Caloric restriction (CR), which improves health and increases longevity, was studied as a therapy in a hexosaminidase beta knockout mouse model of Sandhoff disease (SD), an incurable neurodegenerative disease involving accumulation of brain ganglioside GM2 and asialo-GM2 (GA2). Adult mice were fed a rodent chow diet either ad libitum (AL) or restricted to reduce body weight by 15-18% (CR). Alth...

Negative-ion continuous-flow fast-atom bombardment mass spectrometry was evaluated as a means for the quantitative analysis of N-acetylneuraminyl-galactosyl-glucosyl-ceramide (NeuAc-GM3) and N-acetylgalactosaminyl-(N-acetylneuraminyl)galactosyl-glucosyl-ceramide (NeuAc-GM2). This study was carried out on a 7070-EQ mass spectrometer (VG Analytical, Manchester, UK) using a home-made continuous-fl...

The reactivity of a panel of antiganglioside monoclonal antibodies with a number of melanoma cell lines having different ganglioside composition profiles was studied. One cell line synthesized only GM3, one produced both GM3 and GD2, 2 had GM3 and GD3 as their major gangliosides, and 2 others synthesized approximately equal amounts of GM3, GM2, GD3, and GD2 gangliosides. Antibody reactivity wit...

GM2 activator protein (GM2AP) is a specific protein cofactor that stimulates the enzymatic hydrolysis of the GalNAc from GM2, a sialic acid containing glycosphingolipid, both in vitro and in lysosomes. While phospholipids together with glycosphingolipids are important membrane constituents, little is known about the possible effect of GM2AP on the hydrolysis of phospholipids. Several recent rep...

PURPOSE We addressed the possibility that low levels of tumor cell-bound antibodies targeting gangliosides might accelerate tumor growth. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN To test this hypothesis, we treated mice with a range of monoclonal antibody (mAb) doses against GM2, GD2, GD3, and CD20 after challenge with tumors expressing these antigens and tested the activity of the same mAbs in vitro. We also exp...

In the United States, heroin use is increasing and was implicated in 3805 deaths in 1993 (1). Multnomah County is Oregon's most populous county (1998 estimated population: 641,900); three fourths of county residents live in Portland. In 1999, in response to community concerns, the Multnomah County Health Department analyzed medical examiner (ME) data for 1993-1999 and interviewed heroin users t...

Antigangliosides antibodies were observed in neoplastic diseases, bacterial and viral infections, autoimmune diseases and neurological disorders. Objective: assessment of antigangliosides antibodies anti -GM1, -GM2, -GM3, -GD1a, -GD1b, -GT1b, -GQ1b of IgG type in asymptomatic HIV patients. The study was based on the prospective analysis of 32 patients with asymptomatic HIV infection, with no re...

Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) disease is a lysosomal disorder commonly caused by a recessive mutation in NPC1, which encodes an integral membrane protein with regions of homology to the morphogen receptor, Patched, and to 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase. Neurons in NPC disease exhibit extensive storage of free cholesterol and glycosphingolipids (GSLs), including GM2 and GM3 ganglios...