Disperse Orange 3 as a resonance Raman probe for measuring membrane order
Publication date: Available online 23 October 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Yuki Numakura, Takashi Miura Resonance Raman spectra of azobenzene derivatives were examined in the presence of lipid membranes to find a probe that can distinguish different membrane phases. The NO2 symmetric stretching band of 4-(4-nitrophenylazo)aniline, also known as Disperse Orange 3 (DO3), is downshifted by about 4cm−1 on the phase transition of phosphatidylcholine membranes from the liquid crystalline to the gel phase. A comparable downshift also occurs when DO3 is bound to cholesterol-containing membranes in the liquid-orde...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - November 3, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
Viperatoxin-II: A novel viper venom protein as an effective bactericidal agent
This report discusses purification and characterization of proteins from Indian Russell’s viper snake venom. Novel 15-kDa proteins called “Viperatoxin” (VipTx-I and VipTx-II) were extracted from the whole venom and evaluated using in vitro antimicrobial experiments. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of “Viperatoxin” showed high sequence homology to daboiatoxin isolated from the same venom and also matched to phospholipase A2 (PLA2) enzymes isolated from other snake venoms. In an in vitro plate assay, VipTx-II but not VipTx-I showed strong antimicrobial effects against S. aureus and Burkholderia pseudomallei (KHW...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - November 3, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
Association between Apolipoprotein E polymorphism and myocardial infarction risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Publication date: Available online 23 October 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Yi-Lian Wang, Li-Ming Sun, Li Zhang, Hai-Tao Xu, Zheng Dong, Luo-Qing Wang, Ming-Lang Wang Published data regarding the association between Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genetic variation and myocardial infarction (MI) risk were not always consistent. Therefore, the current meta-analysis was conducted to derive a more precise estimation of the association between ApoE polymorphism and MI risk. PubMed and Web of Science were searched to identify relevant studies. Summary odds ratio (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were cal...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - November 3, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
Kinetic studies on the oxidation of semiquinone and hydroquinone forms of Arabidopsis cryptochrome by molecular oxygen
Publication date: Available online 27 October 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Luuk J.G.W. van Wilderen, Gary Silkstone, Maria Mason, Jasper J. van Thor, Michael T. Wilson Cryptochromes (crys) are flavoprotein photoreceptors present throughout the biological kingdom that play important roles in plant development and entrainment of the circadian clock in several organisms. Crys non-covalently bind flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) which undergoes photoreduction from the oxidised state to a radical form suggested to be active in signalling in vivo. Although the photoreduction reactions have been well charac...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - November 3, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
Sulfurtransferase and thioredoxin specifically interact as demonstrated by bimolecular fluorescence complementation analysis and biochemical tests
Publication date: Available online 8 October 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Melina Henne, Nicolas König, Tiziana Triulzi, Sara Baroni, Fabio Forlani, Renate Scheibe, Jutta Papenbrock Sulfurtransferases (Strs) and thioredoxins (Trxs) are members of large protein families. Trxs are disulfide reductases and play an important role in redox-related cellular processes. They interact with a broad range of proteins. Strs catalyze the transfer of a sulfur atom from a suitable sulfur donor to nucleophilic sulfur acceptors in vitro, but the physiological roles of these enzymes are not well defined. Several st...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - October 9, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
Murine erythroid 5-aminolevulinate synthase: adenosyl-binding site Lys221 modulates substrate binding and catalysis
Publication date: Available online 3 October 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Bosko M. Stojanovski, Gloria C. Ferreira 5-Aminolevulinate synthase (ALAS) catalyzes the initial step of mammalian heme biosynthesis, the condensation between glycine and succinyl-CoA to produce CoA, CO2, and 5-aminolevulinate. The crystal structure of Rhodobacter capsulatus ALAS indicates that the adenosyl moiety of succinyl-CoA is positioned in a mainly hydrophobic pocket, where the ribose group forms a putative hydrogen bond with Lys156. Loss-of-function mutations in the analogous lysine of human erythroid ALAS (ALAS2) cause X-link...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - October 4, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
Induced myelomonocytic differentiation in leukemia cells is accompanied by noncanonical transcription factor expression
Publication date: Available online 28 September 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Holly A. Jensen, Harmony B. Yourish, Rodica P. Bunaciu, Jeffrey D. Varner, Andrew Yen Transcription factors that drive non-neoplastic myelomonocytic differentiation are well characterized but have not been systematically analyzed in the leukemic context. We investigated widely used, patient-derived myeloid leukemia cell lines with proclivity for differentiation into granulocytes by retinoic acid (RA) and/or monocytes by 1,25-dihyrdroxyvitamin D3 (D3). Using K562 (FAB M1), HL60 (FAB M2), RA-resistant HL60 sublines, NB4 (FAB M3...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - September 28, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
