Protein and Peptide Letters - Volume 14, Issue 10, 2007

Small insects pose certain health hazards in households. For example, the ingestion of fresh vegetables containing small worms and eggs can lead to the transmission and spreading of diseases. Therefore pest control is an integral component of successful crop production. Even the dead bodies and excreted materials of infesting arthropods have an impact on our lives; the number of patients suffering from allergic diseases due Read More

Allergy prevalence has increased worldwide over the last 25 years along with industrialization and westernized lifestyles. Indoor allergens are primarily responsible for the sensitization and development of atopic diseases. The main indoor allergens are known to be derived from various arthropods which account for up to 80% of the kingdom Animalia. The two classes of arthropods are Insecta, which includes cockroache Read More

Mites of the family Pyroglyphidae are the most important source of house dust mite allergens. A small number of allergens, namely those of groups 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 constitute the known major and mid-potency specificities, with possible important contributions of the groups 11, 14 and 15 requiring further definition. Most of the allergens can be identified by sequence homologies and the structures of the major allergens ha Read More

In recent years, the allergological importance of different mite species not belonging to the family Pyroglyphidae has been demonstrated. These mites, commonly named storage mites, include Lepidoglyphus destructor, Glycyphagus domesticus, Tyrophagus putrescentiae, Acarus siro, Aleuroglyphus ovatus, Suidasia medanensis and Thyreophagus entomophagus. Several allergens from these species have been purified, Read More

Cockroach allergy is a widespread health problem in the world, associated with the development of asthma. The German and American cockroach species are important producers of a wide variety of allergens. Knowledge of their structure and function contributes to understand their role in allergy and to design tools for diagnosis and immunotherapy.

Insects and insect-derived materials have been implicated as a risk factor for sensitization and subsequent elicitation of allergic rhinitis and allergic bronchial asthma. During the last decades, insects other than those known as allergenic, were investigated for their potential role in inducing and triggering an IgE immune response. Among these, the silverfish, an insect belonging to the Thysanura order, appeared to be of particula Read More

Allergic reactions to mosquito bites are caused by allergens in mosquito saliva. In this review, allergic reactions to mosquito salivary allergens, and characteristics of salivary allergens and their recombinant forms are described. The use of the recombinant allergens in the diagnosis of mosquito allergy is discussed.

Of the various arthropods, humans have the greatest contact with mites and cockroaches, and as a result, allergies to these two groups have been the most frequently reported. Changes in lifestyle and living environment have encouraged the growth of arthropods other than mites and cockroaches, and consequently, human exposure to antigens derived from the new arthropods has increased. Although systematic appr Read More

Domestic arthropods are chief sources of potent allergens that trigger sensitization and stimulate IgE-mediated allergies. Diagnosis and immunotherapy of arthropod allergies rely on the use of natural allergen extracts which are associated with low specificity and efficacy, the risk of anaphylactic reactions, and the extended period of treatment. Most of the problems associated with natural allergen extracts for allergy Read More

To develop a novel cell-selective antimicrobial peptide with potent anti-inflammatory activity as well as high bacterial cell selectivity, we synthesized a Leu/Lys-rich model peptide, KLW-f (KWKKLLKKfLKLfKKLLK-NH2) containing two Phe-peptoid residues in its middle position. KLW-f exhibited high antimicrobial activity (the MIC range: 0.5∼ 2.0μM) against the tested six bacterial cells. In contrast, KLW-f was no cytotoxic to human red Read More

This paper studies the β-glucuronidase in the mollusk Pomacea sp. The β-glucuronidase was isolated 206-fold with a 1,5% yield and the cinetc parameters was: pH 5.0, 65°C, Km of 72 x 10-2 mM and molecular mass of 116 kDa. HPLC confirmed the purity. BaCl2 increased β-glucuronidase activity and SDS and NaH2PO4 inhibited completely.

The reaction between Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) and Lys-Gly-Asp (KGD) derivatives with 3,4',5-trihydroxy-transstilbene (resveratrol) was investigated. Knowing that resveratrol, RGD as well as KGD analogues inhibit human platelet aggregation in vitro, it was tempting for us to examine whether their coupling products present enhanced biological activity. Here, we report on the synthesis and identification of these coupling produc Read More

To elucidate potential biological roles of human β-synuclein, we studied its conformational changes under various conditions. The structural and functional properties of β-synuclein were characterized using biochemical and biophysical methods including: a functional assay, mass spectrometry, size exclusion chromatography, circular dichroism (CD), and fluorescence spectroscopy. The results showed β-synuclein h Read More

In this study, we investigated inhibitory effects of some metal ions on human erythrocyte glutathione reductase. For this purpose, initially human erythrocyte glutathione reductase was purified 1051-fold in a yield of 41% by using 2', 5'-ADP Sepharose 4B affinity gel and Sephadex G-200 gel filtration chromatography. SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was done in order to control the purification of enzyme. SDS polyacry Read More

We demonstrate feasibility of biophysical characterization of the peripheral cannabinoid receptor CB2 produced by heterologous expression in E. coli membranes. Recombinant receptor was purified by affinity chromatography, and NMR diffusion experiments performed on CB2 solubilized in dodecylphosphocholine (DPC) micelles. Circular dichroism spectroscopy indicated high α-helical content (49 %) of CB2.

Cytochrome c from Rhodothermus marinus has been crystallized using the hanging-drop vapor-diffusion method in 30 % (w/v) polyethylene glycol 8K, 0.2 M ammonium sulfate, 8 % hexanediol and 50 mM sodium citrate pH 2.2. The crystals belong to space group P21. X-ray diffraction data were collected to 1.23 Å resolution using synchrotron radiation and a wavelength of 0.93 Å.