稻瘟菌糖蛋白激发子(CSBI)的纯化及其鉴定

稻瘟菌（Magnaporthe grisea）ZC1l3菌株97-151a菌丝经离心、超滤、Sephacryl S-100凝胶柱、DEAE-Sepharose FF阴离子交换柱层析,纯化获得糖蛋白激发子CSBI。CSBI经SDS-PAGE后银染显示单一条带,糖,蛋白比例约为9．32。CSBI对非亲和性互作水稻叶片中过氧化物酶的诱导显著高于亲和性互作水稻（P〈0．05）。经N端氨基酸同源序列比对表明,CSBI与MG07877．4推测蛋白的同源性最高。经基质辅助激光解析电离飞行时间质谱鉴定也表明CSBI是该推测蛋白。     

MALDI-TOF MS技术在侵袭性丝状真菌快速鉴定中的应用

目的 探索不同培养基、不同培养时间和不同蛋白质提取方法对侵袭性丝状真菌质谱鉴定准确率的影响,旨在提高基质辅助激光解析电离飞行时间质谱技术鉴定侵袭性丝状真菌的准确率.方法 采用分子生物学方法为金标准,同时运用基质辅助激光解析电离飞行时间质谱技术对所收集临床丝状真菌进行鉴定.根据分子生物学的鉴定结果,去除VITEK-MSv...     

MALDI-TOF质谱技术研究多肽一级结构特性

海兔酸性多肽(Aplysiaacidicpeptide,AAP)和海兔胰岛素Cβ(AplysiaInsulinCβ,AICβ)的一级结构分别由27和15个氨基酸残基组成,其中前者含有6个亮氨酸残基(L),并组成3对LL键,后者仅有2个亮氨酸残基,组成1对LL键。选用基质辅助激光解吸离子化飞行时间(matrixassistedlaserdesorptionionizationtimeoffight,MALDITOF)质谱技术研究AAP,AICβ和它们分解产物的一级结构稳定性过程中,发现在弱酸性介质条件下,AAP和AICβ的LL酰氨键键能比LR键能(R表示除了L以外的氨基酸残基)更强,不易被分解。AICβ和猪血管紧张肽I(angiotensinI,AnI)样品中均含有单电荷的多聚肽。随着多肽聚合数递增,多肽质谱峰的相对强度剧减。AICβ在形成多聚肽过程中,发生释放H+的现象 。     

基质辅助激光解析电离飞行时间质谱在医学真菌领域的应用进展

基质辅助激光解析电离飞行时间质谱（matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry,MALDI-TOF MS）是近年来新兴的微生物检测技术,通过核糖体蛋白分析实现对真菌快速、准确鉴定。本文针对MALDI-TOF MS用于致病真菌鉴定、分类、体外抗真菌药物敏感性检测以及临床微生物样本直接检测等方面作一综述。     

黑木耳核糖体失活蛋白的质谱分析

目的：对悬浮培养黑木耳菌丝体中分离纯化得到的核糖体失活蛋白进行质谱分析,测定其肽的指纹图谱。为用5′-RACE与3′-RACE方法,克隆和表达核糖体失活蛋白的基因,设计5′和3′末端的PCR引物。方法：使用HPLC和MALDI-TOF-MS（基质辅助激光解吸附电离飞行时间质谱）分析方法。结果：测定出肽的指纹图谱及三个随机肽段的氨基酸序列。结论：可根据所测肽段氨基酸序列设计5’-和3’-RACE的引物。     

苦荞谷胱甘肽转移酶(FtGST)基因的克隆与序列分析

采用RACE技术,从苦荞(Fagopyrum tatarium)中克隆得到一个谷胱甘肽转移酶(Glutathione S-transferase protein,FtGST)基因。序列分析表明,FtGST基因全长DNA序列和cDNA序列编码区分别为746 bp和666 bp,DNA序列含有一个长度为80 bp(342-421 bp)的内含子;开放阅读框(ORF)长666 bp,编码221个氨基酸。生物信息学分析表明,FtGST基因推导的蛋白质含有Tau家族典型的底物结合口袋、谷胱甘肽结合位点(G-site)和疏水性底物结合位点(H-site)氨基酸残基,表明FtGST为Tau家族蛋白。     

