Neuronal death due to excessive activation of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors is a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases. The polyamines: putrescine, spermine, and spermidine, bind to specific sites on the NMDA receptor and promote its activation, but their role in NMDA-induced neuronal death is ill defined. In this study, we characterized the role of polyamines in excitotoxic death of r...

Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are highly conserved proteins that play a role in cytoprotection and maintaining intestinal homeostasis. Glutamine is essential for the optimal induction of intestinal epithelial Hsp expression, but its mechanisms of action are incompletely understood. Glutamine is a substrate for polyamine synthesis and stimulates the activity of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), a key ...

UNLABELLED In bacteria, the functions of polyamines, small linear polycations, are poorly defined, but these metabolites can influence biofilm formation in several systems. Transposon insertions in an ornithine decarboxylase (odc) gene in Agrobacterium tumefaciens, predicted to direct synthesis of the polyamine putrescine from ornithine, resulted in elevated cellulose. Null mutants for odc grew...

The combination of inhibitors of ornithine decarboxylase and polyamine oxidase and of antibiotics suitable for the (partial) decontamination of the gastrointestinal tract with a polyamine-deficient diet reduced the growth rate of Lewis lung carcinoma by more than 80%. The formation of lung metastases was prevented by 70 to 100%, depending on the treatment. The reduction of tumor growth was acco...

Streptomyces coelicolor M145 was shown to be able to grow in the presence of high concentrations of polyamines, such as putrescine, cadaverine, spermidine, or spermine, as a sole nitrogen source. However, hardly anything is known about polyamine utilization and its regulation in streptomycetes. In this study, we demonstrated that only one of the three proteins annotated as glutamine synthetase-...

BACKGROUND Putrescine, spermidine, and spermine (i.e., polyamines) are small cationic amines synthesized by cells or acquired from the diet or gut bacteria. Polyamines are required for both normal and colorectal cancer (CRC) cell growth. OBJECTIVE We investigated the association between dietary polyamines and risk of CRC incidence and mortality. DESIGN The study was a prospective analysis i...

Soil salinity is a major environmental constraint that threatens agricultural productivity. Different strategies have been developed to improve crop salt tolerance, among which the effects of polyamines have been well-reported. To gain a better understanding of the cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) responses to NaCl and unravel the underlying mechanism of exogenous putrescine (Put) alleviating salt...

The relationship between spermine-induced thermosensitization and modulation in the cellular redox state as measured by glutathione levels was studied using Chinese hamster V79 cells. Marked cellular glutathione depletion was observed for cells treated with exogenous 1 mM spermine at 37 degrees C or 43 degrees C. Glutathione depletion and thermal sensitization by spermine were found to be cell ...

bacbackground and objectives: polyamines (putrecsine, spermidine and spermine) are widespread components, which can be found in most of the foods like meat, fruits, vegetables, cheese and wine. studies show that reducing the level of polyamines in cells may help to slow down some cancer processes however, dietary polyamines may be required in wound healing, and for growth, maturation and regene...