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Occurrence of plant latices is widespread, there are more than 40 families of plants characterized to establish lactiferous structures. The appearance of hydrolytic active proteins, incorporated in latices is already characterized, and hydrolytic active proteins are considerable, and for several plant families, the occurrence of hydrolytic active proteins is already specified e.g. Apocynaceae Juss., Caricaceae Dumort, Euphorbiaceae Juss., Moraceae Gaudich and Papaveraceae Juss. In our investigation, focused on latex bearing plants of order Asterales , Asteraceae and Campanulaceae in particular. The present outcomes represent a comprehensive study, relating to the occurrence of proteolytic active enzymes of order Asterales for the first time. 131 different species of Asteraceae and Campanulaceae were tested, and the appearance of plant latex proteases were determined in different quantities. Proteolytic activity was investigated by inhibitory studies and determination of residual activity in the following, enable us to characterize the proteases. Most of the considered species exhibit a serine protease activity and a multiplicity of species exhibited two or more subclasses of proteases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intense fear of abandonment or rejection is a central feature of social relationships for individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). A total of 20 unmedicated BPD patients and 20 healthy participants (HC, matched for age and education) played a virtual ball-tossing game including the three conditions: exclusion, inclusion and a control condition with predefined game rules, whereas cerebral activity was assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjective experiences of exclusion were assessed after each blocked condition. Both groups felt similarly excluded during the exclusion condition; however, BPD subjects felt more excluded than HC during the inclusion and control conditions. In all three conditions, BPD patients showed a stronger engagement of the dorsal anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex. For HC, activation in several cerebral regions such as the insula and the precuneus differed depending on the interaction situation, whereas for BPD subjects activation in these regions was not modulated by experimental conditions. Subjects with BPD differed from HC in both their subjective reactions to and their neural processing of social interaction situations. Our data suggest that individuals with BPD have difficulty in discriminating between social situations, and tend to hypermentalize during social encounters that are not determined by the intentions of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective and design: Serine proteases and phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) are able to induce the release of pro-inflammatory interleukin-6 (IL-6) in monocytic cells. The present study was performed to investigate whether there is any interaction between proteases and phorbol ester in IL-6 release. Methods: U-937 cells differentiated with interferon-γ were treated with or without thrombin, trypsin, papain (each 1-10 μg/ml) and PMA (0.1-10 ng/ml) or the combination of both enzyme and PMA for up to 72 h and the release of IL-6 was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Thrombin and PMA caused a time- and dose-dependent increase in IL-6. The combination of the two resulted in an increase up to fivefold higher than each agent alone. Even the combination of the cysteine protease papain and PMA showed a strong effect on IL-6 release compared to the individual tests. Conclusions: These findings suggest a synergistic activity between phorbol ester and proteases to promote inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No abstract available Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]