Current Protein and Peptide Science - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2003

Poly-N-acetyllactosamine structures occur in mammalian glycoproteins in both N- and O-linked glycans. They represent a backbone for additional modifications by fucosyltransferases, sialyltransferases and sulfotransferases. These glycans have been suggested to be involved in biospecific interactions with selectins and other glycan-binding proteins. Moreover, the poly-Nacetyllactosamine chains in N-glycans have been foun Read More

Many biologically important interactions occur between proteins and carbohydrates. The examination of these interactions at the atomic level is critical not only in understanding the nature of these interactions and their biological role, but also in the design of effective modulators of these interactions. While experimentally obtained structural information is preferred, quite often this information is unavailable. In order to ad Read More

As a result of increasing drug resistance in pathogenic bacteria, there is a critical need for novel broad-spectrum antibacterial agents. As fatty acid synthesis (FAS) in bacteria is an essential process for cell survival, the enzymes involved in the FAS pathway have emerged as promising targets for antimicrobial agents. Several lines of evidence have indicated that bacterial condensing enzymes are central to the initiation and elonga Read More

Biosynthetic pathways for the formation of neuroactive peptides and the processes for their inactivation include several enzymatic steps. In addition to enzymatic processing and degradation, several neuropeptides have been shown to undergo enzymatic conversion to fragments with retained or modified biological activity. This has most clearly been demonstrated for e.g. opioid peptides, tachykinins, calcitonin gene-rel Read More

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) and the related receptors represent a widely diffused system that is involved in the regulation of multiple biological functions. NPY, a 36-aminoacid peptide expressed in several areas of the nervous system, is a pleiotropic factor participating to the control of some physiological processes, such as cognitive functions, eating behavior, circadian rhythms, neuroendocrine mechanisms, reproductive and Read More

ES-62 is a major secreted glycoprotein of the rodent filarial nematode Acanthocheilonema viteae and homologue of molecules found in filarial nematodes which parasitise humans. The molecule consists of a tetramer of apparently identical monomers of ∼62 kDa which we have shown by sedimentation equilibrium analytical ultracentrifugation to strongly associate. ES-62 is one of several filarial nematode proteins to contai Read More

Rapid Translation System (RTS) is a cell-free protein production system employing an enhanced Escherichia coli lysate to perform coupled in vitro transcription-translation reactions. A continuous supply of energy substrates, nucleotides and amino acids combined with the removal of by-products guarantees a high yield of protein production. The gene to express is either cloned into a plasmid vector or introduced as a PC Read More