Current Protein and Peptide Science - Volume 3, Issue 6, 2002

The regulation of the hepatic glucose output through glycogenolysis is an important target for type 2 diabetes therapy. Glycogenolysis is catalyzed in liver, muscle and brain by tissue specific isoforms of glycogen phosphorylase (GP). Because of its central role in glycogen metabolism, GP has been exploited as a model for structureassisted design of potent inhibitors, which may be relevant to the control of blood glucose conce Read More

It is possible that enkephalins are involved in the pain-modulating mechanism in the spinal cord. Enkephalins, however, are short-lived, being rapidly degraded by various endogenous enzymes. Many substances that inhibit enkephalin-degradation have been investigated and it has been reported that some inhibitors (e.g. kelatorphan and RB101) alone showed anti-nociceptive activity.We found an endogenous factor that modulate Read More

Protein electrostatic properties stem from the proportion and distribution of polar and charged residues. Polar and charged residues regulate the electrostatic properties by forming shortrange interactions, like salt-bridges and hydrogen-bonds, and by defining the over-all electrostatic environment in the protein. Electrostatics play a major role in defining the mechanisms of proteinprotein complex formation, molecular Read More

Newly synthesized proteins have an intrinsic signal sequence, functioning as “address tags” or “zip codes”, that is essential for guiding them wherever they are needed. Owing to such a unique function, protein signals have become a crucial tool in finding new drugs or reprogramming cells for gene therapy. However, to effectively use protein signals as a desirable vehicle in the field of proteomics, the first important thi Read More

Inflammation, a localized response to tissue injury, and disorders characterized by inflammation are difficult problems in clinical medicine. This difficulty stems in large part from incomplete understanding of inflammatory processes and their regulation. Recent development of knowledge of the role of central nervous system and neuroendocrine system in host responses has provided a new view of the capacity of neuronal a Read More

The native structures of proteins are governed by a large number of non-covalent interactions yielding a high specificity for the native packing of structural elements. This allows for the reconstitution of proteins from disconnected polypeptide fragments. The specificity for the native arrangement also enables interchange of structural elements with another identical protein chain resulting in dimers with swapped seg Read More

Prions are a novel class of infectious pathogens that cause a group of fatal prion diseases in which the benign cellular form of the prion protein (PrP C) is transformed into the disease-related scrapie variant (PrP SC). The two PrP isoforms differ in their structure and resistance to degradation. The molecular mechanism by which the PrP SC is formed and causes infectivity or neurodegeneration is not known. In a compelling and em Read More

In vitro studies on the cellular location of P-glycoprotein (Pgp) are reported with the aim to clarify the relationship between its intracellular expression and the multidrug resistance (MDR) level of tumor cells.Pgp was found abnormally expressed on the plasma membrane of tumor cells with “classical” MDR phenotype. However, Pgp was also often detected on the nuclear envelope and on the membrane of cytoplasmic o Read More