Search results for " Amino acids"

Using NMR in saliva to identify possible biomarkers of glioblastoma and chronic periodontitis

2018

Nowadays there is increasing interest in identifying-and using-metabolites that can be employed as biomarkers for diagnosing, treating and monitoring diseases. Saliva and NMR have been widely used for this purpose as they are fast and inexpensive methods. This case-control study aimed to find biomarkers that could be related to glioblastoma (GBL) and periodontal disease (PD) and studied a possible association between GBL and periodontal status. The participants numbered 130, of whom 10 were diagnosed with GBL and were assigned to the cases group, while the remaining 120 did not present any pathology and were assigned to the control group. On one hand, significantly increased (p < 0.05) meta…

Synthesis and Structure-Activity Relationships of Amino Acid Conjugates of Cholanic Acid as Antagonists of the EphA2 Receptor

2013

The Eph–ephrin system plays a critical role in tumor growth and vascular functions during carcinogenesis. We had previously identified cholanic acid as a competitive and reversible EphA2 antagonist able to disrupt EphA2-ephrinA1 interaction and to inhibit EphA2 activation in prostate cancer cells. Herein, we report the synthesis and biological evaluation of a set of cholanic acid derivatives obtained by conjugation of its carboxyl group with a panel of naturally occurring amino acids with the aim to improve EphA2 receptor inhibition. Structure-activity relationships indicate that conjugation of cholanic acid with linear amino acids of small size leads to effective EphA2 antagonists whereas …

Phenylalanine hydroxylase from the sponge Geodia cydonium: implication for allorecognition and evolution of aromatic amino acid HYDROXYLASESfn1fn1The…

1998

Abstract The prophenoloxidase activating system is a defense system, frequently reported both in protostomes and in deuterostomes. The final product of the phenoloxidase activity is melanin which is ubiquitously present throughout the metazoan kingdom. The melanin synthesis pathway starts with the amino acid [aa] phenylalanine which is converted to tyrosine by the phenylalanine hydroxylase [PAH]. We show that after allo-transplantation in the marine sponge Geodiacydonium PAH is upregulated in the grafts. Enzyme determination studies revealed that PAH activity increases by three-fold two d after transplantation and reaches its maximum after 3 d (by 3.7-fold). This finding was supported by de…

The Protein Structure Context of PolyQ Regions.

2016

Proteins containing glutamine repeats (polyQ) are known to be structurally unstable. Abnormal expansion of polyQ in some proteins exceeding a certain threshold leads to neurodegenerative disease, a symptom of which are protein aggregates. This has led to extensive research of the structure of polyQ stretches. However, the accumulation of contradictory results suggests that protein context might be of importance. Here we aimed to evaluate the structural context of polyQ regions in proteins by analysing the secondary structure of polyQ proteins and their homologs. The results revealed that the secondary structure in polyQ vicinity is predominantly random coil or helix. Importantly, the region…

Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel Ring‐Strained Noncanonical Amino Acids for Residue‐Specific Bioorthogonal Reactions in Living Cells

2021

Abstract Bioorthogonal reactions are ideally suited to selectively modify proteins in complex environments, even in vivo. Kinetics and product stability of these reactions are crucial parameters to evaluate their usefulness for specific applications. Strain promoted inverse electron demand Diels–Alder cycloadditions (SPIEDAC) between tetrazines and strained alkenes or alkynes are particularly popular, as they allow ultrafast labeling inside cells. In combination with genetic code expansion (GCE)‐a method that allows to incorporate noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) site‐specifically into proteins in vivo. These reactions enable residue‐specific fluorophore attachment to proteins in living mam…

Screening contact allergens from cosmetics using an optical biosensor

2006

Alzheimer's disease: amino acid levels and brain metabolic status.

2013

Abstract To study brain free amino acids and their relation with dementia we measured, by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the concentration of eight free amino acids, amines and related compounds. We used temporal cortex (TC) samples obtained from 13 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and an equal number of agematched controls (AC). The patterns of free amino acids, amines and related compounds showed significant quantitative changes in AD conditions with respect to healthy ones. In Alzheimer patients, lower levels of GABA were found in the TC (-57 %). Amino acids glutamate (Glu), and aspartate (Asp) concentrations, also appeared significantly reduced in the TC of AD patients …

A Stereocontrolled Protocol to Highly Functionalized Fluorinated Scaffolds through a Fluoride Opening of Oxiranes

2016

A novel selective and substrate-dependent synthetic protocol has been developed towards the synthesis of various fluorine-containing, highly functionalized cycloalkane derivatives. The method involves the stereoselective epoxidation of some unsaturated cyclic beta-amino acid derivatives as model compounds, followed by a regioselective fluoride opening of oxiranes under various conditions with Deoxofluor and XtalFluor-E reagents, thereby offering an insight into this new epoxide opening methodology with fluoride.

Synthesis of cyclic dipeptide templates, their incorporation into peptides and studies on their conformational and biological properties.

2009

This study investigated the diastereoselective synthesis of three dipeptide templates 1, 2 and 3, which may be regarded as conformationally restricted analogs of H-Gly-Xaa-OH, in which Xaa constitutes an aromatic amino acid. Bond formation between α-C of Gly and the aromatic moiety was achieved by proton-catalyzed intramolecular electrophilic aromatic substitution. The absolute configuration of the dipeptide templates was determined by single-crystal X-ray crystallography or by nuclear Overhauser enhancement measurements. A protective group strategy was elaborated to allow their incorporation into peptide sequences by liquid phase as well as by solid-phase peptide synthesis. The templates w…

Analysis of amino acids using serially coupled columns.

2017

Single conventional columns in reversed-phase LC are insufficient for analysing the isoindoles of primary amino acids, due to their limited functionality. An interesting possibility for increasing the separation power is the combination of several columns of different nature, where the length is modified by coupling small segments. This approach may require a considerable investment to have multiple lengths for each stationary phase. However, the combination of only two columns of fixed length can be enough to resolve satisfactorily relatively complex mixtures, provided that an optimised gradient program is applied. In this work, a mixture of 19 primary amino acid isoindoles found in protei…