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Sample records for peptide structure prediction

  1. Structural prediction and analysis of VIH-related peptides from selected crustacean species.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagaraju, Ganji Purna Chandra; Kumari, Nunna Siva; Prasad, Ganji Lakshmi Vara; Rajitha, Balney; Meenu, Madan; Rao, Manam Sreenivasa; Naik, Bannoth Reddya

    2009-08-17

    The tentative elucidation of the 3D-structure of vitellogenesis inhibiting hormone (VIH) peptides is conversely underprivileged by difficulties in gaining enough peptide or protein, diffracting crystals, and numerous extra technical aspects. As a result, no structural information is available for VIH peptide sequences registered in the Genbank. In this situation, it is not surprising that predictive methods have achieved great interest. Here, in this study the molt-inhibiting hormone (MIH) of the kuruma prawn (Marsupenaeus japonicus) is used, to predict the structure of four VIHrelated peptides in the crustacean species. The high similarity of the 3D-structures and the calculated physiochemical characteristics of these peptides suggest a common fold for the entire family.

  2. Predicting binding within disordered protein regions to structurally characterised peptide-binding domains.

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    Waqasuddin Khan

    Full Text Available Disordered regions of proteins often bind to structured domains, mediating interactions within and between proteins. However, it is difficult to identify a priori the short disordered regions involved in binding. We set out to determine if docking such peptide regions to peptide binding domains would assist in these predictions.We assembled a redundancy reduced dataset of SLiM (Short Linear Motif containing proteins from the ELM database. We selected 84 sequences which had an associated PDB structures showing the SLiM bound to a protein receptor, where the SLiM was found within a 50 residue region of the protein sequence which was predicted to be disordered. First, we investigated the Vina docking scores of overlapping tripeptides from the 50 residue SLiM containing disordered regions of the protein sequence to the corresponding PDB domain. We found only weak discrimination of docking scores between peptides involved in binding and adjacent non-binding peptides in this context (AUC 0.58.Next, we trained a bidirectional recurrent neural network (BRNN using as input the protein sequence, predicted secondary structure, Vina docking score and predicted disorder score. The results were very promising (AUC 0.72 showing that multiple sources of information can be combined to produce results which are clearly superior to any single source.We conclude that the Vina docking score alone has only modest power to define the location of a peptide within a larger protein region known to contain it. However, combining this information with other knowledge (using machine learning methods clearly improves the identification of peptide binding regions within a protein sequence. This approach combining docking with machine learning is primarily a predictor of binding to peptide-binding sites, and is not intended as a predictor of specificity of binding to particular receptors.

  3. Toward Structure Prediction for Short Peptides Using the Improved SAAP Force Field Parameters

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    Kenichi Dedachi

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on the observation that Ramachandran-type potential energy surfaces of single amino acid units in water are in good agreement with statistical structures of the corresponding amino acid residues in proteins, we recently developed a new all-atom force field called SAAP, in which the total energy function for a polypeptide is expressed basically as a sum of single amino acid potentials and electrostatic and Lennard-Jones potentials between the amino acid units. In this study, the SAAP force field (SAAPFF parameters were improved, and classical canonical Monte Carlo (MC simulation was carried out for short peptide models, that is, Met-enkephalin and chignolin, at 300 K in an implicit water model. Diverse structures were reasonably obtained for Met-enkephalin, while three folded structures, one of which corresponds to a native-like structure with three native hydrogen bonds, were obtained for chignolin. The results suggested that the SAAP-MC method is useful for conformational sampling for the short peptides. A protocol of SAAP-MC simulation followed by structural clustering and examination of the obtained structures by ab initio calculation or simply by the number of the hydrogen bonds (or the hardness was demonstrated to be an effective strategy toward structure prediction for short peptide molecules.

  4. Pathways to Structure-Property Relationships of Peptide-Materials Interfaces: Challenges in Predicting Molecular Structures.

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    Walsh, Tiffany R

    2017-07-18

    challenges in their successful application to model the biotic-abiotic interface, related to several factors. For instance, simulations require a plausible description of the chemistry and the physics of the interface, which comprises two very different states of matter, in the presence of liquid water. Also, it is essential that the conformational ensemble be comprehensively characterized under these conditions; this is especially challenging because intrinsically disordered peptides do not typically admit one single structure or set of structures. Moreover, a plausible structural model of the substrate is required, which may require a high level of detail, even for single-element materials such as Au surfaces or graphene. Developing and applying strategies to make credible predictions of the conformational ensemble of adsorbed peptides and using these to construct structure-property relationships of these interfaces have been the goals of our efforts. We have made substantial progress in developing interatomic potentials for these interfaces and adapting advanced conformational sampling approaches for these purposes. This Account summarizes our progress in the development and deployment of interfacial force fields and molecular simulation techniques for the purpose of elucidating these insights at biomolecule-materials interfaces, using examples from our laboratories ranging from noble-metal interfaces to graphitic substrates (including carbon nanotubes and graphene) and oxide materials (such as titania). In addition to the well-established application areas of plasmonic materials, biosensing, and the production of medical implant materials, we outline new directions for this field that have the potential to bring new advances in areas such as energy materials and regenerative medicine.

  5. Structural pattern matching of nonribosomal peptides

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    Leclère Valérie

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Nonribosomal peptides (NRPs, bioactive secondary metabolites produced by many microorganisms, show a broad range of important biological activities (e.g. antibiotics, immunosuppressants, antitumor agents. NRPs are mainly composed of amino acids but their primary structure is not always linear and can contain cycles or branchings. Furthermore, there are several hundred different monomers that can be incorporated into NRPs. The NORINE database, the first resource entirely dedicated to NRPs, currently stores more than 700 NRPs annotated with their monomeric peptide structure encoded by undirected labeled graphs. This opens a way to a systematic analysis of structural patterns occurring in NRPs. Such studies can investigate the functional role of some monomeric chains, or analyse NRPs that have been computationally predicted from the synthetase protein sequence. A basic operation in such analyses is the search for a given structural pattern in the database. Results We developed an efficient method that allows for a quick search for a structural pattern in the NORINE database. The method identifies all peptides containing a pattern substructure of a given size. This amounts to solving a variant of the maximum common subgraph problem on pattern and peptide graphs, which is done by computing cliques in an appropriate compatibility graph. Conclusion The method has been incorporated into the NORINE database, available at http://bioinfo.lifl.fr/norine. Less than one second is needed to search for a pattern in the entire database.

  6. Prediction of twin-arginine signal peptides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bendtsen, Jannick Dyrløv; Nielsen, Henrik; Widdick, D.

    2005-01-01

    expressions, whereas hydrophobicity discrimination of Tat- and Sec- signal peptides is carried out by an artificial neural network. A potential cleavage site of the predicted Tat signal peptide is also reported. The TatP prediction server is available as a public web server at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/TatP/....

  7. Structures and related properties of helical, disulfide-stabilized peptides

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pagel, Mark D. [Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry

    1993-11-01

    The three dimensional structure of several peptides were determined by NMR spectroscopy and distance geometry calculations. Each peptide formed a predictable, rigid structure, consisting of an α-helix, a "scaffold" region which packed along one face of the helix, and two disulfide bridges which covalently connect the helix and scaffold regions. The peptide Apa-M5 was designed to constrain the M5 peptide from MLCK in a helical geometry using the apamin disulfide scaffold. This scaffold constrains the N- terminal end of the helix with two disulfide bridges and a reverse turn. Like the M5 peptide, Apa-M5 was found to bind calmodulin in a Ca2+-dependent 1:1 stoichiometry. However, the dissociation constant of the (Apa-M5)-calmodulin complex, 107 nM, was 100-fold higher than the dissociation constant of the M5-calmodulin complex. This difference was due to a putative steric overlap between the Apa-M5 scaffold and calmodulin. The peptide Apa-Cro was designed to replace the large structural protein matrix of λ Cro with the apamin disulfide scaffold. However, Apa-Cro did not bind the consensus DNA operator half-site of λ Cro, probably due to a steric overlap between the Apa-Cro disulfide framework and the DNA. The amino acid sequence of the scaffold-disulfide bridge arrangement of the peptide Max was derived from the core sequence of scyllatoxin, which contains an α-helix constrained at the C-terminal end by two disulfide bridges and a two-stranded βsheet scaffold. Max was shown to fold with >84% yield to form a predictable, stable structure that is similar to scyllatoxin. The folding and stability properties of Max make this scaffold and disulfide bridge arrangement an ideal candidate for the development of hybrid sequence peptides. The dynamics of a fraying C-terminal end of the helix of the peptide Apa-AlaN was determined by analysis of 15N NMR relaxation properties.

  8. Elucidation of Peptide-Directed Palladium Surface Structure for Biologically Tunable Nanocatalysts

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bedford, Nicholas M.; Ramezani-Dakhel, Hadi; Slocik, Joseph M.; Briggs, Beverly D.; Ren, Yang; Frenkel, Anatoly I.; Petkov, Valeri; Heinz, Hendrik; Naik, Rajesh R.; Knecht, Mark R.

    2015-05-01

    Peptide-enabled synthesis of inorganic nanostructures represents an avenue to access catalytic materials with tunable and optimized properties. This is achieved via peptide complexity and programmability that is missing in traditional ligands for catalytic nanomaterials. Unfortunately, there is limited information available to correlate peptide sequence to particle structure and catalytic activity to date. As such, the application of peptide-enabled nanocatalysts remains limited to trial and error approaches. In this paper, a hybrid experimental and computational approach is introduced to systematically elucidate biomolecule-dependent structure/function relationships for peptide-capped Pd nanocatalysts. Synchrotron X-ray techniques were used to uncover substantial particle surface structural disorder, which was dependent upon the amino acid sequence of the peptide capping ligand. Nanocatalyst configurations were then determined directly from experimental data using reverse Monte Carlo methods and further refined using molecular dynamics simulation, obtaining thermodynamically stable peptide-Pd nanoparticle configurations. Sequence-dependent catalytic property differences for C-C coupling and olefin hydrogenation were then eluddated by identification of the catalytic active sites at the atomic level and quantitative prediction of relative reaction rates. This hybrid methodology provides a clear route to determine peptide-dependent structure/function relationships, enabling the generation of guidelines for catalyst design through rational tailoring of peptide sequences

  9. Multi-structure docking analysis of BACE1 crystal structures and non-peptidic ligands.

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    Haghighijoo, Zahra; Hemmateenejad, Bahram; Edraki, Najmeh; Miri, Ramin; Emami, Saeed

    2017-09-01

    In order to design novel non-peptidic inhibitors of BACE1, many research groups have attempted using computational studies including docking analyses. Since there are too many 3D structures for BACE1 in the protein database, the selection of suitable crystal structures is a key prerequisite for the successful application of molecular docking. We employed a multi-structure docking protocol. In which 615 ligands' structures were docked into 150 BACE1 structures. The large number of the resultant docking scores were post-processed by different data analysis methods including exploratory data analysis, regression analysis and discriminant analysis. It was found that using one crystal structure for docking did not result in high accuracy for predicting activity of the BACE1 inhibitors. Instead, using of the multi-structural docking scores, post-processed by chemometrics methods arrived to highly accurate predictive models. In this regards, the PDB accession codes of 4B70, 4DVF and 2WEZ could discriminate between active and inactive compounds, with higher accuracy. Clustering of the BACE1 structures based on principal component analysis of the crystallographic structures the revealed that the discriminant structures are in the center of the clusters. Thus, these structures can be selected as predominant crystal structures for docking studies of non-peptidic BACE1 inhibitors. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Prediction of monomer isomery in Florine: a workflow dedicated to nonribosomal peptide discovery.

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    Thibault Caradec

    Full Text Available Nonribosomal peptides represent a large variety of natural active compounds produced by microorganisms. Due to their specific biosynthesis pathway through large assembly lines called NonRibosomal Peptide Synthetases (NRPSs, they often display complex structures with cycles and branches. Moreover they often contain non proteogenic or modified monomers, such as the D-monomers produced by epimerization. We investigate here some sequence specificities of the condensation (C and epimerization (E domains of NRPS that can be used to predict the possible isomeric state (D or L of each monomer in a putative peptide. We show that C- and E- domains can be divided into 2 sub-regions called Up-Seq and Down-Seq. The Up-Seq region corresponds to an InterPro domain (IPR001242 and is shared by C- and E-domains. The Down-Seq region is specific to the enzymatic activity of the domain. Amino-acid signatures (represented as sequence logos previously described for complete C-and E-domains have been restricted to the Down-Seq region and amplified thanks to additional sequences. Moreover a new Down-Seq signature has been found for Ct-domains found in fungi and responsible for terminal cyclization of the peptides. The identification of these signatures has been included in a workflow named Florine, aimed to predict nonribosomal peptides from NRPS sequence analyses. In some cases, the prediction of isomery is guided by genus-specific rules. Florine was used on a Pseudomonas genome to allow the determination of the type of pyoverdin produced, the update of syringafactin structure and the identification of novel putative products.

  11. MFPred: Rapid and accurate prediction of protein-peptide recognition multispecificity using self-consistent mean field theory.

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    Aliza B Rubenstein

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Multispecificity-the ability of a single receptor protein molecule to interact with multiple substrates-is a hallmark of molecular recognition at protein-protein and protein-peptide interfaces, including enzyme-substrate complexes. The ability to perform structure-based prediction of multispecificity would aid in the identification of novel enzyme substrates, protein interaction partners, and enable design of novel enzymes targeted towards alternative substrates. The relatively slow speed of current biophysical, structure-based methods limits their use for prediction and, especially, design of multispecificity. Here, we develop a rapid, flexible-backbone self-consistent mean field theory-based technique, MFPred, for multispecificity modeling at protein-peptide interfaces. We benchmark our method by predicting experimentally determined peptide specificity profiles for a range of receptors: protease and kinase enzymes, and protein recognition modules including SH2, SH3, MHC Class I and PDZ domains. We observe robust recapitulation of known specificities for all receptor-peptide complexes, and comparison with other methods shows that MFPred results in equivalent or better prediction accuracy with a ~10-1000-fold decrease in computational expense. We find that modeling bound peptide backbone flexibility is key to the observed accuracy of the method. We used MFPred for predicting with high accuracy the impact of receptor-side mutations on experimentally determined multispecificity of a protease enzyme. Our approach should enable the design of a wide range of altered receptor proteins with programmed multispecificities.

  12. StraPep: a structure database of bioactive peptides

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    Wang, Jian; Yin, Tailang; Xiao, Xuwen; He, Dan; Xue, Zhidong; Jiang, Xinnong; Wang, Yan

    2018-01-01

    Abstract Bioactive peptides, with a variety of biological activities and wide distribution in nature, have attracted great research interest in biological and medical fields, especially in pharmaceutical industry. The structural information of bioactive peptide is important for the development of peptide-based drugs. Many databases have been developed cataloguing bioactive peptides. However, to our knowledge, database dedicated to collect all the bioactive peptides with known structure is not available yet. Thus, we developed StraPep, a structure database of bioactive peptides. StraPep holds 3791 bioactive peptide structures, which belong to 1312 unique bioactive peptide sequences. About 905 out of 1312 (68%) bioactive peptides in StraPep contain disulfide bonds, which is significantly higher than that (21%) of PDB. Interestingly, 150 out of 616 (24%) bioactive peptides with three or more disulfide bonds form a structural motif known as cystine knot, which confers considerable structural stability on proteins and is an attractive scaffold for drug design. Detailed information of each peptide, including the experimental structure, the location of disulfide bonds, secondary structure, classification, post-translational modification and so on, has been provided. A wide range of user-friendly tools, such as browsing, sequence and structure-based searching and so on, has been incorporated into StraPep. We hope that this database will be helpful for the research community. Database URL: http://isyslab.info/StraPep PMID:29688386

  13. Statistically significant dependence of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation on secondary structure and amino acid sequence

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    Leitner Dietmar

    2005-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background A reliable prediction of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation would be a useful tool for many protein structure calculation methods. We have analyzed the Protein Data Bank and show that the combined use of sequential and structural information has a predictive value for the assessment of the cis versus trans peptide bond conformation of Xaa-Pro within proteins. For the analysis of the data sets different statistical methods such as the calculation of the Chou-Fasman parameters and occurrence matrices were used. Furthermore we analyzed the relationship between the relative solvent accessibility and the relative occurrence of prolines in the cis and in the trans conformation. Results One of the main results of the statistical investigations is the ranking of the secondary structure and sequence information with respect to the prediction of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation. We observed a significant impact of secondary structure information on the occurrence of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation, while the sequence information of amino acids neighboring proline is of little predictive value for the conformation of this bond. Conclusion In this work, we present an extensive analysis of the occurrence of the cis and trans proline conformation in proteins. Based on the data set, we derived patterns and rules for a possible prediction of the proline conformation. Upon adoption of the Chou-Fasman parameters, we are able to derive statistically relevant correlations between the secondary structure of amino acid fragments and the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation.

  14. Structural properties of MHC class II ligands, implications for the prediction of MHC class II epitopes.

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    Kasper Winther Jørgensen

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Major Histocompatibility class II (MHC-II molecules sample peptides from the extracellular space allowing the immune system to detect the presence of foreign microbes from this compartment. Prediction of MHC class II ligands is complicated by the open binding cleft of the MHC class II molecule, allowing binding of peptides extending out of the binding groove. Furthermore, only a few HLA-DR alleles have been characterized with a sufficient number of peptides (100-200 peptides per allele to derive accurate description of their binding motif. Little work has been performed characterizing structural properties of MHC class II ligands. Here, we perform one such large-scale analysis. A large set of SYFPEITHI MHC class II ligands covering more than 20 different HLA-DR molecules was analyzed in terms of their secondary structure and surface exposure characteristics in the context of the native structure of the corresponding source protein. We demonstrated that MHC class II ligands are significantly more exposed and have significantly more coil content than other peptides in the same protein with similar predicted binding affinity. We next exploited this observation to derive an improved prediction method for MHC class II ligands by integrating prediction of MHC- peptide binding with prediction of surface exposure and protein secondary structure. This combined prediction method was shown to significantly outperform the state-of-the-art MHC class II peptide binding prediction method when used to identify MHC class II ligands. We also tried to integrate N- and O-glycosylation in our prediction methods but this additional information was found not to improve prediction performance. In summary, these findings strongly suggest that local structural properties influence antigen processing and/or the accessibility of peptides to the MHC class II molecule.

  15. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance structural studies of peptides and proteins from the vaso-regulatory System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sizun, Philippe

    1991-01-01

    The aim of the present work is to show how Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) allows to determine the 3D structure of peptides and proteins in solution. A comparative study of peptides involved in the vaso-regulatory System (form small hormonal peptide to the 65 amido-acid protein hirudin) has allowed to design most efficient NMR 1D and 2D strategies. It rapidly appeared that the size of the peptide plays a key role in the structuration of the molecule, smallest peptides being weakly structured owing to the lack of cooperative effects. As the molecular size increases or if conformational locks are present (disulfide bridges) the probability of stable secondary structure increases. For the protein hirudin, a combination of ail available NMR parameters deduced form dedicated experiments (chemical shifts, coupling constants, overhauser effects, accessibility of amide protons) and molecular modelling under constraints allows a clear 3D structure to be proposed for this protein in solution. Finally, a comparative study of the experimental structures and of those deduced form prediction rules has shed light on the concept of structural predisposition, the latter being of high value for a better understanding of structure-activity relationships. (author) [fr

  16. Disulfide Bridges: Bringing Together Frustrated Structure in a Bioactive Peptide.

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    Zhang, Yi; Schulten, Klaus; Gruebele, Martin; Bansal, Paramjit S; Wilson, David; Daly, Norelle L

    2016-04-26

    Disulfide bridges are commonly found covalent bonds that are usually believed to maintain structural stability of proteins. Here, we investigate the influence of disulfide bridges on protein dynamics through molecular dynamics simulations on the cysteine-rich trypsin inhibitor MCoTI-II with three disulfide bridges. Correlation analysis of the reduced cyclic peptide shows that two of the three disulfide distances (Cys(11)-Cys(23) and Cys(17)-Cys(29)) are anticorrelated within ∼1 μs of bridge formation or dissolution: when the peptide is in nativelike structures and one of the distances shortens to allow bond formation, the other tends to lengthen. Simulations over longer timescales, when the denatured state is less structured, do not show the anticorrelation. We propose that the native state contains structural elements that frustrate one another's folding, and that the two bridges are critical for snapping the frustrated native structure into place. In contrast, the Cys(4)-Cys(21) bridge is predicted to form together with either of the other two bridges. Indeed, experimental chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance data show that an engineered peptide with the Cys(4)-Cys(21) bridge deleted can still fold into its near-native structure even in its noncyclic form, confirming the lesser role of the Cys(4)-Cys(21) bridge. The results highlight the importance of disulfide bridges in a small bioactive peptide to bring together frustrated structure in addition to maintaining protein structural stability. Copyright © 2016 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Prediction of anticancer peptides against MCF-7 breast cancer cells from the peptidomes of Achatina fulica mucus fractions.

