BACKGROUND Anesthetics may interact with ionotropic glutamate receptors to produce some of their biologic actions. Cellular studies reveal that the ionotropic glutamate receptors, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), can be phosphorylated on their NR1 subunits at the C-terminal serine residues, which is a major mechanism for the regulation of NMDAR functions. It is currently unknown whether...

Autophagic activity in isolated rat hepatocytes is strongly suppressed by OA (okadaic acid) and other PP (protein phosphatase)-inhibitory toxins as well as by AICAR (5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide riboside), a direct activator of AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase). To investigate whether AMPK is a mediator of the effects of the toxin, a phosphospecific antibody directed against the activation ...

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) act as corepressors in gene transcription by altering the acetylation of histones, resulting in epigenetic gene silencing. We previously reported that HDAC3 acts as a coactivator of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). Although HDAC3 forms complexes with class II HDACs, their potential role in the transcriptional activity of MR is unclear. We hypothesized that HDAC4...

The nuclear Dbf2-related protein kinases 1 and 2 (NDR1/2) are closely-related AGC family kinases that are strongly conserved through evolution. In mammals, they are activated inter alia by phosphorylation of an hydrophobic domain threonine-residue [NDR1(Thr-444)/NDR2(Thr-442)] by an extrinsic protein kinase followed by autophosphorylation of a catalytic domain serine-residue [NDR1(Ser-281)/NDR2...

Embryo cloning methods could greatly benefit from the manipulation of cell cycle in oocytes from large domestic mammals. The present study was undertaken to examine the effects of the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide and the inhibitors of protein phosphatases 1 and 2A okadaic acid and calyculin A on maturing pig oocytes. Cycloheximide treatment (10 micrograms/ml) induced an interphase-...

An asymmetric synthesis of the C(9)-C(25) spiroketal fragment of calyculin C is described. Key steps include two crotylation reactions using successively Brown's reagent and (Z)-crotyltrifluorosilane for the formation of the anti, anti, anti stereotetrad, ynone formation by a Pd-catalyzed coupling of a thiol ester with a terminal alkyne and a double intramolecular hetero-Michael addition for th...