Enzyme

Enzyme, lost in most mammals, is shown to protect against UV-induced skin cancer

In a finding that broadens our insight intothe cause of certain kinds of UV-induced skin cancer, researchers atErasmus University Medical Center (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) haveemployed an evolutionarily ancient enzyme-repair system to identify theprincipal type of DNA damage responsible for the onset of skin-tumordevelopment. The researchers' findings also suggest that this enzymesystem m...

Lack of enzyme turns fat cells into fat burners

Lack of the enzyme, acetyl CoA carboxylase 2or ACC2, appears to turn the adipose or fat cells of mice into fatburners, explaining in part why the animals can eat more and weigh lessthan their normal counterparts, said Baylor College of Medicineresearchers.The report that appears online today in the Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences. "Westudied the fat cells in these mic...

Scientists find missing enzyme for tuberculosis iron scavenging pathway

Scientists have discovered that a protein that was originally believed to be involved in tuberculosis antibiotic resistance is actually a "missing enzyme" from the biosynthetic pathway for an agent used by the bacteria to scavenge iron. The research appears as the "Paper of the Week" in the April 8 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molec...

Novel Enzyme Shows Potential As An Anti-HIV Target

At just 9.8 kilobases, the HIV genome pales in comparison to the 3.2 gigabases of its human and nonhuman primate targets. The compact retrovirus encodes just 14 proteins, which play different roles in promoting viral infection and virulence. As a retrovirus, HIV uses the host’s cellular machinery—including RNA polymerases, which carry out transcription—to copy its RNA genome into DNA and infiltra...

Enzyme allows B cells to resist death, leading to leukemia

B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL)is the most common leukemia in adults and is characterized by theprogressive accumulation of mature B lymphocytes in the blood, bonemarrow, and lymphatic tissues. It is believed that in the early stagesof disease, B-CLL is the result of an undefined defect in theprogrammed signals that trigger normal B cell death (apoptosis). LivioTrentin and colle...

Enzyme shown to help protect genomic stability

Genomes throughout the animal kingdom and beyond are characterized by extensive segments that are inactive, lengthy stretches of DNA containing multiple genes that are closed to gene transcription. Scientists believe one reason for this broad gene silencing is the vital need for genomic stability, for protection against unwanted recombinations of genetic material or other disruptions of the genom...

Researchers report new pro-inflammatory role for anti-inflammatory enzyme

Part of the immune system's pro-inflammatory response to bacterial invasion is to increase nitric oxide levels with an enzyme called inducible nitric oxide synthase. In a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, scientists report that the predominantly anti-inflammatory enzyme, endothelial nitric oxide synthase, is also involved in nitric oxide production in response to infection....

Measuring Enzymes At End Of Cancer Pathway Predicts Outcome Of Tarceva, Taxol

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have developed a way to test whether the new targeted therapy Tarceva and the widely used chemotherapy drug Taxol are effectively killing tumor cells. They say that with further refinement, the test may make it possible to accurately assess whether patients are responding to these agents, as well as potentially others, within day...

Purdue researchers use enzyme to clip 'DNA wires'

Researchers at Purdue University have attached magnetic "nanoparticles" to DNA and then cut these "DNA wires" into pieces, offering the promise of creating low-cost, self-assembling devices for future computers. Findings are detailed in a paper published online in February in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The paper was written by Purdue graduate student Joseph M. Kinsella...

Enzyme's newly discovered role may make it target for arthritis treatment

Scientists have found a new role for a previously identified enzyme that may make it a target for anti-inflammatory treatments. The finding by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that an enzyme known as cathepsin G regulates the ability of immune cells known as neutrophils to secrete chemicals that attract other immune cells and start the local infla...

Scientists take aim at virulent bacteria by decoding machinery of key control enzyme

By deciphering the ingenious mechanism used by a particular enzyme to modify bacterial chromosome chemistry, scientists have come a step closer to designing a new kind of drug that could stop virulent bacterial infections in their tracks. Their research will be published in the May 6 issue of the journal Cell. Scientists have known for many years that an enzyme called Dam (DNA adenine meth...

Scientists take 'snapshots' of enzyme action

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, the New York Structural Biology Center, and SGX Pharmaceuticals, Inc., have determined the atomic crystal structure and functional mechanism of an enzyme essential for eliminating unwanted, non-nutritional compounds such as drugs, industrial chemicals, and toxic compounds from the body. The detailed mechanism of action...

Promiscuous Catalytic Activity Possessed by Novel Enzyme Structure

Nature is a seemingly endless storehouse of interesting ?and potentially life-saving ?biological molecules. But tracking down and harvesting those chemicals in their natural form can be time-consuming, expensive and unreliable. Now Salk scientists have discovered a new way of bringing “bio-prospecting?out of the rainforest and into the lab. Their findings are published in the June 16th ed...

