Carmen Castro Ph.D.

	Carmen Castro, Ph.D.
	carmen.castro(at)uca.es Researcher of the Spanish Ramón y Cajal Program. Division of Physiology, University of Cadiz, Spain. University of Cadiz, Spain.

Postdoctoral work
2000 - 2004:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. 1998 - 2000:
University of Navarra, Spain.

Ph.D. 1998:
Universidad Autónoma de
Madrid, Spain.

Awards and Honors:

2001 : American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

2003: Selected Researcher for the Spanish Ramón y Cajal Program

Carmen Castro is currently leading the new research group Neurons and Homocysteine Metabolism (NeurHoM) at the University of Cadiz. She is interested in studying the effects of hiperhomocysteinemia on adult brain neurogenesis and its relation to Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative dementias. Selected Publication I

Carmen Castro performed her Ph.D. work at the Ramón y Cajal Hospital, in Madrid Spain, where she studied the Molecular Basis of X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMTX) disease. Selected Publications II. She started her postdoctoral work on the field of homocysteine metabolism working as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Universidad de Navarra, Spain where she investigated the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of the two isozymes of methionine adenosyltransferase by S-nitrosylaton. Selected Publications III. In January 2000 she moved to the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA to study the enzyme Betaine-homocysteine S-methyl transferase. Selected Publications IV.

Selected Publications I [top]

Rabaneda L.G., Carrasco M., López-Toledano M.A., Murillo-Carretero M.I., Ruiz F.A., Estrada C., Castro C* (2008). Homocysteine inhibits proliferation of neuronal precursors in the mouse adult brain by impairing the basic fibroblast growth factor signaling cascade and reducing extracellular regulated kinase 1/2- dependent cyclin E expression. FASEB J. Epub ahead of print: fj.08-109306v1 *Corresponding author [PubMed]

Castro C*, Millian N.S., Garrow T.A. (2008). Liver Betaine-Homocysteine S-Methyltransferase Activity Undergoes a Redox Switch at the Active Site Zinc. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 472: 26-33 *Corresponding author [PubMed]

Szegedi S.S., Castro CC., Koutmos M., Garrow T.A. (2008) Betaine-Homocysteine S-methyltransferase-2 is an S-methylmethionine Homocysteine Methyltransferase. J. Biol. Chem. 283: 8939-45 [PubMed]

Hernandez-Ruiz L., Gonzalez-Garcia I., Castro C., Brieva JA., Ruiz FA. (2006) Inorganic polyphosphate and specific induction of apoptosis in human plasma cells. Haematologica. 91(9):1180-6 [PubMed]

Selected publications II[top]

Revilla A., Castro C., and Barrio L.C. (1999) Molecular disection of transjunctional voltage-dependence in the connexin-32 and connexin-43 junctions. Biophys. J. 77; 1374-83. [PubMed]

Barrio L.C., Castro C., and Gómez-Hernández J.M. (1999) Altered assembly of gap junction channels caused by COOH-terminal connexin-32 mutants of CMTX. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 14; 526-9. [PubMed]

Castro C., Gómez-Hernández J.M., Silander K., and Barrio L.C. (1999) Inefficient hemichannel assembly by c-terminal connexin-32 mutants of the Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. J.Neurosci. 19; 3752-3760. [PubMed]

Martin P.E., George C.H., Castro C., Capel J., Campbell A.K., Revilla A., Barrio L.C., and Evans W. H. (1998) Assembly of chimeric connexin-aequorin proteins into functional gap junction channels. J. Biol. Chem. 273; 1719-1726. [PubMed]

Barrio L.C., Capel J., Jarillo J.A., Castro C., and Revilla A.(1997) Species-specific voltage gating properties of junctions formed by connexin-45 expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Biophys. J. 73; 757-767. [PubMed]

Selected publications III [top]

