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Tryptophan binds basic amino acids, sugars and alkaloids. Examples of tryptophan binding include glycosidase, importins, arginine transporters and cytokine receptors. Molecules that mimic and interfere with these interactions are important drugs. I have always been interested in nuts, bolts and mechanisms. That has progressed from Erector sets and Lincoln Logs, to chemistry sets and microscopes, and ultimately to computational models. So when I think about inflammation and disease, I think in terms of how molecules interact to produce the symptoms of disease. I seek the molecular basis of inflammation, and how proteins and small molecules interact to make people sick. In most of the interactions that I study, that means how proteins bind to carbohydrates, e.g. heparin, and how alkaloids, e.g. curcumin from turmeric, disrupt those interactions. Enzymes bind to sugars and catalyze particular biochemical changes in the sugars through amino acids on the surface of the enzyme. Examin...

I want to commemorate the writing of my 100th article on Blogspot by discussing a new insight into inflammation. I have been searching the last several years for an anti-inflammatory system to balance inflammation. Now I realize that there is no opposite to inflammation. There is only completion of inflammation to return to the original state. Inflammation is a process that includes resolution or recovery from the defensive, destructive state of immunological activity. Inflammation is the martialling of resources for battle by offloading lymphocytes from the blood stream, engaging the enemy b y triggering the release of toxic secretory vesicles from leukocytes, and cleaning up the carnage by macrophages engulfing cellular fragments. Each step in the inflammatory process induces the next step until there is a return to the origin. Inflammation is not balanced by anti-inflammatory processes. Inflammation is triggered by molecules characteristic of viruses, bacteria or fungi bindin...

The point of this post is that the intestines produce an enzyme, transglutaminase (TG) that normally protects the gut from toxic plant proteins, such as grain gluten, but modern food processing and antibiotics corrupt digestion of gluten to produce intestinal inflammation and a series of related autoimmune diseases including celiac, thyroiditis, diabetes, baldness and atherosclerosis.  Transglutaminase Links Proteins Enzymatically Transglutaminase is a ubiquitous enzyme produced in the intestines, thyroid, heart, skin, hair follicles, etc.  This enzyme attaches to a protein (TG + ProA ~~> TG-ProA) via amino groups extending from some of the proteins amino acids, e.g. lysine or glutamine, and then the enzyme replaces itself by another protein leaving the two proteins crosslinked (TG-ProA + ProB ~~> TG + ProA-ProB).  Another alternative reaction is to leave the original glutamine without its amino group to yield glutamic acid residues. Linking Proteins Makes Connectiv...

Glucosamine supplements work through effects on the gut that contribute to general anti-inflammation. It is thought that glucosamine interacts with tissue transglutaminase and blocks production of signaling molecules for chronic infammation. It should also be effective against inflammatory diseases of the intestines, joints and elsewhere. Cartilage and other connective tissues are made up of collagen protein fibers embedded in a matrix of polysaccharide, chondroitin sulfate. The tightly packed, twisted proteins of the collagen in the negatively charged, acidic polysaccharide act like a fiber reinforced, dense gel that provides impact resistance for long bone joint surfaces, as well as the stretch-resistance and elasticity for tendon and ligaments. Collagen in cartilage is comparable to cellulose (crystallin neutral polysaccharide fibers) embedded in the acidic polysaccharide (pectin) of plant cell walls. The connective tissue polysaccharides are glycosamino glycans, GAGs, the most...

Remember: If anything fructose from beverages (including juices), yet not fructose from whole fruit is a problem. In fact eating whole fruits will decrease your blood lipids and high sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP) inflammation markers. Fructose is bad for you, right? Right. According to the latest study from the University of Newcastle , the consumption of only one drink containing containing 50 g of either fructose or glucose or sucrose dissolved in water will have detrimental effects on the #1 indicator of whole body inflammation, which is high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP). Much to the researchers surprise, though, the same amount of fructose had significant beneficial effects on the plasma lipid levels of the healthy male and female adults (n = 14) between the ages of 18-60 years who were recruited by advertisement and underwent study procedures at the Nutraceuticals Research Group Clinic rooms at the University of Newcastle in Australia. Learn more about fruc...