Gene Bridges And Covalys To Develop Restriction-Enzyme-Free SNAP-tag Gene Fusion Kits

Gene Bridges and Covalys Biosciences AG today announced a collaboration to develop "Copy & Paste" DNA engineering kits to generate SNAP-tag fusion proteins based on Gene Bridges' Red/ET recombination technology. Gene Bridge's Red/ET cloning system does not require restriction enzymes and allows the engineering of large DNA sequences, such as BACs, (bacterial artificial chromosomes) with singl...

VCU Massey Cancer Center study shows enzyme linked to spread of breast cancer cells

Researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have found a new signaling component that influences movement of human breast cancer cells toward epidermal growth factor. In the August issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers showed that epidermal growth factor, which plays a critical role in breast cancer progression, stimulates sphingosine kinase...

Targeting a key enzyme with gene therapy reversed course of Alzheimer's disease in mouse models

Silencing Alzheimer's: targeting a key enzyme with gene therapy reversed course of disease in mouse modelsIn mice, that had been genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer's disease, scientists were able to reverse the rodents' memory loss by reducing the amount of an enzyme that is crucial for the development of Alzheimer's disease. "What we are showing is a proof of principle that stopp...

Newly Discovered Role for Heart Response Enzyme May Yield Better Heart Failure Therapy

Duke University Medical Center researchers have identified a new protein that plays a critical role in enabling the heart to respond to such external stimuli as exercise or stress, as well as in the progressive loss of heart function that is heart failure, the researchers said. Their findings, they said, suggest new approaches to prevent or reverse heart failure, which affects two to three...

UCLA researchers identify key enzyme linked to childhood blindness

In findings that could lead to curing some forms of congenital blindness through gene therapy, researchers at UCLA have discovered that RPE65, a gene missing in infants born with the blinding disease Leber congenital amaurosis, is also a key enzyme in the visual cycle. The identity of this enzyme has long been a mystery to scientists. The study, "Rpe65 is the Retinoid Isomerase in Bovine R...

Enzyme affects hypertension by controlling salt levels in body

An enzyme known to cause hypertension increases blood pressure by activating tiny pores, or channels, in kidney cells that allow increased levels of sodium to be reabsorbed into the blood, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. The findings shed light on the underlying mechanisms that cause hypertension, and may also help explain why patients with hypertension linked to salt in...

K-State professors discover enzyme responsible for creation of a beetle's hard shell

Kansas State University researchers think their discovery of the enzyme involved in the hardening of a beetle's exoskeleton or cuticle could lead not only to better pest control, but also help create similar strong, lightweight materials for use in aircraft and armor. After a beetle first molts, its exoskeleton is soft and hydrated. Somehow, it dries out and forms a hard, stiff exoskeleto...

Smoking damages key regulatory enzyme in the lung

Study in Journal of Nuclear Medicine uses PET, radiotracer to track enzyme in smokers, nonsmokersRESTON, Va.-- Smoking appears to reduce a key enzyme in the lungs, possibly contributing to some of smoking's deleterious health effects, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The study, which used a radiotracer to track the enzyme, also shows that s...

New discovery: If it weren't for this enzyme, decomposing pesticide would take millennia

CHAPEL HILL ?An enzyme inside a bacterium that grows in the soil of potato fields can -- in a split second -- break down residues of a common powerful pesticide used for killing worms on potatoes, researchers have found. That may be expensive for farmers but lucky for the environment because University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientists have now discovered that if that particular...

Scientists determine structure of enzyme that disrupts bacterial virulence

First step toward developing enzymes to treat diseases such as cystic fibrosis, reduce bacterial biowarfare threatsA team of biomedical researchers from Brandeis University and the University of Texas at Austin has determined the first 3-dimensional structure of an enzyme that may be pivotal in preventing certain bacterial infections in plants, animals and humans, according to a study published i...

Novel enzyme offers new look at gene regulation

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have purified a novel protein and have shown it can alter gene activity by reversing a molecular modification previously thought permanent. In the study, the authors showed that a protein called JHDM1A is able to remove a methyl group from histone H3, one of four histone proteins bound to all genes. Until just last year, the add...

Pain killer fights breast cancer by targeting key enzyme

A pain–killing medication appears to halt the production of an enzyme that is key to a common form of breast cancer, a new study using tissue cultures suggests. The drug is called nimesulide. In laboratory experiments on breast cancer cells, scientists found that derivatives of nimesulide stopped the production of aromatase, the enzyme implicated in estrogen-dependent breast cancer. This f...

Enzyme inhibitors block replication of SARS virus

The study was conducted by researchers from Scripps Research; the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan; and the National Taiwan University. It is being published today in the journal Chemistry and Biology (Vol. 13, No. 3). Chi-Huey Wong is currently the Ernest W. Hahn Chair in Chemistry at the Skaggs Institute of Chemical Biology and directs the Scripps Research lab heading th...

