Suppression of heavy drinking and alcohol seeking by a selective ALDH-2 inhibitor.

Background: Inherited human aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH-2) deficiency reduces the risk for alcoholism. Kudzu plants and extracts have been used for 1,000 years in traditional Chinese medicine to treat alcoholism. Kudzu contains daidzin, which inhibits ALDH-2 and suppresses heavy drinking in rodents.

The metallothionein/thionein system: an oxidoreductive metabolic zinc link.

Metallothioneins (MTs) were discovered more than 50 years ago and identified as low-molecular weight, sulfhydryl-rich proteins that were subsequently found to bind zinc predominantly. The binding of seemingly redox inactive zinc ions allows MT to play a central role in oxidoreductive cellular metabolism, cellular zinc distribution and homeostasis. In this interpretive study, we discuss the interaction of MT with physiologically relevant molecules and its effect on zinc-thiolate bonds.

Selenocompounds can serve as oxidoreductants with the methionine sulfoxide reductase enzymes.

In a recent study on the reducing requirement for the methionine sulfoxide reductases (Msr) (Sagher, D., Brunell, D., Hejtmancik, J.

The ATP/metallothionein interaction: NMR and STM.

We have previously established that ATP binds to mammalian metallothionein-2 (MT). The interaction between ATP and MT and the associated conformational change of the protein affect the sulfhydryl reactivity and zinc transfer potential of MT [Jiang, L.-J.