Protein and Peptide Letters - Volume 23, Issue 9, 2016

The design and synthesis of modified pentapeptides based on a truncated version of the substrate for KDM4C, a histone lysine demethylase (KDM), and investigation of their inhibitory activity at KDM4C is reported. By modifying the lysine residue corresponding to lysine 9 at histone 3 (H3K9), three different series of peptides were designed and synthesized. One series contained N-acylated H3K9 and two series introduced triaz Read More

The canine metabolic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, have become a worldwide problem. Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a potent regulator which has many biological functions relative to metabolism regulation. It suggests that FGF21 plays important roles in regulating canine metabolic diseases. To acquire the recombinant canine FGF21 (rcFGF21) in Escherichia coli, the recombinant bacteria were induced by 0 Read More

Investigating interactions of designed peptide-based biomaterials with lipid membranes is important for applications in nanobiotechnology. Here the interaction of an ornithine-rich pH-responsive peptide called P11-5 with a model membrane was investigated employing Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results showed that in the range of pH 6.0-8.0 the peptide P11-5 shows spectral features which are evidence of Read More

Background: It is generally believed that organisms use and accumulate methylamine osmolytes to prevent urea’s damaging effect on protein stability and activity. However, urea-rich cells not only accumulate methylamines but also many other methylated and non-methylated compounds as well. But, so far it is not known whether osmolytes that are not accumulated in urea-rich cells could also confer urea-counteracting pr Read More

The interaction of nickel tetra sulfunated phthalocyanine( NiTSPc) with human serum albumin (HSA), in 20 mM phosphate buffer pH 7.4 was investigated using advanced techniques including fluorescence, synchronous fluorescence, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and molecular docking. The fluorescence quenching measurements showed a single binding site on HSA for NiTSPc w Read More

Monitoring of multiple sclerosis (MS) requires additional molecular markers. Recently, we used original TCA-precipitation/extraction approach in combination with MALDI TOF/TOF mass-spectrometry and identified earlier unknown 48 kDa form of the unconventional myosin IC isoform b (Myo1C) in blood serum of the MS patients. Further examination of TCA-extracted fraction of blood serum of these patients by means of Read More

In the present study, polyacrylamide gel (PAG) was utilized as bolster material for the immobilization of in-house extracted and partially purified manganese peroxidase (MnP) through an entrapment technique yielding significant MnP immobilization (87.3±3.3 %) and remarkable stability of the enzyme (37.2±2.4 %) after a storage period of two months at 4°C. The immobilization also increased the optimal temperature by 10 Read More

Cell-free translation systems facilitate rapid production of specific proteins and are particularly suited as high-throughput methods for whole-genome protein synthesis. Moreover, these systems do not rely on living cells, thereby allowing the synthesis of unstable or cytotoxic proteins in vitro. In this review, we describe the principles and potential applications of cell-free protein translation systems and the future prospect Read More

Cell rapidly adapts to the harsh environment under certain conditions such as hypothermia and stress via activity of certain specific cold-shock proteins. Two cold shock proteins, RNA-binding motif protein 3 (RBM3) and coldinducible RNA binding proteins (CIRP), have been unveiled in human cells. RBM3, which is able to regulate their expression at the level of translation by binding to different transcripts, allows the cell to resp Read More

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is characterized by abnormalities in carbohydrate, lipoprotein and lipid metabolism, leading to hyperglycemia and several other complications. Insulin is the major hormone regulating these facets by eliciting various biological responses through its receptor. Insulin exerts diverse effects on cells by targeting distinct functions such as gene expression, fatty acid synthesis, glucose transport and Read More

Scorpions are distributed throughout the world and numerous biological molecules are found in their venom most importantly peptide toxins. These toxins modulate the ion channels either by blocking the pore of the channel or by altering the voltage gating. Molecules which block the pores have been useful in deciphering the structure of the ion channels. Many scorpion toxins have already been used for probing the voltage gated Read More