OBJECTIVE Wilson's disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disease with genetic abnormality on chromosome 13 causing defect in copper metabolism and increased copper concentration in liver, central nervous system and other organs, which causes different clinical manifestations. The aim of this study was to determine the sensitivity of different clinical and paraclinical tests for diagnosis of Wi...

The copper complexes of histidinecontaining peptides naturally occurring in blood plasma [1,2] can be used as a model for metal/protein interactions.In fact a low molecular weight peptide containing histidine or even histidine itself may compete with ceruloplasmin for copper in the blood, significantly altering free ligand levels. For this reason, the coordination behaviour of the histidine moi...

Aminoglycosides are a family of molecules based on a 2-deoxystreptamine ring that is functionalized with a variety of sugar units that contain vicinal amine and hydroxyl functionality. These positively-charged amines promote selective high affinity binding to bacterial 16 s rRNA with resultant antibacterial activity. Aminoglycosides have also been shown to selectively target a variety of therap...

The biological fate of amyloid beta (Aβ) species is a fundamental question in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. The competition between clearance and aggregation of Aβs is critical for the onset of AD. Copper has been widely considered to be an inducer of harmful crosslinking of Aβs, and an important triggering factor for the onset of AD. In this report, however, we present data to show th...

Limestone basements holding bronzes or other copper alloys artefacts such as sculptures, decorations and dedicatory inscriptions are frequently met both in modern and ancient monuments. In outdoor conditions, such a combination implies the corrosion products of the copper based alloy, directly exposed to rainwater, will be drained off and migrate through the porous surfaces, forming stains of d...

Numerous physical and chemical agents can destroy mechanosensory hair cells in the inner ear of vertebrates, a process that is irreversible in mammals. Few experimental systems allow the observation of hair cell death mechanisms in vivo, in the intact animal, one of these being the lateral line system in the zebrafish. In this work we characterize the behavior of dying lateral line hair cells i...

Campania Region of Southern Italy has a complex environmental situation, due to geogenic and anthropogenic soil pollution. Some of the pollutants such as copper are mobilized in the organic matter. It has been shown that wetlands provide physical as well as biogeochemical barriers against pollutants. Therefore, the objective of this study was to introduce and test an innovative approach able to...

Copper-based fungicides reliably control various foliar diseases in citrus production, although they are suspected to exacerbate mite problems through various mechanisms. Studies have shown negative effects of various copper formulations on entomopathogenic fungi, nematodes, and parasitoids, but few have sought to measure its impact on the biology of predatory insects. We exposed the larvae of ...

Dissimilatory nitrite reductase was isolated from extracts of Alcaligenes xylosoxidans subsp. xylosoxidans (N.C.I.M.B. 11015), after activation of crude extracts by the addition of copper(II) sulphate. The enzyme was purified by a combination of (NH4)2SO4 fractionation and cationic-exchange chromatography to 93% homogeneity as judged by SDS/PAGE. SDS/PAGE and spray m.s. showed that the enzyme h...

Control over assembly, orientation, and defect-free growth of metal-organic framework (MOF) films is crucial for their future applications. A layer-by-layer approach is considered a suitable method to synthesize highly oriented films of numerous MOF topologies, but the initial stages of the film growth remain poorly understood. Here we use a combination of infrared (IR) reflection absorption sp...