, 2004). It should be emphasised, however, that BPs do protect against oxidative and frame-shift mutation when present extracellularly, indicating a clear role for BPs in neutralising mutagens before entering cells. Furthermore, it should be noted that BR causes apoptosis in cancer cells in vitro ( Keshavan et al., 2004), providing an additional mechanism for chemoprevention. These data further emphasise the importance of therapeutically elevating BR concentrations for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer

( McCarty, 2007). Reports to indicate that RG7204 in vitro BV and BRDT are readily absorbed across cultured enterocytes ( Bulmer et al., 2008a) support this theory. These data confirm that potential anti-mutagenic BP effects in vivo could be induced by increasing concentrations in the gut lumen ( Bulmer et al., 2011) where food-borne mutagens are found, or by increasing blood BP content in vivo to impart protection from DNA damage ( Wallner et al., 2012). Although the results of these in vitro experiments cannot be directly extrapolated to in vivo settings, the results suggest BPs in the extracellular milieu (e.g., in the gut lumen/blood) could play a key role in cellular protection, by intercepting http://www.selleckchem.com/products/KU-60019.html mutagens before they

arrive at their site of action (e.g., DNA). The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest. This work was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Grant number P21162-B11. ”
“Living organisms Thiamine-diphosphate kinase use a series of integral membrane protein complexes for energy conversion and ATP synthesis (Hatefi, 1985). In addition to their crucial role in energy production and metabolic pathways, the mitochondrial complexes also play key roles in integrating cell death stimuli and executing the

apoptotic program (Navarro and Boveris, 2007). Accordingly, several human diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Friedreich’s ataxia, familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Huntington’s disease, are associated with mitochondrial electron transport chain inhibition, energy metabolism impairment and oxidative stress (Beal, 1998 and Nicholls and Budd, 2000). Additionally, biochemical studies indicate a decline of electron transport and in some bioenergetic activities of mitochondria during aging and ischemia–reperfusion (Cadenas and Davies, 2000, Caspersen et al., 2005, Cortopassi and Wong, 1999, Hagen et al., 1998, Hauptmann et al., 2006, Navarro and Boveris, 2007, Nicholls, 2002, Saris and Eriksson, 1995 and Sastre et al., 2003). Thus, mitochondrial dysfunction can be associated with different degenerative cellular processes. Organoselenium and organotellurium compounds have been extensively studied because of their potential antioxidant capacity (Arteel and Sies, 2001, Barbosa et al., 2006, Barbosa et al., 2008, de Bem et al., 2009, de Freitas et al., 2009, Hort et al., 2011, Moretto et al., 2007, Nogueira and Rocha, 2011, Parnham and Graf, 1991, Prauchner et al.