Spatiotemporal control of peptide nanofibre growth was achieved by photocleavage of a DNA-conjugated β-sheet forming peptide that is linked through a photoresponsive amino acid residue. Peptide nanofibres were selectively formed by photocleaving the conjugate on a complementary DNA-immobilised glass substrate.

BACKGROUND Quantitation of β-cell function is critical in better understanding of the dynamic interactions of insulin secretion, clearance and action at different phases in the progression of diabetes. The present study aimed to quantify β-cell secretory function independently of insulin sensitivity in the context of differential metabolic clearance rates of insulin (MCRI) in nonhuman primates ...

Eccentric exercise (ECC) causes muscle damage, insulin resistance, and increased pancreatic β-cell secretion in young individuals. However, the effects of age on the pancreatic β-cell response to glucose after ECC are unknown. Hyperglycemic clamps (180 min, 10.0 mM) were performed on eight young (age 22 ± 1 yr) and eight older (age 66 ± 2 yr) healthy sedentary males without exercise (CONT) and ...

The aggregation of the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide into fibrillar deposits has long been considered the key neuropathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aβ peptides are generated from proteolytic processing of the transmembrane Aβ precursor protein (AβPP) via sequential proteolysis through the β-secretase activity of β-site AβPP-cleaving enzyme (BACE1) and by the intramembranous enzyme γ-...

Since 1998, a great deal of progress has been made towards determining and understanding the molecular structures of amyloid fibrils, including fibrils formed by the β-amyloid peptide that is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Much of this progress has resulted from solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements, which provide experimental constraints on molecular conformations and...

BACKGROUND/AIMS β-Klotho, a transmembrane protein expressed in several tissues including the brain and the kidney, is critically important for inhibition of 1,25(OH)2D3 formation by FGF23. The extracellular domain of Klotho protein could be cleaved off, thus being released into blood or cerebrospinal fluid. Soluble klotho is a β-glucuronidase participating in the regulation of several ion chann...

OBJECTIVE We evaluated the clinical usefulness of a genetic risk score (GRS) based on 14 well-established variants for type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We analyzed 14 SNPs at HHEX, CDKAL1, CDKN2B, SLC30A8, KCNJ11, IGF2BP2, PPARG, TCF7L2, FTO, KCNQ1, IRS-1, GCKR, UBE2E2, and C2CD4A/B in 1,487 Japanese individuals (724 patients with type 2 diabetes and 763 control subjects). A GRS w...

Reverse turns play an important role in protein folding, molecular recognition and in eliciting immune response. While sequence determinants of reverse turns are known, not much is known about their energetics. In this paper we have investigated the thermodynamics of a reverse turn sequence YPGDV, an experimentally well characterized turn sequence, using molecular dynamics simulations performed...

The Wnt signaling pathway plays a critical role in cell proliferation and differentiation, thus it is often associated with diseases such as cancers. Unfortunately, although attractive, developing anti-cancer strategy targeting Wnt signaling has been challenging given that the most attractive targets are involved in protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Here, we develop a stapled peptide inhibit...

Animal models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) which emphasize activation of microglia may have particular utility in correlating proinflammatory activity with neurodegeneration. This paper reviews injection of amyloid- β (A β ) into rat brain as an alternative AD animal model to the use of transgenic animals. In particular, intrahippocampal injection of Aβ 1-42 peptide demonstrates prominent microg...