Human cytochrome P450 46A1 (CYP46A1) is one of the key enzymes in cholesterol homeostasis in the brain. The crystallization and heavy-atom structure solution of an active truncated CYP46A1 in complex with the high-affinity substrate analogue cholesterol-3-sulfate (CH-3S) is reported. The 2.6 angstroms structure of CYP46A1-CH-3S was solved using both anion and cation heavy-atom salts. In additio...

The adsorption technique using chemically treated powder of bark of Acacia arabica was applied for the removal of toxic heavy metals from polluted waste water. The extent of adsorption found to be dependent on the pH and the time of contact. The adsorbent is effective for the quantitative removal of various toxic metals from the contaminated aqueous sample. The method is quite feasible, economi...

Biosorption of each of the heavy metals, Zn(II) and Cu(II), and of the binary mixture of these two metal ions by the indigenous Thiobacillus thiooxidans was investigated in this study. Equilibrium concentration (qm) and dissociation constant (Kd) were calculated by fitting the experimental data with the Langmuir isotherms. The effects of pH, pretreatment of biomass, and temperature on the amoun...

Six bacteria strains from heavy-metal-polluted ramie rhizosphere soil were isolated through Cd2+ stress, which were numbered as JJ1, JJ2, JJ10, JJ11, JJ15, and JJ18. Sequence alignment and phylogenic analysis showed that strain JJ1 belonged to Pseudomonas, strain JJ2 belonged to Cupriavidus, strains JJ11 and JJ15 belonged to Bacillus, and strains JJ10 and JJ18 belonged to Acinetobacter. The tol...

Heavy metals are expected to affect the biological activity of various metal-containing proteins, including transcriptional regulators. We studied the effects of several heavy metal ions on the DNA-binding activity of a Zn-finger transcription factor, Sp1. With respect to both DNA elements through which Sp1 acts positively and negatively, Cd2+ inhibited DNA-binding of Sp1 at 20 microM or higher...