Opioid Peptides: An Overview of Functional Significance

International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics - Bioactive peptides have been reported to exhibit opioid-like activity and are termed as opioid peptides. Either these are produced...     

A Peptide Bond from the Inter-lobe Segment in the Bilobal Lactoferrin Acts as a Preferred Site for Cleavage for Serine Proteases to Generate the Perfect C-lobe: Structure of the Pepsin Hydrolyzed Lactoferrin C-lobe at 2.28 Å Resolution

The Protein Journal - C-lobe represents the C-terminal half of lactoferrin which is a bilobal 80 kDa iron binding glycoprotein. The two lobes are designated as N-lobe (Ser1-Glu333) and...     

PMTER-ABE: a practical multi-authority CP-ABE with traceability,revocation and outsourcing decryption for secure access control in cloud systems

Cluster Computing - Attribute-based encryption (ABE) has evolved as an efficient and secure method for storage of data with fine-grained access control in cloud platforms. In recent years,...     

Using defined finger–finger interfaces as units of assembly for constructing zinc-finger nucleases

Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) have been used for genome engineering in a wide variety of organisms; however, it remains challenging to design effective ZFNs for many genomic sequences using publicly available zinc-finger modules. This limitation is in part because of potential finger–finger incompatibility generated on assembly of modules into zinc-finger arrays (ZFAs). Herein, we describe the validation of a new set of two-finger modules that can be used for building ZFAs via conventional assembly methods or a new strategy—finger stitching—that increases the diversity of genomic sequences targetable by ZFNs. Instead of assembling ZFAs based on units of the zinc-finger structural domain, our finger stitching method uses units that span the finger–finger interface to ensure compatibility of neighbouring recognition helices. We tested this approach by generating and characterizing eight ZFAs, and we found their DNA-binding specificities reflected the specificities of the component modules used in their construction. Four pairs of ZFNs incorporating these ZFAs generated targeted lesions in vivo, demonstrating that stitching yields ZFAs with robust recognition properties.     

Isolation and characterization of biosurfactant producing <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus</Emphasis> sp. from diesel fuel-contaminated site

Among hydrocarbon pollutants, diesel oil is a complex mixture of alkanes and aromatic compounds which are often encountered as soil contaminants leaking from storage tanks and pipelines or as result of accidental spillage. One of the best ecofriendly approaches is to restore contaminated soil by using microorganisms able to degrade those toxic compounds in a bioremediation process. In the present study, nineteen bacteria were isolated by enrichment culture technique from diesel spilled soil collected from electric generator shed of NBAIM, Mau. All the isolates were subjected to screening for lipase production and twelve isolates were found to be positive for lipase. When the isolates were screened for biosurfactant production using CTAB-methylene blue agar plates, only one isolate viz. 2NBDSH3 was found positive which was found to be phylogenetically closely related with Bacillus flexus. Despite having low emulsification index, the bacterium could degrade 88.6% of diesel oil in soil. Biosurfactant from the isolate was extracted and characterized through infra-red spectroscopy which indicated its possible lipopeptide nature which was further supported by strong absorption in UV range in the UV-Vis spectrum. The results of the present study indicated that the isolate either does not produce any bioemulsifier or produces very low amount of emulsifier rather it produces a lipopeptide biosurfactant which helps in degradation of diesel oil by lowering the surface tension. The bacterium thus isolated and characterized can serve as a promising solution for ecofriendly remediation of bacterium diesel contaminated soils.     

Pyrolysis of groundnut de-oiled cake and characterization of the liquid product

Renewable biomass is considered as an important energy resource all over the world and for an agriculture based economy like that of India, the future prospects of being able to convert widely available biomass materials into various forms of fuel is most attractive. In this study, pyrolysis of groundnut de-oiled cake was investigated with an aim of studying the physical and chemical characteristics of the bio-fuel produced and to determine its feasibility as a commercial fuel. Thermal pyrolysis of groundnut de-oiled cake was done in a semi-batch reactor at a temperature range of 200-500 °C and at a heating rate of 20 °C/min. The chemical analysis of the bio-fuel showed the presence of functional groups such as alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, amines, nitriles, nitro compounds and aromatics rings. The physical properties of the bio-fuel obtained were close to that of diesel and petrol.     

Clinical proteomics of the neglected human malarial parasite Plasmodium vivax

Recent reports highlight the severity and the morbidity of disease caused by the long neglected malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax. Due to inherent difficulties in the laboratory-propagation of P. vivax, the biology of this parasite has not been adequately explored. While the proteome of P. falciparum, the causative agent of cerebral malaria, has been extensively explored from several sources, there is limited information on the proteome of P. vivax. We have, for the first time, examined the proteome of P. vivax isolated directly from patients without adaptation to laboratory conditions. We have identified 153 proteins from clinical P. vivax, majority of which do not show homology to any previously known gene products. We also report 29 new proteins that were found to be expressed in P. vivax for the first time. In addition, several proteins previously implicated as anti-malarial targets, were also found in our analysis. Most importantly, we found several unique proteins expressed by P. vivax.This study is an important step in providing insight into physiology of the parasite under clinical settings.     

On the mechanism of palmitic acid-induced apoptosis: the role of a pore induced by palmitic acid and Ca2+ in mitochondria

Palmitic acid (Pal) is known to promote apoptosis (Sparagna G et al (2000) Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 279: H2124–H2132) and its amount in blood and mitochondria increases under some pathological conditions. Yet, the mechanism of the proapoptotic action of Pal has not been elucidated. We present evidence for the involvement of the mitochondrial cyclosporin A-insensitive pore induced by Pal/Ca²⁺ complexes in the apoptotic process. Opening of this pore led to a fall of the mitochondrial membrane potential and the release of the proapoptotic signal cytochrome c. The addition of cytochrome c prevented these effects and recovered membrane potential, which is in contrast to the cyclosporin A-sensitive mitochondrial permeability transition pore. Oleic and linoleic acids prevented the Pal/Ca²⁺-induced pore opening in the intact mitochondria, this directly and significantly correlating with the effect of these fatty acids on Pal-induced apoptosis in cells (Hardy S et al (2003) J Biol Chem 278: 31861–31870). The specific probe for cardiolipin, 10-N-nonyl acridine orange, inhibited formation of this pore.