Search results for "X-ray scattering"
showing 10 items of 165 documents
Hybrid Biopolymer and Lipid Nanoparticles with Improved Transfection Efficacy for mRNA
2020
Cells 9(9), 2034 (1-19) (2020). doi:10.3390/cells9092034
Structure and Stability of Hsp60 and Groel in Solution
2016
Molecular chaperones are a class of proteins able to prevent non-specific aggregation of mitochondrial proteins and to promote their proper folding. Among them, human Hsp60 is currently considered as a ubiquitous molecule with multiple roles both in maintaining health conditions and as a trigger of several diseases. Of particular interest is its role in neurodegenerative disorders since it is able to inhibit the formation of amyloid fibrils.Hsp60 structure was considered, until recent years, analogue to the one of its bacterial homolog GroEL, one of the most investigated chaperones, whose crystallographic structure is a homo-tetradecamer, made up of two seven member rings. On the contrary, …
Amyloid β-peptide insertion in liposomes containing GM1-cholesterol domains.
2015
Neuronal membrane damage is related to the early impairments appearing in Alzheimer's disease due to the interaction of the amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) with the phospholipid bilayer. In particular, the ganglioside GM1, present with cholesterol in lipid rafts, seems to be able to initiate Aβ aggregation on membrane. We studied the thermodynamic and structural effects of the presence of GM1 on the interaction between Aβ and liposomes, a good membrane model system. Isothermal Titration Calorimetry highlighted the importance of the presence of GM1 in recruiting monomeric Aβ toward the lipid bilayer. Light and Small Angle X-ray Scattering revealed a different pattern for GM1 containing liposomes, bot…
The dimer-monomer equilibrium of SARS-CoV-2 main protease is affected by small molecule inhibitors
2021
AbstractThe maturation of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which is the etiological agent at the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, requires a main protease Mpro to cleave the virus-encoded polyproteins. Despite a wealth of experimental information already available, there is wide disagreement about the Mpro monomer-dimer equilibrium dissociation constant. Since the functional unit of Mpro is a homodimer, the detailed knowledge of the thermodynamics of this equilibrium is a key piece of information for possible therapeutic intervention, with small molecules interfering with dimerization being potential broad-spectrum antiviral drug leads. In the present study, we exploit Small Angle X-ray Scattering (…
Comment on “Innovative scattering analysis shows that hydrophobic disordered proteins are expanded in water”
2018
Editors at Science requested our input on the above discussion (comment by Best et al . and response by Riback et al .) because both sets of authors use our data from Fuertes et al . (2017) to support their arguments. The topic of discussion pertains to the discrepant inferences drawn from SAXS versus FRET measurements regarding the dimensions of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) in aqueous solvents. Using SAXS measurements on labeled and unlabeled proteins, we ruled out the labels used for FRET measurements as the cause of discrepant inferences between the two methods. Instead, we propose that FRET and SAXS provide complementary readouts because of a decoupling of size and shape fl…
Pressure effects on α-synuclein amyloid fibrils: An experimental investigation on their dissociation and reversible nature
2017
αâsynuclein amyloid fibrils are found in surviving neurons of Parkinson's disease affected patients, but the role they play in the disease development is still under debate. A growing number of evidences points to soluble oligomers as the major cytotoxic species, while insoluble fibrillar aggregates could even play a protection role. In this work, we investigate αâsynuclein fibrils dissociation induced at high pressure by means of Small Angle X-ray Scattering and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. Fibrils were produced from wild type αâsynuclein and two familial mutants, A30P and A53T. Our results enlighten the different reversible nature of αâsynuclein fibrils fragmentati…
Ubiquitous Structural Signaling in Bacterial Phytochromes
2015
The phytochrome family of light-switchable proteins has long been studied by biochemical, spectroscopic and crystallographic means, while a direct probe for global conformational signal propagation has been lacking. Using solution X-ray scattering, we find that the photosensory cores of several bacterial phytochromes undergo similar large-scale structural changes upon red-light excitation. The data establish that phytochromes with ordinary and inverted photocycles share a structural signaling mechanism and that a particular conserved histidine, previously proposed to be involved in signal propagation, in fact tunes photoresponse.
Nanodesign of new self-assembling core-shell gellan-transfersomes loading baicalin and in vivo evaluation of repair response in skin
2017
Gellan nanohydrogel and phospholipid vesicles were combined to incorporate baicalin in new self-assembling core-shell gellan-transfersomes obtained by an easy, scalable method. The vesicles were small in size (~107 nm) and monodispersed (P.I. ≤ 0.24), forming a viscous system (~24 mPa/s) as compared to transfersomes (~1.6 mPa/s), as confirmed by rheological studies. Gellan was anchored to the bilayer domains through cholesterol, and the polymer chains were distributed onto the outer surface of the bilayer, thus forming a core-shell structure, as suggested by SAXS analyses. The optimal carrier ability of core-shell gellan-transfersomes was established by the high deposition of baicalin in th…
Synthesis, Thermal, and Optical Properties of Tris(5‐aryl‐1,3,4‐oxadiazol‐2‐yl)‐1,3,5‐triazines, New Star‐Shaped Fluorescent Discotic Liquid Crystals
2019
Abstract The synthesis of tris(aryloxadiazolyl)triazines (TOTs), C 3‐symmetrical star‐shaped mesogenes with a 1,3,5‐triazine center, 5‐phenyl‐1,3,4‐oxadiazole arms, and various peripheral alkoxy side chains is reported. Threefold Huisgen reaction on a central triazine tricarboxylic acid and suitable aryltetrazoles yields the title compounds. Selected analogues with a benzene center are included in this study and allow for an evaluation of the impact of the central unit on the physical properties. Thermal (differential scanning calorimetry, DSC; polarization optical microscopy, POM), optical (UV/Vis, fluorescence), electric (time of flight, TOF), and structural (single crystal; wide‐angle X‐…
Investigation of charge ratio variation in mRNA – DEAE-dextran polyplex delivery systems
2019
Biomaterials 192, 612 - 620 (2019). doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2018.10.020