Expression of genes involved in oxidative stress responses in airway epithelial cells of smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Rationale: The molecular mechanisms involved in airway oxidative stress responses reported in healthy smokers and in those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are poorly understood.

Objectives: To assess the expression of genes involved in oxidative stress responses in the bronchial epithelium of smokers with or without COPD and in relation to disease severity.

Methods: Global gene expression was assessed in bronchial brushings in 38 subjects with COPD, 14 healthy nonsmokers, and 18 healthy smokers.

The antiatherogenic effect of DiNAC: experimental findings supporting immunomodulation as a new treatment for atherosclerosis related diseases.

Inflammatory processes in the arterial wall are important in atherogenesis. The present review discusses the development of DiNAC as a potential new treatment modality for atherosclerosis related diseases. DiNAC, N,N'-diacetyl-L-cystine, is the disulphide dimer of N-acetyl cysteine, NAC.

N,N'-diacetyl-L-cystine (DiNAC), the disulphide dimer of N-acetylcysteine, inhibits atherosclerosis in WHHL rabbits: evidence for immunomodulatory agents as a new approach to prevent atherosclerosis.

Oxidation of lipoprotein-derived lipids is generally accepted to be important in atherogenesis, and lipophilic antioxidants have been suggested as potential antiatherosclerotic agents. The antiatherogenic effects observed by certain antioxidants, especially probucol, in different animal models support this suggestion. There are however also cases where other lipophilic antioxidants have not been able to support this hypothesis.

N,N'-Diacetyl-L-cystine-the disulfide dimer of N-acetylcysteine-is a potent modulator of contact sensitivity/delayed type hypersensitivity reactions in rodents.

Oral N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) is used clinically for treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. NAC is easily oxidized to its disulfide. We show here that N,N'-diacetyl-L-cystine (DiNAC) is a potent modulator of contact sensitivity (CS)/delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions in rodents.

Conformation-activity correlations for chemotactic tripeptide analogs incorporating dialkyl residues with linear and cyclic alkyl sidechains at position 2.

Five stereochemically constrained analogs of the chemotactic tripeptide incorporating 1-aminocycloalkane-1-carboxylic acid (Ac(n)c) and alpha,alpha-dialkylglycines (Deg, diethylglycine; Dpg, n,n-dipropylglycine and Dbg, n,n-dibutylglycine) at position 2 have been synthesized. NMR studies of peptides For-Met-Xxx-Phe-OMe (Xxx=Ac(7)c, I; Ac(8)c, II; Deg, III; Dpg, IV and Dbg, V; For, formyl) establish that peptides with cycloalkyl residues, I and II, adopt folded beta-turn conformations in CDCl3 and (CD3)2SO. In contrast, analogs with linear alkyl sidechains, III-V, favour fully extended (C5) conformations in solution.