A reverse zymogram method for the detection of bacterial lysozyme inhibitors was developed. This method was validated by using a periplasmic protein extract of Escherichia coli containing a known inhibitor and subsequently led to the detection of a new proteinaceous hen egg white lysozyme inhibitor in Proteus mirabilis.

In comparison with hen egg white lysozyme, goose lysozyme is known to be aberrant in both its structure and its enzymatic behavior in the presence of polymers of N-acetylglucosamine or cell suspensions of Micrococcus luteus. Our chemical studies show, however, that like the hen enzyme, goose lysozyme has muramidase activity. At several pH levels ranging from 3.5 to 7.1 the goose enzyme liberate...

AIMS Clostridium perfringens type A causes both clinical and subclinical forms of necrotic enteritis in domestic avian species. In this study the inhibitory effect of hen egg white lysozyme on the vegetative form of Cl. perfringens type A and the production of alpha-toxin in vitro was investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS A micro-broth dilution assay was used to evaluate the minimal inhibitory co...

protein aggregation is a serious problem for both biotechnology and cell biology. diseases such as prion misfolding, alzheimer’s, and other amyloidosis are phenomena for which protein aggregation in our living cells is of considerable relevance. human lysozyme has been shown to form amyloid fibrils in individuals suffering from nonneuropathic systemic amyloidosis, all of which have point mutati...

Lysozyme from lambda bacteriophage (lambda lysozyme) is an 18 kDa globular protein displaying some of the structural features common to all lysozymes; in particular, lambda lysozyme consists of two structural domains connected by a helix, and has its catalytic residues located at the interface between these two domains. An interesting feature of lambda lysozyme, when compared to the well-charac...

Glycation causes severe damage to protein structure that could lead to amyloid formation in special cases. Here in this report, we have shown for the first time that hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) does not undergo amyloid formation even after prolonged glycation in the presence of D-glucose, D-fructose and D-ribose. Cross-linked oligomers were formed in all the cases and ribose was found to be t...

Using hen egg-white lysozyme, the effect of blood proteins on CD4 thymic cells was examined. A small fraction of i.v. injected hen egg-white lysozyme rapidly entered the thymus into the medulla. There it was captured and presented by dendritic cells (DCs) to thymocytes from two TCR transgenic mice, one directed to a dominant peptide and a second to a poorly displayed peptide, both presented by ...

To observe the ionized status of the amino acid residues in proteins at different pH (protein pH titration in the crystalline state) by neutron diffraction, hen egg-white lysozyme was crystallized over a wide pH range (2.5-8.0). Crystallization phase diagrams at pH 2.5, 6.0 and 7.5 were determined. At pH < 4.5 the border between the metastable region and the nucleation region shifted to the lef...

Anti-idiotopic antibodies react with unique antigenic features, usually associated with the combining sites, of other antibodies. They may thus mimic specific antigens that react with the same antibodies. The structural basis of this mimicry is analyzed here in detail for an anti-idiotopic antibody that mimics the antigen, hen egg-white lysozyme. The crystal structure of an anti-hen-egg-white l...