Vitamin A supplementation among women is a common habit worldwide in an attempt to slow aging progression due to the antioxidant potential attributed to retinoids. Nonetheless, vitamin A elicits a myriad of side effects that result from either therapeutic or inadvertent intake at varying doses for different periods. The mechanism behind such effects remains to be elucidated. In this regard, we ...

GRP94 (glucose-regulated protein of 94 kDa) is a major luminal constituent of the endoplasmic reticulum with known high capacity for calcium in vivo and a peptide-binding activity in vitro. In the present study, we show that Ca2+ regulates the ability of GRP94 to bind peptides. This effect is due to a Ca2+-binding site located in the charged linker domain of GRP94, which, when occupied, enhance...

Introduction: The functions of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are important, particularly in the proteins’ synthesis, folding, modification, and transport. Based on traditional medicine and our previous studies on Zanthoxylum alatum in lipopolysaccharide-induced depressive behavior and scopolamine-induced impaired memory, the present study explored the role of hydroalcoholic extract of Z. alatu...

Depriving cultured cells of glucose increases glucose-regulated protein synthesis, suppresses heat shock protein synthesis, and increases sensitivity to killing by hyperthermia. The present study shows that supplementation of glucose-free culture medium with uridine or a number of other nucleosides reverses all these effects of glucose deprivation. Uridine is more effective in this regard than ...

The plasma membrane glucose transporter (GLUT)-2 is unique among GLUT family proteins in that it also functions as a sensor. GLUT2 imposes sex-dimorphic control of hypothalamic astrocyte storage and catabolism by unknown mechanisms. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling cascades operate within stress-sensitive signal transduction pathways. present study employed an established prima...