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    E-Kobon, Teerasak; Thongararm, Pennapa; Roytrakul, Sittiruk; Meesuk, Ladda; Chumnanpuen, Pramote

    2016-01-01

    Several reports have shown antimicrobial and anticancer activities of mucous glycoproteins extracted from the giant African snail Achatina fulica. Anticancer properties of the snail mucous peptides remain incompletely revealed. The aim of this study was to predict anticancer peptides from A. fulica mucus. Two of HPLC-separated mucous fractions (F2 and F5) showed in vitro cytotoxicity against the breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) and normal epithelium cell line (Vero). According to the mass spectrometric analysis, 404 and 424 peptides from the F2 and F5 fractions were identified. Our comprehensive bioinformatics workflow predicted 16 putative cationic and amphipathic anticancer peptides with diverse structures from these two peptidome data. These peptides would be promising molecules for new anti-breast cancer drug development.

  18. Prediction of Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation from sequence and chemical shifts

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shen Yang; Bax, Ad, E-mail: bax@nih.go [National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Laboratory of Chemical Physics (United States)

    2010-03-15

    We present a program, named Promega, to predict the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation on the basis of backbone chemical shifts and the amino acid sequence. Using a chemical shift database of proteins of known structure together with the PDB-extracted amino acid preference of cis Xaa-Pro peptide bonds, a cis/trans probability score is calculated from the backbone and {sup 13}C{sup {beta}} chemical shifts of the proline and its neighboring residues. For an arbitrary number of input chemical shifts, which may include Pro-{sup 13}C{sup {gamma}}, Promega calculates the statistical probability that a Xaa-Pro peptide bond is cis. Besides its potential as a validation tool, Promega is particularly useful for studies of larger proteins where Pro-{sup 13}C{sup {gamma}} assignments can be challenging, and for on-going efforts to determine protein structures exclusively on the basis of backbone and {sup 13}C{sup {beta}} chemical shifts.

  19. Automated benchmarking of peptide-MHC class I binding predictions

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    Trolle, Thomas; Metushi, Imir G.; Greenbaum, Jason A.; Kim, Yohan; Sidney, John; Lund, Ole; Sette, Alessandro; Peters, Bjoern; Nielsen, Morten

    2015-01-01

    Motivation: Numerous in silico methods predicting peptide binding to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules have been developed over the last decades. However, the multitude of available prediction tools makes it non-trivial for the end-user to select which tool to use for a given task. To provide a solid basis on which to compare different prediction tools, we here describe a framework for the automated benchmarking of peptide-MHC class I binding prediction tools. The framework runs weekly benchmarks on data that are newly entered into the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB), giving the public access to frequent, up-to-date performance evaluations of all participating tools. To overcome potential selection bias in the data included in the IEDB, a strategy was implemented that suggests a set of peptides for which different prediction methods give divergent predictions as to their binding capability. Upon experimental binding validation, these peptides entered the benchmark study. Results: The benchmark has run for 15 weeks and includes evaluation of 44 datasets covering 17 MHC alleles and more than 4000 peptide-MHC binding measurements. Inspection of the results allows the end-user to make educated selections between participating tools. Of the four participating servers, NetMHCpan performed the best, followed by ANN, SMM and finally ARB. Availability and implementation: Up-to-date performance evaluations of each server can be found online at http://tools.iedb.org/auto_bench/mhci/weekly. All prediction tool developers are invited to participate in the benchmark. Sign-up instructions are available at http://tools.iedb.org/auto_bench/mhci/join. Contact: mniel@cbs.dtu.dk or bpeters@liai.org Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:25717196

  20. pDeep: Predicting MS/MS Spectra of Peptides with Deep Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Xie-Xuan; Zeng, Wen-Feng; Chi, Hao; Luo, Chunjie; Liu, Chao; Zhan, Jianfeng; He, Si-Min; Zhang, Zhifei

    2017-12-05

    In tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS)-based proteomics, search engines rely on comparison between an experimental MS/MS spectrum and the theoretical spectra of the candidate peptides. Hence, accurate prediction of the theoretical spectra of peptides appears to be particularly important. Here, we present pDeep, a deep neural network-based model for the spectrum prediction of peptides. Using the bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM), pDeep can predict higher-energy collisional dissociation, electron-transfer dissociation, and electron-transfer and higher-energy collision dissociation MS/MS spectra of peptides with >0.9 median Pearson correlation coefficients. Further, we showed that intermediate layer of the neural network could reveal physicochemical properties of amino acids, for example the similarities of fragmentation behaviors between amino acids. We also showed the potential of pDeep to distinguish extremely similar peptides (peptides that contain isobaric amino acids, for example, GG = N, AG = Q, or even I = L), which were very difficult to distinguish using traditional search engines.

  1. Software-aided approach to investigate peptide structure and metabolic susceptibility of amide bonds in peptide drugs based on high resolution mass spectrometry.

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    Tatiana Radchenko

    Full Text Available Interest in using peptide molecules as therapeutic agents due to high selectivity and efficacy is increasing within the pharmaceutical industry. However, most peptide-derived drugs cannot be administered orally because of low bioavailability and instability in the gastrointestinal tract due to protease activity. Therefore, structural modifications peptides are required to improve their stability. For this purpose, several in-silico software tools have been developed such as PeptideCutter or PoPS, which aim to predict peptide cleavage sites for different proteases. Moreover, several databases exist where this information is collected and stored from public sources such as MEROPS and ExPASy ENZYME databases. These tools can help design a peptide drug with increased stability against proteolysis, though they are limited to natural amino acids or cannot process cyclic peptides, for example. We worked to develop a new methodology to analyze peptide structure and amide bond metabolic stability based on the peptide structure (linear/cyclic, natural/unnatural amino acids. This approach used liquid chromatography / high resolution, mass spectrometry to obtain the analytical data from in vitro incubations. We collected experimental data for a set (linear/cyclic, natural/unnatural amino acids of fourteen peptide drugs and four substrate peptides incubated with different proteolytic media: trypsin, chymotrypsin, pepsin, pancreatic elastase, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 and neprilysin. Mass spectrometry data was analyzed to find metabolites and determine their structures, then all the results were stored in a chemically aware manner, which allows us to compute the peptide bond susceptibility by using a frequency analysis of the metabolic-liable bonds. In total 132 metabolites were found from the various in vitro conditions tested resulting in 77 distinct cleavage sites. The most frequent observed cleavage sites agreed with those reported in the literature. The

  2. Predicting binding affinities of protein ligands from three-dimensional models: application to peptide binding to class I major histocompatibility proteins

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rognan, D; Lauemoller, S L; Holm, A

    1999-01-01

    A simple and fast free energy scoring function (Fresno) has been developed to predict the binding free energy of peptides to class I major histocompatibility (MHC) proteins. It differs from existing scoring functions mainly by the explicit treatment of ligand desolvation and of unfavorable protein...... coordinates of the MHC-bound peptide have first been determined with an accuracy of about 1-1.5 A. Furthermore, it may be easily recalibrated for any protein-ligand complex.......) and of a series of 16 peptides to H-2K(k). Predictions were more accurate for HLA-A2-binding peptides as the training set had been built from experimentally determined structures. The average error in predicting the binding free energy of the test peptides was 3.1 kJ/mol. For the homology model-derived equation...

  3. Constraining cyclic peptides to mimic protein structure motifs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hill, Timothy A.; Shepherd, Nicholas E.; Diness, Frederik

    2014-01-01

    peptides can have protein-like biological activities and potencies, enabling their uses as biological probes and leads to therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines. This Review highlights examples of cyclic peptides that mimic three-dimensional structures of strand, turn or helical segments of peptides...... and proteins, and identifies some additional restraints incorporated into natural product cyclic peptides and synthetic macrocyclic pepti-domimetics that refine peptide structure and confer biological properties....

  4. Prediction of anticancer peptides against MCF-7 breast cancer cells from the peptidomes of Achatina fulica mucus fractions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teerasak E-kobon

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Several reports have shown antimicrobial and anticancer activities of mucous glycoproteins extracted from the giant African snail Achatina fulica. Anticancer properties of the snail mucous peptides remain incompletely revealed. The aim of this study was to predict anticancer peptides from A. fulica mucus. Two of HPLC-separated mucous fractions (F2 and F5 showed in vitro cytotoxicity against the breast cancer cell line (MCF-7 and normal epithelium cell line (Vero. According to the mass spectrometric analysis, 404 and 424 peptides from the F2 and F5 fractions were identified. Our comprehensive bioinformatics workflow predicted 16 putative cationic and amphipathic anticancer peptides with diverse structures from these two peptidome data. These peptides would be promising molecules for new anti-breast cancer drug development.

  5. Structural Interplay - Tuning Mechanics in Peptide-Polyurea Hybrids

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korley, Lashanda

    Utilizing cues from natural materials, we have been inspired to explore the hierarchical arrangement critical to energy absorption and mechanical enhancement in synthetic systems. Of particular interest is the soft domain ordering proposed as a contributing element to the observed toughness in spider silk. Multiblock copolymers, are ideal and dynamic systems in which to explore this approach via variations in secondary structure of nature's building blocks - peptides. We have designed a new class of polyurea hybrids that incorporate peptidic copolymers as the soft segment. The impact of hierarchical ordering on the thermal, mechanical, and morphological behavior of these bio-inspired polyurethanes with a siloxane-based, peptide soft segment was investigated. These peptide-polyurethane/urea hybrids were microphase segregated, and the beta-sheet secondary structure of the soft segment was preserved during polymerization and film casting. Toughness enhancement at low strains was achieved, but the overall extensibility of the peptide-incorporated systems was reduced due to the unique hard domain organization. To decouple the secondary structure influence in the siloxane-peptide soft segment from mechanics dominated by the hard domain, we also developed non-chain extended peptide-polyurea hybrids in which the secondary structure (beta sheet vs. alpha helix) was tuned via choice of peptide and peptide length. It was shown that this structural approach allowed tailoring of extensibility, toughness, and modulus. The sheet-dominant hybrid materials were typically tougher and more elastic due to intermolecular H-bonding facilitating load distribution, while the helical-prevalent systems generally exhibited higher stiffness. Recently, we have explored the impact of a molecular design strategy that overlays a covalent and physically crosslinked architecture in these peptide-polyurea hybrids, demonstrating that physical constraints in the network hybrids influences peptide

  6. Prediction of Scylla olivacea (Crustacea; Brachyura) peptide hormones using publicly accessible transcriptome shotgun assembly (TSA) sequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christie, Andrew E

    2016-05-01

    The aquaculture of crabs from the genus Scylla is of increasing economic importance for many Southeast Asian countries. Expansion of Scylla farming has led to increased efforts to understand the physiology and behavior of these crabs, and as such, there are growing molecular resources for them. Here, publicly accessible Scylla olivacea transcriptomic data were mined for putative peptide-encoding transcripts; the proteins deduced from the identified sequences were then used to predict the structures of mature peptide hormones. Forty-nine pre/preprohormone-encoding transcripts were identified, allowing for the prediction of 187 distinct mature peptides. The identified peptides included isoforms of adipokinetic hormone-corazonin-like peptide, allatostatin A, allatostatin B, allatostatin C, bursicon β, CCHamide, corazonin, crustacean cardioactive peptide, crustacean hyperglycemic hormone/molt-inhibiting hormone, diuretic hormone 31, eclosion hormone, FMRFamide-like peptide, HIGSLYRamide, insulin-like peptide, intocin, leucokinin, myosuppressin, neuroparsin, neuropeptide F, orcokinin, pigment dispersing hormone, pyrokinin, red pigment concentrating hormone, RYamide, short neuropeptide F, SIFamide and tachykinin-related peptide, all well-known neuropeptide families. Surprisingly, the tissue used to generate the transcriptome mined here is reported to be testis. Whether or not the testis samples had neural contamination is unknown. However, if the peptides are truly produced by this reproductive organ, it could have far reaching consequences for the study of crustacean endocrinology, particularly in the area of reproductive control. Regardless, this peptidome is the largest thus far predicted for any brachyuran (true crab) species, and will serve as a foundation for future studies of peptidergic control in members of the commercially important genus Scylla. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Method for predicting peptide detection in mass spectrometry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kangas, Lars [West Richland, WA; Smith, Richard D [Richland, WA; Petritis, Konstantinos [Richland, WA

    2010-07-13

    A method of predicting whether a peptide present in a biological sample will be detected by analysis with a mass spectrometer. The method uses at least one mass spectrometer to perform repeated analysis of a sample containing peptides from proteins with known amino acids. The method then generates a data set of peptides identified as contained within the sample by the repeated analysis. The method then calculates the probability that a specific peptide in the data set was detected in the repeated analysis. The method then creates a plurality of vectors, where each vector has a plurality of dimensions, and each dimension represents a property of one or more of the amino acids present in each peptide and adjacent peptides in the data set. Using these vectors, the method then generates an algorithm from the plurality of vectors and the calculated probabilities that specific peptides in the data set were detected in the repeated analysis. The algorithm is thus capable of calculating the probability that a hypothetical peptide represented as a vector will be detected by a mass spectrometry based proteomic platform, given that the peptide is present in a sample introduced into a mass spectrometer.

  8. Structural Characterization of Peptide Antibodies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chailyan, Anna; Marcatili, Paolo

    2015-01-01

    The role of proteins as very effective immunogens for the generation of antibodies is indisputable. Nevertheless, cases in which protein usage for antibody production is not feasible or convenient compelled the creation of a powerful alternative consisting of synthetic peptides. Synthetic peptides...... can be modified to obtain desired properties or conformation, tagged for purification, isotopically labeled for protein quantitation or conjugated to immunogens for antibody production. The antibodies that bind to these peptides represent an invaluable tool for biological research and discovery....... To better understand the underlying mechanisms of antibody-antigen interaction here we present a pipeline developed by us to structurally classify immunoglobulin antigen binding sites and to infer key sequence residues and other variables that have a prominent role in each structural class....

  9. DeepRT: deep learning for peptide retention time prediction in proteomics

    OpenAIRE

    Ma, Chunwei; Zhu, Zhiyong; Ye, Jun; Yang, Jiarui; Pei, Jianguo; Xu, Shaohang; Zhou, Ruo; Yu, Chang; Mo, Fan; Wen, Bo; Liu, Siqi

    2017-01-01

    Accurate predictions of peptide retention times (RT) in liquid chromatography have many applications in mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Herein, we present DeepRT, a deep learning based software for peptide retention time prediction. DeepRT automatically learns features directly from the peptide sequences using the deep convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) model, which eliminates the need to use hand-crafted features or rules. After the feature learning, pr...

  10. Prediction of the Secondary Structure of HIV-1 gp120

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Jan; Lund, Ole; Nielsen, Jens O.

    1996-01-01

    Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The predicted secondary structure of gp120 compared well with data from NMR analysis of synthetic peptides from the V3 loop and the C4 region. As a first step towards modeling the tertiary structure of gp120, the predicted secondary structure may guide the design......The secondary structure of HIV-1 gp120 was predicted using multiple alignment and a combination of two independent methods based on neural network and nearest-neighbor algorithms. The methods agreed on the secondary structure for 80% of the residues in BH10 gp120. Six helices were predicted in HIV...

  11. In Silico Approach for Prediction of Antifungal Peptides

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piyush Agrawal

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes in silico models developed using a wide range of peptide features for predicting antifungal peptides (AFPs. Our analyses indicate that certain types of residue (e.g., C, G, H, K, R, Y are more abundant in AFPs. The positional residue preference analysis reveals the prominence of the particular type of residues (e.g., R, V, K at N-terminus and a certain type of residues (e.g., C, H at C-terminus. In this study, models have been developed for predicting AFPs using a wide range of peptide features (like residue composition, binary profile, terminal residues. The support vector machine based model developed using compositional features of peptides achieved maximum accuracy of 88.78% on the training dataset and 83.33% on independent or validation dataset. Our model developed using binary patterns of terminal residues of peptides achieved maximum accuracy of 84.88% on training and 84.64% on validation dataset. We benchmark models developed in this study and existing methods on a dataset containing compositionally similar antifungal and non-AFPs. It was observed that binary based model developed in this study preforms better than any model/method. In order to facilitate scientific community, we developed a mobile app, standalone and a user-friendly web server ‘Antifp’ (http://webs.iiitd.edu.in/raghava/antifp.

  12. A community resource benchmarking predictions of peptide binding to MHC-I molecules.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peters, Bjoern; Bui, Huynh-Hoa; Frankild, Sune; Nielson, Morten; Lundegaard, Claus; Kostem, Emrah; Basch, Derek; Lamberth, Kasper; Harndahl, Mikkel; Fleri, Ward; Wilson, Stephen S; Sidney, John; Lund, Ole; Buus, Soren; Sette, Alessandro

    2006-06-09

    Recognition of peptides bound to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules by T lymphocytes is an essential part of immune surveillance. Each MHC allele has a characteristic peptide binding preference, which can be captured in prediction algorithms, allowing for the rapid scan of entire pathogen proteomes for peptide likely to bind MHC. Here we make public a large set of 48,828 quantitative peptide-binding affinity measurements relating to 48 different mouse, human, macaque, and chimpanzee MHC class I alleles. We use this data to establish a set of benchmark predictions with one neural network method and two matrix-based prediction methods extensively utilized in our groups. In general, the neural network outperforms the matrix-based predictions mainly due to its ability to generalize even on a small amount of data. We also retrieved predictions from tools publicly available on the internet. While differences in the data used to generate these predictions hamper direct comparisons, we do conclude that tools based on combinatorial peptide libraries perform remarkably well. The transparent prediction evaluation on this dataset provides tool developers with a benchmark for comparison of newly developed prediction methods. In addition, to generate and evaluate our own prediction methods, we have established an easily extensible web-based prediction framework that allows automated side-by-side comparisons of prediction methods implemented by experts. This is an advance over the current practice of tool developers having to generate reference predictions themselves, which can lead to underestimating the performance of prediction methods they are not as familiar with as their own. The overall goal of this effort is to provide a transparent prediction evaluation allowing bioinformaticians to identify promising features of prediction methods and providing guidance to immunologists regarding the reliability of prediction tools.

