Leech therapy for penoscrotal oedema in patients with hormone-refractory prostate carcinoma.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to K R Phillips.
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3D domain swapping of proteins involves the interconversion of a monomer containing a single domain-domain interface and a 2-fold symmetrical dimer containing two equivalent intermolecular interfaces. Human glyoxalase I has the structure of a domain-swapped dimer [Cameron, A. D., Olin, B., Ridderström, M., Mannervik, B., and Jones, T. A. (1997) EMBO J. 16, 3386-3395] but Pseudomonas putida glyoxalase I has been reported to be monomeric [Rhee, H.-I., Murata, K., and Kimura, A. (1986) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 141, 993-999]. We show here that recombinant P. putida glyoxalase I is an active dimer (kcat approximately 500 +/- 100 s-1; KM approximately 0.4 +/- 0.2 mM) with two zinc ions per dimer. The zinc is required for structure and function. However, treatment of the dimer with glutathione yields an active monomer (kcat approximately 115 +/- 40 s-1; KM approximately 1.4 +/- 0.4 mM) containing a single zinc ion. The monomer is metastable and slowly reverts to the active dimer in the absence of glutathione. Thus, glyoxalase I appears to be a novel example of a single protein able to exist in two alternative domain-swapped forms. It is unique among domain-swapped proteins in that the active site and an essential metal binding site are apparently disassembled and reassembled by the process of domain swapping. Furthermore, it is the only example to date in which 3D domain swapping can be regulated by a small organic ligand.
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Data on critical frequency of photic driving (CFPD), frequency following response (FFR), and visual, somatosensory (peroneal nerve), and brain-stem auditory evoked potentials (EPs) were obtained from 20 patients who had clinically definite multiple sclerosis and ten healthy normal subjects in a controlled, balanced study under normothermic and hyperthermic (+1 degrees C) conditions with a test-retest interval of one week. Normal subjects' test results showed no changes during hyperthermia. Patients' EP and CFPD data correlated well with history, clinical signs, and symptoms during both normothermia and hyperthermia. The FFR test data were equivocal and not fully analyzed. Data from the four other tests showed additional patient abnormalities during hyperthermia. Multimodality testing increased the number of patient abnormalities compared with single tests, and the number increased further during hyperthermia. Test-retest reproducibility was higher during hyperthermia.
As a guide to both strain and process improvement and based on certain assumptions concerning both glucose and energy metabolism of the process organism, Alcaligenes faecalis var. myxogenes, the theoretical "maximum" carbon (glucose) substrate to product conversion efficiency (i.e., product yield) has been estimated for "curdlan-type" beta(1 leads to 3)-glucan exopolysaccharide production in batch fermentations. Under nitrogen limitation, which promotes curdlan biosynthesis (mu = 0), the rate of glucose consumption for cellular maintenance energy (grams of glucose per gram of cells per hour) was approximately five times higher than under carbon limitation. The decrease in the theoretical "maximum" curdlan conversion efficiency of 74% to the average value of 50-56% was due primarily to the high maintenance coefficient of the nitrogen-starved culture.
The biosynthesis of a thermogelable, extracellular homo-beta-(1 leads to 3)-glucan called "curdlan," has been studied in batch and continuous cultures of Alcaligenes faecalis var. myxogenes. Curdlan production is associated with the poststationary phase of a nitrogen-depleted, aerobic batch culture. Exopolymer is not detected in single-stage, carbon-limited continuous cultures but curdlan can be isolated from the effluent of a nitrogen-limited chemostat operating at a dilution rate (D) of less than 0.1 h-1. A spontaneous variant of strain ATCC 21680 was isolated and found to be compatible with long-term, nitrogen-limited chemostat culture. The specific rate of curdlan production is approximately four times higher in poststationary batch cultures than in single-stage continuous fermentations. The product yield (Yp/S) associated with batch processing (nongrowing cultures) is approximately 0.5 g curdlan/g glucose, with CO2 being the only detectable by-product.
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