Rationale Mefloquine is used for the prevention and treatment of chloroquine-resistant malaria, but its use is associated with nightmares, hallucinations, and exacerbation of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. We hypothesized that potential mechanisms of action for the adverse psychotropic effects of mefloquine resemble those of other known psychotomimetics. Objectives Using...
Rifamycin B, a product of Amycolatopsis mediterranei S699, is the precursor of clinically used antibiotics that are effective against tuberculosis, leprosy and AIDS related mycobacterial infections. However, prolonged usage of these antibiotics has resulted in the emergence of rifamycin resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. As part of our effort to...
Rifamycin B, a product of Amycolatopsis mediterranei S699, is the precursor of clinically used antibiotics that are effective against tuberculosis, leprosy and AIDS related mycobacterial infections. However, prolonged usage of these antibiotics has resulted in the emergence of rifamycin resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. As part of our effort to...
Rifamycin B, a product of Amycolatopsis mediterranei S699, is the precursor of clinically used antibiotics that are effective against tuberculosis, leprosy and AIDS related mycobacterial infections. However, prolonged usage of these antibiotics has resulted in the emergence of rifamycin resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. As part of our effort to...
The purpose of this project was to isolate gabosines and other compounds through chemical screening of secondary metabolites of Streptomyces cellulosae subsp. griseorubiginoses strain S1096. Two different media were used to cultivate S. cellulosae. The first contained soybean and mannitol. The other contained oatmeal and trace element solution. After cultivation...
Natural products isolated from bacteria can be developed into new therapeutic agents. The soil bacteria actinomycetes, specifically the Streptomyces species, are prolific producers of antibiotics. This thesis is composed of two projects which focus on novel drug discovery from soil bacteria collected from the Indonesian Black Water Ecosystem (the ICBB...
The mechanisms by which the activities of phospholipase C-β (PLC-β) enzymes are negatively regulated have not been well defined. We used cardiac-derived ratmyoblast H9c2 cells to investigate possible modes of regulation of PLC-β3 enzymes,the only endogenous β isoform abundantly found in these cells. The PLC-β3population in these cells was detected...
Tuberculoѕiѕ (TB) iѕ a number one killer among treatable infectious diseases. It is caused by the pathogenic bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculoѕiѕ that primarily affects the lungѕ. It infects one third of the world population and kills approximately 2 million people each year (based on WHO report). Drug-reѕiѕtant TB haѕ become a...
Despite the advance of biomedical science, infectious diseases remain one of the number one killers in the world. They claim the lives of millions of people annually, particularly in underdeveloped and developing countries. In fact, more than 32% of the health burden in Africa is caused by infectious diseases, e.g.,...
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating disease characterized by the progressive degeneration of motor neurons. Dominantly-inherited mutations to the antioxidant enzyme Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) cause 3-6% of all ALS cases. The complete mechanism behind the toxicity of mutant SOD1 remains unclear, although significant evidence points to aberrant or...