Protein and Peptide Letters - Volume 18, Issue 6, 2011

The prolactin (PRL) permeation through the pericardium depending on the species of origin (porcine, bovine and ovine) was studied, and the parameters of its bioavailability were calculated. An in vitro model using pericardium as a natural membrane and Frantz cell method was applied. Significant differences in permeation were observed depending on the species of origin. Within 5 h, 17.5% of bovine PRL, 27.2% of porci Read More

Aqualysin I, is a subtilisin-like serine proteinase, from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus. It is predicted that the enzyme contains a salt bridge, D17-R259, connecting the N- and C-terminal regions of the enzyme. Previously we reported on the stabilizing effect of the incorporation of a salt bridge at a corresponding site in VPR, a related cold adapted enzyme from a marine Vibrio sp. Here we describe the effect of the re Read More

Proteases are essential to most biological processes though they themselves remain intact during the processes. In this research, a computational approach was developed for predicting the families of proteases based on their sequences. According to the concept of pseudo amino acid composition, in order to catch the essential patterns for the sequences of proteases, the sample of a protein was formulated by a series Read More

The aim of this study was prediction of epitopes and medically important structural properties of protein E of Alkhurma hemorrhagic fever virus (AHFV) and comparing these features with two closely relates viruses, i.e. Kyasanur Forest disease virus (KFDV) and Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) by bioinformatics tools. Prediction of evolutionary distance, localization, sequence of signal peptides, C, N O glycosylation sites, tr Read More

Heterologous protein expression levels can not be evaluated in real time by experimental procedures commonly used for most expression systems during host cell culture. Rb. sphaeroides has provided an ideal system for studying both photosynthesis and membrane development and exhibited potential as a novel expression system. We constructed the puc1BA and puc2BA mutant strain Rb. sphaeroides CQU68 and used it as a Read More

Protein S-nitrosylation plays a key and specific role in many cellular processes. Detecting possible Snitrosylated substrates and their corresponding exact sites is crucial for studying the mechanisms of these biological processes. Comparing with the expensive and time-consuming biochemical experiments, the computational methods are attracting considerable attention due to their convenience and fast speed. Although some Read More

The use of small carbohydrates that stabilize proteins from misfolding is important from pharmaceutical point of view. We have investigated the role of small isomeric amino sugars on the in vitro aggregation of insulin amyloid. Using mass spectrometry, we screened 6 isomeric aminosugars for their role on inhibition of insulin amyloid formation and the results were compared with transmission electron microscopy imaging. Read More

A 7.3-kDa antifungal peptide was purified from dried red kidney beans. The purification procedure entailed ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, affinity chromatography on Affi-gel blue gel, ion exchange chromatography on CM-cellulose, followed by fast protein liquid chromatography-gel filtration on Superdex 75. The peptide was unadsorbed on DEAE-cellulose but adsorbed on Affi-gel blue gel and CM- Read More

Escherichia coli YajC is a small integral membrane protein with a single transmembrane helix. The gene yajC is part of the secD operon and the protein is identified in the SecDF-YajC complex. However, the exact function of YajC remains a mystery. While its function is usually discussed in the context of the SecDF-YajC complex, studies have shown that SecD/F, rather than YajC, are essential for those functions. Recently YajC is i Read More

A novel method is presented for predicting β-hairpin motifs in protein sequences. That is Random Forest algorithm on the basis of the multi-characteristic parameters, which include amino acids component of position, hydropathy component of position, predicted secondary structure information and value of auto-correlation function. Firstly, the method is trained and tested on a set of 8,291 β-hairpin motifs and 6,865 Read More

Two Calvin Cycle enzymes, NAD(P)-dependent glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and phosphoribulokinase (PRK) form a multiprotein complex with CP12, a small intrinsically-unstructured protein. Under oxidizing conditions, association with CP12 confers redox-sensitivity to the otherwise redox-insensitive A isoform of GAPDH (GapA) and provides an additional level of down-regulation to the redo Read More

The study of rat proteins is an indispensable task in experimental medicine and drug development. The function of a rat protein is closely related to its subcellular location. Based on the above concept, we construct the benchmark rat proteins dataset and develop a combined approach for predicting the subcellular localization of rat proteins. From protein primary sequence, the multiple sequential features are obtained by u Read More

The virulent form of malaria is caused by Plasmodium falciparum that infects red blood cells. In order to survive inside the host, the parasite remodels the infected erythrocytes by exporting more than 300 effector proteins outside the parasitophorous vacuole membrane into the cytosol. The main feature of all the export proteins is the presence of a pentapeptide sequence motif; RxLxE/Q/D. This sequence motif is hydroly Read More

Recent studies have been supporting that the generation of Aβ42 oligomers is responsible for Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, those peptides which bind to Aβ42 are scientifically interesting and can be possible candidates for the diagnosis and therapy of Alzheimer's disease. A systemic in vitro evolution, developed recently and the designated progressive library method (PLM), was applied to obtain Aβ42-binding aptamers peptid Read More