A 17-amino acid arginine-rich peptide from the bovine immunodeficiency virus Tat protein has been shown to bind with high affinity and specificity to bovine immunodeficiency virus transactivation response element (TAR) RNA, making contacts in the RNA major groove near a bulge. We show that, as in other peptide-RNA complexes, arginine and threonine side chains make important contributions to bin...

Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that FHIT (fragile histidine triad) is a bona fide tumour suppressor gene in a large fraction of human tumours, including hepatocellular cancer. A virus-based delivery system has been developed to transfer the FHIT gene into many types of cancer cells to inhibit growth or even induce apoptosis. However, a protein-based replacement strategy for FHIT has not...

Twin arginine translocation (Tat) systems of thylakoid and bacterial membranes transport folded proteins using the proton gradient as the sole energy source. Tat substrates have hydrophobic signal peptides with an essential twin arginine (RR) recognition motif. The multispanning cpTatC plays a central role in Tat operation: It binds the signal peptide, directs translocase assembly, and may faci...

We previously reported enhanced expression of the p67(phox) and gp91(phox) components of NAD(P)H oxidase in angiotensin (Ang) II-induced hypertension, suggesting de novo assembly in response to Ang II. To examine the direct involvement of NAD(P)H oxidases in Ang II-induced O(2)(-) production, we designed a chimeric peptide that inhibits p47(phox) association with gp91(phox) in NAD(P)H oxidase (...

Magnetic poly (D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA)/lipid nanoparticles (MPLs) were fabricated from PLGA, L-α-phosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE), 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-amino (polyethylene glycol) (DSPE-PEG-NH2), and magnetic nanoparticles (NPs), and then conjugated to trans-activating transcriptor (TAT) peptide. The TAT-MPLs were designed to target the brain by magnetic gui...

The transcriptional activating (Tat) proteins from human immunodeficiency virus and simian immunodeficiency virus are sequence-specific RNA-binding proteins. In human immunodeficiency virus Tat, a single arginine residue, flanked on each side by three to four basic amino acids, mediates specific binding to a bulge region in trans-acting responsive element (TAR) RNA. We have systematically mutat...

cloning and sequencing of a lipase gene from an indigenous bacillus pumilus, strain f3, revealed an open-reading frame of 648 nucleotides predicted to encode a protein of 215 residues. sequence analysis showed that f3 lipase contained a signal peptide composed of 34 amino acids with an h domain of 18 residues. a tat-like motif was found in the signal peptide similar to some other bacillus pumil...

BACKGROUND DNA delivery with bacteriophage by surface-displayed mammalian cell penetrating peptides has been reported. Although, various phages have been used to facilitate DNA transfer by surface displaying the protein transduction domain of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Tat protein (Tat peptide), no similar study has been conducted using T7 phage. METHODS In this study, we engineeredT...

The twin-arginine translocase (Tat) system is a recently discovered pathway which transports proteins in bacteria and chloroplasts. This system only translocates proteins with a cleavable N-terminal signal peptide with the distinctive twin-arginine (RR) motif, which is crucial to Tat function. Here, site-directed mutagenesis of the signal peptide of the Tat substrate TorA-GFP which has a triple...

RNA is a drug target involved in diverse cellular functions and viral processes. Molecules that inhibit the HIV TAR RNA-Tat protein interaction may attenuate Tat/TAR-dependent protein expression and potentially serve as anti-HIV therapeutics. By incorporating positively charged residues with mixed side chain lengths, we designed peptides that bind TAR RNA with enhanced intracellular activity. T...