  13. Toward the prediction of class I and II mouse major histocompatibility complex-peptide-binding affinity: in silico bioinformatic step-by-step guide using quantitative structure-activity relationships.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hattotuwagama, Channa K; Doytchinova, Irini A; Flower, Darren R

    2007-01-01

    Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis is a cornerstone of modern informatics. Predictive computational models of peptide-major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-binding affinity based on QSAR technology have now become important components of modern computational immunovaccinology. Historically, such approaches have been built around semiqualitative, classification methods, but these are now giving way to quantitative regression methods. We review three methods--a 2D-QSAR additive-partial least squares (PLS) and a 3D-QSAR comparative molecular similarity index analysis (CoMSIA) method--which can identify the sequence dependence of peptide-binding specificity for various class I MHC alleles from the reported binding affinities (IC50) of peptide sets. The third method is an iterative self-consistent (ISC) PLS-based additive method, which is a recently developed extension to the additive method for the affinity prediction of class II peptides. The QSAR methods presented here have established themselves as immunoinformatic techniques complementary to existing methodology, useful in the quantitative prediction of binding affinity: current methods for the in silico identification of T-cell epitopes (which form the basis of many vaccines, diagnostics, and reagents) rely on the accurate computational prediction of peptide-MHC affinity. We have reviewed various human and mouse class I and class II allele models. Studied alleles comprise HLA-A*0101, HLA-A*0201, HLA-A*0202, HLA-A*0203, HLA-A*0206, HLA-A*0301, HLA-A*1101, HLA-A*3101, HLA-A*6801, HLA-A*6802, HLA-B*3501, H2-K(k), H2-K(b), H2-D(b) HLA-DRB1*0101, HLA-DRB1*0401, HLA-DRB1*0701, I-A(b), I-A(d), I-A(k), I-A(S), I-E(d), and I-E(k). In this chapter we show a step-by-step guide into predicting the reliability and the resulting models to represent an advance on existing methods. The peptides used in this study are available from the AntiJen database (http://www.jenner.ac.uk/AntiJen). The PLS method

  14. Uncertainty estimation of predictions of peptides' chromatographic retention times in shotgun proteomics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maboudi Afkham, Heydar; Qiu, Xuanbin; The, Matthew; Käll, Lukas

    2017-02-15

    Liquid chromatography is frequently used as a means to reduce the complexity of peptide-mixtures in shotgun proteomics. For such systems, the time when a peptide is released from a chromatography column and registered in the mass spectrometer is referred to as the peptide's retention time . Using heuristics or machine learning techniques, previous studies have demonstrated that it is possible to predict the retention time of a peptide from its amino acid sequence. In this paper, we are applying Gaussian Process Regression to the feature representation of a previously described predictor E lude . Using this framework, we demonstrate that it is possible to estimate the uncertainty of the prediction made by the model. Here we show how this uncertainty relates to the actual error of the prediction. In our experiments, we observe a strong correlation between the estimated uncertainty provided by Gaussian Process Regression and the actual prediction error. This relation provides us with new means for assessment of the predictions. We demonstrate how a subset of the peptides can be selected with lower prediction error compared to the whole set. We also demonstrate how such predicted standard deviations can be used for designing adaptive windowing strategies. lukas.kall@scilifelab.se. Our software and the data used in our experiments is publicly available and can be downloaded from https://github.com/statisticalbiotechnology/GPTime . © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

  15. Prediction of peptide drift time in ion mobility mass spectrometry from sequence-based features

    KAUST Repository

    Wang, Bing; Zhang, Jun; Chen, Peng; Ji, Zhiwei; Deng, Shuping; Li, Chi

    2013-01-01

    Background: Ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IMMS), an analytical technique which combines the features of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and mass spectrometry (MS), can rapidly separates ions on a millisecond time-scale. IMMS becomes a powerful tool to analyzing complex mixtures, especially for the analysis of peptides in proteomics. The high-throughput nature of this technique provides a challenge for the identification of peptides in complex biological samples. As an important parameter, peptide drift time can be used for enhancing downstream data analysis in IMMS-based proteomics.Results: In this paper, a model is presented based on least square support vectors regression (LS-SVR) method to predict peptide ion drift time in IMMS from the sequence-based features of peptide. Four descriptors were extracted from peptide sequence to represent peptide ions by a 34-component vector. The parameters of LS-SVR were selected by a grid searching strategy, and a 10-fold cross-validation approach was employed for the model training and testing. Our proposed method was tested on three datasets with different charge states. The high prediction performance achieve demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the prediction model.Conclusions: Our proposed LS-SVR model can predict peptide drift time from sequence information in relative high prediction accuracy by a test on a dataset of 595 peptides. This work can enhance the confidence of protein identification by combining with current protein searching techniques. 2013 Wang et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

  16. Prediction of peptide drift time in ion mobility mass spectrometry from sequence-based features

    KAUST Repository

    Wang, Bing

    2013-05-09

    Background: Ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IMMS), an analytical technique which combines the features of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and mass spectrometry (MS), can rapidly separates ions on a millisecond time-scale. IMMS becomes a powerful tool to analyzing complex mixtures, especially for the analysis of peptides in proteomics. The high-throughput nature of this technique provides a challenge for the identification of peptides in complex biological samples. As an important parameter, peptide drift time can be used for enhancing downstream data analysis in IMMS-based proteomics.Results: In this paper, a model is presented based on least square support vectors regression (LS-SVR) method to predict peptide ion drift time in IMMS from the sequence-based features of peptide. Four descriptors were extracted from peptide sequence to represent peptide ions by a 34-component vector. The parameters of LS-SVR were selected by a grid searching strategy, and a 10-fold cross-validation approach was employed for the model training and testing. Our proposed method was tested on three datasets with different charge states. The high prediction performance achieve demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the prediction model.Conclusions: Our proposed LS-SVR model can predict peptide drift time from sequence information in relative high prediction accuracy by a test on a dataset of 595 peptides. This work can enhance the confidence of protein identification by combining with current protein searching techniques. 2013 Wang et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

  17. Primary structure and conformational analysis of peptide methionine-tyrosine, a peptide related to neuropeptide Y and peptide YY isolated from lamprey intestine

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Conlon, J M; Bjørnholm, B; Jørgensen, Flemming Steen

    1991-01-01

    A peptide belonging to the pancreatic-polypeptide-fold family of regulatory peptides has been isolated from the intestine of an Agnathan, the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus). The primary structure of the peptide (termed peptide methionine-tyrosine) was established as Met-Pro-Pro-Lys-Pro-Asp-Asn-...... in a preferred structure in which the conformation of the beta-turn between the two helical domains (residues 9-14) is appreciably different....

  18. Deep convolutional neural networks for pan-specific peptide-MHC class I binding prediction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Youngmahn; Kim, Dongsup

    2017-12-28

    Computational scanning of peptide candidates that bind to a specific major histocompatibility complex (MHC) can speed up the peptide-based vaccine development process and therefore various methods are being actively developed. Recently, machine-learning-based methods have generated successful results by training large amounts of experimental data. However, many machine learning-based methods are generally less sensitive in recognizing locally-clustered interactions, which can synergistically stabilize peptide binding. Deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is a deep learning method inspired by visual recognition process of animal brain and it is known to be able to capture meaningful local patterns from 2D images. Once the peptide-MHC interactions can be encoded into image-like array(ILA) data, DCNN can be employed to build a predictive model for peptide-MHC binding prediction. In this study, we demonstrated that DCNN is able to not only reliably predict peptide-MHC binding, but also sensitively detect locally-clustered interactions. Nonapeptide-HLA-A and -B binding data were encoded into ILA data. A DCNN, as a pan-specific prediction model, was trained on the ILA data. The DCNN showed higher performance than other prediction tools for the latest benchmark datasets, which consist of 43 datasets for 15 HLA-A alleles and 25 datasets for 10 HLA-B alleles. In particular, the DCNN outperformed other tools for alleles belonging to the HLA-A3 supertype. The F1 scores of the DCNN were 0.86, 0.94, and 0.67 for HLA-A*31:01, HLA-A*03:01, and HLA-A*68:01 alleles, respectively, which were significantly higher than those of other tools. We found that the DCNN was able to recognize locally-clustered interactions that could synergistically stabilize peptide binding. We developed ConvMHC, a web server to provide user-friendly web interfaces for peptide-MHC class I binding predictions using the DCNN. ConvMHC web server can be accessible via http://jumong.kaist.ac.kr:8080/convmhc

  19. Prediction of the binding affinities of peptides to class II MHC using a regularized thermodynamic model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mittelmann Hans D

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The binding of peptide fragments of extracellular peptides to class II MHC is a crucial event in the adaptive immune response. Each MHC allotype generally binds a distinct subset of peptides and the enormous number of possible peptide epitopes prevents their complete experimental characterization. Computational methods can utilize the limited experimental data to predict the binding affinities of peptides to class II MHC. Results We have developed the Regularized Thermodynamic Average, or RTA, method for predicting the affinities of peptides binding to class II MHC. RTA accounts for all possible peptide binding conformations using a thermodynamic average and includes a parameter constraint for regularization to improve accuracy on novel data. RTA was shown to achieve higher accuracy, as measured by AUC, than SMM-align on the same data for all 17 MHC allotypes examined. RTA also gave the highest accuracy on all but three allotypes when compared with results from 9 different prediction methods applied to the same data. In addition, the method correctly predicted the peptide binding register of 17 out of 18 peptide-MHC complexes. Finally, we found that suboptimal peptide binding registers, which are often ignored in other prediction methods, made significant contributions of at least 50% of the total binding energy for approximately 20% of the peptides. Conclusions The RTA method accurately predicts peptide binding affinities to class II MHC and accounts for multiple peptide binding registers while reducing overfitting through regularization. The method has potential applications in vaccine design and in understanding autoimmune disorders. A web server implementing the RTA prediction method is available at http://bordnerlab.org/RTA/.

  20. Virtual screening using combinatorial cyclic peptide libraries reveals protein interfaces readily targetable by cyclic peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duffy, Fergal J; O'Donovan, Darragh; Devocelle, Marc; Moran, Niamh; O'Connell, David J; Shields, Denis C

    2015-03-23

    Protein-protein and protein-peptide interactions are responsible for the vast majority of biological functions in vivo, but targeting these interactions with small molecules has historically been difficult. What is required are efficient combined computational and experimental screening methods to choose among a number of potential protein interfaces worthy of targeting lead macrocyclic compounds for further investigation. To achieve this, we have generated combinatorial 3D virtual libraries of short disulfide-bonded peptides and compared them to pharmacophore models of important protein-protein and protein-peptide structures, including short linear motifs (SLiMs), protein-binding peptides, and turn structures at protein-protein interfaces, built from 3D models available in the Protein Data Bank. We prepared a total of 372 reference pharmacophores, which were matched against 108,659 multiconformer cyclic peptides. After normalization to exclude nonspecific cyclic peptides, the top hits notably are enriched for mimetics of turn structures, including a turn at the interaction surface of human α thrombin, and also feature several protein-binding peptides. The top cyclic peptide hits also cover the critical "hot spot" interaction sites predicted from the interaction crystal structure. We have validated our method by testing cyclic peptides predicted to inhibit thrombin, a key protein in the blood coagulation pathway of important therapeutic interest, identifying a cyclic peptide inhibitor with lead-like activity. We conclude that protein interfaces most readily targetable by cyclic peptides and related macrocyclic drugs may be identified computationally among a set of candidate interfaces, accelerating the choice of interfaces against which lead compounds may be screened.

  1. NetMHCpan-4.0: Improved Peptide-MHC Class I Interaction Predictions Integrating Eluted Ligand and Peptide Binding Affinity Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jurtz, Vanessa; Paul, Sinu; Andreatta, Massimo; Marcatili, Paolo; Peters, Bjoern; Nielsen, Morten

    2017-11-01

    Cytotoxic T cells are of central importance in the immune system's response to disease. They recognize defective cells by binding to peptides presented on the cell surface by MHC class I molecules. Peptide binding to MHC molecules is the single most selective step in the Ag-presentation pathway. Therefore, in the quest for T cell epitopes, the prediction of peptide binding to MHC molecules has attracted widespread attention. In the past, predictors of peptide-MHC interactions have primarily been trained on binding affinity data. Recently, an increasing number of MHC-presented peptides identified by mass spectrometry have been reported containing information about peptide-processing steps in the presentation pathway and the length distribution of naturally presented peptides. In this article, we present NetMHCpan-4.0, a method trained on binding affinity and eluted ligand data leveraging the information from both data types. Large-scale benchmarking of the method demonstrates an increase in predictive performance compared with state-of-the-art methods when it comes to identification of naturally processed ligands, cancer neoantigens, and T cell epitopes. Copyright © 2017 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc.

  2. Advantages of combined transmembrane topology and signal peptide prediction--the Phobius web server

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Käll, Lukas; Krogh, Anders; Sonnhammer, Erik L L

    2007-01-01

    . The method makes an optimal choice between transmembrane segments and signal peptides, and also allows constrained and homology-enriched predictions. We here present a web interface (http://phobius.cgb.ki.se and http://phobius.binf.ku.dk) to access Phobius. Udgivelsesdato: 2007-Jul......When using conventional transmembrane topology and signal peptide predictors, such as TMHMM and SignalP, there is a substantial overlap between these two types of predictions. Applying these methods to five complete proteomes, we found that 30-65% of all predicted signal peptides and 25-35% of all...

  3. Structural basis of nonribosomal peptide macrocyclization in fungi.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Jinru; Liu, Nicholas; Cacho, Ralph A; Gong, Zhou; Liu, Zhu; Qin, Wenming; Tang, Chun; Tang, Yi; Zhou, Jiahai

    2016-12-01

    Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) in fungi biosynthesize important pharmaceutical compounds, including penicillin, cyclosporine and echinocandin. To understand the fungal strategy of forging the macrocyclic peptide linkage, we determined the crystal structures of the terminal condensation-like (C T ) domain and the holo thiolation (T)-C T complex of Penicillium aethiopicum TqaA. The first, to our knowledge, structural depiction of the terminal module in a fungal NRPS provides a molecular blueprint for generating new macrocyclic peptide natural products.

  4. NetMHCpan 4.0: Improved peptide-MHC class I interaction predictions integrating eluted ligand and peptide binding affinity data

    OpenAIRE

    Jurtz, Vanessa; Paul, Sinu; Andreatta, Massimo; Marcatili, Paolo; Peters, Bjoern; Nielsen, Morten

    2017-01-01

    Cytotoxic T cells are of central importance in the immune systems response to disease. They recognize defective cells by binding to peptides presented on the cell surface by MHC (major histocompatibility complex) class I molecules. Peptide binding to MHC molecules is the single most selective step in the antigen presentation pathway. On the quest for T cell epitopes, the prediction of peptide binding to MHC molecules has therefore attracted large attention. In the past, predictors of peptide-...

  5. Antimicrobial peptides: the role of hydrophobicity in the alpha helical structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pandurangan Perumal

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The antimicrobial peptides (AMPs are a class of molecule obtained from plants, insects, animals, and humans. These peptides have been classified into five categories: 1. Anionic peptide, 2. Linear alpha helical cationic peptide, 3. Cationic peptide, 4. Anionic and cationic peptides with disulphide bonds, and 5. Anionic and cationic peptide fragments of larger proteins. Factors affecting AMPs are sequence, size, charge, hydrophobicity, amphipathicity, structure and conformation. Synthesis of these peptides is convenient by using solid phase peptide synthesis by using FMOC chemistry protocol. The secondary structures of three synthetic peptides were determined by circular dichroism. Also, it was compared the stability of the α-helical structure and confirmed the percentage of helix of these peptides by using circular dichroism. Some of these AMPs show therapeutic properties like antimicrobial, antiviral, contraceptive, and anticancer. The formulations of some peptides have been entered into the phase I, II, or III of clinical trials. This article to review briefly the sources, classification, factors affecting AMPs activity, synthesis, characterization, mechanism of action and therapeutic concern of AMPs and mainly focussed on percentage of α-helical structure in various medium.

  6. MHC2NNZ: A novel peptide binding prediction approach for HLA DQ molecules

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Jiang; Zeng, Xu; Lu, Dongfang; Liu, Zhixiang; Wang, Jiao

    2017-07-01

    The major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) molecule plays a crucial role in immunology. Computational prediction of MHC-II binding peptides can help researchers understand the mechanism of immune systems and design vaccines. Most of the prediction algorithms for MHC-II to date have made large efforts in human leukocyte antigen (HLA, the name of MHC in Human) molecules encoded in the DR locus. However, HLA DQ molecules are equally important and have only been made less progress because it is more difficult to handle them experimentally. In this study, we propose an artificial neural network-based approach called MHC2NNZ to predict peptides binding to HLA DQ molecules. Unlike previous artificial neural network-based methods, MHC2NNZ not only considers sequence similarity features but also captures the chemical and physical properties, and a novel method incorporating these properties is proposed to represent peptide flanking regions (PFR). Furthermore, MHC2NNZ improves the prediction accuracy by combining with amino acid preference at more specific positions of the peptides binding core. By evaluating on 3549 peptides binding to six most frequent HLA DQ molecules, MHC2NNZ is demonstrated to outperform other state-of-the-art MHC-II prediction methods.

  7. Prediction of Nucleotide Binding Peptides Using Star Graph Topological Indices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yong; Munteanu, Cristian R; Fernández Blanco, Enrique; Tan, Zhiliang; Santos Del Riego, Antonino; Pazos, Alejandro

    2015-11-01

    The nucleotide binding proteins are involved in many important cellular processes, such as transmission of genetic information or energy transfer and storage. Therefore, the screening of new peptides for this biological function is an important research topic. The current study proposes a mixed methodology to obtain the first classification model that is able to predict new nucleotide binding peptides, using only the amino acid sequence. Thus, the methodology uses a Star graph molecular descriptor of the peptide sequences and the Machine Learning technique for the best classifier. The best model represents a Random Forest classifier based on two features of the embedded and non-embedded graphs. The performance of the model is excellent, considering similar models in the field, with an Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUROC) value of 0.938 and true positive rate (TPR) of 0.886 (test subset). The prediction of new nucleotide binding peptides with this model could be useful for drug target studies in drug development. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  8. New horizons in mouse immunoinformatics: reliable in silico prediction of mouse class I histocompatibility major complex peptide binding affinity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hattotuwagama, Channa K; Guan, Pingping; Doytchinova, Irini A; Flower, Darren R

    2004-11-21

    Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis is a main cornerstone of modern informatic disciplines. Predictive computational models, based on QSAR technology, of peptide-major histocompatibility complex (MHC) binding affinity have now become a vital component of modern day computational immunovaccinology. Historically, such approaches have been built around semi-qualitative, classification methods, but these are now giving way to quantitative regression methods. The additive method, an established immunoinformatics technique for the quantitative prediction of peptide-protein affinity, was used here to identify the sequence dependence of peptide binding specificity for three mouse class I MHC alleles: H2-D(b), H2-K(b) and H2-K(k). As we show, in terms of reliability the resulting models represent a significant advance on existing methods. They can be used for the accurate prediction of T-cell epitopes and are freely available online ( http://www.jenner.ac.uk/MHCPred).

  9. Structure-activity relationship of CART peptide fragments

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Maletínská, Lenka; Maixnerová, Jana; Hlaváček, Jan; Blokešová, Darja; Elbert, Tomáš; Šanda, Miloslav; Slaninová, Jiřina; Železná, Blanka

    2007-01-01

    Roč. 88, č. 4 (2007), s. 565 ISSN 0006-3525. [American Peptide Society Symposium /20./. 26.06.2007-30.06.2007, Montreal] Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z40550506 Keywords : cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript peptide * structure * activity Subject RIV: CE - Biochemistry

  10. The role of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies in predicting rheumatoid arthritis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rexhepi, Sylejman; Rexhepi, Mjellma; Sahatçiu-Meka, Vjollca; Tafaj, Argjend; Izairi, Remzi; Rexhepi, Blerta

    2011-01-01

    The study presents the results of predicting role of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis, compared to rheumatoid factor. 32 patients with rheumatoid arthritis were identified from a retrospective chart review. The results of our study show that presence of the rheumatoid factor has less diagnostic and prognostic significance than the anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide, and suggests its superiority in predicting an erosive disease course.

  11. Sequence-Specific Model for Peptide Retention Time Prediction in Strong Cation Exchange Chromatography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gussakovsky, Daniel; Neustaeter, Haley; Spicer, Victor; Krokhin, Oleg V

    2017-11-07

    The development of a peptide retention prediction model for strong cation exchange (SCX) separation on a Polysulfoethyl A column is reported. Off-line 2D LC-MS/MS analysis (SCX-RPLC) of S. cerevisiae whole cell lysate was used to generate a retention dataset of ∼30 000 peptides, sufficient for identifying the major sequence-specific features of peptide retention mechanisms in SCX. In contrast to RPLC/hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) separation modes, where retention is driven by hydrophobic/hydrophilic contributions of all individual residues, SCX interactions depend mainly on peptide charge (number of basic residues at acidic pH) and size. An additive model (incorporating the contributions of all 20 residues into the peptide retention) combined with a peptide length correction produces a 0.976 R 2 value prediction accuracy, significantly higher than the additive models for either HILIC or RPLC. Position-dependent effects on peptide retention for different residues were driven by the spatial orientation of tryptic peptides upon interaction with the negatively charged surface functional groups. The positively charged N-termini serve as a primary point of interaction. For example, basic residues (Arg, His, Lys) increase peptide retention when located closer to the N-terminus. We also found that hydrophobic interactions, which could lead to a mixed-mode separation mechanism, are largely suppressed at 20-30% of acetonitrile in the eluent. The accuracy of the final Sequence-Specific Retention Calculator (SSRCalc) SCX model (∼0.99 R 2 value) exceeds all previously reported predictors for peptide LC separations. This also provides a solid platform for method development in 2D LC-MS protocols in proteomics and peptide retention prediction filtering of false positive identifications.

  12. Structural basis for precursor protein-directed ribosomal peptide macrocyclization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Kunhua; Condurso, Heather L.; Li, Gengnan; Ding, Yousong; Bruner, Steven D.

