viscumin/viscum

Cancer is the leading cause of death in industrialized countries. Cancer therapy often involves monoclonal antibodies or small-molecule drugs, but carbohydrate-binding lectins such as mistletoe (Viscum album) viscumin offer a potential alternative treatment strategy. Viscumin is toxic in mammalian

A toxic protein, viscumin, was isolated from extracts of mistletoe by affinity chromatography on acid-treated Sepharose 4B. Viscumin was selectively bound to the column and could be eluted with lactose. It migrated in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate

A toxin from mistletoe, viscumin, inhibited the incorporation of leucine in cells more rapidly than the incorporation of uridine and thymidine, indicating that the toxins act by inhibiting cellular protein synthesis. The presence of galactose, lactose, and melibiose in the medium protected cells

Pharmacological effects of mistletoe extracts are determined by the concentration of three toxic lectins: mistletoe lectin I (MLI, or viscumin), MLII, MLIII. These proteins, as well as ricin, belong to ribosome-inactivating proteins type 2 (RIP2). However, the extracts from the plant Ricinus

The sequence coding for the viscumin (mistletoe lectin I, MLI) A-chain (MLA) was cloned from Viscum album genomic DNA with the use of synthetic primers. This yielded three recombinant (r) MLA variants differing in number of amino acid substitutions. The rMLA structure and properties were probed

In Europe extracts from Viscum album L., the European white-berry mistletoe, are widely used as a complementary cancer therapy. Viscumins (mistletoe lectins, ML) have been scrutinized as important active components of mistletoe and exhibit a variety of anticancer effects such as stimulation of the

Viscumin (mistletoe lectin I, MLI) in concentrations of 10-11-10-7 M causes endoplasmic reticulum stress and triggers unfolded protein response, a modulator of antitumor immunity, in target cells.

External magnetic field is characterized by low toxicity and existence of magnetic properties, which contributes to an interest in the development of products from ferromagnetic nanoparticles (FNP) for antitumor therapy. Previously we synthesized a conjugate of ferromagnetic magnetite nanoparticles

Viscum album lectin 1 (Viscumin) is one of the most important plant-based protein of potential adjuvant in cancer treatment. Therefore, the use of nano-biosensor technology as a novel emerges of biosensors is crucial to detect this modal agent in pharmacological study. Molecular imprinted polymer

A chimeric toxic protein was prepared from the mistletoe lectin I A-chain and ricin B-chain by using the disulfide exchange reaction. Ricin and chimeric protein were indistinguishable in binding to immobilized asialofetuin in ELISA. The chimeric protein was more toxic for Jurkat cells than native

Therapy of cancer with a Viscum extract has been carried out in Europe for over six decades in thousands of patients with uncertain advantages. This approach has been bedeviled by major problems such as variable composition of the extract, lack of knowledge of active component(s) and mechanism of

Extracts from mistletoe (Viscum album L.) contain three main toxic proteins--the lectins MLI (also known as viscumin), MLII and MLIII. A catalytic subunit of the mistletoe plant toxic lectin MLIII has been cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli cells. The structure and immunochemical properties of

Antigenic determinants of Mistletoe Lectin I, a toxin from Viscum album were predicted on the basis of the primary amino acid sequence of the protein. Based on the results of analysis, the peptide FPGGSTRTQARS, which corresponds to the 144-155 segment of the viscumin A-chain, was synthesized. The

Toxic lectins of European mistletoe Viscum album L.--MLI (viscumin), MLII and MLIII--are present in water extracts of this plant. Earlier we have cloned the full-length gene of MLIII precursor [A.G. Tonevitsky, I.I. Agapov, I.B. Pevzner, N.V. Maluchenko, M.M. Mojsenovich, U. Pfueller, M.P.

Iscador, a mistletoe preparation widely used in cancer chemotherapy, was found to contain a toxic component which is structurally and functionally closely related to viscumin. When antiviscumin was present in the medium, Vero cells were strongly, but not completely protected against Iscador. The