The Pepsin Hydrolysate of Bovine Lactoferrin Causes a Collapse of the Membrane Potential in Escherichia coli O157:H7

In the present study, the ability of bovine lactoferrin hydrolysate (LfH) to disrupt the cytoplasmic membrane of Escherichia coli O157:H7 was investigated. Lactoferrin and LfH antimicrobial activities were compared against E. coli O157:H7 and E. coli O157:H7 spheroplasts. The effect of LfH on the cytoplasmic membrane of E. coli O157:H7 cells was determined by evaluating potassium efflux (K⁺), dissipation of ATP and membrane potential (ΔΨ). LfH produced a rapid efflux of potassium ions, a decrease in intracellular levels of ATP coupled with a substantial increase in extracellular ATP levels and a complete dissipation of the ΔΨ. The results suggest that LfH causes a collapse of the membrane integrity by pore formation in the inner membrane, leading to the death of the cell. Moreover, the mechanism of action of LfH on E. coli O157:H7 appears to involve an interference with the inner membrane integrity based on experiments using E. coli O157:H7 spheroplasts.     

Taste Peptide Fractionation from a Fish Protein Hydrolysate

Various proteases were compared with each other for their ability of generating tastes from a fish protein concentrate (FPC), and Pronase was selected as an enzyme producing a large amount of brothy taste peptides. From the FPC hydrolysate obtained by treatment with this enzyme, an acidic fraction of mol. wt. lower than 1000 was prepared by ultrafiltration and subsequently by column treatments with activated charcoal and two different ion-exchangers. The acidic fraction was rechromatographed on Amberlite CG-120 to obtain a fraction containing neither free aspartic acid nor free glutamic acid. The resultant acidic, oligopeptide fraction was found to taste considerably brothy and have a favorable after-taste effect.     

Downstream Processing of Bovine Lactoferrin from Sweet Whey

The development of a downstream process for the isolation of bovine lactoferrin (bLF) from sweet whey is presented. Whey is a by‐product from the cheese manufacturing process that is often used to produce whey protein concentrate powders for food applications. Besides the major whey proteins such as lactalbumin or BSA, minor whey proteins are present such as lactoperoxidase and bLF. In addition to the well‐known biological functions as an antimicrobial and antiviral agent, bLF shows immunomodulatory functions in the host defence system. For the isolation of bLF, a two‐step downstream process was developed based on membrane systems. This paper discusses the application of several membrane types for a crossflow filtration of sweet whey to remove insoluble particles and lipids from the whey with the aim of obtaining a permeate which can be directly used for downstreaming the minor component via ion exchange membrane adsorber systems. The application of such a membrane adsorber is demonstrated.     

Inhibition of Iron/Ascorbate-Induced Lipid Peroxidation by an N-Terminal Peptide of Bovine Lactoferrin and Its Acylated Derivatives

Bovine lactoferrin (LF) and lactoferricin B (LFcin B), an antimicrobial peptide derived from bovine LF, inhibited thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TBARS) formation in a iron/ascorbate-induced liposomal phospholipid peroxidation system. The inhibition of TBARS formation occurred with N-acylated 9-mer peptides with a core sequence of LFcin B and, compared to LFcin B, their antioxidant effect was clearly observed at a concentration almost 100 times lower.     

A Cell-penetrating Peptide Derived from Human Lactoferrin with Conformation-dependent Uptake Efficiency

The molecular events that contribute to the cellular uptake of cell-penetrating peptides (CPP) are still a matter of intense research. Here, we report on the identification and characterization of a 22-amino acid CPP derived from the human milk protein, lactoferrin. The peptide exhibits a conformation-dependent uptake efficiency that is correlated with efficient binding to heparan sulfate and lipid-induced conformational changes. The peptide contains a disulfide bridge formed by terminal cysteine residues. At concentrations exceeding 10 μm, this peptide undergoes the same rapid entry into the cytoplasm that was described previously for the arginine-rich CPPs nona-arginine and Tat. Cytoplasmic entry strictly depends on the presence of the disulfide bridge. To better understand this conformation dependence, NMR spectroscopy was performed for the free peptide, and CD measurements were performed for free and lipid-bound peptide. In solution, the peptides showed only slight differences in secondary structure, with a predominantly disordered structure both in the presence and absence of the disulfide bridge. In contrast, in complex with large unilamellar vesicles, the conformation of the oxidized and reduced forms of the peptide clearly differed. Moreover, surface plasmon resonance experiments showed that the oxidized form binds to heparan sulfate with a considerably higher affinity than the reduced form. Consistently, membrane binding and cellular uptake of the peptide were reduced when heparan sulfate chains were removed.     