    2016-01-01

    Macrocyclization is a common feature of natural product biosynthetic pathways including the diverse family of ribosomal peptides. Microviridins are architecturally complex cyanobacterial ribosomal peptides whose members target proteases with potent reversible inhibition. The product structure is constructed by three macrocyclizations catalyzed sequentially by two members of the ATP-grasp family, a unique strategy for ribosomal peptide macrocyclization. Here, we describe the detailed structural basis for the enzyme-catalyzed macrocyclizations in the microviridin J pathway of Microcystis aeruginosa. The macrocyclases, MdnC and MdnB, interact with a conserved α-helix of the precursor peptide using a novel precursor peptide recognition mechanism. The results provide insight into the unique protein/protein interactions key to the chemistry, suggest an origin of the natural combinatorial synthesis of microviridin peptides and provide a framework for future engineering efforts to generate designed compounds. PMID:27669417

  13. Structural basis for precursor protein-directed ribosomal peptide macrocyclization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Kunhua; Condurso, Heather L; Li, Gengnan; Ding, Yousong; Bruner, Steven D

    2016-11-01

    Macrocyclization is a common feature of natural product biosynthetic pathways including the diverse family of ribosomal peptides. Microviridins are architecturally complex cyanobacterial ribosomal peptides that target proteases with potent reversible inhibition. The product structure is constructed via three macrocyclizations catalyzed sequentially by two members of the ATP-grasp family, a unique strategy for ribosomal peptide macrocyclization. Here we describe in detail the structural basis for the enzyme-catalyzed macrocyclizations in the microviridin J pathway of Microcystis aeruginosa. The macrocyclases MdnC and MdnB interact with a conserved α-helix of the precursor peptide using a novel precursor-peptide recognition mechanism. The results provide insight into the unique protein-protein interactions that are key to the chemistry, suggest an origin for the natural combinatorial synthesis of microviridin peptides, and provide a framework for future engineering efforts to generate designed compounds.

  14. Protein and Peptide Gas-phase Structure Investigation Using Collision Cross Section Measurements and Hydrogen Deuterium Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khakinejad, Mahdiar

    Protein and peptide gas-phase structure analysis provides the opportunity to study these species outside of their explicit environment where the interaction network with surrounding molecules makes the analysis difficult [1]. Although gas-phase structure analysis offers a unique opportunity to study the intrinsic behavior of these biomolecules [2-4], proteins and peptides exhibit very low vapor pressures [2]. Peptide and protein ions can be rendered in the gas-phase using electrospray ionization (ESI) [5]. There is a growing body of literature that shows proteins and peptides can maintain solution structures during the process of ESI and these structures can persist for a few hundred milliseconds [6-9]. Techniques for monitoring gas-phase protein and peptide ion structures are categorized as physical probes and chemical probes. Collision cross section (CCS) measurement, being a physical probe, is a powerful method to investigate gas-phase structure size [3, 7, 10-15]; however, CCS values alone do not establish a one to one relation with structure(i.e., the CCS value is an orientationally averaged value [15-18]. Here we propose the utility of gas-phase hydrogen deuterium exchange (HDX) as a second criterion of structure elucidation. The proposed approach incudes extensive MD simulations to sample biomolecular ion conformation space with the production of numerous, random in-silico structures. Subsequently a CCS can be calculated for these structures and theoretical CCS values are compared with experimental values to produce a pool of candidate structures. Utilizing a chemical reaction model based on the gas-phase HDX mechanism, the HDX kinetics behavior of these candidate structures are predicted and compared to experimental results to nominate the best in-silico structures which match (chemically and physically) with experimental observations. For the predictive approach to succeed, an extensive technique and method development is essential. To combine CCS

  15. Predicting peptides binding to MHC class II molecules using multi-objective evolutionary algorithms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Feng Lin

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Peptides binding to Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC class II molecules are crucial for initiation and regulation of immune responses. Predicting peptides that bind to a specific MHC molecule plays an important role in determining potential candidates for vaccines. The binding groove in class II MHC is open at both ends, allowing peptides longer than 9-mer to bind. Finding the consensus motif facilitating the binding of peptides to a MHC class II molecule is difficult because of different lengths of binding peptides and varying location of 9-mer binding core. The level of difficulty increases when the molecule is promiscuous and binds to a large number of low affinity peptides. In this paper, we propose two approaches using multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEA for predicting peptides binding to MHC class II molecules. One uses the information from both binders and non-binders for self-discovery of motifs. The other, in addition, uses information from experimentally determined motifs for guided-discovery of motifs. Results The proposed methods are intended for finding peptides binding to MHC class II I-Ag7 molecule – a promiscuous binder to a large number of low affinity peptides. Cross-validation results across experiments on two motifs derived for I-Ag7 datasets demonstrate better generalization abilities and accuracies of the present method over earlier approaches. Further, the proposed method was validated and compared on two publicly available benchmark datasets: (1 an ensemble of qualitative HLA-DRB1*0401 peptide data obtained from five different sources, and (2 quantitative peptide data obtained for sixteen different alleles comprising of three mouse alleles and thirteen HLA alleles. The proposed method outperformed earlier methods on most datasets, indicating that it is well suited for finding peptides binding to MHC class II molecules. Conclusion We present two MOEA-based algorithms for finding motifs

  16. SANDPUMA: ensemble predictions of nonribosomal peptide chemistry reveal biosynthetic diversity across Actinobacteria

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Chevrette, Marc G.; Aicheler, Fabian; Kohlbacher, Oliver; Currie, Cameron R.; Medema, M.H.

    2017-01-01

    Nonribosomally synthesized peptides (NRPs) are natural products with widespread applications in medicine and biotechnology. Many algorithms have been developed to predict the substrate specificities of nonribosomal peptide synthetase adenylation (A) domains from DNA sequences, which enables

  17. Prediction of antibacterial activity from physicochemical properties of antimicrobial peptides.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuel N Melo

    Full Text Available Consensus is gathering that antimicrobial peptides that exert their antibacterial action at the membrane level must reach a local concentration threshold to become active. Studies of peptide interaction with model membranes do identify such disruptive thresholds but demonstrations of the possible correlation of these with the in vivo onset of activity have only recently been proposed. In addition, such thresholds observed in model membranes occur at local peptide concentrations close to full membrane coverage. In this work we fully develop an interaction model of antimicrobial peptides with biological membranes; by exploring the consequences of the underlying partition formalism we arrive at a relationship that provides antibacterial activity prediction from two biophysical parameters: the affinity of the peptide to the membrane and the critical bound peptide to lipid ratio. A straightforward and robust method to implement this relationship, with potential application to high-throughput screening approaches, is presented and tested. In addition, disruptive thresholds in model membranes and the onset of antibacterial peptide activity are shown to occur over the same range of locally bound peptide concentrations (10 to 100 mM, which conciliates the two types of observations.

  18. Peptide retention prediction using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badgett, Majors J; Boyes, Barry; Orlando, Ron

    2018-02-16

    A model that predicts retention for peptides using a HALO ® penta-HILIC column and gradient elution was created. Coefficients for each amino acid were derived using linear regression analysis and these coefficients can be summed to predict the retention of peptides. This model has a high correlation between experimental and predicted retention times (0.946), which is on par with previous RP and HILIC models. External validation of the model was performed using a set of H. pylori samples on the same LC-MS system used to create the model, and the deviation from actual to predicted times was low. Apart from amino acid composition, length and location of amino acid residues on a peptide were examined and two site-specific corrections for hydrophobic residues at the N-terminus as well as hydrophobic residues one spot over from the N-terminus were created. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. NetMHCpan-4.0: Improved Peptide-MHC Class I Interaction Predictions Integrating Eluted Ligand and Peptide Binding Affinity Data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jurtz, Vanessa Isabell; Paul, Sinu; Andreatta, Massimo

    2017-01-01

    by mass spectrometry have been reported containing information about peptide-processing steps in the presentation pathway and the length distribution of naturally presented peptides. In this article, we present NetMHCpan-4.0, a method trained on binding affinity and eluted ligand data leveraging......Cytotoxic T cells are of central importance in the immune system's response to disease. They recognize defective cells by binding to peptides presented on the cell surface by MHC class I molecules. Peptide binding to MHC molecules is the single most selective step in the Ag-presentation pathway....... Therefore, in the quest for T cell epitopes, the prediction of peptide binding to MHC molecules has attracted widespread attention. In the past, predictors of peptide-MHC interactions have primarily been trained on binding affinity data. Recently, an increasing number of MHC-presented peptides identified...

  20. Structures of peptide families by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and distance geometry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pease, J.H.

    1989-12-01

    The three dimensional structures of several small peptides were determined using a combination of {sup 1}H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and distance geometry calculations. These techniques were found to be particularly helpful for analyzing structural differences between related peptides since all of the peptides' {sup 1}H NMR spectra are very similar. The structures of peptides from two separate classes are presented. Peptides in the first class are related to apamin, an 18 amino acid peptide toxin from honey bee venom. The {sup 1}H NMR assignments and secondary structure determination of apamin were done previously. Quantitative NMR measurements and distance geometry calculations were done to calculate apamin's three dimensional structure. Peptides in the second class are 48 amino acid toxins from the sea anemone Radianthus paumotensis. The {sup 1}H NMR assignments of toxin II were done previously. The {sup 1}H NMR assignments of toxin III and the distance geometry calculations for both peptides are presented.

  1. Applications of neural network prediction of conformational states for small peptides from spectra and of fold classes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bohr, Henrik; Røgen, Peter; Jalkanen, Karl J.

    2001-01-01

    but already at this stage they could be compared with reasonable agreements to experiments. The neural networks are shown to be good in distinguishing the different conformers of the small alanine peptides. especially when in the gas phase. Also the task of predicting protein fold-classes, defined from line...... to construct vibrational spectra for each of the conformational states with low energy. From the spectra, neural networks could be trained to distinguish between the various states and thus be able to generate a larger set of relevant structures and their relation to secondary structures of the peptides....... The calculations were done both with solvent atoms (up to ten water molecules) and without, and hence the neural networks could be used to monitor the influence of the solvent on hydrogen bond formation. The calculations at this stage only involved very short peptide fragments of a few alanine amino acids...

  2. Recognition of GPCRs by peptide ligands and membrane compartments theory: structural studies of endogenous peptide hormones in membrane environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sankararamakrishnan, Ramasubbu

    2006-04-01

    One of the largest family of cell surface proteins, G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) regulate virtually all known physiological processes in mammals. With seven transmembrane segments, they respond to diverse range of extracellular stimuli and represent a major class of drug targets. Peptidergic GPCRs use endogenous peptides as ligands. To understand the mechanism of GPCR activation and rational drug design, knowledge of three-dimensional structure of receptor-ligand complex is important. The endogenous peptide hormones are often short, flexible and completely disordered in aqueous solution. According to "Membrane Compartments Theory", the flexible peptide binds to the membrane in the first step before it recognizes its receptor and the membrane-induced conformation is postulated to bind to the receptor in the second step. Structures of several peptide hormones have been determined in membrane-mimetic medium. In these studies, micelles, reverse micelles and bicelles have been used to mimic the cell membrane environment. Recently, conformations of two peptide hormones have also been studied in receptor-bound form. Membrane environment induces stable secondary structures in flexible peptide ligands and membrane-induced peptide structures have been correlated with their bioactivity. Results of site-directed mutagenesis, spectroscopy and other experimental studies along with the conformations determined in membrane medium have been used to interpret the role of individual residues in the peptide ligand. Structural differences of membrane-bound peptides that belong to the same family but differ in selectivity are likely to explain the mechanism of receptor selectivity and specificity of the ligands. Knowledge of peptide 3D structures in membrane environment has potential applications in rational drug design.

  3. Maturation processes and structures of small secreted peptides in plants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ryo eTabata

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available In the past decade, small secreted peptides have proven to be essential for various aspects of plant growth and development, including the maintenance of certain stem cell populations. Most small secreted peptides identified in plants to date are recognised by membrane-localized receptor kinases, the largest family of receptor proteins in the plant genome. This peptide-receptor interaction is essential for initiating intracellular signalling cascades. Small secreted peptides often undergo post-translational modifications and proteolytic processing to generate the mature peptides. Recent studies suggest that, in contrast to the situation in mammals, the proteolytic processing of plant peptides involves a number of complex steps. Furthermore, NMR-based structural analysis demonstrated that post-translational modifications induce the conformational changes needed for full activity. In this mini review, we summarise recent advances in our understanding of how small secreted peptides are modified and processed into biologically active peptides and describe the mature structures of small secreted peptides in plants.

  4. Structural characterization of the α-mating factor prepro-peptide for secretion of recombinant proteins in Pichia pastoris.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chahal, Sabreen; Wei, Peter; Moua, Pachai; Park, Sung Pil James; Kwon, Janet; Patel, Arth; Vu, Anthony T; Catolico, Jason A; Tsai, Yu Fang Tina; Shaheen, Nadia; Chu, Tiffany T; Tam, Vivian; Khan, Zill-E-Huma; Joo, Hyun Henry; Xue, Liang; Lin-Cereghino, Joan; Tsai, Jerry W; Lin-Cereghino, Geoff P

    2017-01-20

    The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris has been used extensively for expressing recombinant proteins because it combines the ease of genetic manipulation, the ability to provide complex posttranslational modifications and the capacity for efficient protein secretion. The most successful and commonly used secretion signal leader in Pichia pastoris has been the alpha mating factor (MATα) prepro secretion signal. However, limitations exist as some proteins cannot be secreted efficiently, leading to strategies to enhance secretion efficiency by modifying the secretion signal leader. Based on a Jpred secondary structure prediction and knob-socket modeling of tertiary structure, numerous deletions and duplications of the MATα prepro leader were engineered to evaluate the correlation between predicted secondary structure and the secretion level of the reporters horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and Candida antarctica lipase B. In addition, circular dichroism analyses were completed for the wild type and several mutant pro-peptides to evaluate actual differences in secondary structure. The results lead to a new model of MATα pro-peptide signal leader, which suggests that the N and C-termini of MATα pro-peptide need to be presented in a specific orientation for proper interaction with the cellular secretion machinery and for efficient protein secretion. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Electrostatic Force Microscopy of Self Assembled Peptide Structures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Clausen, Casper Hyttel; Dimaki, Maria; Pantagos, Spyros P.

    2011-01-01

    In this report electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) is used to study different peptide self-assembled structures, such as tubes and particles. It is shown that not only geometrical information can be obtained using EFM, but also information about the composition of different structures. In partic......In this report electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) is used to study different peptide self-assembled structures, such as tubes and particles. It is shown that not only geometrical information can be obtained using EFM, but also information about the composition of different structures...

  6. Improved methods for predicting peptide binding affinity to MHC class II molecules.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jensen, Kamilla Kjaergaard; Andreatta, Massimo; Marcatili, Paolo; Buus, Søren; Greenbaum, Jason A; Yan, Zhen; Sette, Alessandro; Peters, Bjoern; Nielsen, Morten

    2018-01-06

    Major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) molecules are expressed on the surface of professional antigen-presenting cells where they display peptides to T helper cells, which orchestrate the onset and outcome of many host immune responses. Understanding which peptides will be presented by the MHC-II molecule is therefore important for understanding the activation of T helper cells and can be used to identify T-cell epitopes. We here present updated versions of two MHC-II-peptide binding affinity prediction methods, NetMHCII and NetMHCIIpan. These were constructed using an extended data set of quantitative MHC-peptide binding affinity data obtained from the Immune Epitope Database covering HLA-DR, HLA-DQ, HLA-DP and H-2 mouse molecules. We show that training with this extended data set improved the performance for peptide binding predictions for both methods. Both methods are publicly available at www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCII-2.3 and www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCIIpan-3.2. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  7. Blind Test of Physics-Based Prediction of Protein Structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shell, M. Scott; Ozkan, S. Banu; Voelz, Vincent; Wu, Guohong Albert; Dill, Ken A.

    2009-01-01

    We report here a multiprotein blind test of a computer method to predict native protein structures based solely on an all-atom physics-based force field. We use the AMBER 96 potential function with an implicit (GB/SA) model of solvation, combined with replica-exchange molecular-dynamics simulations. Coarse conformational sampling is performed using the zipping and assembly method (ZAM), an approach that is designed to mimic the putative physical routes of protein folding. ZAM was applied to the folding of six proteins, from 76 to 112 monomers in length, in CASP7, a community-wide blind test of protein structure prediction. Because these predictions have about the same level of accuracy as typical bioinformatics methods, and do not utilize information from databases of known native structures, this work opens up the possibility of predicting the structures of membrane proteins, synthetic peptides, or other foldable polymers, for which there is little prior knowledge of native structures. This approach may also be useful for predicting physical protein folding routes, non-native conformations, and other physical properties from amino acid sequences. PMID:19186130

  8. Ab-initio conformational epitope structure prediction using genetic algorithm and SVM for vaccine design.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moghram, Basem Ameen; Nabil, Emad; Badr, Amr

    2018-01-01

    T-cell epitope structure identification is a significant challenging immunoinformatic problem within epitope-based vaccine design. Epitopes or antigenic peptides are a set of amino acids that bind with the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) molecules. The aim of this process is presented by Antigen Presenting Cells to be inspected by T-cells. MHC-molecule-binding epitopes are responsible for triggering the immune response to antigens. The epitope's three-dimensional (3D) molecular structure (i.e., tertiary structure) reflects its proper function. Therefore, the identification of MHC class-II epitopes structure is a significant step towards epitope-based vaccine design and understanding of the immune system. In this paper, we propose a new technique using a Genetic Algorithm for Predicting the Epitope Structure (GAPES), to predict the structure of MHC class-II epitopes based on their sequence. The proposed Elitist-based genetic algorithm for predicting the epitope's tertiary structure is based on Ab-Initio Empirical Conformational Energy Program for Peptides (ECEPP) Force Field Model. The developed secondary structure prediction technique relies on Ramachandran Plot. We used two alignment algorithms: the ROSS alignment and TM-Score alignment. We applied four different alignment approaches to calculate the similarity scores of the dataset under test. We utilized the support vector machine (SVM) classifier as an evaluation of the prediction performance. The prediction accuracy and the Area Under Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curve (AUC) were calculated as measures of performance. The calculations are performed on twelve similarity-reduced datasets of the Immune Epitope Data Base (IEDB) and a large dataset of peptide-binding affinities to HLA-DRB1*0101. The results showed that GAPES was reliable and very accurate. We achieved an average prediction accuracy of 93.50% and an average AUC of 0.974 in the IEDB dataset. Also, we achieved an accuracy of 95

  9. Semi-supervised prediction of SH2-peptide interactions from imbalanced high-throughput data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kundu, Kousik; Costa, Fabrizio; Huber, Michael; Reth, Michael; Backofen, Rolf

    2013-01-01

    Src homology 2 (SH2) domains are the largest family of the peptide-recognition modules (PRMs) that bind to phosphotyrosine containing peptides. Knowledge about binding partners of SH2-domains is key for a deeper understanding of different cellular processes. Given the high binding specificity of SH2, in-silico ligand peptide prediction is of great interest. Currently however, only a few approaches have been published for the prediction of SH2-peptide interactions. Their main shortcomings range from limited coverage, to restrictive modeling assumptions (they are mainly based on position specific scoring matrices and do not take into consideration complex amino acids inter-dependencies) and high computational complexity. We propose a simple yet effective machine learning approach for a large set of known human SH2 domains. We used comprehensive data from micro-array and peptide-array experiments on 51 human SH2 domains. In order to deal with the high data imbalance problem and the high signal-to-noise ration, we casted the problem in a semi-supervised setting. We report competitive predictive performance w.r.t. state-of-the-art. Specifically we obtain 0.83 AUC ROC and 0.93 AUC PR in comparison to 0.71 AUC ROC and 0.87 AUC PR previously achieved by the position specific scoring matrices (PSSMs) based SMALI approach. Our work provides three main contributions. First, we showed that better models can be obtained when the information on the non-interacting peptides (negative examples) is also used. Second, we improve performance when considering high order correlations between the ligand positions employing regularization techniques to effectively avoid overfitting issues. Third, we developed an approach to tackle the data imbalance problem using a semi-supervised strategy. Finally, we performed a genome-wide prediction of human SH2-peptide binding, uncovering several findings of biological relevance. We make our models and genome-wide predictions, for all the 51 SH2

  10. Immune Response of Multiparous Hyper-Immunized Sows against Peptides from Non-Structural and Structural Proteins of PRRSV

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edgar Rascón-Castelo

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to evaluate the humoral and cellular responses of commercial multiparous and hyper-immunized sows against peptides from non-structural (nsp and structural proteins of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV. We selected sows with different numbers of parities from a commercial farm. Management practices on this farm include the use of the MLV commercial vaccine four times per year, plus two vaccinations during the acclimation period. The humoral response was evaluated via the antibody recognition of peptides from nsp and structural proteins, and the cellular response was assessed by measuring the frequency of peptide and PRRSV-specific IFN-gamma-secreting cells (IFNγ-SC. Our results show that sows with six parities have more antibodies against peptides from structural proteins than against peptides from nsp. The analysis of the cellular response revealed that the number of immunizations did not affect the frequency of IFNγ-SC and that the response was stronger against peptides from structural proteins (M protein than against nsp (nsp2. In summary, these results demonstrate that multiparous, hyper-immunized sows have a stronger immune humoral response to PRRSV structural peptides than nsp, but no differences in IFNγ-SC against the same peptides were observed.

