Search results for "Biophysic"
showing 10 items of 3565 documents
GFP immunogold staining, from light to electron microscopy, in mammalian cells.
2012
GFP has emerged as an important reporter for monitoring gene expression, protein localization, cell transformation and cell lineage. The development of GFP as a marker in many different biological systems has emphasized the need to image GFP at high resolution. GFP immunogold labeling with colloidal gold particles becomes essential for electron microscopy (EM) ultrastructural detection. Because of the small size, colloidal gold particles require silver enhancement, a procedure to increase the size of the particle as well as gold toning to stabilize the silver layer. GFP preembedding immunogold staining enables high quality cellular-ultrastructural EM analysis mainly for two reasons, on one …
Alpha-toxin of Staphylococcus aureus
1991
Alpha-toxin, the major cytotoxic agent elaborated by Staphylococcus aureus, was the first bacterial exotoxin to be identified as a pore former. The protein is secreted as a single-chain, water-soluble molecule of Mr 33,000. At low concentrations (less than 100 nM), the toxin binds to as yet unidentified, high-affinity acceptor sites that have been detected on a variety of cells including rabbit erythrocytes, human platelets, monocytes and endothelial cells. At high concentrations, the toxin additionally binds via nonspecific absorption to lipid bilayers; it can thus damage both cells lacking significant numbers of the acceptor and protein-free artificial lipid bilayers. Membrane damage occu…
Elimination of a bacterial pore-forming toxin by sequential endocytosis and exocytosis
2008
Staphylococcus aureus alpha-toxin is the archetype of bacterial pore forming toxins and a key virulence factor secreted by the majority of clinical isolates of S. aureus. Toxin monomers bind to target cells and oligomerize to form small beta-barrel pores in the plasma membrane. Many nucleated cells are able to repair a limited number of lesions by unknown, calcium-independent mechanisms. Here we show that cells can internalize alpha-toxin, that uptake is essential for cellular survival, and that pore-complexes are not proteolytically degraded, but returned to the extracellular milieu in the context of exosome-like structures, which we term toxosomes.
Recovery of human fibroblasts from attack by the pore-forming alpha-toxin of Staphylococcus aureus.
1994
When applied at low concentrations (10 micrograms/ml), staphylococcal alpha-toxin generates a small channel in keratinocyte and lymphocyte membranes that permits selective transmembrane flux of monovalent ions. Here we show that a moderate concentration (1-50 micrograms/ml) of alpha-toxin similarly produces a small pore in membranes of human fibroblasts. This process leads to rapid leakage of K+ and to a drop in cellular ATP to 10-20% of normal levels in 2 h. In the presence of medium supplemented with serum and at pH 7.4, the cells are able to recover from toxin attack, so that normal levels of K+ and ATP are reached after 6-8 h at 37 degrees C. The repair process is dependent on the prese…
Lipid and phase specificity of α-toxin from S. aureus
2013
AbstractThe pore forming toxin Hla (α-toxin) from Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogenic factor of the bacterium S. aureus and also a model system for the process of membrane-induced protein oligomerisation and pore formation. It has been shown that binding to lipid membranes at neutral or basic pH requires the presence of a phosphocholine-headgroup. Thus, sphingomyelin and phosphatidylcholine may serve as interaction partners in cellular membranes. Based on earlier studies it has been suggested that rafts of sphingomyelin are particularly efficient in toxin binding. In this study we compared the oligomerisation of Hla on liposomes of various lipid compositions in order to identif…
Staphylococcal alpha-toxin: formation of the heptameric pore is partially cooperative and proceeds through multiple intermediate stages.
1997
Staphylococcal alpha-toxin is a 293 residue polypeptide that assembles into pore-forming heptamers, residues 118-140, thereby inserting to form an amphipathic beta-barrel in the lipid bilayer. Fluorometric analyses were here conducted using cysteine-substitution mutants site-specifically-labeled at positions 35 or 130 with the environmentally-sensitive fluorophore acrylodan. In conjunction with functional assays, three conformational states of the heptamer were defined, which may represent transitional configurations of the toxin molecule along its way to membrane insertion and pore formation. The first was the freshly assembled, SDS-sensitive heptamer alpha7*a, where a minor alteration in …
Hydroxypropylcellulose as a novel green reservoir for the synthesis, stabilization, and storage of silver nanoparticles
2015
Muhammad Ajaz Hussain,1 Abdullah Shah,1 Ibrahim Jantan,2 Muhammad Raza Shah,3 Muhammad Nawaz Tahir,4 Riaz Ahmad,5 Syed Nasir Abbas Bukhari2 1Department of Chemistry, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan; 2Drug and Herbal Research Centre, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 3International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan; 4Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Johannes Guttenberg University, Duesbergweg, Mainz, Germany; 5Centre for Advanced Studies in Physics (CASP), GC University, Lahore, Pakistan Abstract: Polysaccharides are attracting the vigil eye of…
Quasi diabatic CASSCF state functions
2002
A new method to determine quasi diabatic (QD) CASSCF states is presented. The adiabatic states are subjected to a unitary transformation resulting from diagonalization of a state-selection operator. The latter is constructed from the overlap of the adiabatic states with a suitable set of reference states. The multi-state (MS) CASPT2 method is used to account for the dynamical correlation effects in an approach where the QD-CASSCF wave functions are used as reference states. The procedure is applied to avoided crossings in excited states of BeH, LiO and ozone. The advantages of the proposed formulation are discussed.
Effect of Cholesterol on Electrostatics in Lipid−Protein Films of a Pulmonary Surfactant
2010
We report the changes in the electrical properties of the lipid-protein film of pulmonary surfactant produced by excess cholesterol. Pulmonary surfactant (PS) is a complex lipid-protein mixture that forms a molecular film at the interface of the lung's epithelia. The defined molecular arrangement of the lipids and proteins of the surfactant film gives rise to the locally highly variable electrical surface potential of the interface, which becomes considerably altered in the presence of cholesterol. With frequency modulation Kelvin probe force microscopy (FM-KPFM) and force measurements, complemented by theoretical analysis, we showed that excess cholesterol significantly changes the electri…
TiFoSi: an efficient tool for mechanobiology simulations of epithelia
2020
[Motivation]: Emerging phenomena in developmental biology and tissue engineering are the result of feedbacks between gene expression and cell biomechanics. In that context, in silico experiments are a powerful tool to understand fundamental mechanisms and to formulate and test hypotheses.