生物质谱结合IMAC亲和提取和磷酸酶水解分析蛋白质磷酸化修饰

蛋白质磷酸化是生物体内非常重要的翻译后修饰方式 ,对磷酸化蛋白质的分析及磷酸化位点的确定有助于理解与其相关的生物功能。基质辅助激光解吸 /电离飞行时间质谱和电喷雾 四极杆 飞行时间质谱这两种生物质谱仪在蛋白质鉴定和翻译后修饰分析中发挥着重要作用。固相金属亲和色谱可选择性亲和提取肽混合物中的磷酸肽 ,结合磷酸酶水解实验和基质辅助激光解吸 /电离飞行时间质谱分析可确定肽混合物中的磷酸肽 ,最后用电喷雾 四极杆 飞行时间串联质谱分析磷酸肽的序列 ,结合数据库检索确定磷酸化位点。     

杀雄剂SQ-1诱导小麦雄性不育花粉粒差异蛋白质组学研究

采用固相pH梯度/SDS-PAGE双向凝胶电泳对经杀雄剂SQ-1处理和未处理的小麦(Triticum aestivum)成熟期花粉总蛋白质进行了分离, 银染显色, 获得了分辨率和重复性较好的双向电泳图谱. 通过PDQuest 2DE图像软件的分析, 在等电点4～7之间可识别350个以上较为清晰的蛋白质点, 其中差异表达明显的蛋白质点数为21个. 将11个差异点采用基质辅助激光解析电离飞行时间质谱进行了肽质量指纹图谱分析, 采用Mascot软件在Swiss-prot数据库查询, 鉴定出了7个蛋白质, 它们分别是液泡转化酶、动力蛋白轻链TCTEX-1、锰超氧化物歧化酶、果糖-1,6-二磷酸醛缩酶、抗坏血酸过氧化物酶、凝集素蛋白激酶和一种未知功能的蛋白. 对已知蛋白的功能进行分析, 推测杀雄剂SQ-1诱导小麦雄性不育可能与能量代谢失衡、淀粉合成受抑制、活性氧积累、细胞凋亡以及花器官发育调节基因作用失控等有关.     

一种优化的MALDI-TOF质谱分析多肽C端序列方法

利用基质辅助激光解吸飞行时间 (MALDI TOF)质谱技术 ,测定羧肽酶Y消化蛋白质和多肽 .所产生的缩短肽片段的质量 ,在一张谱图上得到各个不同酶解时间所形成的肽质量梯度 .根据谱图中相邻两肽峰的质量差得到切去氨基酸的信息 ,从而读出C端氨基酸序列 .在pmol水平下对人促肾上腺皮质激素片段 (ACTH 1 3 9) ,人血管紧张肽片段 (angiotensin Ⅰ ,angiotensin Ⅱ )的C端序列进行了测定 .讨论了在不同浓度 ,不同时间 ,不同温度下酶解所得到的序列测定结果 .在优化条件下 ,人ACTH片段得到了C端 2 0个氨基酸残基顺序 ,为目前C端序列分析所得到的最长序列     

柞蚕抗菌肽CA1的分离

应用FPLC、HPLC系统配合MALDI TOF MS等技术 ,分离得到一个以灭活的Escherichiacoli诱导产生的具有明显杀菌活性的柞蚕抗菌肽CA₁。自动蛋白质序列分析仪测定其一级结构为WNPFKELERAGSRVRDAIISAGVAVATVAQATAILK ,含有 36个氨基酸残基 ,经联机检索 ,与cecropinD有 88%的同源性 ,仅有 4个氨基酸残基的差异 ,其中铰链区第 2 1～ 2 3位氨基酸为AGV ,与已知柞蚕抗菌肽A、D铰链区AGP有所不同 ,提示抗菌肽存在多态性。     