  11. Improving N-terminal protein annotation of Plasmodium species based on signal peptide prediction of orthologous proteins

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Neto Armando

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Signal peptide is one of the most important motifs involved in protein trafficking and it ultimately influences protein function. Considering the expected functional conservation among orthologs it was hypothesized that divergence in signal peptides within orthologous groups is mainly due to N-terminal protein sequence misannotation. Thus, discrepancies in signal peptide prediction of orthologous proteins were used to identify misannotated proteins in five Plasmodium species. Methods Signal peptide (SignalP and orthology (OrthoMCL were combined in an innovative strategy to identify orthologous groups showing discrepancies in signal peptide prediction among their protein members (Mixed groups. In a comparative analysis, multiple alignments for each of these groups and gene models were visually inspected in search of misannotated proteins and, whenever possible, alternative gene models were proposed. Thresholds for signal peptide prediction parameters were also modified to reduce their impact as a possible source of discrepancy among orthologs. Validation of new gene models was based on RT-PCR (few examples or on experimental evidence already published (ApiLoc. Results The rate of misannotated proteins was significantly higher in Mixed groups than in Positive or Negative groups, corroborating the proposed hypothesis. A total of 478 proteins were reannotated and change of signal peptide prediction from negative to positive was the most common. Reannotations triggered the conversion of almost 50% of all Mixed groups, which were further reduced by optimization of signal peptide prediction parameters. Conclusions The methodological novelty proposed here combining orthology and signal peptide prediction proved to be an effective strategy for the identification of proteins showing wrongly N-terminal annotated sequences, and it might have an important impact in the available data for genome-wide searching of potential vaccine and drug

  12. Folding very short peptides using molecular dynamics.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bosco K Ho

    2006-04-01

    Full Text Available Peptides often have conformational preferences. We simulated 133 peptide 8-mer fragments from six different proteins, sampled by replica-exchange molecular dynamics using Amber7 with a GB/SA (generalized-Born/solvent-accessible electrostatic approximation to water implicit solvent. We found that 85 of the peptides have no preferred structure, while 48 of them converge to a preferred structure. In 85% of the converged cases (41 peptides, the structures found by the simulations bear some resemblance to their native structures, based on a coarse-grained backbone description. In particular, all seven of the beta hairpins in the native structures contain a fragment in the turn that is highly structured. In the eight cases where the bioinformatics-based I-sites library picks out native-like structures, the present simulations are largely in agreement. Such physics-based modeling may be useful for identifying early nuclei in folding kinetics and for assisting in protein-structure prediction methods that utilize the assembly of peptide fragments.

  13. Prediction of lipoprotein signal peptides in Gram-negative bacteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juncker, Agnieszka S; Willenbrock, Hanni; Von Heijne, Gunnar; Brunak, Søren; Nielsen, Henrik; Krogh, Anders

    2003-08-01

    A method to predict lipoprotein signal peptides in Gram-negative Eubacteria, LipoP, has been developed. The hidden Markov model (HMM) was able to distinguish between lipoproteins (SPaseII-cleaved proteins), SPaseI-cleaved proteins, cytoplasmic proteins, and transmembrane proteins. This predictor was able to predict 96.8% of the lipoproteins correctly with only 0.3% false positives in a set of SPaseI-cleaved, cytoplasmic, and transmembrane proteins. The results obtained were significantly better than those of previously developed methods. Even though Gram-positive lipoprotein signal peptides differ from Gram-negatives, the HMM was able to identify 92.9% of the lipoproteins included in a Gram-positive test set. A genome search was carried out for 12 Gram-negative genomes and one Gram-positive genome. The results for Escherichia coli K12 were compared with new experimental data, and the predictions by the HMM agree well with the experimentally verified lipoproteins. A neural network-based predictor was developed for comparison, and it gave very similar results. LipoP is available as a Web server at www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/LipoP/.

  14. Prediction of lipoprotein signal peptides in Gram-negative bacteria

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Juncker, Agnieszka; Willenbrock, Hanni; Von Heijne, G.

    2003-01-01

    A method to predict lipoprotein signal peptides in Gram-negative Eubacteria, LipoP, has been developed. The hidden Markov model (HMM) was able to distinguish between lipoproteins (SPaseII-cleaved proteins), SPaseI-cleaved proteins, cytoplasmic proteins, and transmembrane proteins. This predictor ...

  15. Limitations of Ab Initio Predictions of Peptide Binding to MHC Class II Molecules

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhang, Hao; Lund, Ole; Nielsen, Morten

    2010-01-01

    potentials derived from the analysis of known protein structures; energetic evaluation of different peptide snapshots in a molecular dynamics simulation; and direct analysis of contacts made in known 3D structures of peptide:MHC complexes. These methods are ab initio in that they require structural data...

  16. Structure-activity relationship of crustacean peptide hormones.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katayama, Hidekazu

    2016-01-01

    In crustaceans, various physiological events, such as molting, vitellogenesis, and sex differentiation, are regulated by peptide hormones. To understanding the functional sites of these hormones, many structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies have been published. In this review, the author focuses the SAR of crustacean hyperglycemic hormone-family peptides and androgenic gland hormone and describes the detailed results of our and other research groups. The future perspectives will be also discussed.

  17. Detection of trans-cis flips and peptide-plane flips in protein structures

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Touw, W.G.; Joosten, R.P.; Vriend, G.

    2015-01-01

    A coordinate-based method is presented to detect peptide bonds that need correction either by a peptide-plane flip or by a trans-cis inversion of the peptide bond. When applied to the whole Protein Data Bank, the method predicts 4617 trans-cis flips and many thousands of hitherto unknown

  18. Identification and accurate quantification of structurally related peptide impurities in synthetic human C-peptide by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ming; Josephs, Ralf D; Daireaux, Adeline; Choteau, Tiphaine; Westwood, Steven; Wielgosz, Robert I; Li, Hongmei

    2018-06-04

    Peptides are an increasingly important group of biomarkers and pharmaceuticals. The accurate purity characterization of peptide calibrators is critical for the development of reference measurement systems for laboratory medicine and quality control of pharmaceuticals. The peptides used for these purposes are increasingly produced through peptide synthesis. Various approaches (for example mass balance, amino acid analysis, qNMR, and nitrogen determination) can be applied to accurately value assign the purity of peptide calibrators. However, all purity assessment approaches require a correction for structurally related peptide impurities in order to avoid biases. Liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-hrMS) has become the key technique for the identification and accurate quantification of structurally related peptide impurities in intact peptide calibrator materials. In this study, LC-hrMS-based methods were developed and validated in-house for the identification and quantification of structurally related peptide impurities in a synthetic human C-peptide (hCP) material, which served as a study material for an international comparison looking at the competencies of laboratories to perform peptide purity mass fraction assignments. More than 65 impurities were identified, confirmed, and accurately quantified by using LC-hrMS. The total mass fraction of all structurally related peptide impurities in the hCP study material was estimated to be 83.3 mg/g with an associated expanded uncertainty of 3.0 mg/g (k = 2). The calibration hierarchy concept used for the quantification of individual impurities is described in detail. Graphical abstract ᅟ.

  19. Empirical comparison of web-based antimicrobial peptide prediction tools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gabere, Musa Nur; Noble, William Stafford

    2017-07-01

    Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are innate immune molecules that exhibit activities against a range of microbes, including bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa. Recent increases in microbial resistance against current drugs has led to a concomitant increase in the need for novel antimicrobial agents. Over the last decade, a number of AMP prediction tools have been designed and made freely available online. These AMP prediction tools show potential to discriminate AMPs from non-AMPs, but the relative quality of the predictions produced by the various tools is difficult to quantify. We compiled two sets of AMP and non-AMP peptides, separated into three categories-antimicrobial, antibacterial and bacteriocins. Using these benchmark data sets, we carried out a systematic evaluation of ten publicly available AMP prediction methods. Among the six general AMP prediction tools-ADAM, CAMPR3(RF), CAMPR3(SVM), MLAMP, DBAASP and MLAMP-we find that CAMPR3(RF) provides a statistically significant improvement in performance, as measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, relative to the other five methods. Surprisingly, for antibacterial prediction, the original AntiBP method significantly outperforms its successor, AntiBP2 based on one benchmark dataset. The two bacteriocin prediction tools, BAGEL3 and BACTIBASE, both provide very good performance and BAGEL3 outperforms its predecessor, BACTIBASE, on the larger of the two benchmarks. gaberemu@ngha.med.sa or william-noble@uw.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

  20. Conservation of Three-Dimensional Helix-Loop-Helix Structure through the Vertebrate Lineage Reopens the Cold Case of Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone-Associated Peptide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez Sirkin, Daniela I; Lafont, Anne-Gaëlle; Kamech, Nédia; Somoza, Gustavo M; Vissio, Paula G; Dufour, Sylvie

    2017-01-01

    GnRH-associated peptide (GAP) is the C-terminal portion of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) preprohormone. Although it was reported in mammals that GAP may act as a prolactin-inhibiting factor and can be co-secreted with GnRH into the hypophyseal portal blood, GAP has been practically out of the research circuit for about 20 years. Comparative studies highlighted the low conservation of GAP primary amino acid sequences among vertebrates, contributing to consider that this peptide only participates in the folding or carrying process of GnRH. Considering that the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a protein may define its function, the aim of this study was to evaluate if GAP sequences and 3D structures are conserved in the vertebrate lineage. GAP sequences from various vertebrates were retrieved from databases. Analysis of primary amino acid sequence identity and similarity, molecular phylogeny, and prediction of 3D structures were performed. Amino acid sequence comparison and phylogeny analyses confirmed the large variation of GAP sequences throughout vertebrate radiation. In contrast, prediction of the 3D structure revealed a striking conservation of the 3D structure of GAP1 (GAP associated with the hypophysiotropic type 1 GnRH), despite low amino acid sequence conservation. This GAP1 peptide presented a typical helix-loop-helix (HLH) structure in all the vertebrate species analyzed. This HLH structure could also be predicted for GAP2 in some but not all vertebrate species and in none of the GAP3 analyzed. These results allowed us to infer that selective pressures have maintained GAP1 HLH structure throughout the vertebrate lineage. The conservation of the HLH motif, known to confer biological activity to various proteins, suggests that GAP1 peptides may exert some hypophysiotropic biological functions across vertebrate radiation.

  1. Conservation of Three-Dimensional Helix-Loop-Helix Structure through the Vertebrate Lineage Reopens the Cold Case of Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone-Associated Peptide

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela I. Pérez Sirkin

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available GnRH-associated peptide (GAP is the C-terminal portion of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH preprohormone. Although it was reported in mammals that GAP may act as a prolactin-inhibiting factor and can be co-secreted with GnRH into the hypophyseal portal blood, GAP has been practically out of the research circuit for about 20 years. Comparative studies highlighted the low conservation of GAP primary amino acid sequences among vertebrates, contributing to consider that this peptide only participates in the folding or carrying process of GnRH. Considering that the three-dimensional (3D structure of a protein may define its function, the aim of this study was to evaluate if GAP sequences and 3D structures are conserved in the vertebrate lineage. GAP sequences from various vertebrates were retrieved from databases. Analysis of primary amino acid sequence identity and similarity, molecular phylogeny, and prediction of 3D structures were performed. Amino acid sequence comparison and phylogeny analyses confirmed the large variation of GAP sequences throughout vertebrate radiation. In contrast, prediction of the 3D structure revealed a striking conservation of the 3D structure of GAP1 (GAP associated with the hypophysiotropic type 1 GnRH, despite low amino acid sequence conservation. This GAP1 peptide presented a typical helix-loop-helix (HLH structure in all the vertebrate species analyzed. This HLH structure could also be predicted for GAP2 in some but not all vertebrate species and in none of the GAP3 analyzed. These results allowed us to infer that selective pressures have maintained GAP1 HLH structure throughout the vertebrate lineage. The conservation of the HLH motif, known to confer biological activity to various proteins, suggests that GAP1 peptides may exert some hypophysiotropic biological functions across vertebrate radiation.

  2. Designed beta-boomerang antiendotoxic and antimicrobial peptides: structures and activities in lipopolysaccharide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhunia, Anirban; Mohanram, Harini; Domadia, Prerna N; Torres, Jaume; Bhattacharjya, Surajit

    2009-08-14

    Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), an integral part of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, is involved in a variety of biological processes including inflammation, septic shock, and resistance to host-defense molecules. LPS also provides an environment for folding of outer membrane proteins. In this work, we describe the structure-activity correlation of a series of 12-residue peptides in LPS. NMR structures of the peptides derived in complex with LPS reveal boomerang-like beta-strand conformations that are stabilized by intimate packing between the two aromatic residues located at the 4 and 9 positions. This structural feature renders these peptides with a high ability to neutralize endotoxicity, >80% at 10 nM concentration, of LPS. Replacements of these aromatic residues either with Ala or with Leu destabilizes the boomerang structure with the concomitant loss of antiendotoxic and antimicrobial activities. Furthermore, the aromatic packing stabilizing the beta-boomerang structure in LPS is found to be maintained even in a truncated octapeptide, defining a structured LPS binding motif. The mode of action of the active designed peptides correlates well with their ability to perturb LPS micelle structures. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies of the peptides delineate beta-type conformations and immobilization of phosphate head groups of LPS. Trp fluorescence studies demonstrated selective interactions with LPS and the depth of insertion into the LPS bilayer. Our results demonstrate the requirement of LPS-specific structures of peptides for endotoxin neutralizations. In addition, we propose that structures of these peptides may be employed to design proteins for the outer membrane.

  3. Superior Antifouling Performance of a Zwitterionic Peptide Compared to an Amphiphilic, Non-Ionic Peptide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ye, Huijun; Wang, Libing; Huang, Renliang; Su, Rongxin; Liu, Boshi; Qi, Wei; He, Zhimin

    2015-10-14

    The aim of this study was to explore the influence of amphiphilic and zwitterionic structures on the resistance of protein adsorption to peptide self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and gain insight into the associated antifouling mechanism. Two kinds of cysteine-terminated heptapeptides were studied. One peptide had alternating hydrophobic and hydrophilic residues with an amphiphilic sequence of CYSYSYS. The other peptide (CRERERE) was zwitterionic. Both peptides were covalently attached onto gold substrates via gold-thiol bond formation. Surface plasmon resonance analysis results showed that both peptide SAMs had ultralow or low protein adsorption amounts of 1.97-11.78 ng/cm2 in the presence of single proteins. The zwitterionic peptide showed relatively higher antifouling ability with single proteins and natural complex protein media. We performed molecular dynamics simulations to understand their respective antifouling behaviors. The results indicated that strong surface hydration of peptide SAMs contributes to fouling resistance by impeding interactions with proteins. Compared to the CYSYSYS peptide, more water molecules were predicted to form hydrogen-bonding interactions with the zwitterionic CRERERE peptide, which is in agreement with the antifouling test results. These findings reveal a clear relation between peptide structures and resistance to protein adsorption, facilitating the development of novel peptide-containing antifouling materials.

  4. Amyloid–β peptides time-dependent structural modifications: AFM and voltammetric characterization

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Enache, Teodor Adrian; Chiorcea-Paquim, Ana-Maria; Oliveira-Brett, Ana Maria, E-mail: brett@ci.uc.pt

    2016-07-05

    The human amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides, Aβ{sub 1-40} and Aβ{sub 1-42}, structural modifications, from soluble monomers to fully formed fibrils through intermediate structures, were investigated, and the results were compared with those obtained for the inverse Aβ{sub 40-1} and Aβ{sub 42-1}, mutant Aβ{sub 1-40}Phe{sup 10} and Aβ{sub 1-40}Nle{sup 35}, and rat Aβ{sub 1-40}Rat peptide sequences. The aggregation was followed at a slow rate, in chloride free media and room temperature, and revealed to be a sequence-structure process, dependent on the physicochemical properties of each Aβ peptide isoforms, and occurring at different rates and by different pathways. The fibrilization process was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM), via changes in the adsorption morphology from: (i) initially random coiled structures of ∼0.6 nm height, corresponding to the Aβ peptide monomers in random coil or in α-helix conformations, to (ii) aggregates and protofibrils of 1.5–6.0 nm height and (iii) two types of fibrils, corresponding to the Aβ peptide in a β-sheet configuration. The reactivity of the carbon electrode surface was considered. The hydrophobic surface induced rapid changes of the Aβ peptide conformations, and differences between the adsorbed fibrils, formed at the carbon surface (beaded, thin, <2.0 nm height) or in solution (long, smooth, thick, >2.0 nm height), were detected. Differential pulse voltammetry showed that, according to their primary structure, the Aβ peptides undergo oxidation in one or two steps, the first step corresponding to the tyrosine amino acids oxidation, and the second one to the histidine and methionine amino acids oxidation. The fibrilization process was electrochemically detected via the decrease of the Aβ peptide oxidation peak currents that occurred in a time dependent manner. - Highlights: • The Aβ peptide fibrilization process was followed by AFM and DP voltammetry. • The human Aβ{sub 1-40} and Aβ{sub 1

  5. Protein structure predictions with Monte Carlo simulated annealing: Case for the β-sheet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okamoto, Y.; Fukugita, M.; Kawai, H.; Nakazawa, T.

    Work is continued for a prediction of three-dimensional structure of peptides and proteins with Monte Carlo simulated annealing using only a generic energy function and amino acid sequence as input. We report that β-sheet like structure is successfully predicted for a fragment of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor which is known to have the β-sheet structure in nature. Together with the results for α-helix structure reported earlier, this means that a successful prediction can be made, at least at a qualitative level, for two dominant building blocks of proteins, α-helix and β-sheet, from the information of amino acid sequence alone.

  6. Comprehensive computational design of ordered peptide macrocycles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hosseinzadeh, Parisa; Bhardwaj, Gaurav; Mulligan, Vikram Khipple; Shortridge, Matthew D.; Craven, Timothy W.; Pardo-Avila, Fátima; Rettie, Stephen A.; Kim, David E.; Silva, Daniel-Adriano; Ibrahim, Yehia M.; Webb, Ian K.; Cort, John R.; Adkins, Joshua N.; Varani, Gabriele; Baker, David

    2018-01-01

    Mixed-chirality peptide macrocycles such as cyclosporine are among the most potent therapeutics identified to date, but there is currently no way to systematically search the structural space spanned by such compounds. Natural proteins do not provide a useful guide: Peptide macrocycles lack regular secondary structures and hydrophobic cores, and can contain local structures not accessible with L-amino acids. Here, we enumerate the stable structures that can be adopted by macrocyclic peptides composed of L- and D-amino acids by near-exhaustive backbone sampling followed by sequence design and energy landscape calculations. We identify more than 200 designs predicted to fold into single stable structures, many times more than the number of currently available unbound peptide macrocycle structures. Nuclear magnetic resonance structures of 9 of 12 designed 7- to 10-residue macrocycles, and three 11- to 14-residue bicyclic designs, are close to the computational models. Our results provide a nearly complete coverage of the rich space of structures possible for short peptide macrocycles and vastly increase the available starting scaffolds for both rational drug design and library selection methods. PMID:29242347

  7. Machine learning competition in immunology – Prediction of HLA class I binding peptides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhang, Guang Lan; Ansari, Hifzur Rahman; Bradley, Phil

    2011-01-01

    of peptide binding, therefore, determines the accuracy of the overall method. Computational predictions of peptide binding to HLA, both class I and class II, use a variety of algorithms ranging from binding motifs to advanced machine learning techniques ( [Brusic et al., 2004] and [Lafuente and Reche, 2009...

  8. Accurate approximation method for prediction of class I MHC affinities for peptides of length 8, 10 and 11 using prediction tools trained on 9mers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lundegaard, Claus; Lund, Ole; Nielsen, Morten

    2008-01-01

    Several accurate prediction systems have been developed for prediction of class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC):peptide binding. Most of these are trained on binding affinity data of primarily 9mer peptides. Here, we show how prediction methods trained on 9mer data can be used for accurate...

