Search results for "neon"
showing 10 items of 760 documents
Methionine in a protein hydrophobic core drives tight interactions required for assembly of spider silk
2019
Web spiders connect silk proteins, so-called spidroins, into fibers of extraordinary toughness. The spidroin N-terminal domain (NTD) plays a pivotal role in this process: it polymerizes spidroins through a complex mechanism of dimerization. Here we analyze sequences of spidroin NTDs and find an unusually high content of the amino acid methionine. We simultaneously mutate all methionines present in the hydrophobic core of a spidroin NTD from a nursery web spider’s dragline silk to leucine. The mutated NTD is strongly stabilized and folds at the theoretical speed limit. The structure of the mutant is preserved, yet its ability to dimerize is substantially impaired. We find that side chains of…
Correction: Daunorubicin reduces MBNL1 sequestration caused by CUG-repeat expansion and rescues cardiac dysfunctions in a Drosophila model of myotoni…
2018
ABSTRACT Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is a dominantly inherited neuromuscular disorder caused by expression of mutant myotonin-protein kinase (DMPK) transcripts containing expanded CUG repeats. Pathogenic DMPK RNA sequesters the muscleblind-like (MBNL) proteins, causing alterations in metabolism of various RNAs. Cardiac dysfunction represents the second most common cause of death in DM type 1 (DM1) patients. However, the contribution of MBNL sequestration in DM1 cardiac dysfunction is unclear. We overexpressed Muscleblind (Mbl), the Drosophila MBNL orthologue, in cardiomyocytes of DM1 model flies and observed a rescue of heart dysfunctions, which are characteristic of these model flies and resem…
Investigating REPAIRv2 as a Tool to Edit CFTR mRNA with Premature Stop Codons
2020
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by mutations in the gene encoding the transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein. Some CF patients are compound heterozygous or homozygous for nonsense mutations in the CFTR gene. This implies the presence in the transcript of premature termination codons (PTCs) responsible for a truncated CFTR protein and a more severe form of the disease. Aminoglycoside and PTC124 derivatives have been used for the read-through of PTCs to restore the full-length CFTR protein. However, in a precision medicine framework, the CRISPR/dCas13b-based molecular tool &ldquo
Deregulated Splicing Is a Major Mechanism of RNA-Induced Toxicity in Huntington's Disease.
2019
Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the huntingtin (HTT) gene, translating into an elongated polyglutamine stretch. In addition to the neurotoxic mutant HTT protein, the mutant CAG repeat RNA can exert toxic functions by trapping RNA-binding proteins. While few examples of proteins that aberrantly bind to mutant HTT RNA and execute abnormal function in conjunction with the CAG repeat RNA have been described, an unbiased approach to identify the interactome of mutant HTT RNA is missing. Here, we describe the analysis of proteins that preferentially bind mutant HTT RNA using a mass spectrometry approach. We show that (I) the majority of proteins captured by mutant…
An efficient Escherichia coli expression system for the production of a functional N-terminal domain of the T1R3 taste receptor.
2012
http://www.landesbioscience.com/; International audience; Sweet taste is mediated by a dimeric receptor composed of two distinct subunits, T1R2 and T1R3, whereas the T1R1/T1R3 receptor is involved in umami taste perception. The T1R1, T1R2, and T1R3 subunits are members of the small family of class C G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The members of this family are characterized by a large N-terminal domain (NTD), which is structurally similar to bacterial periplasmic-binding proteins and contains the primary ligand-binding site. In a recent study, we described a strategy to produce a functional dimeric human T1R3-NTD. Although the protein was expressed as inclusion bodies (IBs) using the …
Bleomycin, a selective inhibitor of DNA-dependent DNA polymerase from oncogenic RNA viruses.
1972
Abstract Bleomycin, an antibiotic, inhibits the DNA-dependent DNA polymerase from Rauscher murine leukemia virus. Higher concentrations of BLM ∗ are required to inhibit it's RNA-dependent DNA polymerase. These inhibition effects of the non-competitive type are not altered by preincubation of the DNA with BLM. Under comparable conditions neither the DNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity from E. coli and mouse liver nor the DNA-dependent RNA polymerase activity from mouse lymphoma cells are affected by BLM.
Bleomycin: Action on growth of oncogenic RNA viruses and on cell transformation
1975
Bleomycin (BLM) inhibits cell proliferation of noninfected chick embryo fibroblasts by blocking their DNA synthesis selectively. Chick embryo fibroblasts have beentransformed by Schmidt-Ruppin D strain of Rous Sarcoma Virus. Transformation has been determined by a focus assay. Foci formation is strongly reduced by BLM. Virus replication is inhibited by BLM in growing and confluent monolayer cells. This result might be explained by the observation that this drug reduces proliferation of growing and of confluent monolayer cells very sensitively. During the first 24 hours after infection the BLM inhibitory effect is more pronounced than in the case of BLM-application during the period 24--48 h…
Prader Willi Syndrome : Saliva quantification and culture in 10 patients
2008
Prader Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a relatively rare neurogenetic illness. It is of interest to dentists for its clinical characteristics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the amount of saliva and the presence of Streptococcus mutans (S mutans) in patients with this syndrome. We measured saliva stimulated by chewing paraffin tablets for 5 minutes, and cultured saliva samples in order to determine the colony-forming units (CFUs) of S mutans. The study was conducted in a group of 10 children with PWS at the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona. Results showed that patients with PWS had lower saliva secretion than considered normal for a standard population and most cultures presented a high …
WRN protects against topo I but not topo II inhibitors by preventing DNA break formation
2008
The Werner syndrome helicase/3′-exonuclease (WRN) is a major component of the DNA repair and replication machinery. To analyze whether WRN is involved in the repair of topoisomerase-induced DNA damage we utilized U2-OS cells, in which WRN is stably down-regulated (wrn-kd), and the corresponding wild-type cells (wrn-wt). We show that cells not expressing WRN are hypersensitive to the toxic effect of the topoisomerase I inhibitor topotecan, but not to the topoisomerase II inhibitor etoposide. This was shown by mass survival assays, colony formation and induction of apoptosis. Upon topotecan treatment WRN deficient cells showed enhanced DNA replication inhibition and S-phase arrest, whereas af…
Activity and kinetics of DNA dependent DNA and RNA polymerases n xeroderma pigmentosum and in normal human skin.
1971
1. DNA dependent DNA polymerase (E.C.2.7.7.7) was prepared from human normal and from Xeroderma pigmentosum skin. 2. DNA polymerase from normal skin has the same Michaelis constant with native and denatured DNA as templateKm= 120 ± 11 µg DNA/ml, with differing maximum reaction velocities. 3. The enzyme from Xeroderma pigmentosum has the same Michaelis constant for denatured DNA as the enzyme from normal skin, but with native DNA as template, theKmvalue is lower (97.2 ± 9.8). The maximum reaction velocities of the Xeroderma pigmentosum enzyme with native resp. denatured DNA as template are the same. 4. DNA dependent RNA polymerases (E.C.2.7.7.6) from normal and Xeroderma pigmentosum skin wer…