BACKGROUND Many trials have shown that 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events and mortality. One method of decreasing the incidence of cardiovascular events could be to reduce the progression of coronary atherosclerosis, and a recent study found that atorvastatin can cause coronary plaque to regress. To generalize this...

The hotdog fold is one of the basic protein folds widely present in bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. Many of these proteins exhibit thioesterase activity against fatty acyl-CoAs and play important roles in lipid metabolism, cellular signalling and degradation of xenobiotics. The genome of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa contains over 20 genes encoding predicted hotdog-fold pr...

Aspergillus fumigatus is the most common airborne fungal pathogen for humans. In this mold, iron starvation induces production of the siderophore triacetylfusarinine C (TAFC). Here we demonstrate a link between TAFC and ergosterol biosynthetic pathways, which are both critical for virulence and treatment of fungal infections. Consistent with mevalonate being a limiting prerequisite for TAFC bio...

The objective of this study was to identify the major peptides generated by the in vitro hydrolysis of Amaranthus cruentus protein and to verify the effect of these peptides on the activity of 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA reductase (HMG-CoA reductase), a key enzyme in cholesterol biosynthesis. A protein isolate was prepared, and an enzymatic hydrolysis that simulated the in vivo digestion of...

Lovastatin, a natural byproduct of some fungi, is able to inhibit HMG-CoA (3-hydroxy-3 methyl glutaryl CoA) reductase. This is a key enzyme involved in isoprenoid synthesis and essential for cell membrane formation in methanogenic Archaea. In this paper, experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that lovastatin secreted by Aspergillus terreus in fermented rice straw extracts (FRSE) can i...

S15261, a compound developed for the oral treatment of type II diabetes, is cleaved by esterases to the fragments Y415 and S15511. The aim was to define the insulin-sensitizing effects of S15261, the cleavage products, and troglitazone and metformin in the JCR:LA-cp rat, an animal model of the obesity/insulin resistance syndrome that exhibits an associated vasculopathy and cardiovascular diseas...

Compound K (CK) is a major intestinal metabolite of ginsenosides derived from ginseng radix. Although antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic activities of CK have been investigated in recent years, action mechanism of CK remains poorly understood. Therefore, we examined whether CK affects the lipid metabolism in insulin-resistant HepG2 human hepatoma cells. In this study, a significant increase in...

The use of statins has scaled up to become one of the most prescribed medicines in the world and have been very useful in the manegement of cardiovascular diseases and related mortality. The disclosure of their chemical structure similar to that of hydroxy methyl glutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) revealed their ability to compete with and inhibit the rate-limiting enzyme HMG-CoA reductase that catalyzes t...

INTRODUCTION: Glutaric aciduria type 1 is a neurometabolic disorder occurring due to deficient activity of glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase. Multiple neurotoxic metabolites start accumulating in plasma, CSF and urine which are detected by mass spectrometry. Early new-born screening plays an important role early diagnosis whereas typical radiographic features metabolic workup supports the diagnosis. T...