Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a widely used technique for epithelial skin cancer treatment. 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is a drug currently used for PDT and is a hydrophilic molecule at its physiological pH, and this limits its capacity to cross the stratum corneum of skin. Since skin penetration is a key factor in the efficacy of topical 5-ALA-mediated PDT, numerous strategies have been prop...

Ethylmethane sulfonate-induced mutants of several Escherichia coli strains that required 8-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) for growth were isolated by penicillin enrichment or by selection for respiratory-defective strains resistant to the aminoglycoside antibiotic kanamycin. Three classes of mutants were obtained. Two-thirds of the strains were mutants in hemA. Representative of a third of the mutat...

A hemA mutant of Escherichia coli containing a multicopy plasmid which complemented the mutation excreted 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) into the medium. [1-14C]glutamate was substantially incorporated into ALA by this strain, whereas [2-14C]glycine was not. Periodate degradation of labeled ALA showed that C-5 of ALA was derived from C-1 of glutamate. The synthesis of ALA by two sonicate fractions...

Based on the recently solved three-dimensional structure of pterin-4a-carbinolamine dehydratase from rat/human liver the involvement of the proposed active-site residues Glu57, Asp60, His61, His62, Tyr69, His79, Arg87 and Asp88 was examined by site-directed mutagenesis. Most of the mutants showed reduced activity, and only the Glu57-->Ala mutant and the His61-->Ala, His62-->Ala double mutant we...

PURPOSE Invasive amebiasis is an emerging parasitic disorder in Taiwan, especially in patients diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Thirty-three Taiwanese subjects with amebic liver abscess (ALA) were examined and a possible correlation between ALA and HIV infection was investigated. RESULTS Among ALA patients, the proportion of HIV-positive individuals increased durin...

Previous observational studies have reported associations between prostate cancer and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). However, few investigations have been able to study this relationship prospectively and in well-controlled settings. Moreover, no studies have determined whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that influence ALA metabolism are associated with this common cancer. The purpose ...

By using the potentiometric titration method, we have determined the pK(a) values of the two terminal lysine groups in six alanine-based peptides differing in the length of the alanine chain: Ac-Lys-Lys-NH(2) (KK), Ac-Lys-Ala-Lys-NH(2) (KAK), Ac-Lys-Ala-Ala-Lys-NH(2) (KAK2), Ac-Lys-Ala-Ala-Ala-Lys-NH(2) (KAK3), Ac-Lys-Ala-Ala-Ala-Ala-Lys-NH(2) (KAK4), and Ac-Lys-Ala-Ala-Ala-Ala-Ala-Lys-NH(2) (K...

The interaction of the PPARγ Pro12Ala polymorphism with diabetes and cardiovascular risk is controversial. We studied 173 women and 309 men in the observational CARDIPP trial in which determination of left ventricular mass, carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) were performed. Blood pressures were measured with 24-h ambulatory technique (ABP). Heterozygotes and homo...