Recent evidence indicates that enhancing N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) neurotransmission with the treatment of NMDA/glycine site agonists, such as D-serine, or a glycine transporter-1 (GlyT-1) antagonist, N-methylglycine (sarcosine), can improve symptoms of schizophrenia. To compare these two novel approaches, 60 patients with chronic schizophrenia were enrolled into a 6-wk double-blind, placebo-...

In the forebrain, synaptic glycine concentrations are regulated through the glycine transporter GlyT1. Because glycine is a coagonist of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor (NMDAR), which has been implicated in schizophrenia, inhibition of GlyT1 is thought to provide an option for the treatment of schizophrenia. In support of this hypothesis, GlyT1 inhibitors facilitate in vivo NMDAR funct...

The conventional anti-Bartonella henselaeIgM enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (IgM-ELISA) methods for diagnosing cat scratch disease (CSD) remain poor in both sensitivity and specificity. We sought to develop an IgM-ELISA with improved accuracy in the serodiagnosis of CSD by exploring the antigens that are most suitable for an ELISA. We prepared 5 different protein antigens: antigen I (sonicat...

the development of multicomponent reactions (mcrs) designed to produce elaborate biologically active compounds has become an important area of research in organic, combinatorial, and medicinal chemistry. a comparative study of the synthesis of new bis-spiro-oxindolo(pyrrolizidines/pyrrolidines) ring systems by the cycloaddition of azomethine ylides generated by a decarboxylative route from sarc...

A new enzymic method is described for the determination of creatine in urine by continuous-flow analysis. The measurement is accomplished by transforming creatine to formaldehyde in reactions catalyzed by creatinase (creatine amidinohydrolase) and sarcosine dehydrogenase. The formaldehyde is reacted with 4-amino-3-hydrazino-5-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole to form a purple product, which is measured c...

The title compound, C(10)H(6)O(8)·2C(3)H(7)NO(2), crystallizes as an adduct with the acid and amino acid mol-ecules in their neutral forms. The asymmetric unit contains one half of a centrosymmetric pyromellitic acid mol-ecule and one sarcosine mol-ecule. The sarcosine has the amine group protonated and the carboxyl group deprotonated, as is usual for amino acids (zwitterionic form). The pyrome...

Formaldehyde was shown to be a normal metabolite when Handler, Bernheim, and Klein (1) found sarcosine oxidase which catalyzes the oxidative demethylation of sarcosine to glycine and formaldehyde. Sakami (2), Welsh and Sakami (3), and Stekol et al. (4) have recently presented evidence that formate may provide the animal with necessary methyl groups. It was therefore of interest to investigate t...

A precise 100-ns molecular dynamics simulation in aquo was performed for the heterotetrameric sarcosine oxidase bound with a substrate analogue, dimethylglycine. The spatial region including the protein was divided into small rectangular cells. The average number of the water molecules locating within each cell was calculated based on the simulation trajectory. The clusters of the cells filled ...

The aim of this pilot study is to evaluate sarcosine, uracil, and kynurenic acid in urine as potential biomarkers in prostate cancer detection and progression monitoring. Sarcosine, uracil, and kynurenic acid were measured in urine samples of 32 prostate cancer patients prior to radical prostatectomy, 101 patients with increased prostate-specific antigen prior to ultrasonographically-guided pro...