Search results for "chaperone activity"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
Protective Effects of L- and D-Carnosine on R-Crystallin Amyloid Fibril Formation: Implications for Cataract Disease
2009
Mildly denaturing conditions induce bovine ?-crystallin, the major structural lens protein, to self-assemble into fibrillar structures in vitro. The natural dipeptide L-carnosine has been shown to have potential protective and therapeutic significance in many diseases. Carnosine derivatives have been proposed as potent agents for ophthalmic therapies of senile cataracts and diabetic ocular complications. Here we report the inhibitory effect induced by the peptide (L- and D-enantiomeric form) on ?-crystallin fibrillation and the almost complete restoration of the chaperone activity lost after denaturant and/or heat stress. Scanning force microscopy (SFM), thioflavin T, and a turbidimetry ass…
Trehalose effects on α-crystallin aggregates
2007
alpha-Crystallin in its native state is a large, heterogeneous, low-molecular weight (LMW) aggregate that under certain conditions may progressively became part of insoluble high-molecular weight (HMW) systems. These systems are supposed to play a relevant role in eye lens opacification and vision impairment. In this paper, we report the effects of trehalose on alpha-crystallin aggregates. The role of trehalose in alpha-crystallin stress tolerance, chaperone activity and thermal stability is studied. The results show that trehalose stabilizes the alpha-crystallin native structure, inhibits alpha-crystallin aggregation, and disaggregates preformed LMW systems not affecting its chaperone acti…
A constitutive 70 kDa heat-shock protein is localized on the fibres of spindles and asters at metaphase in an ATP-dependent manner: A new chaperone r…
2001
In the present study, double immunofluorescence and immunoblot analysis have been used to show that centrosomes, isolated from Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin embryos at the first mitotic metaphase, contain the constitutive chaperone, heat-shock protein (HSP) 70. More specifically, we demonstrate that centrosomes contain only the HSP70-d isoform, which is one of the four isoforms identified in P. lividus . We also provide evidence that p34(cell division control kinase-2) and t complex polypeptide-1 (TCP-1) α, a subunit of the TCP-1 complex, are localized on the centrosomes. Furthermore, inhibition of TCP-1 in vivo, via microinjecting an anti-(TCP-1α) antibody into P. lividus eggs before fe…
Quantification of HSP27 and HSP70 Molecular Chaperone Activities
2011
Stress-inducible heat-shock proteins (HSPs, like HSP70 and HSP27) are molecular chaperones that -protect cells from stress damage by keeping cellular proteins in a folding competent state and preventing them from irreversible aggregation. HSP27 and HSP70 chaperone activities are useful indicators to test chemical products and physical stress impact on protein denaturation, to select HSP inhibitors, or to -determine the implication of the chaperone function in other HSP activities, such as apoptosis. We have developed two simple and fast chaperone activity tests for HSP27 and HSP70 that we initially set up to test the effect of potential HSP inhibitors obtained after screening of chemical an…
Heat Shock Proteins in Multiple Sclerosis Pathogenesis: Friend or Foe?
2015
Multiple Sclerosis is a complex chronic inflammatory, neurodegenerative disease conditioned by genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors. Main pathological features of MS include areas of focal demyelination of white matter characterized by gliosis, neuron and oligodendrocyte loss. Neurodegenerative as well as immune-mediated processes play a role in the pathogenesis of this disease. One of these immunogenic factors could be represented by the heat shock proteins. HSP exhibit cytoprotective and cytostimulatory effects due to their molecular chaperones role, in many brain model misfolding diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, whereas still no unambiguous results have bee…