Nonlinearly coupled vibrational modes and self-trapped states: Single-vibron-oscillator case with α-helix parameters

1992 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Keith McDowell ◽  
A. M. Clogston
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 530-536
Author(s):  
Sukanya Mehra ◽  
Pooja Chadha

Abstract 2Naphthalene sulfonate (2NS) is an intermediate compound used in textile industries. Being nonbiodegradable, the concerns regarding its biotoxicity have risen. In the present investigation the toxic effects of 2NS were analyzed with the help of Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR), which was used to monitor changes in the vibrational modes of functional groups within the biomolecules. After calculating LD 50, one half of LD 50 i.e. 0.33 mg/15 g b.w. was intraperitoneally administrated and the brain tissue was collected for investigation after 96 h of exposure. The spectra observed revealed the significant differences in absorbance and areas between control and treated groups reflecting the change in proteins, lipids and nucleic acid due to toxicity induced by 2NS. In addition, protein secondary structure analysis was focused in this study, which reveals alterations in α helix and β sheet structure after 2NS intoxication. Histopathology of brain was also studied, which reveals changes in the histology of brain in group treated with 2NS. In conclusion, the study highlighted the application of ATR-FTIR and histopathology for toxicity assessment.


1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
pp. 1929-1939 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariette Barthes ◽  
Juegen Eckert ◽  
Susanna W. Johnson ◽  
Jacques Moret ◽  
Basil I. Swanson ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 532-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cadena-Cadena Francisco ◽  
Cárdenas-López José Luis ◽  
Ezquerra-Brauer Josafat Marina ◽  
Cinco-Moroyoqui Francisco Javier ◽  
López-Zavala Alonso Alexis ◽  
...  

Background: Cathepsin D is a lysosomal enzyme that is found in all organisms acting in protein turnover, in humans it is present in some types of carcinomas, and it has a high activity in Parkinson's disease and a low activity in Alzheimer disease. In marine organisms, most of the research has been limited to corroborate the presence of this enzyme. It is known that cathepsin D of some marine organisms has a low thermostability and that it has the ability to have activity at very acidic pH. Cathepsin D of the Jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas) hepatopancreas was purified and partially characterized. The secondary structure of these enzymes is highly conserved so the role of temperature and pH in the secondary structure and in protein denaturation is of great importance in the study of enzymes. The secondary structure of cathepsin D from jumbo squid hepatopancreas was determined by means of circular dichroism spectroscopy. Objective: In this article, our purpose was to determine the secondary structure of the enzyme and how it is affected by subjecting it to different temperature and pH conditions. Methods: Circular dichroism technique was used to measure the modifications of the secondary structure of cathepsin D when subjected to different treatments. The methodology consisted in dissecting the hepatopancreas of squid and freeze drying it. Then a crude extract was prepared by mixing 1: 1 hepatopancreas with assay buffer, the purification was in two steps; the first step consisted of using an ultrafiltration membrane with a molecular cut of 50 kDa, and the second step, a pepstatin agarose resin was used to purification the enzyme. Once the enzyme was purified, the purity was corroborated with SDS PAGE electrophoresis, isoelectric point and zymogram. Circular dichroism is carried out by placing the sample with a concentration of 0.125 mg / mL in a 3 mL quartz cell. The results were obtained in mdeg (millidegrees) and transformed to mean ellipticity per residue, using 111 g/mol molecular weight/residue as average. Secondary-structure estimation from the far-UV CD spectra was calculated using K2D Dichroweb software. Results: It was found that α helix decreases at temperatures above 50 °C and above pH 4. Heating the enzyme above 70°C maintains a low percentage of α helix and increases β sheet. Far-UV CD measurements of cathepsin D showed irreversible thermal denaturation. The process was strongly dependent on the heating rate, accompanied by a process of oligomerization of the protein that appears when the sample is heated, and maintained a certain time at this temperature. An amount typically between 3 and 4% α helix of their secondary structure remains unchanged. It is consistent with an unfolding process kinetically controlled due to the presence of an irreversible reaction. The secondary structure depends on pH, and a pH above 4 causes α helix structures to be modified. Conclusion: In conclusion, cathepsin D from jumbo squid hepatopancreas showed retaining up to 4% α helix at 80°C. The thermal denaturation of cathepsin D at pH 3.5 is under kinetic control and follows an irreversible model.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 486-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Xin Peng ◽  
Xue-Hui Liu ◽  
Bo Lu ◽  
Si-Ming Liao ◽  
Feng Zhou ◽  
...  