'Accelerated evolution' converts RNA enzyme to DNA enzyme in vitro

This "evolutionary conversion" provides a modern-day snapshot of how life as we understand it may have first evolved out of the earliest primordial mix of RNA-like molecules-sometimes referred to as the "pre-RNA world"-into a more complex form of RNA-based life (or the "RNA world") and eventually to cellular life based on DNA and proteins. Nucleic acids are large complex molecules that store and...

'Bad' enzymes may wear white hats after stroke

Enzymes that can harm the brain immediately after a stroke may actually be beneficial days later, according to new research. Insights from the study could change the way stroke is treated, extending the window for effective treatment from a couple of hours to a couple of weeks. The results may suggest new ideas for drug development. Working with rats, a team from the Harvard Medical Schoo...

Lack of a key enzyme dramatically increases resistance to sepsis

According to the new study, the presence of caspase-12, which appears to modulate inflammation and innate immunity in humans, increases the body's "vulnerability to bacterial infection and septic shock" while a deficiency confers strong resistance to sepsis. This new discovery suggests that caspase-12 antagonists could be a potentially useful in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory and...

Common enzyme is a key player in DNA repair

A quarter century after they discovered it, researchers have identified the job of one of the most common DNA-damage response proteins. The enzyme has puzzled scientists because it is present in nearly every organism, which suggests that it is crucial to life, and yet, in laboratory experiments, its function has remained a mystery. The discovery suggests that the enigmatic enzyme known a...

Researchers unravel DNA tangles and enzyme seamstresses

Almost three metres of tightly-coiled DNA strands fit into a cell's nucleus. As DNA replicates, the strands unwind and unfold and then re-package into chromosomes, the genetic blueprints of life ?but what happens if this process becomes entangled? Untangling the heaps of DNA strings during cell division is the job of special enzymes called topoisomerases. How they achieve this feat may be...

Enzyme crystal structure reveals 'unexpected' genome repair functions

The study is being published in an advance online version of the journal Molecular Cell. The research looked at XPB helicase from an archaea, a single cell organism similar to bacteria. Helicases are enzymes that unwind or separate the strands of the nucleic acid double helix, an action that is critical to transcription and nucleotide excision repair (NER), as well as other cell processes...

Little known DNA repair enzyme may be a tumor suppressor gene

Use of the amino acid supplement L-arginine following a heart attack does not improve certain cardiac functions and measurements and may be associated with an increased risk of death, according to a study in the January 4 issue of JAMA. L-arginine is a widely available dietary supplement and is publicized as having benefits for patients with hypertension, angina, heart failure and sexual d...

New understanding of COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes could revise classification of pain meds

COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes may be blocked by pain medications such as Advil and Vioxx in a more complex manner than was previously understood, a Queen's University study has found. "The results of the study have potential implications for how we classify the commonly used anti-inflammatory and pain drugs for aches, pains, and fever," says Colin Funk, a professor of Biochemistry and Physiology...

Brain enzyme treatment relieves memory lapse in Alzheimer's mice

An enzyme that helps neurons rid themselves of excess or aberrant proteins is required for normal brain function, according to a new report in the August 25, 2006 issue of the journal Cell, published by Cell Press. What's more, by increasing brain levels of the enzyme in mice with Alzheimer's symptoms, the researchers found they could reverse lapses of memory characteristic of the debilitating di...

Lack of key enzyme associated with development of rare tumor

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered that a rare tumor of the adrenal glands appears to result from a genetic deficiency of an important enzyme. The enzyme is one of a class of enzymes involved in halting a cell's response to hormones and appears to stop cells from dividing. The study, published in Nature Genetics, was conducted by researchers in NIH's National...

Eat less, weigh more? Enzyme makes lean mice 'susceptible' to dietary fat

Working with genetically engineered mice, Johns Hopkins scientists have interfered with the brain's ability to control an animal's response to a high-fat diet. The report, to be published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online the week of May 1, is based on the identification of a gene - CPT1c - the brain needs to manage body weight. According t...

Study offers innovative profile of enzyme that aids tumor growth

"Using a combination of enzyme activity and metabolite profiling, we determined that this protein-whose function was previously unknown-serves as a key regulator of a lipid signaling network that contributes to cancer," said Benjamin F. Cravatt, a Scripps Research professor and a member of its Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology who led the study. "The heightened expression of KIAA1363 in sever...

Enzyme shreds Alzheimer's protein

An enzyme found naturally in the brain snips apart the protein that forms the sludge called amyloid plaque that is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), researchers have found. They said their findings in mice suggest that the protein, called Cathepsin B (CatB), is a key part of a protective mechanism that may fail in some forms of AD. Also, they said their findings suggest that drugs...

Study shows enzyme builds neurotransmitters via newly discovered pathway

The study, which was directed by Scripps Research Professor Benjamin Cravatt, Ph.D., is being published in the September 8 issue of The Journal of Biological Chemistry. The new study describes a pathway-different than the one previously suggested-for the biosynthesis of neurotransmitter lipids, N-acyl ethanolamines (NAEs), which include the endogenous cannabinoid ("endocannabinoid") ananda...