background: enterocin-p of enterococcus faecium p13 (entp) is of great interest as a food preservative and medicine due to its non-toxicity and broad antimicrobial spectrum in various ph, as well as its excellent thermal stability. however, recombinant production of entp is still in laboratory because of low productivity and complex purification process. objectives: in this study, we aimed to d...

Human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) is a small, mitotic growth polypeptide that promotes the proliferation of various cells and is widely applied in clinical practices. However, high efficient expression of native hEGF in Escherichia coli has not been successful, since three disulfide bonds in monomer hEGF made it unable to fold into correct 3D structure using in vivo system. To tackle this pr...

Expressing antibodies as fusions to the non-self-cleaving Mxe GyrA intein enables site-specific, carboxy-terminal chemical modification of the antibodies by expressed protein ligation (EPL). Bacterial antibody-intein fusion protein expression platforms typically yield insoluble inclusion bodies that require refolding to obtain active antibody-intein fusion proteins. Previously, we demonstrated ...

Protein splicing is a post-translational modification in which an intein domain excises itself out of a host protein. Here, we investigate how the steps in the splicing process are coordinated so as to maximize the production of the final splice products and minimize the generation of undesired cleavage products. Our approach has been to prepare a branched intermediate (and analogs thereof) of ...

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study is to provide an update on the data given on methoxetamine (MXE)-related fatalities that occurred in 2011-2013, presented at the Second International Conference on Novel Psychoactive Substances. METHODS Fatalities involving MXE were extracted from the database of the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths, which receives information on drug-related death...

Background: Enterocin-P of Enterococcus faecium P13 (EntP) is of great interest as a food preservative and medicine due to its non-toxicity and broad antimicrobial spectrum in various pH, as well as its excellent thermal stability. However, recombinant production of EntP is still in laboratory because of low productivity and complex purification process. Objectives: In this study, we aimed to ...

Methoxetamine (MXE) is a ketamine analogue with a high affinity for the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. MXE is a newly emerging designer drug of abuse and is widely available through on-line sources and is not detected by routine urine drug screens. In this report, we describe a United States (US) veteran with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and heavy polysubstance use, who injected ...

The use of new psychoactive substances (NPS) is steadily increasing. One commonly used NPS is methoxetamine (MXE), a ketamine analogue. Several adverse effects have been reported following MXE exposure, while only limited data are available on its neuropharmacological modes of action. We investigated the effects of MXE and ketamine on several endpoints using multiple in vitro models. These incl...

This article reviews the recreational use of ketamine ("Special K"; KET) and explores the recent diffusion of its new derivative methoxetamine ("Special M"; MXE). The literature search on the nonclinical/recreational use of KET and MXE was carried out in a range of medical databases. Considering the limitations of peer-reviewed information, data were integrated with a qualitative assessment of ...