Protein and Peptide Letters - Volume 21, Issue 2, 2014

Apolipoprotein-derived peptides have emerged as a potential candidate for the treatment of various inflammatory disease conditions. These peptides bind to pro-inflammatory lipids and inhibit their inflammatory functions. Lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) is a potent pro-inflammatory lipid and increased level of circulating LPC plays a major role in various acute and chronic inflammatory conditions. In this report we examine Read More

A thermotolerant protein with trypsin inhibitory activity designated as CaTI was purified to homogeneity from seeds of Cassia absus. Gel filtration chromatography and SDS-PAGE analysis showed the apparent molecular mass of ~20 kDa. Partial internal sequences indicate that CaTI belongs to Kunitz-inhibitor family. CaTI inhibits the bovine trypsin in 1:1 molar ratio and exhibited a competitive-type inhibitory activity with Ki = 5.6 Read More

Q fever is a zoonotic disease caused by Coxiella burnetii, an obligate intracellular bacterium that resides inside a phagolysosome-like niche. Chronic Q fever is typified by endocarditis, and is treated with multiple antibiotics for at least 18 months. The discovery of clinical C. burnetii isolates resistant to the first-line antibiotic doxycycline, and the problematic nature of chronic Q fever treatment have demonstrated the need fo Read More

The current study clarifies the role of the Glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-binding domain of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) in cell penetration. The cell penetration function of IGFBP-3 has been mapped to an 18-residue GAG-binding domain in the C-terminal region that mobilizes cellular uptake and nuclear localization of unrelated proteins. Uptake of KW-22, a 22-residue peptide that encompasses the 18 Read More

Peptide aptamers of LIM-only protein 2 (Lmo2) were previously used to successfully treat Lmo2-induced tumours in a mouse model of leukaemia. Here we show that the Lmo2 aptamer PA207, either as a free peptide or fused to thioredoxin Trx-PA207, causes purified Lmo2 to precipitate rather than binding to a defined surface on the protein. Stabilisation of Lmo2 through interaction with LIM domain binding protein 1 (Ldb1), a n Read More

Human Endothelin converting enzyme (hECE-1) has been widely known for its involvement in hydrolyzing Aβ peptides at multiple sites. In the present study we have performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of crystal structure complex of hECE-1 and its inhibitor phosphoramidon with Zn ion to understand the dynamic behavior of active site residues. Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) results revealed that enzym Read More

Huwentoxin-IV (HWTX-IV), a peptide with 35 amino acid residues, was discovered in the venom of spider Ornithoctonus huwena. The peptide had an inhibitory effect on a tetrodotoxin-sensitive (TTX-S) sodium channel with highly sensitive to Nav1.7, an attractive target for pain release therapy. In this study we further demonstrated the analgesic effects of HWTX-IV using mouse and rat as an inflammatory pain model and/or a ne Read More

Structure-based rational design has been considered as a promising approach to design novel proteins. For this purpose, we designed artificial anticoagulant proteins that are able to target Factor Xa (FXa) using a functional motifgrafting approach. The motif corresponded to the residues Cys15 to Cys42 of Ancylostoma caninum anticoagulant peptide 5 (AcAP5), a potent FXa inhibitor. By screening of the Protein Data Bank Read More

Specificity of the commercially important serine protease, proteinase K, has been investigated by measuring free energies of association of proteinase K with turkey ovomucoid third domain inhibitor variants at contact positions P2, P1, P1', P2', and P3'. Correlations of these values were run with similar values that have been obtained for six other serine proteases. Among the six proteases, subtilisin Carlsberg shows a nea Read More

The variations in fish hemoglobin (Hb) structures play a vital role in their respiratory performance under various environmental conditions and are impacted by their physiological properties. The major hemoglobins from two species of sturgeon were studied upon interaction with n-dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (DTAB) using the UV-vis absorption, circular dichroism (CD), fluorescence spectroscopy, and oxygen affinit Read More

To date, several microorganisms that can metabolize alginate have been characterized. In these microorganisms, a class of enzymes called alginate lyases (Alys) catalyze the depolymerization of alginate into oligomers via an endolytic β-elimination reaction. But it is not clear how these lyases differ on their enzymological functions or their divisions of labor. We focused on three extracellular secretory alginate lyases in th Read More

Although substituted phenolic ester mediated peptide synthesis is an efficient and well established method, the same via totally unsubstituted phenyl ester is not preferred due to the extremely slow rate of aminolysis. We have investigated the scope of the unsubstituted phenyl ester as an intermediate in peptide bond formation and found that it may be useful for the design of chemoselective peptide ligation when HOBt is Read More

Peptide-based nanomaterials are widely used as nanocarriers for catalysis, drug delivery, and gene delivery. In this paper, we designed and synthesized the amphiphilic tripeptides through solution phase synthesis. The tripeptides were purified by column chromatography and the molecular structures were confirmed by 1H NMR and TOF-MS. The tripeptides could self-assemble into spherical nanoparticles in aqueo Read More