Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.2.1.31 (beta-glucuronidase)
 7,680 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Testing human hair for drugs of abuse is a relatively new technique which requires control before being fully accepted in justice applications. Laboratories must be able to demonstrate that they can accurately determine what drugs are present in unknown hair samples and at what levels. To date few exercises have been organized in USA, Germany and France, all devoted to opiates, cocaine and cannabis. However, the number of drugs which can be detected in hair is growing every day. Among them, amphetamine and related compounds, such as MDMA, are of major interest due to increasing abuse. At the initial state of this work, four different preparation procedures were used to test amphetamine, MDA and MDMA. Direct methanol extraction, acid (HCl 0.1 N), alkaline (NaOH 1 N) and enzymatic (beta-glucuronidase/arylsulfatase) hydrolyses were compared. Best recoveries were observed after alkaline hydrolysis. The same hair sample was powdered and sent to 16 laboratories, in USA (4), Germany (6), France (3), Spain (1), Japan (1) and Korea (1) to test amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDA and MDMA. All laboratories returned results within 3 months. Amphetamine tested positive 13 times with concentrations ranging from 3.3 to 17.5 ng/mg. Only 2 laboratories identified methamphetamine, using GC/MS, at low concentration (0.8 and 1.8 ng/mg), which appears to be a false positive. MDA and MDMA both tested positive in 14 cases, with concentrations ranging from 1.8 to 19.5, and 8.9 to 100.0 ng/mg for MDA and MDMA, respectively. These scattered results clearly indicated that new exercises are needed to ensure quality in hair testing. This is one of the major aims of the Society of Hair Testing.
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PMID:Interlaboratory comparison of quantitative determination of amphetamine and related compounds in hair samples. 904 20

The effect of growth regulators and culture conditions on the morphogenetic response of cotyledonary leaf discs was studied in popular cucumber variety (Cucumis sativus cv. Sheetal). Organogenesis was induced directly without any intervening callus phase on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with different concentrations of benzyladenine and indole propionic acid. Best results (93%) were obtained in the presence of the 4 mg/L benzyladenine and 1 mg/L IPA. The elongated shoots were rooted in basal medium with 1 mg/L indole butyric acid, hardened and transferred to the field conditions. Genetic transformation system has been established for Cucumis sativus cv. Sheetal, plants by infecting cotyledonary explants with Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA4404 carrying binary plasmid pBI121, which contains scorable marker, beta-glucuronidase and selectable marker nptII under the CaMV 35S promoter. Infection was most effective when explants were infected with Agrobacterium for 15 min and co-cultivated for 2 days in the co-cultivation medium. Shoots were regenerated directly from cotyledonary leaf explants in the presence of kanamycin (50 microg/ml) and analysed. Southern blot analysis confirmed that transformation had occurred. This method will allow genetic improvement of this crop by the introduction of agronomically important genes.
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PMID:In vitro organogenesis and genetic transformation in popular Cucumis sativus L. through Agrobacterium tumefaciens. 1263 5