Protein and Peptide Letters - Volume 22, Issue 11, 2015

Lectins are the (glyco)proteins that recognize and bind to specific sugar moieties without altering their structure. Galectins are mammalian lectins characterized by the presence of conserved 134 amino acids carbohydrate recognition domain and specificity for β-galactosides. The involvement of lectins in diverse biological spectrum, especially some deadly human diseases like cancer, neurological disorders and cardiovascular Read More

The aim of this study was to prepare PCADK/PLGA-blend microspheres for improving the stability of human immunoglobulin G (IgG). The short half-life of antibodies limit their development as therapeutic agents, thus PLGA microspheres were prepared to sustained release antibodies and prolong their half-life. However, the acidic intra-microsphere environment causes the loss of antibody stability and activity. In this study, Read More

Proteases hydrolyze polypeptides to release peptides and/or amino acids. This subclass of enzymes is among those with the most sales worldwide, particularly those produced by microorganisms. Proteases may be applied in the several industries, including the food industry, leather, detergents, and bioremediation. Myceliophthora thermophila protease was produced by a submerged bioprocess and then purified 185-fold by anio Read More

Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) has emerged as a major technology for peptide sequencing. Typically, there are three kinds of methods for the peptide sequencing: database searching, peptide tagging, and de novo sequencing. De novo sequencing has drawn increasing attention because of its independence from existing protein databases and potential for identifying new proteins, proteins resulting from mutation Read More

B-cell activating factor (BAFF) belonging to the TNF family, plays an important role in the proliferation and differentiation of B cells which renders it an attractive target for autoimmune diseases. Some peptides have been designed to target BAFF for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Our previous studies suggested that peptides TA and DX-814 had competitive bioactivities compared to the natural peptide trans-membrane Read More

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a promising anticancer agent with tumor-selective apoptotic activity. Formation of aggregates as trimer is the prerequisite for TRAIL’s function as an apoptosis inducer. However the polymerization property of TRAIL has also brought difficulties for its production. RGD-TRAIL is an integrin-targeting TRAIL mutant with enhanced apoptosisinducing activity towards Read More

Pediocin PA-1 is a well-known Class IIa bacteriocin which shows strong inhibitory effect against Listeria monocytogenes. In this work, in order to improve the antimicrobial activity, eight single- site mutants and six combination mutants on nine interesting sites in the C-terminal region of pediocin PA-1 were constructed and expressed in Escherichia coli heterologously. Ten mutants demonstrated enhancement activity whe Read More

A de novo protein named as EAF (Escherichia antifungal protein) from the cytoplasmic pool of an Escherichia coli strain (MTCC 1652), has been purified to homogeneity using anion exchange (Q-XL Sepharose) and cation exchange (SP-Sepharose) chromatography. The MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) values of purified protein against A. fumigatus (the major pathogenic species) were found to be comparable wi Read More

We previously reported that neostatin, a proteolytic fragment of collagen XVIII that includes endostatin, inhibits basic fibroblast growth factor-induced corneal angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis. In experiments to determine which fragments in neostatin are responsible for binding to VEGF receptors (VEGFRs), we previously showed that a 28- mer sequence at the C-terminal of endostatin, known as endostatin peptide Read More

In this work, results of studies on the interactions of CopC and its mutants with the cationic surfactant Cetyltrimethyl Ammonium Bromide (CTAB) monitored by fluorescence spectroscopy, far- UV circular dichroism (CD) and fluorescence lifetime have been presented and discussed. The interaction of CTAB with CopC leads to stabilize a second intermediate, which is considered that the structure of C-terminal was unfolde Read More

Ageing and skin exposure to UV radiation induces production and activation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and human neutrophil elastase (HNE). These enzymes are known to break down the extracellular matrix (ECM) which leads to wrinkle formation. Here, we demonstrated the potential of a solid-in-oil nanodispersion containing a competitive inhibitor peptide of HNE mixed with hyaluronic acid (HA), displaying 15 Read More