The human ROCO proteins are a family of four proteins characterized by a conserved supradomain: a Ras-like GTPase domain. This domain consists of ROC (Ras of complex proteins) occurring in tandem with a COR (C-terminal of ROC) domain. Together, these proteins are linked to various pathologies including cancer and PD (Parkinson's disease). Despite an increasing research focus on these proteins, ...

objective(s):   gold nanoparticles (gnps) command a great deal of attention for biomedical applications nowadays. the data about the degree of toxicity and the accumulation of gold nanoparticles in-vivo is not enough to judge.  materials and methods:  a total of 32 healthy male wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 including: three gnp-treated and one control group. groups 1, 2 and 3 receive...

High-resolution structure determination of soluble globular proteins relies heavily on x-ray crystallography techniques. Such an approach is often ineffective for investigations into the structure of fibrous proteins as these proteins generally do not crystallize. Thus investigations into fibrous protein structure have relied on less direct methods such as x-ray fiber diffraction and circular d...

The domesticated silkworm, Bombyx mori Linn., a lepidopteran molecular model and an important economic insect that are emerging as an ideal molecular genetic resource for solving a broad range of biological problems. The silkworm, B. mori produces massive amount of silk proteins during the final stage of larval development. These proteins are stored in the middle silk gland and they are dischar...

Microtubules (MTs) are fibrous and tube-like cell substructures exist in cytoplasm of cells which play a vital role in many cellular processes. Surface effects on the vibration of bioliquid MTs surrounded by cytoplasm is investigated in this study. The emphasis is placed on the effect of the motor protein motion on the MTs. The MT is modeled as an orthotropic beam and the surrounded cytoplasm i...

Background The immotile short tail sperm (ISTS) defect is one of the disorders that cause male infertility. Men with this condition have immotile short-tail sperm with structural defects in the fibrous sheath(FS). A Kinase Anchoring Protein 4 (AKAP4) is one of the most abundant proteins in the fibrous sheathof sperm flagella and provides scaffold for the correct assembly of FS.Since exon 6 of A...

Tissue engineering aims at resolving problems such as donor shortage and immune rejection faced by transplantation. Scaffolds (artificial extracellular matrices) have critical roles in tissue engineering. Recently, we developed nano-fibrous poly(L-lactic acid) scaffolds under the hypothesis that synthetic nano-fibrous scaffolding, mimicking the structure of natural collagen fibers, could create...

Hydrogen-bonding networks in proteins considered as structural tensile elements are in balance separately from any other stabilising interactions that may be in operation. The hydrogen bond arrangement in the network is reminiscent of tensegrity structures in architecture and sculpture. Tensegrity has been discussed before in cells and tissues and in proteins. In contrast to previous work only ...