Application of differential display to cultured rat astrocytes subjected to hypoxia allowed cloning of a novel cDNA, termed stress-associated endoplasmic reticulum protein 1 (SERP1). Expression of SERP1 was enhanced in vitro by hypoxia and/or reoxygenation or other forms of stress, causing accumulation of unfolded proteins in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and in vivo by middle cerebral art...

We present a theoretical investigation of the folding of small proteins assisted by chaperones. We describe the proteins in the framework of an effective potential model which contains the Ramachandran angles as degrees of freedom. The cage of chaperonins is modeled by an external confining potential which is also able to take into account hydrophobic and hydrophilic effects inside the cavity. ...

Objective: Oxidative stress that damages proteins result in aging and age related diseases. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of tocotrienol rich fraction (TRF) on the expression of proteins in oxidative stress-induced caenohabditis elegans (C.elegans) which has homologous genes to humans. Methods: The worms were treated with TRF prior to, after and continuously in separate group...

Escherichia coli RNase E is an essential enzyme that forms multicomponent ribonucleolytic complexes known as "RNA degradosomes." These complexes consist of four major components: RNase E, PNPase, RhlB RNA helicase, and enolase. However, the role of enolase in the RNase E/degradosome is not understood. Here, we report that presence of enolase in the RNase E/degradosome under anaerobic conditions...

Genome integrity maintenance is crucial for cell survival and for counteracting cancer onset and progression. Mammary cells invest great amount of energy in DNA repair, in order to avoid errors accumulation in DNA sequence. Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) removes a broad spectrum of DNA damages, mainly bulky DNA lesions. Tissues of Head and Neck region are heavily exposed to bulky lesions indu...

Efficient capture of target analyte on biosensor platforms is a prerequisite for reliable and specific detection of pathogenic microorganisms in a microfluidic chip. Antibodies have been widely used as ligands; however, because of their occasional unsatisfactory performance, a search for alternative receptors is underway. Heat shock protein 60 (Hsp60), a eukaryotic mitochondrial chaperon protei...

Papillary Renal Cell carcinoma (pRCC) is the second most common type of RCC, accounting for about 15% of all RCCs. Surgical excision is the main treatment option. Still, 10 - 15 % of clinically localized tumours will recur and/or develop metastasis early after surgery, and no reliable prognostic biomarkers are available to identify them. It is known that pRCC cells rely on high rates of aerobic...

Stress signals cause abnormal proteins to accumulate in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Such stress is known as ER stress, which has been suggested to be involved in neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, obesity and cancer. ER stress activates the unfolded protein response (UPR) to reduce levels of abnormal proteins by inducing the production of chaperon proteins such as GRP78, and to attenuate...

Ligands such as enzyme inhibitors stabilize the native conformation of a protein upon binding to the native state, but some compounds destabilize the native conformation upon binding to the non-native state. The former ligands are termed "stabilizer chaperones" and the latter ones "destabilizer chaperones." Because the stabilization effects are essential for the medical chaperone (MC) hypothesi...

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is an important cool season forage plant that is not well suited to extreme heat, salts, or heavy metals. To develop transgenic tall fescue plants with enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress, we introduced an alfalfa Hsp23 gene expression vector construct through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Integration and expression of the transgene were confi...