Falcipains (FPs) are hemoglobinases of Plasmodium falciparum that are validated targets for the development of antimalarial chemotherapy. A combined ligand- and structure-based virtual screening of commercial databases was performed to identify structural analogs of virtual screening hits previously discovered in our laboratory. A total of 28 low micromolar inhibitors of FP-2 and FP-3 were iden...

Signaling in the human growth hormone (hGH)-human GH receptor system is initiated by a controlled sequential two-step hormone-induced dimerization of two hGH receptors via their extracellular domains (ECDs). Little is currently known about the energetics governing the important regulatory step in receptor signaling (step 2) because of previously existing experimental barriers in characterizing ...

Human progesterone receptors (PR) exist as two functionally distinct isoforms, PR-A and PR-B. The proteins are identical except for an additional 164 residues located at the N terminus of PR-B. To determine the mechanisms responsible for isoform-specific functional differences, we present here a thermodynamic dissection of PR-A-promoter interactions and compare the results to our previous work ...

The iron-dependent regulator (IdeR) is a 230-amino acid transcriptional repressor that regulates iron homeostasis, oxidative stress response and virulence in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The natural ligand for IdeR is Fe(II), but Ni(II), Co(II), Cd(II), Mn(II), and Zn(II) also bind to and activate the protein in vitro. Protein activation by metal is a complex process involving metal-induced fold...