Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 6, Issue 2, 2005

Recent technological advances in NMR methods and instrumentation are having a significant impact in structural biology. These innovations are also impacting pharmaceutical biotechnology as it is now possible to use NMR spectroscopy to rapidly characterize a growing number of prospective protein drugs and protein drug targets. This review provides a general summary of how solution-state NMR can be used to d Read More

Cycloheximide, a protein synthesis inhibitor, was encapsulated in cross-linked gelatin nanoparticles (Type B, Bovine skin, 75 Bloom) of 168nm diameter with 26% entrapment efficiency. In-vitro release kinetics of the drug from the nanoparticles was done in phoshate buffer saline (PBS) at pH 7.4 and pH 5.8. The release kinetics showed a bi-phasic curve. Interestingly, the release of drug is approx 90% in acidic pH as compa Read More

The membrane-bound folate receptor (FR) is overexpressed on a wide range of human cancers, such as those originating in ovary, lung, breast, endometrium, kidney and brain. The vitamin folic acid is a high affinity ligand of the FR which retains its receptor binding properties when conjugated to other molecules. Consequently, “folate targeting” technology has successfully been applied for the delivery of protein toxi Read More

Due to its non-invasive character, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) is particularly suited for the investigation of diffusion behavior of proteins in living cells. In this study we have investigated the diffusion properties of CFP-labeled gap junction hemichannels in the plasma membrane of living HeLa cells. Gap junction hemichannels or connexons are the precursors for the cell-cell- or gap junction channels th Read More

The biophysical investigation of living cells is currently possible by single molecular detection methods such as fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). FCS is applied for measuring the dynamic mobility of target molecules in living cells; however, the conventional FCS systems still lack quantitative analysis for many regions of interests (ROI) in real time. To improve this situation, we have developed a novel multi Read More

An infectious particle, termed prion, composed largely and perhaps solely of a single protein, is the likely causative agent of prion disease. It produces lethal decline of cognitive and motor function. The responsible protein arrives at a pathogenic state by misfolding from a normal form that has ubiquitous tissue distribution. Prion diseases are often called spongiform encephalopathies.Probably most mammalian species Read More