Study of circulating IgG antibodies to BIRC5 and MYC in non-small cell lung cancer
In conclusion, circulating IgG antibodies to MYC and BIRC5 do not appear to serve as biomarkers for early diagnosis of lung cancer but anti-MYC IgG might have a prognostic value (Source: FEBS Open Bio)
Source: FEBS Open Bio - September 25, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
Functional distribution of synapsin I in human sperm
Publication date: Available online 21 September 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): William L. Coleman, Adam C. Kulp, Jennifer J. Venditti Proteins known to function during cell-cell communication and exocytosis in neurons and other secretory cells have recently been reported in human sperm. Synapsins are a group of proteins that have been very well characterized in neurons, but little is known about synapsin function in other cell types. Based upon previous findings and the known function of synapsin, we tested the hypothesis that synapsin I was present in human sperm. Washed, capacitated, and acrosome induced ...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - September 22, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
Generation of an alpaca-derived nanobody recognizing γ-H2AX
Publication date: Available online 21 September 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Malini Rajan, Oliver Mortusewicz, Ulrich Rothbauer, Florian D. Hastert, Katrin Schmidthals, Alexander Rapp, Heinrich Leonhardt, M. Cristina Cardoso Post-translational modifications are difficult to visualize in living cells and are conveniently analyzed using antibodies. Single-chain antibody fragments derived from alpacas and called nanobodies can be expressed and bind to the target antigenic sites in living cells. As a proof of concept, we generated and characterized nanobodies against the commonly used biomarker for ...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - September 22, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
House dust mites possess a polymorphic, single domain putative peptidoglycan D,L endopeptidase belonging to the NlpC/P60 superfamily
Publication date: Available online 16 September 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Vivian H. Tang, Geoffrey A. Stewart, Barbara J. Chang A 14 kDa protein homologous to the γ-D-glutamyl-L-diamino acid endopeptidase members of the NlpC/P60 Superfamily has been described in Dermatophagoides pteronysssinus and D. farinae but it is not clear whether other species produce homologues. Bioinformatics revealed homologous genes in other Sarcopteformes mite species (Psoroptes ovis and Blomia tropicalis) but not in Tetranychus urticae and Metaseiulus occidentalis. The degrees of identity (similarity) between the D. pteron...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - September 17, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
A novel method to analyze 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in CpG sequences using maintenance DNA methyltransferase, DNMT1
Publication date: Available online 8 September 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Saori Takahashi, Isao Suetake, Jan Engelhardt, Shoji Tajima Hydroxymethylcytosine has been shown to be involved in DNA demethylation and gene expression. Although methods to determine the position of hydroxymethylcytosine at single-base resolution have been reported, these methods involve some difficulties. Here, we report a simple method to analyze hydroxymethylcytosine in the CpG sequence utilizing the maintenance DNA methylation activity of DNMT1, which selectively methylates hemi-methylated but not hemi-hydroxymethylated CpG...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - September 8, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
Analysis by a highly sensitive split luciferase assay of the regions involved in APP dimerization and its impact on processing
Publication date: Available online 6 September 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Marie Decock, Laetitia El Haylani, Serena Stanga, Ilse Dewachter, Jean Noël Octave, Steven O. Smith, Stefan N. Constantinescu, Pascal Kienlen-Campard Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive loss of cognitive functions, leading to dementia. Two types of lesions are found in AD brains: neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques. The latter are composed mainly of the β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) generated by amyloidogenic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). Several studi...
Source: FEBS Open Bio - September 7, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
Decreasing or increasing heat shock protein 72 exacerbates or attenuates heat-induced cell death, respectively, in rat hypothalamic cells
In this study, we found that increasing HSP72 levels with mild heat preconditioning or decreasing HSP72 levels with pSUPER plasmid expressing HSP72 small interfering RNA significantly attenuated or exacerbated heat-induced cell death in cultured primary hypothalamic cells, respectively. Our findings suggest that HSP72 plays a pivotal role in heat-induced cell death and may be associated with heat tolerance. (Source: FEBS Open Bio)
Source: FEBS Open Bio - September 4, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
MicroRNAs altered in neuropathic pain regulate MeCP2 and BDNF related to pain sensitivity
Publication date: Available online 31 August 2015 Source:FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Melissa T. Manners, Yuzhen Tian, Zhaolan Zhou, Seena K. Ajit Nerve injury induces chronic pain and dysregulation of microRNAs in dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Several downregulated microRNAs are predicted to target Mecp2. MECP2 mutations cause Rett syndrome and these patients report decreased pain perception. We confirmed MeCP2 upregulation in DRG following nerve injury and repression of MeCP2 by miRNAs in vitro. MeCP2 regulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and downregulation of MeCP2 by microRNAs decreased Bdnf in vitro....
Source: FEBS Open Bio - September 1, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research
