Hydroxyproline-Containing Plant Proteins

Data on hydroxyproline-containing proteins of plant cell walls were reviewed. Structure-function relationships were discussed.     

Whey proteins eluted reversed phase gradients

The behavior of bovine whey proteins in Reversed-Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) systems has been investigated. The Linear Solvent Strength (LSS) model has been applied to the separation of these proteins studying how their retention time and band broadening change when different gradient parameters are modified. From our results it is deduced that the LSS model describes the behaviour of the whey proteins in RP-HPLC. Also, it seems that t_s (the retention time for non-retained solutes) depends on the size of these proteins. The good fit observed between experimental data and the equations deduced from the LSS model allows the prediction of a gradient shape that permits a rapid analysis of the above mentioned proteins.     

Genetic aspects of hemoglobin synthesis

The blood pigment hemoglobin (Hb) occurs in red blood cells in a higher concentration than the other proteins which are present. It is therefore particularly suitable for the investigation of genetically induced changes in protein molecules. Unlike the monomeric myoglobin (Mb) of muscle, the blood pigment is tetrameric. Several types of subunits are known that can tetramerize to hemoglobins having different properties. The information for all hemoproteins probably originated from the same primary gene. Doublets of this primary gene have developed differently, and now code different protein species. It is possible to establish from the Hb molecule the possible consequences of a mutation to the conformation and function of a protein molecule.     

Glycine-rich proteins

Glycine-rich proteins (GRPs) containing more than 60% glycine have been found in different tissues from many eukaryotic species. Despite the availability of literature on different groups of GRPs, there are few reports in which they are all considered and compared together. Some of these proteins are components of the cell walls of many higher plants. In most cases, it has been shown that they are accumulated in the vascular tissues and that their synthesis is part of the plant’s defense mechanism. Other distinct types of GRPs are characterized by having structures and functions similar to animal cytokeratins or by a domain with typical RNA-binding motifs. The availability of cloned GRP genes facilitates the study of the function of this diverse class of proteins, which is expected to enhance the understanding of cell physiology.     

Complexes of cellulose and trypsin

Adsorption of trypsin to microcrystalline cellulose has been determined as functions of protein concentration and pH of the aqueous medium. The study of adsorption at several pH values indicates that interaction of trypsin to the microcrystalline cellulose interface is controlled by the electrostatic effect. The FTIR, desorption, and SEM data reveal that a part of trypsin is strongly bound to the microcrystalline cellulose matrix. Resulting complexes consist of microcrystalline cellulose, trypsin, and water.     

A 150 micron id packed column for the separation of soybean proteins by elution gradient mu-HPLC: simultaneous separation of soybean proteins from cereal and milk proteins

Mu-HPLC has previously been used to increase the resolution and sensitivity of protein separations but never for the analysis of soybean proteins. In this work, soybean proteins were, for the first time, separated using a capillary column with an internal diameter of 150 microm packed with a Genesis C18 stationary phase (4 microm, 300 angstroms) and UV detection. TFA and acetic acid were investigated as ion-pairing reagents in order to optimise water-ACN gradients to achieve this separation. The column showed good selectivity enabling the separation of soybean proteins from other vegetable proteins such as cereal (wheat, rice and corn) and also from milk proteins. The developed method was applied to the detection of soybean proteins in commercial products elaborated with mixtures of vegetable proteins.     

Natural Bioactive Material: A Preparation of Soluble Eggshell Membrane Protein

The proteins of eggshell membranes, an industrial waste product, are dissolved by reductive cleavage with aqueous 3‐mercaptopropionic acid and acetic acid. The soluble protein preparation is cast into a thin film, and its bioactivity is investigated by cell culture.

Photomicrograph of NIH3T3 fibroblasts cultured on SEP film for 3 days.     

On the Binding of Congo Red to Amyloid Fibrils

Amyloids are characterized by their capacity to bind Congo red (CR), one of the most used amyloid‐specific dyes. The structural features of CR binding were unknown for years, mainly because of the lack of amyloid structures solved at high resolution. In the last few years, solid‐state NMR spectroscopy enabled the determination of the structural features of amyloids, such as the HET‐s prion forming domain (HET‐s PFD), which also has recently been used to determine the amyloid–CR interface at atomic resolution. Herein, we combine spectroscopic data with molecular docking, molecular dynamics, and excitonic quantum/molecular mechanics calculations to examine and rationalize CR binding to amyloids. In contrast to a previous assumption on the binding mode, our results suggest that CR binding to the HET‐s PFD involves a cooperative process entailing the formation of a complex with 1:1 stoichiometry. This provides a molecular basis to explain the bathochromic shift in the maximal absorbance wavelength when CR is bound to amyloids.     

