Insufficient dose of dietary methyl groups are associated with a host of conditions ranging from neural tube defects to cancer. On the other hand, it is not certain what effect excess dietary methyl groups could have on cancer. This is especially true for prostate cancer, a disease that is characterized by increasing DNA methylation changes with increasing grade of the cancer. In this three-part study in animals, we look at (i) the effect of excess methyl donors on the growth rate of prostate cancer in vivo, (ii) the ability of 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (AdC), a demethylating agent, to demethylate in the presence of excess dietary methyl donors, and (iii) the effect of in utero feeding of excess methyl donors to the later onset of prostate cancer. The results show that when mice are fed a dietary excess of methyl donors, we do not see (i) an increase in the growth rate of DU-145 and PC-3 xenografts in vivo, or (ii) interference in the ability of AdC to demethylate the promoters of androgen receptor or Reprimo of prostate cancer xenografts but (iii) a protective effect on the development of higher grades of prostate cancer in the "Hi-myc" mouse model of prostate cancer which were fed the increased methyl donors in utero. We conclude that the impact of dietary methyl donors on prostate cancer progression depends upon the timing of exposure to the dietary agents. When fed before the onset of cancer, that is, in utero, excess methyl donors can have a protective effect on the progression of cancer.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3273661 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-11-0357 | DOI Listing |
Trends Biochem Sci
January 2025
Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390-9038, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX USA. Electronic address:
S-Adenosylmethionine (SAM) is the primary methyl donor for numerous cellular methylation reactions. Its central role in methylation and involvement with many pathways link its availability to the regulation of cellular processes, the dysregulation of which can contribute to disease states, such as cancer or neurodegeneration. Emerging evidence indicates that intracellular SAM levels are maintained within an optimal range by a variety of homeostatic mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFR Soc Open Sci
January 2025
Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Central South University, No172. Tongzipo Road, Changsha, Hunan 410013, People's Republic of China.
DNA mixtures containing semen and vaginal fluid are common biological samples in forensic analysis. However, the analysis of semen-vaginal fluid mixtures remains challenging. In this study, to solve these problems, it is proposed to combine semen-specific CpG sites and closely related microhaplotype sites to form a new composite genetic marker (semen-specific methylation-microhaplotype).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Chem Chem Phys
January 2025
Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA.
Photosynthetic reaction center proteins (RCs) provide ideal model systems for studying quantum entanglement between multiple spins, a quantum mechanical phenomenon wherein the properties of the entangled particles become inherently correlated. Following light-generated sequential electron transfer, RCs generate spin-correlated radical pairs (SCRPs), also referred to as entangled spin qubit (radical) pairs (SQPs). Understanding and controlling coherence mechanisms in SCRP/SQPs is important for realizing practical uses of electron spin qubits in quantum sensing applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Technol
January 2025
Marine Synthetic Ecology Research Center, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Guangdong Provincial Observation and Research Station for Marine Ranching in Lingdingyang Bay, China-ASEAN Belt and Road Joint Laboratory on Mariculture Technology, State Key Laboratory for Biocontrol, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China.
Plants can recruit microorganisms to enhance soil arsenic (As) removal and nitrogen (N) turnover, but how microbial As methylation in the rhizosphere is affected by N biotransformation is not well understood. Here, we used acetylene reduction assay, gene amplicon, and metagenome sequencing to evaluate the influence of N biotransformation on As methylation in the rhizosphere of , a potential As hyperaccumulator. was grown in mining soils (MS) and artificial As-contaminated soils (AS) over two generations in a controlled pot experiment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInorg Chem
January 2025
Institute for Inorganic Chemistry and Center for Sustainable Systems Design (CSSD), Paderborn University, Paderborn 33098, Germany.
A series of Co complexes [Co(ImP)][PF], with HImP = 1,1'-(1,3-phenylene)bis(3-methyl-1-imidazole-2-ylidene)) and R = Me, Et, Pr, Bu, is presented in this work. The influence of the strong donor ligand on the ground and excited-state photophysical properties was investigated in the context of different alkyl substituents at the imidazole nitrogen. X-ray diffraction revealed no significant alterations of the structures and all differences in the series emerge from the electronic structures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!