The phytopathogenic fungi Phytophthora cryptogea and Phytophthora capsici cause systemic leaf necrosis on their non‐host tobacco; in culture they release proteins, called cryptogein and capsicein, which elicit similar necrosis. In addition, both proteins protect tobacco against invasion by the pathogen Phytophthora nicotianae, the agent of the tobacco black shank, that is unable to produce such an elicitor. Cryptogein causes visible leaf necrosis starting at about 1 μg/plant, whereas 50‐fold as much capsicein is required for the same reaction. Capsicein induces protection even in near absence of leaf necrosis. The activities of both elicitors are eliminated upon pronase digestion. They are proteins of similar Mr (respectively 10323 and 10155) and their complete amino acid sequences were determined. They consist of 98 residues, with some internal repetitions of hexapeptides and heptapeptides. 85% identity was observed between both sequences: only two short terminal regions are heterologous, while the central core is entirely conserved. Secondary structure predictions, hydropathy and flexibility profiles differ only around position 15 and at the C‐terminus; these modifications could play a role in the modulation of their biological activities. After a search of the sequence data bases, they appear to be novel proteins.

OBJECTIVE -The goal of the study was to examine risk factors in the prediction of coronary heart disease (CHD) and differences in men and women in the EURODIAB Prospective Complications Study. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -Baseline risk factors and CHD at follow-upwere assessed in 2,329 type 1 diabetic patients without prior CHD. CHD was defined as physician-diagnosed myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and/or Minnesota-coded ischemic electrocardiograms or fatal CHD.RESULTS -There were 151 patients who developed CHD, and the 7-year incidence rate was 8.0 (per 1,000 person-years) in men and 10.2 in women. After adjustment for age and/or duration of diabetes, the following risk factors were related to CHD in men: age, GHb, waistto-hip ratio (WHR), HDL cholesterol, smoking, albumin excretion rate (AER), and autonomic neuropathy. The following risk factors were related to CHD in women: age, systolic blood pressure (BP), fasting triglycerides, AER, and retinopathy. Multivariate standardized Cox proportional hazards models showed that age (hazard ratio 1.5), AER (1.3 in men and 1.6 in women), WHR (1.3 in men), smoking (1.5 in men), fasting triglycerides (1.3 in women) or HDL cholesterol (0.74 in women), and systolic BP (1.3 in women) were predictors of CHD.CONCLUSIONS -This study supports the evidence for a strong predictive role of baseline albuminuria in the pathogenesis of CHD in type 1 diabetes. Furthermore, sex-specific risk factors such as systolic BP, fasting triglycerides (or HDL cholesterol), and WHR were found to be important in the development of CHD. Diabetes Care 27:530 -537, 2004T ype 1 diabetes is associated with a four-(in men) to eightfold (in women) excess risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) (1,2). This substantially elevated risk in women with diabetes effectively obliterates the sex difference in CHD observed in the general population (3,4).Established risk factors do not appear to account for the excess risk of CHD in type 1 diabetes, and reasons for the greater impact in women are not clear. But there is a lack of large prospective studies in type 1 diabetic patients. Much of the research into CHD risk in diabetes has focused on type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. Type 1 diabetes has a different pathogenesis from type 2 diabetes, and although there are similarities between the diseases such as hyperglycemia, inferences cannot be made from one type to the other for all risk factors, such as lipids and obesity. For example, type 1 diabetes is associated with a favorable lipid pattern compared with the general population, which is clearly not true for type 2 diabetes (5).Previous studies of type 1 diabetic patients suggest that albuminuria (4,6 -9) and raised blood pressure (BP) (4,6 -9) are important risk factors for CHD, but these studies had insufficient power to stratify analyses by sex. The case for an independent relationship between obesity measures and CHD is unclear, the role of the other complications of diabetes uncertain, and findings for lip...

A mixture of iturines extracted from Bacillus subtilis gave, on column chromatography, iturine A, iturine B, and iturine C. Iturine A has the entire antifungal activity. It is a mixture of two homologous peptidolipids C48,H74N12O14 and C49H76N12O14 (mp 177 degrees C, [alpha]D-1.7 degrees in methanol (c 0.05 g/mL); mol wt 1042 and 1056). The lipid moiety is a mixture of 3-amino-12-methyltridecanoic acid and 3-amino-12-methyltetradecanoic acid. The peptide moiety contains 7 mol of amino acids: D-Asn2, L-Asn, L-Gln, L-Pro, L-Ser, and D-Tyr. A cyclic structure for iturine A with the serine residue linked to the fatty amino acids through a peptide bond has been domonstrated. By mild HCl hydrolysis, lipid-soluble and water-soluble peptides were obtained. They were analyzed by chemical methods and by mass spectrometry. Permethylated and perdeuteriomethylated derivatives of iturine A were also subjected to mass spectrometric analysis. Both chemical analysis and mass spectrometry led to the cyclic structure I for iturine A.

Only 55.3% of patients using LLD achieved the LDL-C target recommended in the 2003 European guidelines.

The presence of amide groups on the dicarboxylic amino acids was suggested from the formation of a,w-diamino acids by the reaction of RESSLER and KASHELIKAR5) and the free carboxyl groups were estimated by titration with the hydroxymate method applied to methyl esters6).Recently, these antibiotics were studied by fast atom bombardment (FAB) mass spectrometry and the molecular weights were found one mass unit less than the expected values. This difference could be due to the presence of an Asn or a Gln residue instead of an Asp or a Glu residue and such a discrepancy is not surprising in view of the imprecision of quantitative methods used in the previous work.On the other hand, reinvestigation of homologous 8-amino acids from iturin A using HPLC and NMR spectrometry by IS0GAI et al. showed that they consist of a mixture of n-C13, n-C14, anteiso-C15, iso-C15, n-C15 and n-C18 (3-amino acids with n-C14 and iso-C13 as major components7). More recently, WINKELMANN et al. isolated from a strain of B. subtilis a peptidolipid complex of the iturin group containing six 8-amino acids with a high proportion of iso-C168).