Protein and Peptide Letters - Volume 14, Issue 1, 2007

The cytotoxicity of aged PrP(106-126) was examined using an immortalized prion protein (PrP) gene-deficient neuronal cell line. The N-terminal half of the hydrophobic region (HR) but not the octapeptide repeat (OR) of PrP was required for aged PrP(106-126) neurotoxicity, suggesting that neurotoxic signals of aged PrP(106-126) are mediated by this region.

The transcription factor Brn-1, which belongs to POU-domain family, has been shown to play critical roles in the development of the nervous system. A cDNA clone coding for a quail Brn-1 homologue, qBrn-1, was isolated. To investigate whether this gene plays a role in the development of the quail nervous system, an anti-N-terminal peptide antibody was prepared. The coding region for amino acids 1-79 (the N-terminal do Read More

Modification of proteins by nonenzymatic glycation is one of the underlying factors that contribute to the development of the complications of diabetes. Human serum albumin (HSA) is one of the major targets of interaction with glucose through the Maillard reaction. The effects of 1 and 5 mg/ml glucose concentrations, which are consistent with blood glucose levels found in diabetic patients, on human serum albumin were Read More

Sites of exendin-4 that that are relatively susceptible to degradation in plasma were identified with the aim of providing information for designing new exendin-4 analogues. The stability of exendin-4 in human plasma was evaluated in vitro. The results showed that the peptide was slowly degraded with a half-life of 9.57 h and the principal cleavage sites are between Thr5 and Phe6, Phe6 and Thr7, and Thr7 and Ser8 of the Read More

Nineteen mutants of decaprenyl diphosphate synthase from Gluconobacter suboxydans were generated and their production of ubiquinones (UQs) was compared to that of the wild type protein. The accessible surface area and the polarity of amino acid around the catalytic pocket wield remarkable influences on the isoprenoid chain elongation of UQs.

Bacteria use the receptor-adhesion-like interaction between laminin and the laminin receptor in the process of infection. We determined that bacteria do not interact with the receptor-binding site on laminin which could be expected for the bacterial laminin receptor. Rather, binding occurs via the laminin-binding site on the 67-kDa laminin receptor, which has a function similar to the one the bacterial laminin receptor posses Read More

Discriminating outer membrane proteins for globular proteins (GPs) and other types of membrane proteins from genomic sequences is an important and hot topic. In this paper, a measure based on information discrepancy is proposed and applied to the discrimination of outer membrane proteins. It differs from previous methods which are based on amino acid composition. Our approach focuses on the compar Read More

F0F1-ATPase is a rotary molecular motor. It is well known that the rotary torque is generated by ATP hydrolysis in F1 but little is known about how it produces the proton-motive force (PMF) in F0. Here a cross-linking approach was used to estimate the rotary torque produced by PMF. Three mutant E. coli strains were used in this study: SWM92 (δW28L F0F1, as control), MM10 (αP280C γA285C F0F1) and PP2 (αA334C/ δL262C Read More

Although there have been several reports on the conformational analysis of endomorphin-1 (YPWF-NH2) and related MOR (μ-opioid receptor) agonists, a definitive, convincing model of the biologically active structure is not yet available. We recently reported the synthesis and pharmacological characterization of the atypical endomorphin-analogue agonist c[YpwFG]. In this paper we discuss the conformational Read More

Antimicrobial peptides, or host defense peptides, are universal signaling and effector molecules in host defense and innate immunity. This article highlights various tools developed for cathelicidins and defensins, ranging from peptide identification, production, and structural biology, including the eight databases for antimicrobial peptides. Novel peptides can be identified from natural sources at both gene and protein levels. So Read More

A monocot araceous lectin from tubers of Gonatanthus pumilus (GPL) was earlier purified in our laboratory and reported as T-cell mitogen having homotetrameric structure with subunit molecular mass of 13 kDa. Besides asialofetuin as reported earlier, in the present study it was also inhibited by N-acetyl-D-lactosamine but was non-reactive towards mannose or its derivatives. The lectin is rich in acidic amino acids and cysteine Read More

We report herein the study of the cleavage fragments generated by autoproteolysis of the St. Louis encephalitis virus recombinant protease. The cleavage sites leading to truncated forms were identified by microsequencing, which revealed an unexpected altered specificity of the recombinant proteinase towards unusual sequences.

The 42 amino acid Alzheimer's Aβ peptide has been produced in E. coli as a soluble fusion to maltose binding protein (MBP). Affinity purification on amylose columns of MBP-Aβ and MBP led to the recovery of proteins at purities that were suited for physicochemical analyses. MBP-Aβ was able to bind approximately 2 mole equivalents of copper or 4 mole equivalents of zinc, while MBP alone bound negligible amounts of zinc or cop Read More

Due to asymmetrical charge distribution of the mammalian high mobility group protein A2 (HMGA2), which makes HMGA2 bind to both cation- and anion-exchange columns, we developed a rapid procedure for purifying HMGA2 in the milligram range. This purification procedure greatly facilitated biophysical studies, which require large amounts of the protein.

Porcine pancreatic elastase (PPE) was crystallized in complex with a novel inhibitor at pH 5 and X-ray diffraction data were collected at a synchrotron source to 1.66 Å. Crystals belong to the orthorhombic space group P212121, with unit cell parameters a = 50.25 Å, b = 57.94 Å and c = 74.69 Å. PPE is often used as model for drug target, due to its structural homology with the important therapeutic target human leuko Read More

PD-L4, a type 1 ribosome inactivating protein from Phytolacca dioica leaves, has been successfully crystallized using vapour diffusion methods and PEG 4000 as a precipitant agent. In addition, crystals of a PD-L4 mutant, which has been recently observed to have a lower polynucleotide-adenosine glycosidase activity on DNA, rRNA and poly (A) substrates, have been obtained. To gather information on PD-L4 reaction mec Read More