Background:The polysialic acid (polySia) is a unique carbohydrate polymer produced on the surface Of Neuronal Cell Adhesion Molecule (NCAM) in a number of cancer cells, and strongly correlates with the migration and invasion of tumor cells and with aggressive, metastatic disease and poor clinical prognosis in the clinic. Its synthesis is catalyzed by two polysialyltransferases (polySTs), ST8SiaIV (PST) and ST8SiaII (STX). Selective inhibition of polySTs, therefore, presents a therapeutic opportunity to inhibit tumor invasion and metastasis due to NCAM polysialylation. Heparin has been found to be effective in inhibiting the ST8Sia IV activity, but no clear molecular rationale. It has been found that polysialyltransferase domain (PSTD) in polyST plays a significant role in influencing polyST activity, and thus it is critical for NCAM polysialylation based on the previous studies.Objective:To determine whether the three different types of heparin (unfractionated hepain (UFH), low molecular heparin (LMWH) and heparin tetrasaccharide (DP4)) is bound to the PSTD; and if so, what are the critical residues of the PSTD for these binding complexes?Methods:Fluorescence quenching analysis, the Circular Dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, and NMR spectroscopy were used to determine and analyze interactions of PSTD-UFH, PSTD-LMWH, and PSTD-DP4.Results:The fluorescence quenching analysis indicates that the PSTD-UFH binding is the strongest and the PSTD-DP4 binding is the weakest among these three types of the binding; the CD spectra showed that mainly the PSTD-heparin interactions caused a reduction in signal intensity but not marked decrease in α-helix content; the NMR data of the PSTD-DP4 and the PSTDLMWH interactions showed that the different types of heparin shared 12 common binding sites at N247, V251, R252, T253, S257, R265, Y267, W268, L269, V273, I275, and K276, which were mainly distributed in the long α-helix of the PSTD and the short 3-residue loop of the C-terminal PSTD. In addition, three residues K246, K250 and A254 were bound to the LMWH, but not to DP4. This suggests that the PSTD-LMWH binding is stronger than the PSTD-DP4 binding, and the LMWH is a more effective inhibitor than DP4.Conclusion:The findings in the present study demonstrate that PSTD domain is a potential target of heparin and may provide new insights into the molecular rationale of heparin-inhibiting NCAM polysialylation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Zuo ◽  
Zongyun Chen ◽  
Zhijian Cao ◽  
Wenxin Li ◽  
Yingliang Wu

: The scorpion toxins are the largest potassium channel-blocking peptide family. The understanding of toxin binding interfaces is usually restricted by two classical binding interfaces: one is the toxin α-helix motif, the other is the antiparallel β-sheet motif. In this review, such traditional knowledge was updated by another two different binding interfaces: one is BmKTX toxin using the turn motif between the α-helix and antiparallel β-sheet domains as the binding interface, the other is Ts toxin using turn motif between the β-sheet in the N-terminal and α-helix domains as the binding interface. Their interaction analysis indicated that the scarce negatively charged residues in the scorpion toxins played a critical role in orientating the toxin binding interface. In view of the toxin negatively charged amino acids as “binding interface regulator”, the law of scorpion toxin-potassium channel interaction was proposed, that is, the polymorphism of negatively charged residue distribution determines the diversity of toxin binding interfaces. Such law was used to develop scorpion toxin-potassium channel recognition control technique. According to this technique, three Kv1.3 channel-targeted peptides, using BmKTX as the template, were designed with the distinct binding interfaces from that of BmKTX through modulating the distribution of toxin negatively charged residues. In view of the potassium channel as the common targets of different animal toxins, the proposed law was also shown to helpfully orientate the binding interfaces of other animal toxins. Clearly, the toxin-potassium channel interaction law would strongly accelerate the research and development of different potassium channelblocking animal toxins in the future.


1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (10) ◽  
pp. 2377-2384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Řeřicha ◽  
Björg N. Cyvin ◽  
Jon Brunvoll ◽  
Sven J. Cyvin

Normal coordinate analyses including calculations of PED's were performed for C2H4.PtCl3 system modelling Zeise's anion, [(C2H4)PtCl3]-. The wedgewise distorsion of the C2H4 ligand known from the crystallographic data for Zeise's salt, was taken into account. Under these circumstances it was found that the kinematic couplings between the internal ligand and complex framework vibrational modes are rather small. The reliability of some existing assignments of the fundamental frequencies of Zeise's anion is discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (5) ◽  
pp. 873-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianna A Shubov ◽  
Laszlo P Kindrat

Abstract The distribution of natural frequencies of the Euler–Bernoulli beam subject to fully non-dissipative boundary conditions is investigated. The beam is clamped at the left end and equipped with a 4-parameter ($\alpha ,\beta ,k_1,k_2$) linear boundary feedback law at the right end. The $2 \times 2$ boundary feedback matrix relates the control input (a vector of velocity and its spatial derivative at the right end), to the output (a vector of shear and moment at the right end). The initial boundary value problem describing the dynamics of the beam has been reduced to the first order in time evolution equation in the state Hilbert space equipped with the energy norm. The dynamics generator has a purely discrete spectrum (the vibrational modes) denoted by $\{\nu _n\}_{n\in \mathbb {Z}^{\prime}}$. The role of the control parameters is examined and the following results have been proven: (i) when $\beta \neq 0$, the set of vibrational modes is asymptotically close to the vertical line on the complex $\nu$-plane given by the equation $\Re \nu = \alpha + (1-k_1k_2)/\beta$; (ii) when $\beta = 0$ and the parameter $K = (1-k_1 k_2)/(k_1+k_2)$ is such that $\left |K\right |\neq 1$ then the following relations are valid: $\Re (\nu _n/n) = O\left (1\right )$ and $\Im (\nu _n/n^2) = O\left (1\right )$ as $\left |n\right |\to \infty$; (iii) when $\beta =0$, $|K| = 1$, and $\alpha = 0$, then the following relations are valid: $\Re (\nu _n/n^2) = O\left (1\right )$ and $\Im (\nu _n/n) = O\left (1\right )$ as $\left |n\right |\to \infty$; (iv) when $\beta =0$, $|K| = 1$, and $\alpha>0$, then the following relations are valid: $\Re (\nu _n/\ln \left |n\right |) = O\left (1\right )$ and $\Im (\nu _n/n^2) = O\left (1\right )$ as $\left |n\right |\to \infty$.


1994 ◽  
Vol 49 (19) ◽  
pp. 13704-13711 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Roca ◽  
C. Trallero-Giner ◽  
M. Cardona

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