  9. Predicting Three-Dimensional Conformations of Peptides Constructed of Only Glycine, Alanine, Aspartic Acid, and Valine

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oda, Akifumi; Fukuyoshi, Shuichi

    2015-06-01

    The GADV hypothesis is a form of the protein world hypothesis, which suggests that life originated from proteins (Lacey et al. 1999; Ikehara 2002; Andras 2006). In the GADV hypothesis, life is thought to have originated from primitive proteins constructed of only glycine, alanine, aspartic acid, and valine ([GADV]-proteins). In this study, the three-dimensional (3D) conformations of randomly generated short [GADV]-peptides were computationally investigated using replica-exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulations (Sugita and Okamoto 1999). Because the peptides used in this study consisted of only 20 residues each, they could not form certain 3D structures. However, the conformational tendencies of the peptides were elucidated by analyzing the conformational ensembles generated by REMD simulations. The results indicate that secondary structures can be formed in several randomly generated [GADV]-peptides. A long helical structure was found in one of the hydrophobic peptides, supporting the conjecture of the GADV hypothesis that many peptides aggregated to form peptide multimers with enzymatic activity in the primordial soup. In addition, these results indicate that REMD simulations can be used for the structural investigation of short peptides.

  10. Sensitivity of ab Initio vs Empirical Methods in Computing Structural Effects on NMR Chemical Shifts for the Example of Peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumowski, Chris Vanessa; Hanni, Matti; Schweizer, Sabine; Ochsenfeld, Christian

    2014-01-14

    The structural sensitivity of NMR chemical shifts as computed by quantum chemical methods is compared to a variety of empirical approaches for the example of a prototypical peptide, the 38-residue kaliotoxin KTX comprising 573 atoms. Despite the simplicity of empirical chemical shift prediction programs, the agreement with experimental results is rather good, underlining their usefulness. However, we show in our present work that they are highly insensitive to structural changes, which renders their use for validating predicted structures questionable. In contrast, quantum chemical methods show the expected high sensitivity to structural and electronic changes. This appears to be independent of the quantum chemical approach or the inclusion of solvent effects. For the latter, explicit solvent simulations with increasing number of snapshots were performed for two conformers of an eight amino acid sequence. In conclusion, the empirical approaches neither provide the expected magnitude nor the patterns of NMR chemical shifts determined by the clearly more costly ab initio methods upon structural changes. This restricts the use of empirical prediction programs in studies where peptide and protein structures are utilized for the NMR chemical shift evaluation such as in NMR refinement processes, structural model verifications, or calculations of NMR nuclear spin relaxation rates.

  11. Identification of peptides from foot‐and‐mouth disease virus structural proteins bound by class I swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) alleles, SLA‐1*0401 and SLA‐2*0401

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Lasse Eggers; Harndahl, M.; Nielsen, Morten

    2013-01-01

    within the structural proteins of foot‐and‐mouth disease virus (FMDV), strain A24 were analyzed as candidate T‐cell epitopes. Peptides predicted by the NetMHCpan were tested in ELISA for binding to the SLA‐1*0401 and SLA‐2*0401 major histocompatibility complex class I proteins. Four of the 10 predicted...... FMDV peptides bound to SLA‐2*0401, whereas five of the nine predicted FMDV peptides bound to SLA‐1*0401. These methods provide the characterization of T‐cell epitopes in response to pathogens in more detail. The development of such approaches to analyze vaccine performance will contribute to a more...

  12. Signal-BNF: A Bayesian Network Fusing Approach to Predict Signal Peptides

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhi Zheng

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available A signal peptide is a short peptide chain that directs the transport of a protein and has become the crucial vehicle in finding new drugs or reprogramming cells for gene therapy. As the avalanche of new protein sequences generated in the postgenomic era, the challenge of identifying new signal sequences has become even more urgent and critical in biomedical engineering. In this paper, we propose a novel predictor called Signal-BNF to predict the N-terminal signal peptide as well as its cleavage site based on Bayesian reasoning network. Signal-BNF is formed by fusing the results of different Bayesian classifiers which used different feature datasets as its input through weighted voting system. Experiment results show that Signal-BNF is superior to the popular online predictors such as Signal-3L and PrediSi. Signal-BNF is featured by high prediction accuracy that may serve as a useful tool for further investigating many unclear details regarding the molecular mechanism of the zip code protein-sorting system in cells.

  13. Detection of trans–cis flips and peptide-plane flips in protein structures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Touw, Wouter G., E-mail: wouter.touw@radboudumc.nl [Radboud University Medical Center, Geert Grooteplein-Zuid 26-28, 6525 GA Nijmegen (Netherlands); Joosten, Robbie P. [Netherlands Cancer Institute, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam (Netherlands); Vriend, Gert, E-mail: wouter.touw@radboudumc.nl [Radboud University Medical Center, Geert Grooteplein-Zuid 26-28, 6525 GA Nijmegen (Netherlands)

    2015-07-28

    A method is presented to detect peptide bonds that need either a trans–cis flip or a peptide-plane flip. A coordinate-based method is presented to detect peptide bonds that need correction either by a peptide-plane flip or by a trans–cis inversion of the peptide bond. When applied to the whole Protein Data Bank, the method predicts 4617 trans–cis flips and many thousands of hitherto unknown peptide-plane flips. A few examples are highlighted for which a correction of the peptide-plane geometry leads to a correction of the understanding of the structure–function relation. All data, including 1088 manually validated cases, are freely available and the method is available from a web server, a web-service interface and through WHAT-CHECK.

  14. Detection of trans–cis flips and peptide-plane flips in protein structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Touw, Wouter G.; Joosten, Robbie P.; Vriend, Gert

    2015-01-01

    A method is presented to detect peptide bonds that need either a trans–cis flip or a peptide-plane flip. A coordinate-based method is presented to detect peptide bonds that need correction either by a peptide-plane flip or by a trans–cis inversion of the peptide bond. When applied to the whole Protein Data Bank, the method predicts 4617 trans–cis flips and many thousands of hitherto unknown peptide-plane flips. A few examples are highlighted for which a correction of the peptide-plane geometry leads to a correction of the understanding of the structure–function relation. All data, including 1088 manually validated cases, are freely available and the method is available from a web server, a web-service interface and through WHAT-CHECK

  15. The TOPCONS web server for consensus prediction of membrane protein topology and signal peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsirigos, Konstantinos D; Peters, Christoph; Shu, Nanjiang; Käll, Lukas; Elofsson, Arne

    2015-07-01

    TOPCONS (http://topcons.net/) is a widely used web server for consensus prediction of membrane protein topology. We hereby present a major update to the server, with some substantial improvements, including the following: (i) TOPCONS can now efficiently separate signal peptides from transmembrane regions. (ii) The server can now differentiate more successfully between globular and membrane proteins. (iii) The server now is even slightly faster, although a much larger database is used to generate the multiple sequence alignments. For most proteins, the final prediction is produced in a matter of seconds. (iv) The user-friendly interface is retained, with the additional feature of submitting batch files and accessing the server programmatically using standard interfaces, making it thus ideal for proteome-wide analyses. Indicatively, the user can now scan the entire human proteome in a few days. (v) For proteins with homology to a known 3D structure, the homology-inferred topology is also displayed. (vi) Finally, the combination of methods currently implemented achieves an overall increase in performance by 4% as compared to the currently available best-scoring methods and TOPCONS is the only method that can identify signal peptides and still maintain a state-of-the-art performance in topology predictions. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

  16. Folding and activity of hybrid sequence, disulfide-stabilized peptides

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pease, J.H.B.; Storrs, R.W.; Wemmer, D.E. (Univ. of California, Berkeley (USA))

    1990-08-01

    Peptides have been synthesized that have hybrid sequences, partially derived from the bee venom peptide apamin and partially from the S peptide of ribonuclease A. The hybrid peptides were demonstrated by NMR spectroscopy to fold, forming the same disulfides and basic three-dimensional structure as native apamin, containing a {beta}-turn and an {alpha}-helix. These hybrids were active in complementing S protein, reactivating nuclease activity. In addition, the hybrid peptide was effective in inducing antibodies that cross-react with the RNase, without conjugation to a carrier protein. The stability of the folded structure of this peptide suggests that it should be possible to elicit antibodies that will react not only with a specific sequence, but also with a specific secondary structure. Hybrid sequence peptides also provide opportunities to study separately nucleation and propagation steps in formation of secondary structure. The authors show that in S peptide the {alpha}-helix does not end abruptly but rather terminates gradually over four or five residues. In general, these hybrid sequence peptides, which fold predictably because of disulfide bond formation, can provide opportunities for examining structure - function relationships for many biologically active sequences.

  17. Folding and activity of hybrid sequence, disulfide-stabilized peptides

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pease, J.H.B.; Storrs, R.W.; Wemmer, D.E.

    1990-01-01

    Peptides have been synthesized that have hybrid sequences, partially derived from the bee venom peptide apamin and partially from the S peptide of ribonuclease A. The hybrid peptides were demonstrated by NMR spectroscopy to fold, forming the same disulfides and basic three-dimensional structure as native apamin, containing a β-turn and an α-helix. These hybrids were active in complementing S protein, reactivating nuclease activity. In addition, the hybrid peptide was effective in inducing antibodies that cross-react with the RNase, without conjugation to a carrier protein. The stability of the folded structure of this peptide suggests that it should be possible to elicit antibodies that will react not only with a specific sequence, but also with a specific secondary structure. Hybrid sequence peptides also provide opportunities to study separately nucleation and propagation steps in formation of secondary structure. The authors show that in S peptide the α-helix does not end abruptly but rather terminates gradually over four or five residues. In general, these hybrid sequence peptides, which fold predictably because of disulfide bond formation, can provide opportunities for examining structure - function relationships for many biologically active sequences

  18. Structure characterization of the central repetitive domain of high molecular weight gluten proteins .1. Model studies using cyclic and linear peptides

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    VanDijk, AA; VanWijk, LL; VanVliet, A; Haris, P; VanSwieten, E; Tesser, GI; Robillard, GT

    The high molecular weight (HMW) proteins from wheat contain a repetitive domain that forms 60-80% of their sequence. The consensus peptides PGQGQQ and GYYPTSPQQ form more than 90% of the domain; both are predicted to adopt beta-turn structure. This paper describes the structural characterization of

  19. Structure-activity relationships of an antimicrobial peptide plantaricin s from two-peptide class IIb bacteriocins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soliman, Wael; Wang, Liru; Bhattacharjee, Subir; Kaur, Kamaljit

    2011-04-14

    Class IIb bacteriocins are ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial peptides comprising two different peptides synergistically acting in equal amounts for optimal potency. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time potent (nanomolar) antimicrobial activity of a representative class IIb bacteriocin, plantaricin S (Pls), against four pathogenic gram-positive bacteria, including Listeria monocytogenes. The structure-activity relationships for Pls were studied using activity assays, circular dichroism (CD), and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The two Pls peptides and five Pls derived fragments were synthesized. The CD spectra of the Pls and selected fragments revealed helical conformations in aqueous 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol. The MD simulations showed that when the two Pls peptides are in antiparallel orientation, the helical regions interact and align, mediated by strong attraction between conserved GxxxG/AxxxA motifs. The results strongly correlate with the antimicrobial activity suggesting that helix-helix alignment of the two Pls peptides and interaction between the conserved motifs are crucial for interaction with the target cell membrane.

  20. Design and evaluation of antimalarial peptides derived from prediction of short linear motifs in proteins related to erythrocyte invasion.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alessandra Bianchin

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the blood stage of the malaria causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, to predict potential protein interactions between the parasite merozoite and the host erythrocyte and design peptides that could interrupt these predicted interactions. We screened the P. falciparum and human proteomes for computationally predicted short linear motifs (SLiMs in cytoplasmic portions of transmembrane proteins that could play roles in the invasion of the erythrocyte by the merozoite, an essential step in malarial pathogenesis. We tested thirteen peptides predicted to contain SLiMs, twelve of them palmitoylated to enhance membrane targeting, and found three that blocked parasite growth in culture by inhibiting the initiation of new infections in erythrocytes. Scrambled peptides for two of the most promising peptides suggested that their activity may be reflective of amino acid properties, in particular, positive charge. However, one peptide showed effects which were stronger than those of scrambled peptides. This was derived from human red blood cell glycophorin-B. We concluded that proteome-wide computational screening of the intracellular regions of both host and pathogen adhesion proteins provides potential lead peptides for the development of anti-malarial compounds.

  1. Applications of Circular Dichroism for Structural Analysis of Gelatin and Antimicrobial Peptides

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yoonkyung Park

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Circular dichroism (CD is a useful technique for monitoring changes in the conformation of antimicrobial peptides or gelatin. In this study, interactions between cationic peptides and gelatin were observed without affecting the triple helical content of the gelatin, which was more strongly affected by anionic surfactant. The peptides did not adopt a secondary structure in the presence of aqueous solution or Tween 80, but a peptide secondary structure formed upon the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS. The peptides bound to the phosphate group of lipopolysaccharide (LPS and displayed an alpha-helical conformation while (KW4 adopted a folded conformation. Further, the peptides did not specifically interact with the fungal cell wall components of mannan or laminarin. Tryptophan blue shift assay indicated that these peptides interacted with SDS, LPS, and gelatin but not with Tween 80, mannan, or laminarin. The peptides also displayed antibacterial activity against P. aeruginosa without cytotoxicity against HaCaT cells at MIC, except for HPA3NT3-analog peptide. In this study, we used a CD spectroscopic method to demonstrate the feasibility of peptide characterization in numerous environments. The CD method can thus be used as a screening method of gelatin-peptide interactions for use in wound healing applications.

  2. Structural requirements for the interaction between class II MHC molecules and peptide antigens

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sette, A; Buus, S; Appella, E

    1990-01-01

    of binding, it is possible to define certain structural features of peptides that are associated with the capacity to bind to a particular MHC specificity (IA(d) or IE(d)); 3) IA(d) and IE(d) molecules recognize different and independent structures on the antigen molecule; 4) only about 10% of the single...... IA(d) and IE(d) molecules and their peptide ligands, we found that some structural characteristics apply to both antigen-MHC interactions. In particular, we found: 1) each MHC molecule is capable of binding many unrelated peptides through the same peptide-binding site; 2) despite this permissiveness...... amino acid substitutions tested on two IA(d)- and IE(d)-binding peptides had significant effect on their MHC-binding capacities, while over 80% of these substitutions significantly impaired T cell recognition of the Ia-peptide complex; 5) based on the segregation between residues that are crucial for T...

  3. Ocean acidification affects marine chemical communication by changing structure and function of peptide signalling molecules.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roggatz, Christina C; Lorch, Mark; Hardege, Jörg D; Benoit, David M

    2016-12-01

    Ocean acidification is a global challenge that faces marine organisms in the near future with a predicted rapid drop in pH of up to 0.4 units by the end of this century. Effects of the change in ocean carbon chemistry and pH on the development, growth and fitness of marine animals are well documented. Recent evidence also suggests that a range of chemically mediated behaviours and interactions in marine fish and invertebrates will be affected. Marine animals use chemical cues, for example, to detect predators, for settlement, homing and reproduction. But, while effects of high CO 2 conditions on these behaviours are described across many species, little is known about the underlying mechanisms, particularly in invertebrates. Here, we investigate the direct influence of future oceanic pH conditions on the structure and function of three peptide signalling molecules with an interdisciplinary combination of methods. NMR spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations were used to assess the direct molecular influence of pH on the peptide cues, and we tested the functionality of the cues in different pH conditions using behavioural bioassays with shore crabs (Carcinus maenas) as a model system. We found that peptide signalling cues are susceptible to protonation in future pH conditions, which will alter their overall charge. We also show that structure and electrostatic properties important for receptor binding differ significantly between the peptide forms present today and the protonated signalling peptides likely to be dominating in future oceans. The bioassays suggest an impaired functionality of the signalling peptides at low pH. Physiological changes due to high CO 2 conditions were found to play a less significant role in influencing the investigated behaviour. From our results, we conclude that the change of charge, structure and consequently function of signalling molecules presents one possible mechanism to explain altered behaviour under future oceanic p

  4. Structural Polymorphism in a Self-Assembled Tri-Aromatic Peptide System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Noam; Lei, Jiangtao; Zhan, Chendi; Shimon, Linda J W; Adler-Abramovich, Lihi; Wei, Guanghong; Gazit, Ehud

    2018-04-24

    Self-assembly is a process of key importance in natural systems and in nanotechnology. Peptides are attractive building blocks due to their relative facile synthesis, biocompatibility, and other unique properties. Diphenylalanine (FF) and its derivatives are known to form nanostructures of various architectures and interesting and varied characteristics. The larger triphenylalanine peptide (FFF) was found to self-assemble as efficiently as FF, forming related but distinct architectures of plate-like and spherical nanostructures. Here, to understand the effect of triaromatic systems on the self-assembly process, we examined carboxybenzyl-protected diphenylalanine (z-FF) as a minimal model for such an arrangement. We explored different self-assembly conditions by changing solvent compositions and peptide concentrations, generating a phase diagram for the assemblies. We discovered that z-FF can form a variety of structures, including nanowires, fibers, nanospheres, and nanotoroids, the latter were previously observed only in considerably larger or co-assembly systems. Secondary structure analysis revealed that all assemblies possessed a β-sheet conformation. Additionally, in solvent combinations with high water ratios, z-FF formed rigid and self-healing hydrogels. X-ray crystallography revealed a "wishbone" structure, in which z-FF dimers are linked by hydrogen bonds mediated by methanol molecules, with a 2-fold screw symmetry along the c-axis. All-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations revealed conformations similar to the crystal structure. Coarse-grained MD simulated the assembly of the peptide into either fibers or spheres in different solvent systems, consistent with the experimental results. This work thus expands the building block library for the fabrication of nanostructures by peptide self-assembly.

  5. Peptomics, identification of novel cationic Arabidopsis peptides with conserved sequence motifs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olsen, Addie Nina; Mundy, John; Skriver, Karen

    2002-01-01

    Arabidopsis family of 34 genes. The predicted peptides are characterized by a conserved C-terminal sequence motif and additional primary structure conservation in a core region. The majority of these genes had not previously been annotated. A subset of the predicted peptides show high overall sequence...... similarity to Rapid Alkalinization Factor (RALF), a peptide isolated from tobacco. We therefore refer to this peptide family as RALFL for RALF-Like. RT-PCR analysis confirmed that several of the Arabidopsis genes are expressed and that their expression patterns vary. The identification of a large gene family...

  6. A community resource benchmarking predictions of peptide binding to MHC-I molecules

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Peters, B; Bui, HH; Pletscher-Frankild, Sune

    2006-01-01

    on the internet. While differences in the data used to generate these predictions hamper direct comparisons, we do conclude that tools based on combinatorial peptide libraries perform remarkably well. The transparent prediction evaluation on this dataset provides tool developers with a benchmark for comparison...... of newly developed prediction methods. In addition, to generate and evaluate our own prediction methods, we have established an easily extensible web-based prediction framework that allows automated side-by-side comparisons of prediction methods implemented by experts. This is an advance over the current...