Antibacterial Effect of Bovine Lactoferrin Against Udder Pathogens

The antibacterial effect of lactoferrin (Lf) was tested on isolates of Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) as well as on Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae), originally isolated from bovine mastitis. Concentrations of Lf used were 0.67 mg/ml, 1.67 mg/ml, and 2.67 mg/ml. Growth of udder pathogens was monitored by turbidometry either in broth culture or in whey prepared from normal milk. We focused on 3 different growth variables: lag time, slope, and maximum absorbance of bacterial growth curves. Growth inhibition was seen in the broth but hardly at all in whey. The isolates of E. coli and CNS did not grow sufficiently well in whey to draw any conclusions. The most effective inhibitory activity of Lf was seen against E. coli and P. aeruginosa. All 5 E. coli isolates had similar growth patterns. Inhibition of growth by Lf was concentration-dependent. The concentration of 0.67 mg/ml in broth and whey was generally too low for a significant inhibitory effect.     

奶牛乳铁蛋白基因5非翻译区PCR­SSCP多态性分析

采用PCR-SSCP技术,对奶牛乳铁蛋白基因5^'非翻译区1122bp序列进行多态性分析。在该区所划分的5个亚片段上,发现 Blf 5^'-1(227bp),Blf 5^'-3(175bp)和Blf 5^'-5（293bp）3个DNA片段存在多态。进一步对这3个片段进行测序分析,在Blf 5^'-1序列中,发现位于转录起始位点上游-926和-915位分别有G→A及T→G点突变;在Blf 5^'-3片段中,-478位存在G的插入;Blf 5^'-5位点上,发生-28位的C颠换为A和+33位的G颠换为C两处突变。利用TFSEARCH （ver.1.3）软件对乳铁蛋白基因5^'非翻译区潜在调控元件及蛋白质结合位点进行了预测,结果显示5^'非翻译区的突变引起了蛋白质结合因子的变化。     

Isolation of Bovine Adenovirus Type 1 from a Calf with Pneumo-Enteritis

During the last decade, an increasing number of bovine adenoviruses have been isolated from calves suffering from more, or less, well-defined syndromes. These have consisted of respiratory disorders of varying severity, enteritis, or a combination of both, which in typical cases has been termed “pneumo-enteritis”. These investigations have been reviewed by Darbyshire (1968). Wilcox (1969) isolated adenoviruses from kerato-conjunctivitis (KC) in cattle. Furthermore, strains have been isolated from apparently healthy animals (Darbyshire 1968), and from tissue cultures prepared from various organs from calves such as kidneys (Scho- pov et al. 1968), and testes (Rondhuis 1968, Bartha & Csontos 1969). At the present time 9 serotypes of bovine adenoviruses exist, as determined by neutralization tests, and these have recently been reviewed by Guenov et al. (1970). However, several strains, some from cases of pneumonia (Cole 1970, Lupini et al. 1970) and others from KC (Wilcox 1969) remain to be typed and compared with the known prototypes, thereby enabling possible new serotypes to be identified. So far, serotypes 1 and 2 (Darbyshire et al. 1969), serotype 3 (Darbyshire et al. 1966) and serotypes 4 and 5 (Aldasy et al. 1965) have been shown to cause pneumo-enteritis, and serotype 6 (Rondhuis 1970) a mild respiratory disease in experimentally infected calves. Similarly, KC has been produced experimentally by Wilcox (1970), while the pathogenicity for experimental animals of the other typed and untyped strains remains to be investigated.     

Lactoferrin from canine neutrophils: Isolation and physicochemical and antimicrobial properties

Lactoferrin has been isolated from canine leukocytes for the first time. Lactoferrin was identified by N-terminal amino acid sequence and by capability to capture ferric cations resulting in a complex with absorbance maximum at 460-470 nm. It is demonstrated that canine lactoferrin resembles the human homolog in some physicochemical properties, i.e. molecular weight, carbohydrate presence, and conditions of protein-iron complex dissociation. Bactericidal activity of dog lactoferrin was demonstrated on the gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli and gram-positive bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. Bactericidal activity of canine lactoferrin is similar to that of human lactoferrin.     

Isolation and Identification of a New Thymic Peptide from Calf Thymus

Various thymic peptides (including thymulin, thymic humoral factor, thymopoietin, etc.) play important roles in the process of T cell maturation and development. We isolated a new peptide from calf thymus and named it thymus activity factor II (TAF-II). A yield of 0.92 mg of TAF-II was purified from 500 g calf thymus. Analysis by LC/MSD-Trap showed the amino acid sequence of this hexapeptide to be Glu-Ala-Lys-Ser-Gln-Gly-OH with molecular weight 618.5 daltons. We have also begun to investigate the influence of TAF-II.     