Physics of engineered protein hydrogels

Artificially engineered proteins and synthetic polypeptides have attracted widespread interest as building blocks for polymer hydrogels. The biophysical properties of the proteins, such as molecular recognition abilities, folded chain structures, and sequence-dependent thermodynamic behavior, enable advances in functional, responsive, and tunable gels. This review discusses the design of polymer hydrogels that incorporate protein domains, highlighting new challenges in polymer physics that are presented by this emerging class of materials. Five types of engineered protein hydrogels are discussed: (a) physically associating protein polymer gels, (b) amorphous artificially engineered protein networks, (c) engineered proteins with crystalline domains, (d) stretchable protein tertiary structures in gels, and (e) protein gels with biological recognition properties. The physics of the protein component and the physical properties of the resulting hydrogels are summarized, illustrating how advances in understanding these systems are leading to exciting novel biofunctional hydrogels. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2013     

An overview on enrichment methods for cell surface proteome profiling

Cell surface proteins are essential for many important biological processes, including cell–cell interactions, signal transduction, and molecular transportation. With the characteristics of low abundance, high hydrophobicity, and high heterogeneity, it is difficult to get a comprehensive view of cell surface proteome by direct analysis. Thus, it is important to selectively enrich the cell surface proteins before liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry analysis. In recent years, a variety of enrichment methods have been developed. Based on the separation mechanism, these methods could be mainly classified into three types. The first type is based on their difference in the physicochemical property, such as size, density, charge, and hydrophobicity. The second one is based on the bimolecular affinity interaction with lectin or antibody. And the third type is based on the chemical covalent coupling to free side groups of surface‐exposed proteins or carbohydrate chains, such as primary amines, carboxyl groups, glycan side chains. In addition, metabolic labeling and enzymatic reaction‐based methods have also been employed to selectively isolate cell surface proteins. In this review, we will provide a comprehensive overview of the enrichment methods for cell surface proteome profiling.     

肿瘤标志蛋白的电化学分析

随着单克隆抗体技术和免疫学检测技术的不断发展,对癌症相关的肿瘤标志蛋白进行检测分析成为目前癌症早期筛查和诊断最为重要的手段。另一方面,随着分子识别与界面组装技术的发展,电化学检测技术在生物分析领域展现出一些独特的优势,比如操作简单、易于小型化、成本低、灵敏度高等。尤其是近年来,由于特异性结合肿瘤标志蛋白的各种抗体、适体、小分子多肽等被筛选出来,各种纳米材料和纳米技术在电化学分析检测中的应用不断被发掘,新型分子标记技术、界面组装技术以及信号放大技术不断被开发和应用,因此,电化学检测技术在肿瘤标志蛋白的定量分析方面获得了空前的发展机遇,发展极为迅速。本文结合作者所在实验室的一些代表性成果对近年来该领域的研究进展给予简短综述,并对未来的发展前景进行展望。     

Negative feedback regulation of Wnt signaling by G�¦�-mediated reduction of Dishevelled

Wnt signaling is known to be important for diverse embryonic and post-natal cellular events and be regulated by the proteins Dishevelled and Axin. Although Dishevelled is activated by Wnt and involved in signal transduction, it is not clear how Dishevelled-mediated signaling is turned off. We report that guanine nucleotide binding protein beta 2 (Gnb2; Gβ₂) bound to Axin and Gβ₂ inhibited Wnt mediated reporter activity. The inhibition involved reduction of the level of Dishevelled, and the Gβ₂γ₂ mediated reduction of Dishevelled was countered by increased expression of Axin. Consistent with these effects in HEK293T cells, injection of Gβ₂γ₂ into Xenopus embryos inhibited the formation of secondary axes induced either by XWnt8 or Dishevelled, but not by β-catenin. The DEP domain of Dishevelled is necessary for both interaction with Gβ_2γ2 and subsequent degradation of Dishevelled via the lysosomal pathway. Signaling induced by Gβ_2γ2 is required because a mutant of Gβ₂, Gβ₂ (W332A) with lower signaling activity, had reduced ability to downregulate the level of Dishevelled. Activation of Wnt signaling by either of two methods, increased Frizzled signaling or transient transfection of Wnt, also led to increased degradation of Dishevelled and the induced Dishevelled loss is dependent on Gβ₁ and Gβ₂. Other studies with agents that interfere with PLC action and calcium signaling suggested that loss of Dishevelled is mediated through the following pathway: Wnt/Frizzled→Gβγ→PLC→Ca⁺²/PKC signaling. Together the evidence suggests a novel negative feedback mechanism in which Gβ₂γ₂ inhibits Wnt signaling by degradation of Dishevelled.     

Immobilization of proteins as a tool for studying primary structure around their cysteinyl residues

The primary structure around the single cysteinyl residue of chicken pepsin was investigated by binding the protein via this residue to an insoluble carrier. Carriers stable towards reagents used for the fragmentation of proteins and sequence analysis were prepared by coupling a spacer arm to polyN-hydroxymethyl acrylamide using a thioether bond that is potentially cleavable by mercuric ions (1). Phenacyl bromide group, attached to the free end of the spacer, reacted rapidly and specifically with the cysteinyl residue of chicken pepsin. Up to 300 mg of the enzyme were bound to 1 g of carrier. The polymer-bound protein was cleaved by trypsin or by cyanogen bromide or by a sequence of both. Fragments of 40–120 amino acid residues, depending on the method of cleavage, remained attached to the polymer through the cysteinyl residue. The compositions and partial sequences of these fragments revealed that the cysteinyl residue is located within or in the vicinity of a loop in the molecule formed by a disulfide bond.     