  7. Screening Preoperative Peptide Biomarkers for Predicting Postoperative Myocardial Infarction after Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Zhibin; Hu, Ping; Liu, Jianxin; Wang, Dianjun; Jin, Longyu; Hong, Chao

    2014-01-01

    Postoperative myocardial infarction (PMI) is one of the most serious complications of cardiac surgeries. No preoperative biomarker is currently available for predicting PMI after cardiac surgeries. In the present study, we used a phage display peptide library to screen potential preoperative peptide biomarkers for predicting PMI after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. Twenty patients who developed PMI after CABG and 20 age-, sex-, and body mass index-matched patients without PMI after CABG were enrolled as a discovery cohort. Another 50 patients who developed PMI after CABG and 50 randomly selected patients without PMI after CABG were enrolled as a validation cohort to validate the potential peptide biomarkers identified in the discovery cohort. Fifty randomly selected healthy volunteers were also enrolled in the validation phase as a healthy control group. In the discovery/screening phase, 17 out of 20 randomly selected phage clones exhibited specific reaction with purified sera IgG from the PMI group, among which 11 came from the same phage clone with inserted peptide sequence GVIMVIAVSCVF (named PMI-1). In the validation phase, phage ELISA showed that serum IgG from 90% of patients in the PMI group had a positive reaction with PMI-1; in contrast, only 14% and 6% of patients in the non-PMI group and the healthy control group had a positive reaction with PMI-1, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of the PMI-1 phage clone to preoperatively identify patients who would develop PMI after CABG were 90.0%, 86.0%, 86.5, 89.5% and 88.0%, respectively. The absorbance value of the PMI-1 phage clone showed statistically significant correlation with the peak postoperative serum cardiac troponin I level (r = 0.349, p = 0.012) in the PMI group. In conclusion, we for the first time identified a mimic peptide (PMI-1) with high validity in preoperative prediction of PMI after CABG. PMID

  8. Comprehensive computational design of ordered peptide macrocycles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hosseinzadeh, Parisa; Bhardwaj, Gaurav; Mulligan, Vikram K.; Shortridge, Matthew D.; Craven, Timothy W.; Pardo-Avila, Fatima; Rettie, Stephan A.; Kim, David E.; Silva, Daniel A.; Ibrahim, Yehia M.; Webb, Ian K.; Cort, John R.; Adkins, Joshua N.; Varani, Gabriele; Baker, David

    2017-12-14

    Mixed chirality peptide macrocycles such as cyclosporine are among the most potent therapeutics identified to-date, but there is currently no way to systematically search through the structural space spanned by such compounds for new drug candidates. Natural proteins do not provide a useful guide: peptide macrocycles lack regular secondary structures and hydrophobic cores and have different backbone torsional constraints. Hence the development of new peptide macrocycles has been approached by modifying natural products or using library selection methods; the former is limited by the small number of known structures, and the latter by the limited size and diversity accessible through library-based methods. To overcome these limitations, here we enumerate the stable structures that can be adopted by macrocyclic peptides composed of L and D amino acids. We identify more than 200 designs predicted to fold into single stable structures, many times more than the number of currently available unbound peptide macrocycle structures. We synthesize and characterize by NMR twelve 7-10 residue macrocycles, 9 of which have structures very close to the design models in solution. NMR structures of three 11-14 residue bicyclic designs are also very close to the computational models. Our results provide a nearly complete coverage of the rich space of structures possible for short peptide based macrocycles unparalleled for other molecular systems, and vastly increase the available starting scaffolds for both rational drug design and library selection methods.

  9. Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships and Docking Studies of Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide Antagonists

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jenssen, Håvard; Mehrabian, Mohadeseh; Kyani, Anahita

    2012-01-01

    Defining the role of calcitonin gene-related peptide in migraine pathogenesis could lead to the application of calcitonin gene-related peptide antagonists as novel migraine therapeutics. In this work, quantitative structure-activity relationship modeling of biological activities of a large range...... of calcitonin gene-related peptide antagonists was performed using a panel of physicochemical descriptors. The computational studies evaluated different variable selection techniques and demonstrated shuffling stepwise multiple linear regression to be superior over genetic algorithm-multiple linear regression....... The linear quantitative structure-activity relationship model revealed better statistical parameters of cross-validation in comparison with the non-linear support vector regression technique. Implementing only five peptide descriptors into this linear quantitative structure-activity relationship model...

  10. NN-align. An artificial neural network-based alignment algorithm for MHC class II peptide binding prediction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lund Ole

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The major histocompatibility complex (MHC molecule plays a central role in controlling the adaptive immune response to infections. MHC class I molecules present peptides derived from intracellular proteins to cytotoxic T cells, whereas MHC class II molecules stimulate cellular and humoral immunity through presentation of extracellularly derived peptides to helper T cells. Identification of which peptides will bind a given MHC molecule is thus of great importance for the understanding of host-pathogen interactions, and large efforts have been placed in developing algorithms capable of predicting this binding event. Results Here, we present a novel artificial neural network-based method, NN-align that allows for simultaneous identification of the MHC class II binding core and binding affinity. NN-align is trained using a novel training algorithm that allows for correction of bias in the training data due to redundant binding core representation. Incorporation of information about the residues flanking the peptide-binding core is shown to significantly improve the prediction accuracy. The method is evaluated on a large-scale benchmark consisting of six independent data sets covering 14 human MHC class II alleles, and is demonstrated to outperform other state-of-the-art MHC class II prediction methods. Conclusion The NN-align method is competitive with the state-of-the-art MHC class II peptide binding prediction algorithms. The method is publicly available at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCII-2.0.

  11. Bioinformatic prediction of arthropod/nematode-like peptides in non-arthropod, non-nematode members of the Ecdysozoa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christie, Andrew E; Nolan, Daniel H; Garcia, Zachery A; McCoole, Matthew D; Harmon, Sarah M; Congdon-Jones, Benjamin; Ohno, Paul; Hartline, Niko; Congdon, Clare Bates; Baer, Kevin N; Lenz, Petra H

    2011-02-01

    The Onychophora, Priapulida and Tardigrada, along with the Arthropoda, Nematoda and several other small phyla, form the superphylum Ecdysozoa. Numerous peptidomic studies have been undertaken for both the arthropods and nematodes, resulting in the identification of many peptides from each group. In contrast, little is known about the peptides used as paracrines/hormones by species from the other ecdysozoan taxa. Here, transcriptome mining and bioinformatic peptide prediction were used to identify peptides in members of the Onychophora, Priapulida and Tardigrada, the only non-arthropod, non-nematode members of the Ecdysozoa for which there are publicly accessible expressed sequence tags (ESTs). The extant ESTs for each phylum were queried using 106 arthropod/nematode peptide precursors. Transcripts encoding calcitonin-like diuretic hormone and pigment-dispersing hormone (PDH) were identified for the onychophoran Peripatopsis sedgwicki, with transcripts encoding C-type allatostatin (C-AST) and FMRFamide-like peptide identified for the priapulid Priapulus caudatus. For the Tardigrada, transcripts encoding members of the A-type allatostatin, C-AST, insect kinin, orcokinin, PDH and tachykinin-related peptide families were identified, all but one from Hypsibius dujardini (the exception being a Milnesium tardigradum orcokinin-encoding transcript). The proteins deduced from these ESTs resulted in the prediction of 48 novel peptides, six onychophoran, eight priapulid and 34 tardigrade, which are the first described from these phyla. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Structure-function characterization and optimization of a plant-derived antibacterial peptide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suarez, Mougli; Haenni, Marisa; Canarelli, Stéphane; Fisch, Florian; Chodanowski, Pierre; Servis, Catherine; Michielin, Olivier; Freitag, Ruth; Moreillon, Philippe; Mermod, Nicolas

    2005-09-01

    Crushed seeds of the Moringa oleifera tree have been used traditionally as natural flocculants to clarify drinking water. We previously showed that one of the seed peptides mediates both the sedimentation of suspended particles such as bacterial cells and a direct bactericidal activity, raising the possibility that the two activities might be related. In this study, the conformational modeling of the peptide was coupled to a functional analysis of synthetic derivatives. This indicated that partly overlapping structural determinants mediate the sedimentation and antibacterial activities. Sedimentation requires a positively charged, glutamine-rich portion of the peptide that aggregates bacterial cells. The bactericidal activity was localized to a sequence prone to form a helix-loop-helix structural motif. Amino acid substitution showed that the bactericidal activity requires hydrophobic proline residues within the protruding loop. Vital dye staining indicated that treatment with peptides containing this motif results in bacterial membrane damage. Assembly of multiple copies of this structural motif into a branched peptide enhanced antibacterial activity, since low concentrations effectively kill bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus pyogenes without displaying a toxic effect on human red blood cells. This study thus identifies a synthetic peptide with potent antibacterial activity against specific human pathogens. It also suggests partly distinct molecular mechanisms for each activity. Sedimentation may result from coupled flocculation and coagulation effects, while the bactericidal activity would require bacterial membrane destabilization by a hydrophobic loop.

  13. AnchorDock: Blind and Flexible Anchor-Driven Peptide Docking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ben-Shimon, Avraham; Niv, Masha Y

    2015-05-05

    The huge conformational space stemming from the inherent flexibility of peptides is among the main obstacles to successful and efficient computational modeling of protein-peptide interactions. Current peptide docking methods typically overcome this challenge using prior knowledge from the structure of the complex. Here we introduce AnchorDock, a peptide docking approach, which automatically targets the docking search to the most relevant parts of the conformational space. This is done by precomputing the free peptide's structure and by computationally identifying anchoring spots on the protein surface. Next, a free peptide conformation undergoes anchor-driven simulated annealing molecular dynamics simulations around the predicted anchoring spots. In the challenging task of a completely blind docking test, AnchorDock produced exceptionally good results (backbone root-mean-square deviation ≤ 2.2Å, rank ≤15) for 10 of 13 unbound cases tested. The impressive performance of AnchorDock supports a molecular recognition pathway that is driven via pre-existing local structural elements. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Structure-activity studies and therapeutic potential of host defense peptides of human thrombin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kasetty, Gopinath; Papareddy, Praveen; Kalle, Martina; Rydengård, Victoria; Mörgelin, Matthias; Albiger, Barbara; Malmsten, Martin; Schmidtchen, Artur

    2011-06-01

    Peptides of the C-terminal region of human thrombin are released upon proteolysis and identified in human wounds. In this study, we wanted to investigate minimal determinants, as well as structural features, governing the antimicrobial and immunomodulating activity of this peptide region. Sequential amino acid deletions of the peptide GKYGFYTHVFRLKKWIQKVIDQFGE (GKY25), as well as substitutions at strategic and structurally relevant positions, were followed by analyses of antimicrobial activity against the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, and the fungus Candida albicans. Furthermore, peptide effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-, lipoteichoic acid-, or zymosan-induced macrophage activation were studied. The thrombin-derived peptides displayed length- and sequence-dependent antimicrobial as well as immunomodulating effects. A peptide length of at least 20 amino acids was required for effective anti-inflammatory effects in macrophage models, as well as optimal antimicrobial activity as judged by MIC assays. However, shorter (>12 amino acids) variants also displayed significant antimicrobial effects. A central K14 residue was important for optimal antimicrobial activity. Finally, one peptide variant, GKYGFYTHVFRLKKWIQKVI (GKY20) exhibiting improved selectivity, i.e., low toxicity and a preserved antimicrobial as well as anti-inflammatory effect, showed efficiency in mouse models of LPS shock and P. aeruginosa sepsis. The work defines structure-activity relationships of C-terminal host defense peptides of thrombin and delineates a strategy for selecting peptide epitopes of therapeutic interest.

  15. Structures of self-assembled amphiphilic peptide-heterodimers: effects of concentration, pH, temperature and ionic strength

    KAUST Repository

    Luo, Zhongli

    2010-01-01

    The amphiphilic double-tail peptides AXG were studied regarding secondary structure and self-assembly in aqueous solution. The two tails A = Ala 6 and G = Gly6 are connected by a central pair X of hydrophilic residues, X being two aspartic acids in ADG, two lysines in AKG and two arginines in ARG. The peptide AD (Ala6Asp) served as a single-tail reference. The secondary structure of the four peptides was characterized by circular dichroism spectroscopy under a wide range of peptide concentrations (0.01-0.8 mM), temperatures (20-98 °C), pHs (4-9.5) and ionic strengths. In salt-free water both ADG and AD form a β-sheet type of structure at high concentration, low pH and low temperature, in a peptide-peptide driven assembly of individual peptides. The transition has a two-state character for ADG but not for AD, which indicates that the added tail in ADG makes the assembly more cooperative. By comparison the secondary structures of AKG and ARG are comparatively stable over the large range of conditions covered. According to dynamic light scattering the two-tail peptides form supra-molecular aggregates in water, but high-resolution AFM-imaging indicate that ordered (self-assembled) structures are only formed when salt (0.1 M NaCl) is added. Since the CD-studies indicate that the NaCl has only a minor effect on the peptide secondary structure we propose that the main role of the added salt is to screen the electrostatic repulsion between the peptide building blocks. According to the AFM images ADG and AKG support a correlation between nanofibers and a β-sheet or unordered secondary structure, whereas ARG forms fibers in spite of lacking β-sheet structure. Since the AKG and ARG double-tail peptides self-assemble into distinct nanostructures while their secondary structures are resistant to environment factors, these new peptides show potential as robust building blocks for nano-materials in various medical and nanobiotechnical applications. © 2010 The Royal Society

  16. Computational prediction of vaccine potential epitopes and 3-dimensional structure of XAGE-1b for non-small cell lung cancer immunotherapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad M. Tarek

    2018-04-01

    Conclusions: This study predicted a model of XAGE-1b tertiary structure which could explain its antigenic function and facilitate usage of predicted peptides for experimental validation towards designing immunotherapies against NSCLC.

  17. BIOPEP database and other programs for processing bioactive peptide sequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minkiewicz, Piotr; Dziuba, Jerzy; Iwaniak, Anna; Dziuba, Marta; Darewicz, Małgorzata

    2008-01-01

    This review presents the potential for application of computational tools in peptide science based on a sample BIOPEP database and program as well as other programs and databases available via the World Wide Web. The BIOPEP application contains a database of biologically active peptide sequences and a program enabling construction of profiles of the potential biological activity of protein fragments, calculation of quantitative descriptors as measures of the value of proteins as potential precursors of bioactive peptides, and prediction of bonds susceptible to hydrolysis by endopeptidases in a protein chain. Other bioactive and allergenic peptide sequence databases are also presented. Programs enabling the construction of binary and multiple alignments between peptide sequences, the construction of sequence motifs attributed to a given type of bioactivity, searching for potential precursors of bioactive peptides, and the prediction of sites susceptible to proteolytic cleavage in protein chains are available via the Internet as are other approaches concerning secondary structure prediction and calculation of physicochemical features based on amino acid sequence. Programs for prediction of allergenic and toxic properties have also been developed. This review explores the possibilities of cooperation between various programs.

  18. Peptide chemistry toolbox - Transforming natural peptides into peptide therapeutics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erak, Miloš; Bellmann-Sickert, Kathrin; Els-Heindl, Sylvia; Beck-Sickinger, Annette G

    2018-06-01

    The development of solid phase peptide synthesis has released tremendous opportunities for using synthetic peptides in medicinal applications. In the last decades, peptide therapeutics became an emerging market in pharmaceutical industry. The need for synthetic strategies in order to improve peptidic properties, such as longer half-life, higher bioavailability, increased potency and efficiency is accordingly rising. In this mini-review, we present a toolbox of modifications in peptide chemistry for overcoming the main drawbacks during the transition from natural peptides to peptide therapeutics. Modifications at the level of the peptide backbone, amino acid side chains and higher orders of structures are described. Furthermore, we are discussing the future of peptide therapeutics development and their impact on the pharmaceutical market. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Interplay between Peptide Bond Geometrical Parameters in Nonglobular Structural Contexts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luciana Esposito

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Several investigations performed in the last two decades have unveiled that geometrical parameters of protein backbone show a remarkable variability. Although these studies have provided interesting insights into one of the basic aspects of protein structure, they have been conducted on globular and water-soluble proteins. We report here a detailed analysis of backbone geometrical parameters in nonglobular proteins/peptides. We considered membrane proteins and two distinct fibrous systems (amyloid-forming and collagen-like peptides. Present data show that in these systems the local conformation plays a major role in dictating the amplitude of the bond angle N-Cα-C and the propensity of the peptide bond to adopt planar/nonplanar states. Since the trends detected here are in line with the concept of the mutual influence of local geometry and conformation previously established for globular and water-soluble proteins, our analysis demonstrates that the interplay of backbone geometrical parameters is an intrinsic and general property of protein/peptide structures that is preserved also in nonglobular contexts. For amyloid-forming peptides significant distortions of the N-Cα-C bond angle, indicative of sterical hidden strain, may occur in correspondence with side chain interdigitation. The correlation between the dihedral angles Δω/ψ in collagen-like models may have interesting implications for triple helix stability.

  20. Interplay between peptide bond geometrical parameters in nonglobular structural contexts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esposito, Luciana; Balasco, Nicole; De Simone, Alfonso; Berisio, Rita; Vitagliano, Luigi

    2013-01-01

    Several investigations performed in the last two decades have unveiled that geometrical parameters of protein backbone show a remarkable variability. Although these studies have provided interesting insights into one of the basic aspects of protein structure, they have been conducted on globular and water-soluble proteins. We report here a detailed analysis of backbone geometrical parameters in nonglobular proteins/peptides. We considered membrane proteins and two distinct fibrous systems (amyloid-forming and collagen-like peptides). Present data show that in these systems the local conformation plays a major role in dictating the amplitude of the bond angle N-C(α)-C and the propensity of the peptide bond to adopt planar/nonplanar states. Since the trends detected here are in line with the concept of the mutual influence of local geometry and conformation previously established for globular and water-soluble proteins, our analysis demonstrates that the interplay of backbone geometrical parameters is an intrinsic and general property of protein/peptide structures that is preserved also in nonglobular contexts. For amyloid-forming peptides significant distortions of the N-C(α)-C bond angle, indicative of sterical hidden strain, may occur in correspondence with side chain interdigitation. The correlation between the dihedral angles Δω/ψ in collagen-like models may have interesting implications for triple helix stability.

  1. Membrane interaction and secondary structure of de novo designed arginine-and tryptophan peptides with dual function

    KAUST Repository

    Rydberg, Hanna A.

    2012-10-01

    Cell-penetrating peptides and antimicrobial peptides are two classes of positively charged membrane active peptides with several properties in common. The challenge is to combine knowledge about the membrane interaction mechanisms and structural properties of the two classes to design peptides with membrane-specific actions, useful either as transporters of cargo or as antibacterial substances. Membrane active peptides are commonly rich in arginine and tryptophan. We have previously designed a series of arg/trp peptides and investigated how the position and number of tryptophans affect cellular uptake. Here we explore the antimicrobial properties and the interaction with lipid model membranes of these peptides, using minimal inhibitory concentrations assay (MIC), circular dichroism (CD) and linear dichroism (LD). The results show that the arg/trp peptides inhibit the growth of the two gram positive strains Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus pyogenes, with some individual variations depending on the position of the tryptophans. No inhibition of the gram negative strains Proteus mirabilis or Pseudomonas aeruginosa was noticed. CD indicated that when bound to lipid vesicles one of the peptides forms an α-helical like structure, whereas the other five exhibited rather random coiled structures. LD indicated that all six peptides were somehow aligned parallel with the membrane surface. Our results do not reveal any obvious connection between membrane interaction and antimicrobial effect for the studied peptides. By contrast cell-penetrating properties can be coupled to both the secondary structure and the degree of order of the peptides. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

  2. Predicted MHC peptide binding promiscuity explains MHC class I 'hotspots' of antigen presentation defined by mass spectrometry eluted ligand data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jappe, Emma Christine; Kringelum, Jens; Trolle, Thomas; Nielsen, Morten

    2018-02-15

    Peptides that bind to and are presented by MHC class I and class II molecules collectively make up the immunopeptidome. In the context of vaccine development, an understanding of the immunopeptidome is essential, and much effort has been dedicated to its accurate and cost-effective identification. Current state-of-the-art methods mainly comprise in silico tools for predicting MHC binding, which is strongly correlated with peptide immunogenicity. However, only a small proportion of the peptides that bind to MHC molecules are, in fact, immunogenic, and substantial work has been dedicated to uncovering additional determinants of peptide immunogenicity. In this context, and in light of recent advancements in mass spectrometry (MS), the existence of immunological hotspots has been given new life, inciting the hypothesis that hotspots are associated with MHC class I peptide immunogenicity. We here introduce a precise terminology for defining these hotspots and carry out a systematic analysis of MS and in silico predicted hotspots. We find that hotspots defined from MS data are largely captured by peptide binding predictions, enabling their replication in silico. This leads us to conclude that hotspots, to a great degree, are simply a result of promiscuous HLA binding, which disproves the hypothesis that the identification of hotspots provides novel information in the context of immunogenic peptide prediction. Furthermore, our analyses demonstrate that the signal of ligand processing, although present in the MS data, has very low predictive power to discriminate between MS and in silico defined hotspots. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Impact of graphene-based nanomaterials (GBNMs) on the structural and functional conformations of hepcidin peptide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Krishna P.; Baweja, Lokesh; Wolkenhauer, Olaf; Rahman, Qamar; Gupta, Shailendra K.

    2018-03-01

    Graphene-based nanomaterials (GBNMs) are widely used in various industrial and biomedical applications. GBNMs of different compositions, size and shapes are being introduced without thorough toxicity evaluation due to the unavailability of regulatory guidelines. Computational toxicity prediction methods are used by regulatory bodies to quickly assess health hazards caused by newer materials. Due to increasing demand of GBNMs in various size and functional groups in industrial and consumer based applications, rapid and reliable computational toxicity assessment methods are urgently needed. In the present work, we investigate the impact of graphene and graphene oxide nanomaterials on the structural conformations of small hepcidin peptide and compare the materials for their structural and conformational changes. Our molecular dynamics simulation studies revealed conformational changes in hepcidin due to its interaction with GBMNs, which results in a loss of its functional properties. Our results indicate that hepcidin peptide undergo severe structural deformations when superimposed on the graphene sheet in comparison to graphene oxide sheet. These observations suggest that graphene is more toxic than a graphene oxide nanosheet of similar area. Overall, this study indicates that computational methods based on structural deformation, using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, can be used for the early evaluation of toxicity potential of novel nanomaterials.

