Protein and Peptide Letters - Volume 9, Issue 4, 2002

CRAMP-18 is an 18-residue functional region, corresponding to residues 16-33 of a mouse-derived antibiotic peptide CRAMP. To develop novel antibiotic peptides possessing strong antibiotic activity against bacterial, fungal and tumor cells without hemolytic activity, three analogs of CRAMP-18 were synthesized containing either Leu- or Lys-substitution. Leusubstitution ([L1, 8]-CRAMP-18) in the hydrophobic helix face of CRAM Read More

Angiogenin, a blood vessel inducing protein has been implicated in wound healing and tumour progression. First isolated from human carcinoma cells, it has been subsequently isolated from human, bovine, rabbit, pig and mouse sera and bovine milk. This study reports the isolation of an angiogenic-like protein from goat plasma. The ribonucleolytic activity has been followed by yeast transfer RNA (tRNA) degradation using Read More

The cleavage specificities of typical aspartic proteinases: pepsin A, gastricsin, cathepsin D and rhizopuspepsin,were examined at different pH values with oxidized insulin B chain as a substrate with special attention to the specificities near neutral pH. Significant differences in relative specificity for scissile bonds were observed between pH 2.0 and 5.5-6.5, which may be partly related with the changes in dissociation states of the His Read More

We expressed recombinant human methionine aminopeptidase type 1 (MAP or MetAP) in a map1 null yeast strain to determine the extent of functional complementation between the two proteins. The human MetAP1 protein fully rescued the slow growth phenotype associated with deletion of yeast MetAP1, suggesting that the yeast and human MetAP1 proteins may have similar roles in vivo. Expression of human Me Read More

An apparent discrepancy in the data for the Gibbs free energy change as a function of temperature at different pHs, originally published by Brandts in 1965 and repeated by Brandts and Hunt in 1967 with an unexplained change in sign, has lead to close to 40 years of misguided thinking in examining the thermodynamics of protein unfolding, including the frequently promulgated idea of cold denaturation. We have carried o Read More

A prion determining 7-mer peptide derived from Sup35 was fused to glutathione S transferase (GST). The fusion protein was successfully overexpressed in Escherichia coli, and purified by employing affinity chromatography.Upon incubation, it showed substantial aggregation suggesting the formation of amyloid-like fibrils. Congo Red binding strongly suggested that the fusion protein formed amyloid-like fibrils. By consider Read More

A synthetic modified gene encoding the human calcitonin analog (hmCT) was expressed by use of the baculovirus expression system. After injection with recombinant baculoviruses, the hmCT-GST fusion protein was produced within the silkworm larvae. The fusion protein was purified by affinity chromatography. Biological activity of hmCT for hypercalcemic effect was determined in normal rats.

Spermadhesins are a family of secretory proteins expressed in the male genital tract of pig, horse and bull. Their function and structure have been widely studied, especially those isolated from boar. However, there are no data concerning spermadhesins isolated from buck. Buck seminal plasma was collected and subjected to ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sephacel column followed by chromatography in a C18 Read More

Crustacean High Density Lipoprotein / β-Glucan Binding Protein (HDL / BGBP) has been studied due to its role in nutrition and immune response via activation of the defense cells (hemocytes) upon binding 1,3-D-β-glucan carbohydrates. In this study, HDL / BGBP was found to be composed mainly of beta sheets, as determined by circular dichroism. Lipoprotein aggregation resulted when HDL / BGBP interacted with phospolipid vesi Read More

The synthesis of C-protected esters of Boc- / Z-α,α-dialkylamino acids is accomplished by using alkyl / aryl chloroformate in presence of DMAP as a catalyst. The reaction proceeds through mixed carboxylic-carbonic anhydride, which was monitored by IR. The reaction was clean and complete in about 2 hr. All the esters prepared have been obtained in good yield and are fully characterized.

The potential function of neuronal tau was found by our recent studies on the effect of tau on the melting temperature of both calf thymus DNA and plasmid pBluescript-II SK (Hua and He, Chin. Sci. Bull. 2000, 45:999-1001). Herein we examined whether or not the interaction of tau with DNA was related to phosphorylation and aggregation. Tau, phosphorylated by neuronal cdc2-like kinase, associated with DNA as shown by ele Read More

Escherichia coli phytase is a phosphatase that catalyzes the hydrolysis of phytic acid into inorganic phosphate and myo-inositol. Two crystal forms of this enzyme were obtained in the presence of heavy metals.Crystal forms I and II were obtained with the heavy atoms CdCl2 and HgCl2 and diffracted to 1.5 Å and 2.25 Å resolution, respectively. Hg2+ and Cd2+ both acted as molecular bridge(s), linking and stabilizing E. coli ph Read More