Renin binding protein (RnBP) is a proteinous renin inhibitor. This protein binds to renin forming a protein complex, so-called high molecular weight (HMW) renin. The protein complex has been confirmed by purification and characterization of HMW renin [1] and RnBP from porcine kidney [2, 31. Recently, cDNA clones encoding RnBPs were isolated from porcine, human and rat kidney cDNA libraries [4, ...

The recent identification of a novel binding site for angiotensin (Ang) II as the peptidase neurolysin (E.C. 3.4.24.16) has implications for the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). This report describes the distribution of specific binding of 125I-Sarcosine1, Isoleucine8 Ang II (125I-SI Ang II) in neurolysin knockout mouse brains compared to wild-type mouse brains using quantitative receptor autora...

Aldosterone receptors from rat kidney slices were utilized in a competitive binding technique to analyze the contribution of various steroids to plasma "mineralocorticoid" activity and to assess their possible role in hypertension. To consider simultaneously the plasma binding, steroids were incubated with slices in undiluted plasma; competitor activities for [3H]aldosterone binding were aldost...

A novel method to measure distances between druggable protein cavities is presented . Starting from user-defined ligand binding sites, a set of eight topological and physicochemical properties are projected from cavity-lining protein residues to an 80 triangle-discretised sphere placed at the centre of the binding site, thus defining a cavity fingerprint. Representing binding site properties on...

The fight against the emergence of mutant influenza strains has led to the screening of an increasing number of compounds for inhibitory activity against influenza neuraminidase. This study explores the chemical space of neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs), which provides an opportunity to obtain further molecular insights regarding the underlying basis of their bioactivity. In particular, a large ...

To delineate the cis-acting elements of the proximal promoter responsible for cyclic AMP (cAMP)-induced human renin gene transcription, 5'-flanking regions of the human renin gene were fused to a luciferase reporter gene and transfected in chorionic cells. Forskolin treatment induced the expression of luciferase by 2.4-fold when the reporter plasmid contained the promoter region (-582 to + 16)....

Introduction: Sniffin’ Sticks smell identification test is a tool used for evaluation of olfactory function but the results are culture-dependent. It relies on the subject’s familiarity to the odorant and descriptors. This study aims to develop the Malaysian version of Sniffin’ Sticks smell identification test suitable for local population usage. Materials and Methods:   The o...

Introduction: Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) are used in treating pathologic conditions such as fever, pain and inflammation by inhibiting cyclooxygenase and consequently prostaglandin production. Recently , the discovery of different isoforms of this enzyme, Cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) andCyclooxygense-2 (COX-2), has led to the synthesis and introduction of novel drugs with select...

Four pendenticity based topological descriptors termed as superaugmented pendentic indices have been conceptualized in the present study. An in-house computer program was utilized to compute index values of all the possible structures (with at least one pendent vertex) containing four, five and six vertices. The sensitivity towards branching, discriminating power, degeneracy and mathematical pr...

A data mining study has been done using HIV-1 protease crystal structures complexed with FDA approved HIV-1 protease inhibitor drugs. Chemical descriptors have been computed for the binding pockets of each crystal structure, yielding approximately 600 constitutional, topological, geometric, elecrotostatic, and quantum mechanical descriptors for each structure. Several supervised (hybrid binary ...