catalase tagged posts

ATF6 is protective in the heart; it is expressed at high levels in the young heart, and low levels in the aged heart. Gene therapy studies that were done in the Glembotski lab at the SDSU Heart Institute have shown that restoring ATF6 in the aged mouse heart to levels in the young heart provides remarkable protection against heart disease, and could pave the way for development of this therapy for use in humans in the near future. Credit: Chris Glembotski

A protein found in the heart that is known to be involved in cellular stress responses in cancer cells is now believed to play a critical role in the ability of cardiac cells to combat heart disease and recover from a heart attack...

Tumor cells have decreased ability to metabolize H2O2: Implications for pharmacological ascorbate in cancer therapy

Low levels of catalase enzyme make cancer cells vulnerable to high-dose vitamin C. Vitamin C has a patchy history as a cancer therapy, but researchers at the University of Iowa believe that is because it has often been used in a way that guarantees failure. Most vitamin C therapies involve taking the substance orally. However, the UI scientists have shown that giving vitamin C ntravenously – bypassing normal gut metabolism and excretion – creates blood levels that are 100 – 500 times higher than levels seen with oral ingestion. It is this super-high concentration in the blood that is crucial to vitamin C’s ability to attack cancer cells.

Earlier work by UI redox biology expe...

A new study reveals that thymus atrophy may stem from a decline in its ability to protect against DNA damage from free radicals. The damage accelerates metabolic dysfunction in the organ, progressively reducing its production of pathogen-fighting T cells. Common antioxidants may slow thymus atrophy and be a Rx strategy for protecting elderly from infections.

“The thymus ages more rapidly than any other tissue in the body, diminishing the ability of older individuals to respond to new immunologic challenges, including evolving pathogens and the vaccines that may otherwise offer protection from them,” says Howard Petrie of SRI. Starting around puberty, the thymus rapidly decreases in size and loses capacity to produce enough new T cells...