Antioxidant and Anti-hypertensive Bioactive Peptides from Indian Mackerel Fish Waste

International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics - India ranks second in the harvesting and production of fish. The discard of fish is near about 20–40% of total fish weight....     

Peptide Similarity Search Based and Virtual Screening Based Strategies to Identify Small Molecules to Inhibit CarD–RNAP Interaction in M. tuberculosis

International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics - Inhibition of protein–protein interaction is considered as an innovative approach in the drug development field. In the present...     

Synthesis of spiro[chroman-2,4′-piperidin]-4-one derivatives as acetyl-CoA carboxylase inhibitors

Various spiro[chroman-2,4′-piperidin]-4-one derivatives (38a–m and 43a–j) have been designed, synthesized and evaluated for in vitro acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) inhibitory activity. Several compounds have shown ACC inhibitory activity in low nanomolar range. Compound 38j reduced the respiratory quotient (RQ) in C57BL/6J mice indicating increase in whole body fat oxidation even in the presence of high carbohydrate diet. Structure–activity relationship (SAR) has been discussed.     

Probing the outer mouth structure of the HERG channel with peptide toxin footprinting and molecular modeling

Previous studies have shown that the unusually long S5-P linker lining human ether a-go-go related gene's (hERG's) outer vestibule is critical for its channel function: point mutations at high-impact positions here can interfere with the inactivation process and, in many cases, also reduce the pore's K+ selectivity. Because no data are available on the equivalent region in the available K channel crystal structures to allow for homology modeling, we used alternative approaches to model its three-dimensional structure. The first part of this article describes mutant cycle analysis used to identify residues on hERG's outer vestibule that interact with specific residues on the interaction surface of BeKm-1, a peptide toxin with known NMR structure and a high binding affinity to hERG. The second part describes molecular modeling of hERG's pore domain. The transmembrane region was modeled after the crystal structure of KvAP pore domain. The S5-P linker was docked to the transmembrane region based on data from previous NMR and mutagenesis experiments, as well as a set of modeling criteria. The models were further restrained by contact points between hERG's outer vestibule and the bound BeKm-1 toxin molecule deduced from the mutant cycle analysis. Based on these analyses, we propose a working model for the open conformation of the outer vestibule of the hERG channel, in which the S5-P linkers interact with the pore loops to influence ion flux through the pore.     

Lgl2 Executes Its Function as a Tumor Suppressor by Regulating ErbB Signaling in the Zebrafish Epidermis

Changes in tissue homeostasis, acquisition of invasive cell characteristics, and tumor formation can often be linked to the loss of epithelial cell polarity. In carcinogenesis, the grade of neoplasia correlates with impaired cell polarity. In Drosophila, lethal giant larvae (lgl), discs large (dlg), and scribble, which are components of the epithelial apico-basal cell polarity machinery, act as tumor suppressors, and orthologs of this evolutionary conserved pathway are lost in human carcinoma with high frequency. However, a mechanistic link between neoplasia and vertebrate orthologs of these tumor-suppressor genes remains to be fully explored at the organismal level. Here, we show that the pen/lgl2 mutant phenotype shares two key cellular and molecular features of mammalian malignancy: cell autonomous epidermal neoplasia and epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition (EMT) of basal epidermal cells including the differential expression of several regulators of EMT. Further, we found that epidermal neoplasia and EMT in pen/lgl2 mutant epidermal cells is promoted by ErbB signalling, a pathway of high significance in human carcinomas. Intriguingly, EMT in the pen/lgl2 mutant is facilitated specifically by ErbB2 mediated E-cadherin mislocalization and not via canonical snail–dependent down-regulation of E-cadherin expression. Our data reveal that pen/lgl2 functions as a tumor suppressor gene in vertebrates, establishing zebrafish pen/lgl2 mutants as a valuable cancer model.     

Susceptibility of mice to phenytoin-induced cleft palate correlated with inhibition of fetal palatal RNA and protein synthesis (41255)

Phenytoin administered to pregnant mice during the critical embryonic period of palatal differentiation produced 50% cleft palates in the Ajax (A/J) strain compared to 1.6% clefts in the C57BL/6 (B6) strain of mice. Furthermore, a single maternal injection of phenytoin produced a significantly greater and more persistent decrease in fetal palatal RNA and protein synthesis in the sensitive A/J strain compared to that in the insensitive B6 strain of mice. Thus, these differential effects of phenytoin on RNA and protein synthesis are associated with the differential susceptibility to the teratogenic action of phenytoin in the two strains.