The formation of homocysteine thiolactone (HcyTl) from homocysteine occurs in all examined so far organisms including bacteria, yeast, and humans. Protein N-homocysteinylation at the ε-amino group of lysine is an adverse result of HcyTl accumulation. Since tagging of proteins by ubiquitination before their proteasomal degradation takes place at the same residue, we wondered how N-homocysteinyla...

Tyndall, R. L. (The Pennsylvania State University, University Park) and E. H. Ludwig. l-Cystine requirement for production of Coxsackie B3 virus in cultured monkey heart cells. J. Bacteriol. 85:1339-1345. 1963.-The requirement for l-cystine in both the production of Coxsackie B3 virus in cultured monkey heart cells and in prolonging the survival of the cultured monkey heart cells is demonstrate...

All living organisms conduct protein synthesis with a high degree of accuracy maintained in the transmission and flow of information from a gene to protein product. One crucial 'quality control' point in maintaining a high level of accuracy is the selectivity by which aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases furnish correctly activated amino acids, attached to tRNA species, as the building blocks for growing...

The reactions of a-chymotrypsinogen with carbon disulfide and with 0-methylisourea have been reported from this laboratory previously (1,2). The present report concerns the reaction of this protein with a new acylating agent, N-acetyl-nn-homocysteine thiolactone. The use of the thiolactone for the introduction of sulhydryl groups into proteins was fist suggested by Benesch and Benesch (3,4) who...

AIMS/INTRODUCTION An elevated level of plasma homocysteine has long been suspected as a metabolic risk factor for the development of atherosclerotic vascular diseases in diabetes. Berberine (BBR) has several preventive effects on cardiovascular diseases. The effects of BBR on atherosclerotic plaque stability increased by homocysteine thiolactone (HTL) remain unknown. MATERIALS AND METHODS The...

Patients with chronic renal disease (CRD) represent an important segment of Tunisian population, and mostly because of the high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated with renal insufficiency, detection and treatment of chronic renal disease is now a public health priority (Abderrahim E et al., 2001, Ben Maïz H et al., 2006, Counil E et al., 2008). The increased incidence of CVD is lik...