quinones, a class of compounds widely distributed in nature, is demonstrated in the Salmonella TA104 tester strain. The metabolic pathways by which four quinones, menadione, benzo[a]pyrene 3,6-quinone, 9,10-phenanthrenequinone, and danthron, caused mutagenicity in this test system were investigated in detail as were the detoxification pathways. The two-electron reduc...

Colorado potato beetle (CPB), Leptinotarsa decemlineata is a notorious pest of potato. Co-evolution with Solanaceae plants containing high levels of toxins (glycoalkaloids) helped this insect to develop an efficient detoxification system and resist almost every chemical insecticide introduced for its control. Even though the cross-resistance between plant allelochemicals and insecticides is wel...

Lung cancer arises as a focal transformation of chronically injured epithelium with cigarette smoke as one of its well recognized causes. Apart from oxidants, cigarette smoke contains several precarcinogens, and it is surprising that not every heavy smoker becomes a victim of malignant disease. This points to the interindividual variability in susceptibility to carcinogens and there are several...

Polyhalogenated compounds are often environmentally persistent and toxic to mammals. Microorganisms that metabolize these compounds can detoxify contaminated environments. Different biochemical mechanisms are used to metabolize polyhalogenated compounds, but few naturally occurring bacteria have this capability. A recombinant bacterium was constructed to metabolize polyhalogenated compounds to ...

Incidence and mortality rates for lung cancer in the United States are significantly greater in blacks than in whites. This disparity cannot be explained by differences in smoking behavior. We hypothesize that the observed racial differences in risk may be due to differences in the metabolic activation or detoxification of the tobacco-specific lung carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)...