Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.2.1.23 (beta-galactosidase)
 14,648 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Microbioassays using bacteria or enzymes are increasingly applied to measure chemical toxicity in the environment. Attractive features of these assays may include low cost, rapid response to toxicants, high sample throughput, modest laboratory equipment and space requirements, low sample volume, portability, and reproducible responses. Enzymatic tests rely on measurement of either enzyme activity or enzyme biosynthesis. Dehydrogenases are the enzymes most used in toxicity testing. Assay of dehydrogenase activity is conveniently carried out using oxidoreduction dyes such as tetrazolium salts. Other enzyme activity tests utilize ATPases, esterases, phosphatases, urease, luciferase, beta-galactosidase, protease, amylase, or beta-glucosidase. Recently, the inhibition of enzyme (beta-galactosidase, tryptophanase, alpha-glucosidase) biosynthesis has been explored as a basis for toxicity testing. Enzyme biosynthesis was found to be generally more sensitive to organic chemicals than enzyme activity. Bacterial toxicity tests are based on bioluminescence, motility, growth, viability, ATP, oxygen uptake, nitrification, or heat production. An important aspect of bacterial tests is the permeability of cells to environmental toxicants, particularly organic chemicals of hydrophobic nature. Physical, chemical, and genetic alterations of the outer membrane of E. coli have been found to affect test sensitivity to organic toxicants. Several microbioassays are now commercially available. The names of the assays and their basis are: Microtox (bioluminescence), Polytox (respiration), ECHA Biocide Monitor (dehydrogenase activity), Toxi-Chromotest (enzyme biosynthesis), and MetPAD (enzyme activity). An important feature common to these tests is the provision of standardized cultures of bacteria in freeze-dried form. Two of the more recent applications of microbioassays are in sediment toxicity testing and toxicity reduction evaluation. Sediment pore water may be assayed directly or solvents may be used to extract the toxicants. Some of the solvents used for extraction of organic chemicals are themselves toxic to bacteria (e.g., dichloromethane), requiring exchange with a less toxic solvent (e.g., ethanol, methanol, DMSO). A modification of the Microtox test allows direct assay of solid-phase samples such as sediments. The toxicity reduction evaluation (TRE) must be carried out at wastewater treatment plants whose effluents fail toxicity standards. The TREs require numerous and repeated toxicity assays, thus favoring application of microbioassays. Presently, no single microbioassay can detect all categories of environmental toxicants with equal sensitivity. Therefore, a battery of tests approach is recommended. The differential sensitivity of alternative tests may, in fact, be exploited. Further research is needed to construct strains of genetically engineered microorganisms or isolate microorganisms or enzymes that respond to specific classes of toxicants. These can be combined into batteries appropriate for different environments or test objectives.
 ...
PMID:Bacterial and enzymatic bioassays for toxicity testing in the environment. 150 75

Estrogenic and anti-estrogenic activities of diesel exhaust particles (DEP) were evaluated using yeast cells expressing the human estrogen receptor and the responsive element regulating the expression of the receptor gene for beta-galactosidase (Routledge and Sumpter, 1996). It was found that a suspension of whole DEP suspension is not estrogenic but that this preparation possesses the ability to reduce the estrogen-dependent reporter activity. DEP were serially extracted with hexane, benzene, dichloromethane, methanol, and 1 M ammonia, and the estrogenic and anti-estrogenic activities of these preparations were determined. None of the extracts of DEP were estrogenic, but the extracts of benzene, dichloromethane and methanol possessed anti-estrogenic activity, and the activity of estrogen in the presence of hexane extract was slightly decreased. These results indicated that DEP contain heterologous compounds having anti-estrogenic activity. It is thought that those compounds in DEP can modulate the activity of estrogen, leading to the distruption of balance between estrogen and androgen. In this paper, the environmental effects of DEP in relation to the endocrine disrupting effect of organic compounds in DEP are discussed.
 ...
PMID:Anti-estrogenic activity of diesel exhaust particles. 1114 81

This study investigates a method of preparing hazard-resistant protein-loaded polysaccharide glassy microparticles using freezing-induced phase separation method without exposure to water/oil, water/air interface and cross-linking reagents. Model protein (such as bovine serum albumin, myoglobin and beta-galactosidase (beta-Gal)) was dissolved in water together with dextran and polyethylene glycol (PEG), followed by a freezing process to form a temperature-stabilized aqueous-aqueous emulsion wherein dextran separated out as the dispersed phase with protein partitioned in preferentially. The frozen sample was freeze-dried and washed with dichloromethane (DCM) to remove the PEG continuous phase, after which protein-loaded polysaccharide particles, 1-4 microm in diameter, were harvested. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns showed that the particles were in glassy state. These glassy polysaccharide microparticles can well protect the delicate structure of proteins and preserve their bioactivities under deleterious environment interacting with organic solvents, vortex and centrifugation processes that often involve during the formulation processes leading to polymer-based sustained-release systems. Therefore, this freezing-induced phase separation method is a mild and effective way to encapsulate protein into hazard-resistant polysaccharide glassy particles, which ensure its stability in subsequent formulating processes that leads to polymer-based sustained-release system.
 ...
PMID:Preparation of polysaccharide glassy microparticles with stabilization of proteins. 1883 46

To prepare a kind of effective non-viral transduction vector, which can deliver exogenous gene into the brain, this vector can be injected through vein system and has the ability to penetrate blood brain barrier. Several groups of materials proportion, type of oil phase, water-oil ratio, phosphatides-cholesterol ratio, temperature of steaming, ultrasonic temperature and time were compared for optimization. Well-constructed immunoliposomes encapsuling LacZ gene were infused into rats through tail vein. 48 h after injection, expression product beta-galactosidase of LacZ gene was detected by histochemistry staining to convince the validity of immunoliposomes as non-viral vectors. The best proportion of synthesis immunoliposomes is as following: phosphatides-cholesterol ratio is 1:1, lipids/drug is 100:1, the type of oil phrase is dichloromethane, oil-water ratio is 4:1, temperature of steaming is 30 degrees C, ultrasonic temperature and time is 10 degrees C and 5 min. At last, 10% trehalose was added as a stabilizer. The entrapment rate is 87.24% and antibody coupling rate is 69%. When immunoliposomes were infused into rats, the expression of LacZ gene could be observed in the brain and periphery organs. Through the best proportion of materials, gene delivering immunoliposomes had been synthesized successfully. This non-viral vector can deliver exogenous gene penetrating blood brain barrier and express in the brain, and will be well-used in the field of gene therapy of cerebral diseases.
 ...
PMID:[Preparation of brain targeted immunoliposomes]. 2135 28