Tau Oligomers Impair Artificial Membrane Integrity and Cellular Viability

The microtubule-associated protein Tau is mainly expressed in neurons, where it binds and stabilizes microtubules. In Alzheimer disease and other tauopathies, Tau protein has a reduced affinity toward microtubules. As a consequence, Tau protein detaches from microtubules and eventually aggregates into β-sheet-containing filaments. The fibrillization of monomeric Tau to filaments is a multistep process that involves the formation of various aggregates, including spherical and protofibrillar oligomers. Previous concepts, primarily developed for Aβ and α-synuclein, propose these oligomeric intermediates as the primary cytotoxic species mediating their deleterious effects through membrane permeabilization. In the present study, we thus analyzed whether this concept can also be applied to Tau protein. To this end, viability and membrane integrity were assessed on SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells and artificial phospholipid vesicles, treated with Tau monomers, Tau aggregation intermediates, or Tau fibrils. Our findings suggest that oligomeric Tau aggregation intermediates are the most toxic compounds of Tau fibrillogenesis, which effectively decrease cell viability and increase phospholipid vesicle leakage. Our data integrate Tau protein into the class of amyloidogenic proteins and enforce the hypothesis of a common toxicity-mediating mechanism for amyloidogenic proteins.     

Amyloidogenesis of Tau protein

The role of microtubule‐associated protein Tau in neurodegeneration has been extensively investigated since the discovery of Tau amyloid aggregates in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The process of formation of amyloid fibrils is known as amyloidogenesis and attracts much attention as a potential target in the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative conditions linked to protein aggregation. Cerebral deposition of amyloid aggregates of Tau is observed not only in AD but also in numerous other tauopathies and prion diseases. Amyloidogenesis of intrinsically unstructured monomers of Tau can be triggered by mutations in the Tau gene, post‐translational modifications, or interactions with polyanionic molecules and aggregation‐prone proteins/peptides. The self‐assembly of amyloid fibrils of Tau shares a number of characteristic features with amyloidogenesis of other proteins involved in neurodegenerative diseases. For example, in vitro experiments have demonstrated that the nucleation phase, which is the rate‐limiting stage of Tau amyloidogenesis, is shortened in the presence of fragmented preformed Tau fibrils acting as aggregation templates (“seeds”). Accordingly, Tau aggregates released by tauopathy‐affected neurons can spread the neurodegenerative process in the brain through a prion‐like mechanism, originally described for the pathogenic form of prion protein. Moreover, Tau has been shown to form amyloid strains—structurally diverse self‐propagating aggregates of potentially various pathological effects, resembling in this respect prion strains. Here, we review the current literature on Tau aggregation and discuss mechanisms of propagation of Tau amyloid in the light of the prion‐like paradigm.     

Phosphorylation of Tau at Thr212, Thr231, and Ser262 Combined Causes Neurodegeneration

Abnormal hyperphosphorylation of the microtubule-associated protein Tau is a hallmark of Alzheimer disease and related diseases called tauopathies. As yet, the exact mechanism by which this pathology causes neurodegeneration is not understood. The present study provides direct evidence that Tau abnormal hyperphosphorylation causes its aggregation, breakdown of the microtubule network, and cell death and identifies phosphorylation sites involved in neurotoxicity. We generated pseudophosphorylated Tau proteins by mutating Ser/Thr to Glu and, as controls, to Ala. These mutations involved one, two, or three pathological phosphorylation sites by site-directed mutagenesis using as backbones the wild type or FTDP-17 mutant R406W Tau. Pseudophosphorylated and corresponding control Tau proteins were expressed transiently in PC12 and CHO cells. We found that a single phosphorylation site alone had little influence on the biological activity of Tau, except Thr²¹², which, upon mutation to Glu in the R406W background, induced Tau aggregation in cells, suggesting phosphorylation at this site along with a modification on the C-terminal of the protein facilitates self-assembly of Tau. The expression of R406W Tau pseudophosphorylated at Thr²¹², Thr²³¹, and Ser²⁶² triggered caspase-3 activation in as much as 85% of the transfected cells, whereas the corresponding value for wild type pseudophosphorylated Tau was 30%. Cells transfected with pseudophosphorylated Tau became TUNEL-positive.     

