Protein-toxic compound conjugates

MDR-ABC Transporters. Figure 3 Detoxification cellular mechanisms. X, toxic compound X-OH, oxidized toxic compound GS-X, conjugated toxic compound OATP, organic anion transporting proteins CYPs, cytochromes GSH, glutathion UDPGIcUA, Uridine 5-diphosphoglucuronic acid PAPs, 3-phosphoadenylylsulfate. 

Cellular defense mechanisms against toxins (A multistep mechanism for elimination of toxic metabolites and xenobiotics. It involves various transport, oxidation, and conjugation steps.) are usually divided into several steps as it is visualized on Fig. 3. Organic anion transporting proteins (OATPs) are responsible for the cellular uptake of endogenous compounds and... 

Originally, for preparation of such conjugates the hydroxyl groups of monomethoxy-PEG (mPEG) were activated with cyanuric chloride, and the resulting compound then coupled with proteins (10). This approach suffers from disadvantages, such as the toxicity of cyanuric chloride and its limited applicability for modification of proteins having essential cysteine or tyrosine residues, as manifested by their loss of activity. 

Mainigi and Campbell (20) have shown that low protein diets depress hepatic glutathione levels. Since enzymatic conjugation and spontaneous reaction of certain xenobiotics with hepatic glutathione is an important detoxication step with certain compounds, this depression of glutathione levels may alter the toxicity of these compounds in animals fed low protein diets. 

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