Acyl glucuronides are electrophilic metabolites that are readily hydrolyzed, undergo intramolecular rearrangement, and bind covalently to endogenous proteins. Gemfibrozil is a fibrate lipid-lowering agent that is extensively metabolized to an acyl glucuronide conjugate in humans. The aims of this study were to examine the interactions of 1-O-gemfibrozil-beta-D-glucuronide with human serum album...

Liver cancer is an emerging global health issue, with rising incidence in both the United States and the economically developing world. Although Guatemala experiences the highest rates of this disease in the Western hemisphere and a unique 1:1 distribution in men and women, few studies have focused on this population. Thus, we determined the prevalence and correlates of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) expo...

OBJECTIVE Despite the growing body of evidence showing adverse health effects from inhalation exposure to the trichothecene-producing mold Stachybotrys chartarum, controversy remains. Currently, there are no reliable assays suitable for clinical diagnosis of exposure. We hypothesized that satratoxin G (SG) -albumin adducts may serve as biomarkers of exposure to this fungus. DESIGN We studied ...

Albumin adducts of benzene oxide (BO-Alb) and 1,4-benzoquinone (1,4-BQ-Alb) were investigated among 134 workers exposed to benzene and 51 unexposed controls in Tianjin, China. Concentrations of both adducts increased with benzene exposure [range = 0.07-46.6 parts/million (ppm); median = 3.55 ppm] and with urinary cotinine. Adduct levels were less than proportional to benzene exposure, suggestin...

We report a combined small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and mass spectrometric (MS) study of the growth of gold clusters within proteins, in the solution state. Two different proteins, namely, lysozyme (Lyz) and bovine serum albumin (BSA), were used for this study. SAXS study of clusters grown in Lyz shows the presence of a 0.8 nm gold core, which is in agreement with the Au10 cluster observed...

The formation of drug-protein adducts following the bioactivation of drugs to reactive metabolites has been linked to adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and is a major complication in drug discovery and development. Identification and quantification of drug-protein adducts in vivo may lead to a better understanding of drug toxicity, but is challenging due to their low abundance in the complex biolog...

In a field study with 69 subjects, we investigated the influence of smoking, exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), diet, and location of residence on biomarkers for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), including urinary excretion of 1-hydroxypyrene and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) adducts of hemoglobin and albumin. The self-reported smoking status and the extent of ETS exposure were verifie...

Recent evidence suggests that sulfhydryl species can react with oxides of nitrogen under physiologic conditions and thereby stabilize endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF) activity, but the presence of a specific in vivo thiol carrier for nitric oxide (NO) remains controversial. The single free sulfhydryl of serum albumin is the most abundant thiol species in plasma (approximately 0.5 mM) ...

Although aflatoxins (AFs) have been shown to be immune-suppressive agents in animals, the potential role of AFs in modifying the distribution and function of leukocyte subsets in humans has never been assessed. We examined the cellular immune status of 64 Ghanaians in relation to levels of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1)-albumin adducts in plasma. The percentages of leukocyte immunophenotypes in peripheral...