A current view on Tau protein phosphorylation in Alzheimer's disease

The functions of the neuronal microtubule-associated protein Tau in the central nervous system are regulated by manifold posttranslational modifications at more than 50 sites. Tau in healthy neurons carries multiple phosphate groups, mostly in its microtubule assembly domain. Elevated phosphorylation and aggregation of Tau are widely considered pathological hallmarks in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other tauopathies, triggering the quest for Tau posttranslational modifications in the disease context. However, the phosphorylation patterns of physiological and pathological Tau are surprisingly similar and heterogenous, making it difficult to identify specific modifications as therapeutic targets and biomarkers for AD. We present a concise summary of - and view on - important previous and recent advances in Tau phosphorylation analysis in the context of AD.     

Tau phosphorylation and aggregation in Alzheimer's disease pathology

In this article I shall review how tau phosphorylation and aggregation participates in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other tauopathies. Tau, a microtubule associated protein, is the main component, in phosphorylated form, of the aberrant paired helical filaments found in AD. Tau is present in phosphorylated and aggregated form not only in AD, but in other pathologies (tauopathies). In this review, the phosphorylation of tau, its aggregation, and the possible relation between tau phosphorylation and aggregation is, briefly, described. Also, it is discussed the toxicity of modified tau. In addition, I propose a working model detailing the progression of tau pathologies.     

Oleuropein and derivatives from olives as Tau aggregation inhibitors

Tau isoforms constitute a family of microtubule-associated proteins that are mainly expressed in neurons of the central nervous system. They promote the assembly of tubulin monomers into microtubules and modulate their stability, thus playing a key structural role in the distal portion of axons. In Alzheimer's disease and related tauopathies, Tau aggregation into fibrillary tangles contributes to intraneuronal and glial lesions. We report herein the ability of three natural phenolic derivatives obtained from olives and derived food products to prevent such Tau fibrillization in vitro, namely hydroxytyrosol, oleuropein, and oleuropein aglycone. The latter was found to be more active than the reference Tau aggregation inhibitor methylene blue on both wild-type and P301L Tau proteins, inhibiting fibrillization at low micromolar concentrations. These findings might provide further experimental support for the beneficial nutritional properties of olives and olive oil as well as a chemical scaffold for the development of new drugs aiming at neurodegenerative tauopathies.     

Hsp70 alters tau function and aggregation in an isoform specific manner

Tauopathies are characterized by abnormal aggregation of the microtubule associated protein tau. This aggregation is thought to occur when tau undergoes shifts from its native conformation to one that exposes hydrophobic areas on separate monomers, allowing contact and subsequent association into oligomers and filaments. Molecular chaperones normally function by binding to exposed hydrophobic stretches on proteins and assisting in their refolding. Chaperones of the heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) family have been implicated in the prevention of abnormal tau aggregation in adult neurons. Tau exists as six alternatively spliced isoforms, and all six isoforms appear capable of forming the pathological aggregates seen in Alzheimer's disease. Because tau isoforms differ in primary sequence, we sought to determine whether Hsp70 would differentially affect the aggregation and microtubule assembly characteristics of the various tau isoforms. We found that Hsp70 inhibits tau aggregation directly and not through inducer-mediated effects. We also determined that Hsp70 inhibits the aggregation of each individual tau isoform and was more effective at inhibiting the three repeat isoforms. Finally, all tau isoforms robustly induced microtubule formation while in the presence of Hsp70. The results presented herein indicate that Hsp70 affects tau isoform dysfunction while having very little impact on the normal function of tau to mediate microtubule assembly. This indicates that targeting Hsp70 to tau may provide a therapeutic approach for the treatment of tauopathies that avoids disruption of normal tau function.     

