Free radicals generated during peroxidase-catalyzed oxidation of two xenobiotics, carcinogenic Sudan I and an anticancer agent ellipticine, easily attack unmodified proteins but not glycoproteins. A significant inverse correlation between the extent of glycosylation of proteins and the degree of binding of Sudan I or ellipticine radicals to these proteins was observed, whereby the protection on...

Polyglutamine expansion diseases are triggered by the accumulation of toxic proteins. A new study reports that RNA molecules containing long CAG repeats can also be toxic to neurons and may play a significant role in pathogenesis.

Background: Macrophage immune responses are affected by the secretory proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). This study aimed to examine the immune responses of macrophages to Mtb secretory antigens, namely ESAT-6, CFP-10, and ESAT-6/CFP-10.Methods: THP-1 cells (a human monocytic cell line) were cultured and differentiated to macrophages by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate. The cytotoxici...

Botulism is a rare but severe disease mainly resulting from food poisoning or intestinal colonization. Food poisoning, including botulism, certainly occurred in ancient times. However, this disease was not recognized as a distinct pathological entity until the latter half of the 18th century. A first detailed description of the clinical symptoms was provided by Kerner in Germany (1815–1817), wh...

This manuscript focuses on the toxicological evaluation of proteins introduced into GM crops to impart desired traits. In many cases, introduced proteins can be shown to have a history of safe use. Where modifications have been made to proteins, experience has shown that it is highly unlikely that modification of amino acid sequences can make a non-toxic protein toxic. Moreover, if the modified...

The misfolding and aggregation of proteins into amyloid has been linked to a variety of age-related diseases. Aggregation of proteins, such as Aβ in Alzheimer's disease and Islet Amyloid Polypeptide (IAPP, amylin) in type 2 diabetes, appears to lead to the formation of toxic assemblies. These assemblies range in size from small oligomers (2-8 proteins) to large fibrils (thousands of proteins). ...