Interaction of Antifreeze Proteins with Hydrocarbon Hydrates

Recombinant antifreeze proteins (AFPs), representing a range of activities with respect to ice growth inhibition, were investigated for their abilities to control the crystal formation and growth of hydrocarbon hydrates. Three different AFPs were compared with two synthetic commercial inhibitors, poly‐N‐vinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and HIW85281, by using multiple approaches, which included gas uptake, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) temperature ramping, and DSC isothermal observations. A new method to assess the induction period before heterogeneous nucleation and subsequent hydrate crystal growth was developed and involved the dispersal of water in the pore space of silica gel beads. Although hydrate nucleation is a complex phenomenon, we have shown that it can now be carefully quantified. The presence of AFPs delayed crystallization events and showed hydrate growth inhibition that was superior to that of one of the benchmark commercial inhibitors, PVP. Nucleation and growth inhibition were shown to be independent processes, which indicates a difference in the mechanisms required for these two inhibitory actions. In addition, there was no apparent correlation between the assayed activities of the three AFPs toward hexagonal ice and the cubic structure II (sII) hydrate, which suggests that there are distinctive differences in the protein interactions with the two crystal surfaces.     

Electrophoretic variants of cardiac myosin heavy chain-alpha in Sprague Dawley rats

Analysis of cardiac myosin revealed differences in gel electrophoretic migration patterns of the alpha-isoform of myosin heavy chain, but not the beta-isoform, in Sprague Dawley rats. No differences in the migration patterns of the alpha-or beta-isoforms were observed in other rat strains. Three electrophoretic migration patterns of the alpha-isoforms were observed in individual rats: a slower migrating isoform alone (4% of all rats tested), a faster migrating isoform alone (55%), and both isoforms (41%). The isoform expression pattern was identical in all myocardial regions in each rat. Frequency of expression patterns suggests multiple gene sequences for alpha-cardiac myosin heavy chain in Sprague Dawley rats. Sequence analysis of amplified regions of the Sprague Dawley and Brown Norway rat alpha-myosin genes, specifically the 5'-untranslated region, exons 1-3, and associated introns, showed numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms in coding and noncoding regions, including putative regulatory sites in Sprague Dawley rats, but not in Brown Norway rats. All Sprague Dawley rats varied from Brown Norway rats and no heterogeneity was observed in Brown Norway rats. Several deletions and dimorphic positions were also observed. Dimorphic positions were evident on automated sequencing comparisons. The data indicate that at least two alpha-myosin heavy chain isoforms exist in Sprague Dawley rats and these rats exhibit sequence diversity within that portion of the alpha-myosin heavy chain gene reported in this study.     

Isolation and General Properties of Cotton Extensin-Like Proteins

Extensin-like proteins (ELP) from 2-day sprouts and suspended cotton culture were isolated and characterized.__________Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 1, pp. 63–65, January–February, 2005.     

Redox Imbalance and Mitochondrial Release of Apoptogenic Factors at the Forefront of the Antitumor Action of Mango Peel Extract

Today, an improved understanding of cancer cell response to cellular stress has become more necessary. Indeed, targeting the intracellular pro-oxidant/antioxidant balance triggering the tumor commitment to cell demise could represent an advantageous strategy to develop cancer-tailored therapies. In this scenario, the present study shows how the peel extract of mango—a tropical fruit rich in phytochemicals with nutraceutical properties—can affect the cell viability of three colon cancer cell lines (HT29, Caco-2 and HCT116), inducing an imbalance of cellular redox responses. By using hydro-alcoholic mango peel extract (MPE), we observed a consistent decline in thiol group content, which was accompanied by upregulation of MnSOD—a mitochondrial scavenger enzyme that modulates the cellular response against oxidative damage. Such an effect was the consequence of an early production of mitochondrial superoxide anions that appeared after just 30 min of exposure of colon cancer cells to MPE. The effect was accompanied by mitochondrial injury, consisting of the dissipation of mitochondrial membrane potential and a decrease in the level of proteins localized in the mitochondrial membrane—such as voltage-dependent anion-selective channel (VDAC1), mitofilin, and some members of Bcl-2 family proteins (Mcl-1, Bcl-2 and Bcl-X_L)—with the mitochondrial release of apoptogenic factors (cytochrome C and AIF). The analysis of the cytotoxic effects exerted by the different constituents of MPE (gallic acid, mangiferin, citric acid, quinic acid, pentagalloyl glucose, and methyl gallate) allowed us to identify those phytochemicals responsible for the observed anticancer effects, sustaining their future employment as chemopreventive or therapeutic agents.