Protein and Peptide Letters - Volume 23, Issue 7, 2016

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is thought to be the simplest and smallest cell wall-deficient bacterium which can cause chronic respiratory infections. Recently vaccination has been a possible and reliable way to reduce the spreading and infection effectively. In this study, the transmembrane proteins P116N (the N-terminal of P116), P1C (the C-terminal of P1), P30, and P116N-P1C-P30 (MP559 for short), a chimeric protein wer Read More

Disulfide C-terminal loop fragments derived from AMPs and the presence of peptidases have been previously reported in the skin secretions of different amphibians. However, there are only a few studies on the identification of enzymes in frog skin secretion based on the primary structure of these proteins. Similarly, little data exist regarding the identification of disulfide C-terminal loops at large scale. Therefore, a compreh Read More

Diverse cellular activities are mediated through the interaction of protein domains and their binding partners. One such protein domain widely distributed in the higher metazoan world is the PDZ domain, which facilitates abundant protein–protein interactions. The PDZ domain-PDZ binding domain interaction has been implicated in several pathologies including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Down syndrome. P Read More

Oxidative damage to the constituents of the eye lens is a major mechanism in the initiation and development of cataract. Lunasin, a 43-amino acids chemoprevention peptide, has been proved to possess potent anti-oxidative activity other than its established anticancer activities. Herein, we explored whether lunasin has preventative effects on d-galactose-induced experimental cataract in rat. After modeling, SD rats were ad Read More

The aim of this study was to design and develop stable nanoemulsion formulations containing IFN-γ to probe their use as an immunomodulating agent. The nanoemulsions comprising distilled water, triglycerides of capric acid/caprylic, sobitan-oleate (SP), polysorbate 80 (TW) and propylene glycol (PG) were prepared through ultra-homogenization and characterized regarding droplet size, polydispersity, surface charge, preli Read More

The members of plant metallothionein (MT) subfamily p1 are characterized with the presence of six Cys at each end of N- and C-terminal of their amino acid sequences which are arranged in a CXCXXXCXCXXXCXC and CXCXXXCXCXXCXC sequence, respectively. In this study we evaluated the independence of N-terminal Cys-rich region of a type 1 MT isoform from rice (OsMTI- 1b) in forming metal-thiolate cluster. To this end th Read More

The efficacy of Moringa oleifera seed lectin (WSMoL) as a metal remover in water and the effects of metals on its hemagglutinating and antibacterial activities were determined. Aqueous metal solutions were incubated with WSMoL for 8 h at 4°C and the concentrations of metals were determined using atomic absorption spectroscopy. Hemagglutination and antibacterial assays were conducted with WSMoL and lectin ex Read More

Sexual maturation and olfactory bulb defects found in prokineticin 2 (Pk2) and prokineticin receptor 2 (Pkr2) mutant mice resembling the phenotypic characteristics of Kallmann syndrome (KS), gave rise to the question of whether these genes would have a role in KS pathogenesis. Later, mutations in both genes were identified in patients suffering from KS. The gene responsible for the Xlinked form of KS, ANOS1, en Read More

A large variety of vesicles is actively secreted into the extracellular space by most type of cells. The smallest nanoparticles (30-120 nm), called exosomes, are known to transport their cargo (nucleic acids, proteins and lipids) between diverse locations in the body. Specific content of exosomes and their influence on recipient cells depends primarily on the type of the secretory (donor) cell, yet several studies highlight t Read More

Collagen, a predominant structural protein in extracellular matrix (ECM), is now considered to have probable roles in many biological activities and hence, in different forms have found application as nutraceutical or pharmaceutical therapy option. Many of the biological properties are believed to be due to small hidden peptide residues in the collagen molecules, which come into play after the biodegradation or biosorption of th Read More