Isolation and Identification of Methylarginines from Bovine Brain

Methylarginines in free form were identified in bovine brain. Three compounds were isolated from the basic aliphatic amino acid fraction of bovine brain with several ion-exchange chromatographies. They showed the same Rf values in paper and thin-layer chromatographies as those of authentic NG-monomethylarginine, NG,NG-dimethylarginine, and NG,N'G-dimethylarginine. The migration distance of the isolated compounds in high-voltage paper electrophoresis and the retention times in ion-exchange HPLC were also identical to those of the above authentic methylarginines. We concluded that these three compounds are the methyl derivatives of arginine described above. The amount of these three compounds isolated from 1,090 g of bovine brain was 0.3 mumol of NG-monomethylarginine, 0.1 mumol of NG,NG-dimethylarginine, and 0.5 mumol of NG,N'G-dimethylarginine. The occurrence of these free methylarginines may have an important role in regulating the signal transduction through the nitric oxide system.     

猪骨胶原蛋白酶解物中血管紧张素转换酶抑制剂的提纯

将猪骨胶原蛋白粗提物用胰蛋白酶水解,经阳离子交换树脂层析,ＳｅｐｈａｄｅｘＧ－２５柱凝胶过滤,以及数次反相高效液相层析,最终获得一具有抑制血管紧张素转换酶（ＡＣＥ）活性的单一峰值的多肽。其氨基酸组成为Ｉｌｅ,Ｈｉｓ,Ｓｅｒ,Ｇｌｙ,Ａｌａ,Ｐｒｏ,Ｔｙｒ,Ｌｅｕ,Ａｓｐ．以Ｈｉｐ－Ｇｌｙ－Ｇｌｙ为底物,在ｐＨ为７．１的条件下,此肽对猪肺ＡＣＥ的Ｉ＿（５０）值为２６μｍｏｌ／Ｌ。     

牛气管黏膜抗菌肽成熟肽基因的克隆及序列分析

目的:获得牛气管黏膜抗菌肽(bTAP)成熟肽的基因序列,为后续的研究工作奠定基础。方法:从新屠宰的黄牛气管黏膜中提取总RNA,反转录获得cDNA,以此cDNA为模板进行PCR扩增目的片段,并将其克隆至pMD18-T载体中,经鉴定随机挑选1个阳性重组子进行测序,将测序结果与已报道的序列进行比较,并做NCBIBlast比对。结果:PCR扩增出bTAP成熟肽基因,核苷酸序列测定验证了其正确性;NCBIBlast比对表明,与bTAP成熟肽基因同源性较高的分别是牛β-防御素11、牛β-防御素12、牛β-防御素402、牛β-防御素403、绵羊β-防御素1、绵羊β-防御素2、山羊β-防御素1及山羊β-防御素2,核苷酸序列同源性分别为78.07%、78.95%、80.70%、83.33%、83.33%、80.70%、81.58%和81.58%,氨基酸序列同源性分别为68.42%、65.79%、68.42%、76.32%、71.05%、63.16%、63.16%和68.42%。结论:成功克隆了bTAP成熟肽的基因序列,NCBIBlas比对表明bTAP与防御素可能来自一个共同的祖系基因。     

Isolation and Biological Properties of Osteopontin from Bovine Milk

A procedure for the isolation of osteopontin (OPN) from bovine milk using ion-exchange and hydrophobic chromatography is described. A DEAE-Sephacel column followed by dual phenyl-Sepharose columns yielded ∼8 mg of purified protein per liter of milk. SDS–PAGE analysis revealed that the protein migrated atM_r60,000. NH₂-terminal sequence analysis of the first seven amino acids revealed the protein to be identical to that previously reported for bovine OPN. Also, our preparation demonstrated expected biological properties of OPN including adhesion of both endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells to OPN in a dose- and Arg-Gly-Asp-dependent manner. Furthermore, OPN coupled to Sepharose was capable of binding the α_vβ₃integrin from a detergent extract of endothelial cells. Thus, our procedure yielded biologically active OPN from an abundant and natural source.     

Isolation of Bitter Peptides from Tryptic Hydrolysate of Casein and their Chemical Structure

Bitter peptides were isolated from the tryptic hydrolysate of casein. Fractionation and isolation were carried out using n-butanol extraction, acidic precipitation at pH 5.4, gel filtration with Sephadex G-25, ion exchange chromatography with Dowex 50 W and paper chromatography. Three kinds of bitter peptides were purified. The primary structures of these peptides were proposed as follows; BP-I, Gly-Pro-Phe-Pro-Val-Ileu; BP-II, Phe-Phe-Val-Ala-Pro-Phe-Pro-Glu-Val-Phe-Gly-Lys; BP-III, Phe-Ala-Leu-Pro-Gln-Tyr-Leu-Lys. These peptides were very bitter in a 0.1% solution.

l-Tyrosine, l-phenylalanine and their derivatives were also tasted. The importance of the position of bitter amino acids in the peptide in the development and strengthening of its bitter taste is discussed.