No abstract

Screening for microorganisms oxidizing ethylene glycol to glycolic acid was carried out. Among stock cultures, several yeasts and acetic acid bacteria showed high glycolic acid producing activity. Pichia naganishii AKU 4267 formed the highest concentration of glycolic acid, 35.3 g/l, from 10% (v/v) ethylene glycol (molar conversion yield, 26.0%). Among soil isolates, Rhodotorula sp. 3Pr-126, isolated using propylene glycol as a sole carbon source, formed the highest concentration of glycolic acid, 25.1 g/l, from 10% (v/v) ethylene glycol (molar conversion yield, 18.5%). Rhodotorula sp. 3Pr-126 showed higher activity toward 20% (v/v) ethylene glycol than P. naganishii AKU 4267. Optimization of the conditions for glycolic acid production was investigated using P. naganishii AKU 4267 and Rhodotorula sp. 3Pr-126. Under the optimized conditions, P. naganishii AKU 4267 and Rhodotorula sp. 3Pr-126 formed 105 and 110 g/l of glycolic acid (corrected molar conversion yields, 88.0 and 92.2%) during 120 h of reaction, respectively.

Background: Detailed characteristics of those who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) with public-access defibrillation (PAD) are unknown. Methods and Results:A prospective, population-based observational study involving consecutive OHCA patients with emergency responder resuscitation attempts was conducted from July 1, 2004 through December 31, 2008 in Osaka City. We extracted data for OHCA patients shocked by a public-access automated external defibrillator (AED) and evaluated the patients' and rescuers' characteristics. The main outcome measure was neurologically favorable 1-month survival. During the study period, 10,375 OHCA patients were registered and of 908 patients suffering ventricular fibrillation arrest, 53 (6%) received public-access AED shocks by lay-rescuers, with the proportion increasing from 0% in 2004 to 11% in 2008 (P for trend<0.001). Railway stations (34%) were the places where PAD shocks were most frequently delivered, followed by nursing homes (11%), medical facilities (9%), and fitness facilities (7%). In 57% of cases, the subject received public-access AED shocks delivered by non-medical persons, including employees of railway companies (13%), school teachers (6%), employees of fitness facilities (6%), and security guards (6%). The proportion of neurologically favorable 1-month survival tended to increase from 0% in 2005 to 58% in 2008 (P for trend =0.081). Conclusions:Railway stations are the most common places where shocks by public-access AEDs were delivered in large urban communities of Japan, and among lay-rescuers railway station workers use AEDs more frequently. (Circ J 2011; 75: 2821 - 2826

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an attractive cancer treatment modality. Talaporfin sodium, a second-generation photosensitizer, results in lower systemic toxicity and relatively better selective tumor destruction than first-generation photosensitizers. However, the mechanism through which PDT induces vascular shutdown is unclear. In this study, the in vitro effects of talaporfin sodium-based PDT on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were determined through cell viability and endothelial tube formation assays, and evaluation of the tubulin and F-actin dynamics and myosin light chain (MLC) phosphorylation. Additionally, the effects on tumor blood flow and tumor vessel destruction were assessed in vivo. In the HUVECs, talaporfin sodium-based PDT induced endothelial tube destruction and microtubule depolymerization, triggering the formation of F-actin stress fibers and a significant increase in MLC phosphorylation. However, pretreatment with the Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK) inhibitor, Y27632, completely prevented PDT-induced stress fiber formation and MLC phosphorylation. The in vivo analysis and pathological examination revealed that the PDT had significantly decreased the tumor blood flow and the active area of the tumor vessel. We concluded that talaporfin sodium-based PDT induces the shutdown of existing tumor vessels via the RhoA/ROCK pathway by activating the Rho-GTP pathway and decreasing the tumor blood flow.

The gene encoding a deoxyriboaldolase (DERA) was cloned from the chromosomal DNA of Klebsiella pneumoniae B-4-4. This gene contains an open reading frame consisting of 780 nucleotides encoding 259 amino acid residues. The predicted amino acid sequence exhibited 94.6% homology with the sequence of DERA from Escherichia coli. The DERA of K. pneumoniae was expressed in recombinant E. coli cells, and the specific activity of the enzyme in the cell extract was as high as 2.5 U/mg, which was threefold higher than the specific activity in the K. pneumoniae cell extract. One of the E. coli transformants, 10B5/pTS8, which had a defect in alkaline phosphatase activity, was a good catalyst for 2-deoxyribose 5-phosphate (DR5P) synthesis from glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and acetaldehyde. The E. coli cells produced DR5P from glucose and acetaldehyde in the presence of ATP. Under the optimal conditions, 100 mM DR5P was produced from 900 mM glucose, 200 mM acetaldehyde, and 100 mM ATP by the E. coli cells. The DR5P produced was further transformed to 2-deoxyribonucleoside through coupling the enzymatic reactions of phosphopentomutase and nucleoside phosphorylase. These results indicated that production of 2-deoxyribonucleoside from glucose, acetaldehyde, and a nucleobase is possible with the addition of a suitable energy source, such as ATP.There will be a need for 2Ј-deoxyribonucleoside in the near future due to increasing demand in new medical and biotechnology fields. 2Ј-Deoxyribonucleoside is a building block of promising antisense drugs for cancer therapy. For some recently developed antiviral agents, such as azidothymidine for treatment of human immunodeficiency virus infections, 2Ј-deoxyribonucleoside is a synthesis intermediate. 2Ј-Deoxyribonucleoside is also a precursor of an indispensable material used for widespread PCR applications, 2Ј-deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate. The current 2Ј-deoxyribonucleoside sources include hydrolyzed herring and salmon sperm DNA, which are not suitable sources for sudden high demand. The difficulty in chemical synthesis of 2Ј-deoxyribonucleoside lies in the generation of 2-deoxyribosyl groups. The chemical synthesis of 2-deoxyribosyl groups and the subsequent synthesis of 2Ј-deoxyribonucleoside involve complex protection and deprotection steps (1,8,10,15). It is likely that introduction of biochemical reactions with high selectivity will solve this problem.In general metabolism, there are two reactions involving 2-deoxyriobosyl groups. One of these reactions is reduction of ribonucleotide to 2Ј-deoxyribonuleotide during biosynthesis, and the other is cleavage of 2-deoxyribose 5-phosphate (DR5P) to produce glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (G3P) and acetaldehyde during degradation of 2Ј-deoxyribonucleoside. The former reaction is regulated in a complicated fashion and is hard to handle for practical purposes (3, 4). We focused on the latter reaction for generation of a 2-deoxyribose frame and found that the reverse reactions of 2Ј-deoxyribonucleoside degradation are promising reactions for synth...