We have previously shown that familial Alzheimer’s disease mutants of presenilin-2 (PS2) and, to a lesser extent, of presenilin-1 (PS1) lower the Ca2+ concentration of intracellular stores. We here examined the mechanism by which wild-type and mutant PS2 affect store Ca2+ handling. By using HeLa, SH-SY5Y and MEFs as model cells, and recombinant aeq...
Naturally occurring organic sulfur compounds (OSCs), such as linear allylsulfides from Allium species, are attracting attention in cancer research, since several OSCs were shown to act beneficially both in chemoprevention and in chemotherapy, while hardly exerting any harmful side effects. Hence, we investigated the possible role of different OSCs ...
γ-Glutamyltransferase (GGT) cleaves the γ-glutamyl moiety of glutathione (GSH), an endogenous antioxidant, and is involved in mercapturic acid metabolism and in cancer drug resistance when overexpressed. Moreover, GGT converts leukotriene (LT) C4 into LTD4 implicated in various inflammatory pathologies. So far the effect of inflammatory stimuli on ...
Phytochemical research has revealed that organic sulfur-containing compounds (OSCs) from Allium species exert biological effects, that might be beneficial in the treatment or prevention of a range of diseases, such as infections, cardiovascular and metabolic affections, cancers and related indispositions. Focusing physiological activities of these ...
The hematopoietic transcription factor GATA-1 regulates the expression of several genes associated with differentiation of erythroid cells. We show here the inhibitory effect of tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), a proinflammatory cytokine, on hemoglobinization and erythroid transcription factor GATA-1 expression in erythroleukemia (HEL) as well as in...
Almost 40 years have passed from the historical discovery that cell death in the majority of the cases is not an accidental event, but corresponds to an extremely conscious and altruistic, thus highly regulated, process. Since the first observation in 1972 marked the ‘‘birth’’ of apoptosis, many advances have been made in the comprehension of the i...
Monocytes isolated and cultured according to standard procedures from the blood of 22 healthy donors display an activation process, monitored as adhesion and increased exposure of CD11. Starting from very early time points, monocytes undergo a deep redox modulation, i.e., they increase reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and decrease glutathion...
Apoptosis is a highly regulated mechanism by which cells undergo cell death in an active way. As one of the most challenging tasks concerning cancer is to induce apoptosis in malignant cells, researchers increasingly focus on natural products to modulate apoptotic signaling pathways. Curcumin, a natural compound isolated from the plant Curcuma long...
The proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) has been linked to inflammation- and cancer-related anemia, which reduces both quality of life and prognosis of patients. The aim of this study was to reveal molecular mechanisms linked to the inhibition of erythroid differentiation by TNFalpha. In this study, we showed that the in...
