Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.4.23.5 (cathepsin D)
 4,130 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Polyunsaturated fatty acids included into animals' ration (10% of linethol) intensified lipid peroxidation and increased the activity of cathepsin D, an enzyme responsible for protein and lipid degradation in the cell. Vitamin E stabilized the impaired processes. Biologically active complex of propolis produced a similar effect, however, decreased protein synthesis and a tendency to animals' body mass increment have evidenced a more pronounced antioxidative action as compared to that of vitamin E.
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PMID:[Vitamin E and propolis as antioxidants after excessive administration of polyunsaturated fatty acids]. 323 43

Vitamin E is a generic term used to indicate all tocopherol (TOC) and tocotrienol (TT) derivates. In the last few years, several papers have shown that a TT-rich fraction (TTRF) extracted from palm oil inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in a large number of cancer cells. However, the molecular mechanism(s) involved in TT action is still unclear. In the present study, we proposed for the first time a novel mechanism for TT activity that involves estrogen receptor (ER) signaling. In silico simulations and in vitro binding analyses indicated a high affinity of TTs for ERbeta but not for ERalpha. In addition, in ERbeta-containing MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells, we demonstrated that TTs increase the ERbeta translocation into the nucleus, which in turn activates estrogen-responsive genes (MIC-1, EGR-1 and cathepsin D), as demonstrated by cell preincubation with the ER inhibitor ICI-182,780. Finally, we observed that TT treatment is associated with alteration of cell morphology, DNA fragmentation, and caspase-3 activation. Altogether, these experiments elucidated the molecular mechanism underling gamma- and delta-TT effects.
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PMID:A novel mechanism of natural vitamin E tocotrienol activity: involvement of ERbeta signal transduction. 1949 Dec 96