Differential interaction and aggregation of 3-repeat and 4-repeat tau isoforms with 14-3-3ζ protein

Tau isoforms, 3-repeat (3R) and 4-repeat tau (4R), are differentially involved in neuronal development and in several tauopathies. 14-3-3 protein binds to tau and 14-3-3/tau association has been found both in the development and in tauopathies. To understand the role of 14-3-3 in the differential regulation of tau isoforms, we have performed studies on the interaction and aggregation of 3R-tau and 4R-tau, either phosphorylated or unphosphorylated, with 14-3-3ζ. We show by surface plasmon resonance studies that the interaction between unphosphorylated 3R-tau and 14-3-3ζ is ∼3-folds higher than that between unphosphorylated 4R-tau and 14-3-3ζ. Phosphorylation of tau by protein kinase A (PKA) increases the affinity of both 3R- and 4R-tau for 14-3-3ζ to a similar level. An in vitro aggregation assay employing both transmission electron microscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy revealed the aggregation of unphosphorylated 4R-tau to be significantly higher than that of unphosphorylated 3R-tau following the induction of 14-3-3ζ. The filaments formed from 3R- and 4R-tau were almost similar in morphology. In contrast, the aggregation of both 3R- and 4R-tau was reduced to a similar low level after phosphorylation with PKA. Taken together, these results suggest that 14-3-3ζ exhibits a similar role for tau isoforms after PKA-phosphorylation, but a differential role for unphosphorylated tau. The significant aggregation of 4R-tau by 14-3-3ζ suggests that 14-3-3 may act as an inducer in the generation of 4R-tau-predominant neurofibrillary tangles in tauopathies.     

Tau isoform composition influences rate and extent of filament formation

The risk of developing tauopathic neurodegenerative disease depends in part on the levels and composition of six naturally occurring Tau isoforms in human brain. These proteins, which form filamentous aggregates in disease, vary only by the presence or absence of three inserts encoded by alternatively spliced exons 2, 3, and 10 of the Tau gene (MAPT). To determine the contribution of alternatively spliced segments to Tau aggregation propensity, the aggregation kinetics of six unmodified, recombinant human Tau isoforms were examined in vitro using electron microscopy assay methods. Aggregation propensity was then compared at the level of elementary rate constants for nucleation and extension phases. We found that all three alternatively spliced segments modulated Tau aggregation but through differing kinetic mechanisms that could synergize or compete depending on sequence context. Overall, segments encoded by exons 2 and 10 promoted aggregation, whereas the segment encoded by exon 3 depressed it with its efficacy dependent on the presence or absence of a fourth microtubule binding repeat. In general, aggregation propensity correlated with genetic risk reported for multiple tauopathies, implicating aggregation as one candidate mechanism rationalizing the correlation between Tau expression patterns and disease.     

Understanding the disrupting mechanism of the Tau aggregation motif “306VQIVYK311” by phenylthiazolyl‐hydrazides inhibitors

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the abnormal processing of the Tau and the amyloid precursor proteins. The unusual aggregation of Tau is based on the formation of intermolecular β‐sheets through two motifs: ²⁷⁵VQIINK²⁸⁰ and ³⁰⁶VQIVYK³¹¹. Phenylthiazolyl‐hydrazides (PTHs) are capable of inhibiting/disassembling Tau aggregates. However, the disaggregation mechanism of Tau oligomers by PTHs is still unknown. In this work, we studied the disruption of the oligomeric form of the Tau motif ³⁰⁶VQIVYK³¹¹ by PTHs through molecular docking, molecular dynamics, and free energy calculations. We predicted hydrophobic interactions as the major driving forces for the stabilization of Tau oligomer, with V306 and I308 being the major contributors. Nonpolar component of the binding free energy is essential to stabilize Tau‐PTH complexes. PTHs disrupted mainly the van der Waals interactions between the monomers, leading to oligomer destabilization. Destabilization of full Tau filament by PTHs and emodin was not observed in the sampled 20 ns; however, in all cases, the nonpolar component of the binding free energy is essential for the formation of Tau filament‐PTH and Tau filament‐emodin. These results provide useful clues for the design of more effective Tau‐aggregation inhibitors.