生物化学技术

Low-dose aspirin has been suggested to positively impact a number of clinical outcomes associated with oxidative stress; however, results of clinical trials surrounding its effect on a woman’s ability to achieve and sustain pregnancy have been inconclusive. A meta-analysis is an advan ...

According to the “free radical theory” of aging, normal aging occurs as the result of tissue damages inflicted by reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS are known to induce cellular senescence, and senescent cells are believed to contribute to organismal aging. The molecular mechanisms that med ...

Adenoviruses are attractive vectors for gene therapy where short-term transgene expression is required. In order to meet the clinical requirements of adenovirus for use beyond the laboratory, advanced methods are required for the purification and quantitation of recombinant ad ...

Replication-deficient adenovirus gene transfer vectors are very useful for the experimental delivery of genes into cells and are widely used both in vitro and in vivo to determine the effects of transgene expression. Having a broad cell tropism, these vectors allow efficient transduct ...

Phenylpropanoids are a group of natural products with a wide range of biological and pharmacological importance. They have been isolated from a large number of plants by utilizing a diverse range of chromatographic techniques. We describe here the utilization of normal, reverse phase, and ...

Plant polyphenols are known to possess antioxidant acitivities. In recent years, there have been numerous reports confirming the efficacy of these compounds to improve plasma antioxidant capacity in humans. Current methods to evaluate the antioxidant potential of polyphenols a ...

This chapter describes two different methods using reversed-phase HPLC with electrochemical detection on a boron-doped diamond (BDD) working electrode for the direct, routine, sensitive and simultaneous measurement of a number of aminothiols, disulfides, and thioethers, in ei ...

Organic nitrates are among the oldest and yet most commonly employed drugs in the chronic therapy of coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure. While they have long been used in clinical practise, our understanding of their mechanism of action and of their side effects remains inco ...

The design and synthesis of hybrid molecules encompassing two pharmacophores in one molecular scaffold is a well-established approach to the synthesis of more potent drugs with dual activity. In this chapter, we will present the most important synthetic methodologies we have applied f ...

The seven phosphorylated derivatives of phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns), often collectively referred to as polyphosphoinositides (PPIn), are a minor component of eukaryotic cell membranes. Nevertheless, their synthesis is needed for an ever-increasing spectrum of cellu ...

Lipids are highly dynamic molecules with many different roles ranging from structural to signaling. Alterations in particular lipid levels change cellular behavior. In humans, inappropriate changes may manifest as diseases such as Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosis, diabetes, ob ...

Eicosanoids are 20-carbon lipids generated by the oxidation of arachidonic acid that are involved in physiological signaling in virtually all organ systems. Three primary enzymatic pathways are responsible for their synthesis in mammalian cells: lipoxygenase, cyclooxygena ...

Since Caenorhabditis elegans is incapable of de novo cholesterol biosynthesis, it must utilize other nonpermissive sterols that are present in the environment by converting them into cholesterol for cellular function. The inhibition of sterol conversion to cholesterol in C. eleg ...

Although Caenorhabditis elegans lacks several components of the de novo sterol biosynthetic pathway, it requires sterols as essential nutrients. Supplemental cholesterol undergoes extensive enzymatic modification in C. elegans to form certain sterols of unknown function. ...

Lipids in biological membranes are asymmetrically distributed across the bilayer. The choline-containing lipids, phosphatidylcholine (PtdCho) and sphingomyelin (SM), are more abundant in the external leaflet. In contrast, the amino-containing glycerophospholipids, ...

Inositol phospholipids regulate many cellular processes, including cell survival, membrane trafficking, and actin polymerization. Quantification of inositol lipids is one of the essential techniques needed for studies that aim to decipher inositol lipid-dependent cell ...

Nuclear envelope assembly is a fundamental cellular process normally taking place once in every cell cycle in eukaryotes. The timing of fusion of nuclear membrane precursors to form the complete double membrane surrounding the chromosomes is tightly controlled, but much remains uncl ...

Lipid structure and dynamics are of first importance for cellular function. Lipids such as phosphatidyl inositol (PtdIns) are essential in signaling pathways, as they are recognition sites at the membrane surface. Their head-group or chain structure appears to be crucial for such a signa ...

Lipids are actively involved in many cellular processes. Their roles pivot toward determining membrane structure, compartment targeting, and membrane fusion but also regulation of cell signaling via their interactions with proteins and the production of second messengers. As th ...

The concept that biological membranes contain microdomains of specialized lipid and protein composition has attracted great attention in recent years. Initially, the focus in the field was very much on the characterization of cholesterol-and sphingolipid-rich plasma membrane ...