Corrales F.J., Pérez-Mato I., Sánchez del Pino M.M., Ruiz F., Castro C., García-Trevijano E.R., Latasa M.U., Martínez-Chantar M.L., Martínez-Cruz L.A., Avila M.A., and Mato J.M. (2002) Regulation of mammalian liver methionine adenosyltransferase. J. Nutr. 132: 2377S-2381S. [PubMed]

Castro C., Ruiz F., Pérez-Mato I., S·nchez del Pino M., LeGros L., Geller A.M., Kotb M., Corrales F.J., and Mato J.M. (1999) Creation of a functional S-nitrosylation site in vitro by single point mutation. FEBS Lett. 459; 319-322. [PubMed]

Pérez-Mato I., Castro C., Ruiz F., Corrales F.J., and Mato J.M. (1999) Methionine Adenosyltransferase S-nitrosylation is regulated by the basic and acidic aminoacid surrounding the target thiol. J.Biol.Chem. 274; 17075-17079. [PubMed]

Selected publications IV [top]

Schwahn BC, Wendel U, Lussier-Cacan S, Mar MH, Zeisel SH, Leclerc D, Castro C, Garrow TA, Rozen R. Effects of betaine in a murine model of mild cystathionine-beta-synthase deficiency. Metabolism. 2004 May;53(5):594-9. [PubMed]

Castro C, Gratson AA, Evans JC, Jiracek J, Collinsova M, Ludwig ML, Garrow TA. Dissecting the catalytic mechanism of betaine-homocysteine S-methyltransferase by use of intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence and site-directed mutagenesis. Biochemistry. 2004 May 11;43(18):5341-51. [PubMed]

Schwan B.C., Chen Z., Laryea M.D. Wendel U., Lussier-Cacan S., Genest J. Jr., Mar M., Zeisel S., Castro C., Garrow T.A., and Rozen R. (2003) Betaine treatment of hyperhomocysteinemia in a murine model of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase deficiency FASEB J 17, 512-514. [PubMed]

Collinsová M., Castro C., Garrow T.A., Dive V., Yiotakis A., and Jiracek J. (2003) Combining combinatorial chemistry and affinity chromatography for systematically probing protein-ligand interactions: applications to the development of highly selective inhibitors of human betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase. Chem. Biol. 10, 113-122. [PubMed]

Evans J.C., Huddler D.P., Jiracek J., Castro C., Millian N.S. Garrow T.A., and Ludwig M.L. (2002) Betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase:zinc in a distorted barrel. Structure 10: 1159-1171. [PubMed]

Other publications

Puerta M., Venero C., Castro C., and Abelenda M. (1996) Progesterone does not alter sympathetic activity in tissues involved in energy balance. Eur. J. Endocrin. 134; 508-512. [PubMed]

Abelenda M., Castro C., Venero C., and Puerta M. (1994). Reduced oxygen consumption of brown adipocytes isolated from progesterone treated rats. Can. J. Phisiol. Pharmacol. 72; 1226-1230. [PubMed]

Chapters in books

1. Castro C., Breksa A.P. III, Salisbury E.M. and Garrow T.A (2002) Betaine-Homocysteine S-methyltransferase (BHMT) transcription is inhibited by S-adenosylmethionine (Adomet). In “Chemistry and biology of pteridines and folates”. Milstien, Sheldon, Boston. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

2. Mato J.M., Castro C., Pérez-Mato I., Ruiz F. and Corrales F.J. (2000) Cysteine nitrosylation and denitrosylation: a switch to control protein function. In “Advances in molecular medicine”. Fundación BBV Ed.

3. Corrales F.J., Sánchez del Pino M., Pérez-Mato I., Ruiz F., Castro C., Miqueo M. and Mato J.M. (2000) Regulation of rat liver methionine adenosyltransferase. In “Methionine metabolism: molecular mechanism and clinical implications”. Master Line Ed.

4. Martin P.E.M., Castro C., George C.H., Capel J., Campbell A.K., Revilla A., Evans H.W. and Barrio L.C. (1998) Targeting connexin-aequorin chimeras to the gap junctions. In “Gap Junctions”. R.Werner IOS PRESS. [top]