Synthesis of α1-Antichymotrypsin and α1-Antitrypsin by Human Trophoblast

α1-ANTITRYPSIN-OLD DOG NEW TRICKS: α1-ANTITRYPSIN EXERTS IN VITRO ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY IN HUMAN MONOCYTES BY ELEVATING cAMP

Molecular Mechanism of Z α1-Antitrypsin Deficiency*

The Z mutation (E342K) of α1-antitrypsin (α1-AT), carried by 4% of Northern Europeans, predisposes to early onset of emphysema due to decreased functional α1-AT in the lung and to liver cirrhosis due to accumulation of polymers in hepatocytes. However, it remains unclear why the Z mutation causes intracellular polymerization of nascent Z α1-AT and why 15% of the expressed Z α1-AT is secreted in...

Cloning of truncation variants of α1-antitrypsin

Introduction Alpha1-antitrypsin is a member of the serpin (serine protease inhibitor) family of proteins . It controls the breakdown of elastic tissue in the lung by inhibiting human neutrophil elastase. It does so by the remarkable serpin mechanism forming a covalent complex with the enzyme and undergoing a dramatic, stabilising conformational change in order to fully disable it . However this...

α1-Antitrypsin deficiency: count me in please!

Respiratory medicine is facing formidable challenges in the 21st century. Indeed, most respiratory medical research is becoming interconnected, translational and transnational, all embedded within so-called “planetary health” [1]. However, renewing estimates and trends from classical, descriptive epidemiology, including how many patients of a given condition are around, and how many are expecte...

Urinary α1-Antichymotrypsin: A Biomarker of Prion Infection

The occurrence of blood-borne prion transmission incidents calls for identification of potential prion carriers. However, current methods for intravital diagnosis of prion disease rely on invasive tissue biopsies and are unsuitable for large-scale screening. Sensitive biomarkers may help meeting this need. Here we scanned the genome for transcripts elevated upon prion infection and encoding sec...