Chemical substitutions at very low level have been proved to be a very effective tool to change important physical parameters in many kinds of materials. These modifications may be the result of, for instance, subtle variations of the position of the Fermi level with respect to the density of states, presence of additional electrons which may change the hole carrier concentration, steric effect...

Caenorhabditis elegans has orthologs for most of the key enzymes involved in eukaryotic intermediary metabolism, suggesting that the major metabolic pathways are probably present in this species. We discuss how metabolic patterns and activity change as the worm traverses development and ages, or responds to unfavorable external factors, such as temperature extremes or shortages in food or oxyge...

Extracellular superoxide dismutase (SOD3), an enzyme mediating dismutation of superoxide into hydrogen peroxide, has been shown to reduce inflammation by inhibiting macrophage migration into injured tissues. In inflamed tissues, superoxide is produced by the phagocytic NOX2 complex, which consists of the catalytic subunit NOX2 and several regulatory subunits (e.g., NCF1). To analyze whether SOD...

The growing interest in measuring superoxide dismutase (EC 1.15.1.1) in many diseases calls for useful routine assays. For this purpose, the direct spectrophotometric method of Marklund (J Biol Chem 1976;251:7504-7) was improved to offer an alternative to the imprecise, indirect assays currently used. The decay of O2.- (from KO2) at pH 9.5 was monitored as the decrease in delta A (delta A = A25...

The key property of Frost diagram has been confirmed using thermodynamic and linear algebra methods. On the basis of the thermodynamic data, the areas of thermodynamic stability of ruthenium species of different valence states as a function of pH for each degree of oxidation have been determined. Subsequently, based on the diagrams calculated for several values of pH, a narrow ΔpH value is dete...

Increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. Enzymatic systems such as the mitochondrial respiratory chain, vascular NAD(P)H oxidases, xanthine oxidase, and uncoupled endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) produce superoxide anion (O2*-) in vascular cells. While some O2(*-) rapidly degrades by reacting with nitric ox...

We have studied the mechanism of the antioxidant activity of C(60) derivatives at the BP86/TZP level with inclusion of solvent effects (DMSO) by using the COSMO approach. The reaction studied here involves degradation of the biologically relevant superoxide radical (O(2)(*-)), which is linked to tissue damage in several human disorders. Several fullerene derivatives have experimentally been sho...