  4. Structural and biophysical characterization of an antimicrobial peptide chimera comprised of lactoferricin and lactoferrampin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haney, Evan F; Nazmi, Kamran; Bolscher, Jan G M; Vogel, Hans J

    2012-03-01

    Lactoferricin and lactoferrampin are two antimicrobial peptides found in the N-terminal lobe of bovine lactoferrin with broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against a range of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as well as Candida albicans. A heterodimer comprised of lactoferrampin joined to a fragment of lactoferricin was recently reported in which these two peptides were joined at their C-termini through the two amino groups of a single Lys residue (Bolscher et al., 2009, Biochimie 91(1):123-132). This hybrid peptide, termed LFchimera, has significantly higher antimicrobial activity compared to the individual peptides or an equimolar mixture of the two. In this work, the underlying mechanism behind the increased antibacterial activity of LFchimera was investigated. Differential scanning calorimetry studies demonstrated that all the peptides influenced the thermotropic phase behaviour of anionic phospholipid suspensions. Calcein leakage and vesicle fusion experiments with anionic liposomes revealed that LFchimera had enhanced membrane perturbing properties compared to the individual peptides. Peptide structures were evaluated using circular dichroism and NMR spectroscopy to gain insight into the structural features of LFchimera that contribute to the increased antimicrobial activity. The NMR solution structure, determined in a miscible co-solvent mixture of chloroform, methanol and water, revealed that the Lys linkage increased the helical content in LFchimera compared to the individual peptides, but it did not fix the relative orientations of lactoferricin and lactoferrampin with respect to each other. The structure of LFchimera provides insight into the conformation of this peptide in a membranous environment and improves our understanding of its antimicrobial mechanism of action. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Validation of Molecular Dynamics Simulations for Prediction of Three-Dimensional Structures of Small Proteins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kato, Koichi; Nakayoshi, Tomoki; Fukuyoshi, Shuichi; Kurimoto, Eiji; Oda, Akifumi

    2017-10-12

    Although various higher-order protein structure prediction methods have been developed, almost all of them were developed based on the three-dimensional (3D) structure information of known proteins. Here we predicted the short protein structures by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in which only Newton's equations of motion were used and 3D structural information of known proteins was not required. To evaluate the ability of MD simulationto predict protein structures, we calculated seven short test protein (10-46 residues) in the denatured state and compared their predicted and experimental structures. The predicted structure for Trp-cage (20 residues) was close to the experimental structure by 200-ns MD simulation. For proteins shorter or longer than Trp-cage, root-mean square deviation values were larger than those for Trp-cage. However, secondary structures could be reproduced by MD simulations for proteins with 10-34 residues. Simulations by replica exchange MD were performed, but the results were similar to those from normal MD simulations. These results suggest that normal MD simulations can roughly predict short protein structures and 200-ns simulations are frequently sufficient for estimating the secondary structures of protein (approximately 20 residues). Structural prediction method using only fundamental physical laws are useful for investigating non-natural proteins, such as primitive proteins and artificial proteins for peptide-based drug delivery systems.

  6. Secondary structure of cell-penetrating peptides during interaction with fungal cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gong, Zifan; Ikonomova, Svetlana P; Karlsson, Amy J

    2018-03-01

    Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are peptides that cross cell membranes, either alone or while carrying molecular cargo. Although their interactions with mammalian cells have been widely studied, much less is known about their interactions with fungal cells, particularly at the biophysical level. We analyzed the interactions of seven CPPs (penetratin, Pep-1, MPG, pVEC, TP-10, MAP, and cecropin B) with the fungal pathogen Candida albicans using experiments and molecular simulations. Circular dichroism (CD) of the peptides revealed a structural transition from a random coil or weak helix to an α-helix occurs for all peptides when the solvent is changed from aqueous to hydrophobic. However, CD performed in the presence of C. albicans cells showed that proximity to the cell membrane is not necessarily sufficient to induce this structural transition, as penetratin, Pep-1, and MPG did not display a structural shift in the presence of cells. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to further probe the molecular-level interaction with the cell membrane, and these simulations suggested that pVEC, TP-10, MAP, and cecropin B strongly penetrate into the hydrophobic domain of the membrane lipid bilayer, inducing a transition to an α-helical conformation. In contrast, penetratin, Pep-1 and MPG remained in the hydrophilic region without a shift in conformation. The experimental data and MC simulations combine to explain how peptide structure affects their interaction with cells and their mechanism of translocation into cells (direct translocation vs. endocytosis). Our work also highlights the utility of combining biophysical experiments, biological experiments, and molecular modeling to understand biological phenomena. © 2017 The Protein Society.

  7. Structure of genes for dermaseptins B, antimicrobial peptides from frog skin. Exon 1-encoded prepropeptide is conserved in genes for peptides of highly different structures and activities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vouille, V; Amiche, M; Nicolas, P

    1997-09-01

    We cloned the genes of two members of the dermaseptin family, broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptides isolated from the skin of the arboreal frog Phyllomedusa bicolor. The dermaseptin gene Drg2 has a 2-exon coding structure interrupted by a small 137-bp intron, wherein exon 1 encoded a 22-residue hydrophobic signal peptide and the first three amino acids of the acidic propiece; exon 2 contained the 18 additional acidic residues of the propiece plus a typical prohormone processing signal Lys-Arg and a 32-residue dermaseptin progenitor sequence. The dermaseptin genes Drg2 and Drg1g2 have conserved sequences at both untranslated ends and in the first and second coding exons. In contrast, Drg1g2 comprises a third coding exon for a short version of the acidic propiece and a second dermaseptin progenitor sequence. Structural conservation between the two genes suggests that Drg1g2 arose recently from an ancestral Drg2-like gene through amplification of part of the second coding exon and 3'-untranslated region. Analysis of the cDNAs coding precursors for several frog skin peptides of highly different structures and activities demonstrates that the signal peptides and part of the acidic propieces are encoded by conserved nucleotides encompassed by the first coding exon of the dermaseptin genes. The organization of the genes that belong to this family, with the signal peptide and the progenitor sequence on separate exons, permits strikingly different peptides to be directed into the secretory pathway. The recruitment of such a homologous 'secretory' exon by otherwise non-homologous genes may have been an early event in the evolution of amphibian.

  8. A graph kernel approach for alignment-free domain-peptide interaction prediction with an application to human SH3 domains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kundu, Kousik; Costa, Fabrizio; Backofen, Rolf

    2013-07-01

    State-of-the-art experimental data for determining binding specificities of peptide recognition modules (PRMs) is obtained by high-throughput approaches like peptide arrays. Most prediction tools applicable to this kind of data are based on an initial multiple alignment of the peptide ligands. Building an initial alignment can be error-prone, especially in the case of the proline-rich peptides bound by the SH3 domains. Here, we present a machine-learning approach based on an efficient graph-kernel technique to predict the specificity of a large set of 70 human SH3 domains, which are an important class of PRMs. The graph-kernel strategy allows us to (i) integrate several types of physico-chemical information for each amino acid, (ii) consider high-order correlations between these features and (iii) eliminate the need for an initial peptide alignment. We build specialized models for each human SH3 domain and achieve competitive predictive performance of 0.73 area under precision-recall curve, compared with 0.27 area under precision-recall curve for state-of-the-art methods based on position weight matrices. We show that better models can be obtained when we use information on the noninteracting peptides (negative examples), which is currently not used by the state-of-the art approaches based on position weight matrices. To this end, we analyze two strategies to identify subsets of high confidence negative data. The techniques introduced here are more general and hence can also be used for any other protein domains, which interact with short peptides (i.e. other PRMs). The program with the predictive models can be found at http://www.bioinf.uni-freiburg.de/Software/SH3PepInt/SH3PepInt.tar.gz. We also provide a genome-wide prediction for all 70 human SH3 domains, which can be found under http://www.bioinf.uni-freiburg.de/Software/SH3PepInt/Genome-Wide-Predictions.tar.gz. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

  9. A graph kernel approach for alignment-free domain–peptide interaction prediction with an application to human SH3 domains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kundu, Kousik; Costa, Fabrizio; Backofen, Rolf

    2013-01-01

    Motivation: State-of-the-art experimental data for determining binding specificities of peptide recognition modules (PRMs) is obtained by high-throughput approaches like peptide arrays. Most prediction tools applicable to this kind of data are based on an initial multiple alignment of the peptide ligands. Building an initial alignment can be error-prone, especially in the case of the proline-rich peptides bound by the SH3 domains. Results: Here, we present a machine-learning approach based on an efficient graph-kernel technique to predict the specificity of a large set of 70 human SH3 domains, which are an important class of PRMs. The graph-kernel strategy allows us to (i) integrate several types of physico-chemical information for each amino acid, (ii) consider high-order correlations between these features and (iii) eliminate the need for an initial peptide alignment. We build specialized models for each human SH3 domain and achieve competitive predictive performance of 0.73 area under precision-recall curve, compared with 0.27 area under precision-recall curve for state-of-the-art methods based on position weight matrices. We show that better models can be obtained when we use information on the noninteracting peptides (negative examples), which is currently not used by the state-of-the art approaches based on position weight matrices. To this end, we analyze two strategies to identify subsets of high confidence negative data. The techniques introduced here are more general and hence can also be used for any other protein domains, which interact with short peptides (i.e. other PRMs). Availability: The program with the predictive models can be found at http://www.bioinf.uni-freiburg.de/Software/SH3PepInt/SH3PepInt.tar.gz. We also provide a genome-wide prediction for all 70 human SH3 domains, which can be found under http://www.bioinf.uni-freiburg.de/Software/SH3PepInt/Genome-Wide-Predictions.tar.gz. Contact: backofen@informatik.uni-freiburg.de Supplementary

  10. I-Ad-binding peptides derived from unrelated protein antigens share a common structural motif

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sette, A; Buus, S; Colon, S

    1988-01-01

    on the I-Ad binding of the immunogenic peptide OVA 323-339. The results obtained demonstrated the very permissive nature of Ag-Ia interaction. We also showed that unrelated peptides that are good I-Ad binders share a common structural motif and speculated that recognition of such motifs could represent...... that I-Ad molecules recognize a large library of Ag by virtue of common structural motifs present in peptides derived from phylogenetically unrelated proteins....

  11. The leader peptide of mutacin 1140 has distinct structural components compared to related class I lantibiotics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Escano, Jerome; Stauffer, Byron; Brennan, Jacob; Bullock, Monica; Smith, Leif

    2014-12-01

    Lantibiotics are ribosomally synthesized peptide antibiotics composed of an N-terminal leader peptide that promotes the core peptide's interaction with the post translational modification (PTM) enzymes. Following PTMs, mutacin 1140 is transported out of the cell and the leader peptide is cleaved to yield the antibacterial peptide. Mutacin 1140 leader peptide is structurally unique compared to other class I lantibiotic leader peptides. Herein, we further our understanding of the structural differences of mutacin 1140 leader peptide with regard to other class I leader peptides. We have determined that the length of the leader peptide is important for the biosynthesis of mutacin 1140. We have also determined that mutacin 1140 leader peptide contains a novel four amino acid motif compared to related lantibiotics. PTM enzyme recognition of the leader peptide appears to be evolutionarily distinct from related class I lantibiotics. Our study on mutacin 1140 leader peptide provides a basis for future studies aimed at understanding its interaction with the PTM enzymes. © 2014 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  12. Structural similarity between β(3)-peptides synthesized from β(3)-homo-amino acids and aspartic acid monomers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmed, Sahar; Sprules, Tara; Kaur, Kamaljit

    2014-07-01

    Formation of stable secondary structures by oligomers that mimic natural peptides is a key asset for enhanced biological response. Here we show that oligomeric β(3)-hexapeptides synthesized from L-aspartic acid monomers (β(3)-peptides 1, 5a, and 6) or homologated β(3)-amino acids (β(3)-peptide 2), fold into similar stable 14-helical secondary structures in solution, except that the former form right-handed 14-helix and the later form left-handed 14-helix. β(3)-Peptides from L-Asp monomers contain an additional amide bond in the side chains that provides opportunities for more hydrogen bonding. However, based on the NMR solution structures, we found that β(3)-peptide from L-Asp monomers (1) and from homologated amino acids (2) form similar structures with no additional side-chain interactions. These results suggest that the β(3)-peptides derived from L-Asp are promising peptide-mimetics that can be readily synthesized using L-Asp monomers as well as the right-handed 14-helical conformation of these β(3)-peptides (such as 1 and 6) may prove beneficial in the design of mimics for right-handed α-helix of α-peptides. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  13. Structural Simulation of MHC-peptide Interactions using T-cell Epitope in Iron-acquisition Protein of N. meningitides for Vaccine Design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Namrata Mishra

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available The present work uses a structural simulation approach to identify the potential target vaccine candidates or T cell epitopes (antigenic region that can activate T cell response in two iron acquisition proteins from Neisseria. An iron regulated outer membrane protein frpB: extracellular, [NMB1988], and a Major ferric Iron-binding protein fbpA: periplasmic, [NMB0634] critical for the survival of the pathogen in the host were used. Ten novel promiscuous epitopes from the two iron acquisition proteins were identified using bioinformatics interface. Of these epitopes, 630VQKAVGSIL638 present on frpB with high binding affinity for allele HLA*DR1 was identified with an anchor position at P2, an aliphatic residue at P4 and glycine at P6 making it thereby a potential quality choice for linking peptide-loaded MHC dynamics to T-cell activation and vaccine constructs. The feasibility and structural binding of predicted peptide to the respective HLA allele was investigated by molecular modeling and template-based structural simulation. The conformational properties of the linear peptide were investigated by molecular dynamics using GROMOS96 package and Swiss PDB viewer.

  14. Phase behavior and nanoscale structure of phospholipid membranes incorporated with acylated C-14-peptides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, T.B.; Kaasgaard, Thomas; Jensen, M.O.

    2005-01-01

    The thermotropic phase behavior and lateral structure of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) lipid bilayers containing an acylated peptide has been characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) on vesicles and atomic force microscopy (AFM) on mica-supported bilayers. The acylated...... peptide, which is a synthetic decapeptide N-terminally linked to a C-14 acyl chain (C-14-peptide), is incorporated into DPPC bilayers in amounts ranging from 0-20 mol %. The calorimetric scans of the two-component system demonstrate a distinct influence of the C-14-peptide on the lipid bilayer...... gel phase DPPC bilayers, inserts preferentially into preexisting defect regions and has a noticeable influence on the organization of the surrounding lipids. The presence of the C-14-peptide gives rise to a laterally heterogeneous bilayer structure with coexisting lipid domains characterized by a 10...

  15. Peptide binding predictions for HLA DR, DP and DQ molecules

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, P.; Sidney, J.; Kim, Y.

    2010-01-01

    a significant gap in knowledge as HLA DP and DQ molecules are presumably equally important, and have only been studied less because they are more difficult to handle experimentally. RESULTS: In this study, we aimed to narrow this gap by providing a large scale dataset of over 17,000 HLA-peptide binding...... affinities for a set of 11 HLA DP and DQ alleles. We also expanded our dataset for HLA DR alleles resulting in a total of 40,000 MHC class II binding affinities covering 26 allelic variants. Utilizing this dataset, we generated prediction tools utilizing several machine learning algorithms and evaluated...... include all training data for maximum performance. 4) The recently developed NN-align prediction method significantly outperformed all other algorithms, including a naïve consensus based on all prediction methods. A new consensus method dropping the comparably weak ARB prediction method could outperform...

  16. FSPP: A Tool for Genome-Wide Prediction of smORF-Encoded Peptides and Their Functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hui Li

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available smORFs are small open reading frames of less than 100 codons. Recent low throughput experiments showed a lot of smORF-encoded peptides (SEPs played crucial rule in processes such as regulation of transcription or translation, transportation through membranes and the antimicrobial activity. In order to gather more functional SEPs, it is necessary to have access to genome-wide prediction tools to give profound directions for low throughput experiments. In this study, we put forward a functional smORF-encoded peptides predictor (FSPP which tended to predict authentic SEPs and their functions in a high throughput method. FSPP used the overlap of detected SEPs from Ribo-seq and mass spectrometry as target objects. With the expression data on transcription and translation levels, FSPP built two co-expression networks. Combing co-location relations, FSPP constructed a compound network and then annotated SEPs with functions of adjacent nodes. Tested on 38 sequenced samples of 5 human cell lines, FSPP successfully predicted 856 out of 960 annotated proteins. Interestingly, FSPP also highlighted 568 functional SEPs from these samples. After comparison, the roles predicted by FSPP were consistent with known functions. These results suggest that FSPP is a reliable tool for the identification of functional small peptides. FSPP source code can be acquired at https://www.bioinfo.org/FSPP.

  17. Crystal structure of a TAPBPR–MHC I complex reveals the mechanism of peptide editing in antigen presentation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jiang, Jiansheng; Natarajan, Kannan; Boyd, Lisa F.; Morozov, Giora I.; Mage, Michael G.; Margulies, David H. (NIH); (Hebrew)

    2017-10-12

    Central to CD8+ T cell–mediated immunity is the recognition of peptide–major histocompatibility complex class I (p–MHC I) proteins displayed by antigen-presenting cells. Chaperone-mediated loading of high-affinity peptides onto MHC I is a key step in the MHC I antigen presentation pathway. However, the structure of MHC I with a chaperone that facilitates peptide loading has not been determined. We report the crystal structure of MHC I in complex with the peptide editor TAPBPR (TAP-binding protein–related), a tapasin homolog. TAPBPR remodels the peptide-binding groove of MHC I, resulting in the release of low-affinity peptide. Changes include groove relaxation, modifications of key binding pockets, and domain adjustments. This structure captures a peptide-receptive state of MHC I and provides insights into the mechanism of peptide editing by TAPBPR and, by analogy, tapasin.

  18. Bioinformatics Tools for the Discovery of New Nonribosomal Peptides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Leclère, Valérie; Weber, Tilmann; Jacques, Philippe

    2016-01-01

    -dimensional structure of the peptides can be compared with the structural patterns of all known NRPs. The presented workflow leads to an efficient and rapid screening of genomic data generated by high throughput technologies. The exploration of such sequenced genomes may lead to the discovery of new drugs (i......This chapter helps in the use of bioinformatics tools relevant to the discovery of new nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) produced by microorganisms. The strategy described can be applied to draft or fully assembled genome sequences. It relies on the identification of the synthetase genes...... and the deciphering of the domain architecture of the nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs). In the next step, candidate peptides synthesized by these NRPSs are predicted in silico, considering the specificity of incorporated monomers together with their isomery. To assess their novelty, the two...

  19. Structural analysis and taste evaluation of γ-glutamyl peptides comprising sulfur-containing amino acids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amino, Yusuke; Wakabayashi, Hidehiko; Akashi, Satoko; Ishiwatari, Yutaka

    2018-03-01

    The structures, flavor-modifying effects, and CaSR activities of γ-glutamyl peptides comprising sulfur-containing amino acids were investigated. The chemical structures, including the linkage mode of the N-terminal glutamic acid, of γ-L-glutamyl-S-(2-propenyl)-L-cysteine (γ-L-glutamyl-S-allyl-L-cysteine) and its sulfoxide isolated from garlic were established by comparing their NMR spectra with those of authentic peptides prepared using chemical methods. Mass spectrometric analysis also enabled determination of the linkage modes in the glutamyl dipeptides by their characteristic fragmentation. In sensory evaluation, these peptides exhibited flavor-modifying effects (continuity) in umami solutions less pronounced but similar to that of glutathione. Furthermore, the peptides exhibited intrinsic flavor due to the sulfur-containing structure, which may be partially responsible for their flavor-modifying effects. In CaSR assays, γ-L-glutamyl-S-methyl-L-cysteinylglycine was most active, which indicates that the presence of a medium-sized aliphatic substituent at the second amino acid residue in γ-glutamyl peptides enhances CaSR activity.

  20. PEPTIDE SOLUBILITY, STRUCTURE AND CHARGE POSITION EFFECT ON ADSORPTION BY ALUMINIUM HYDROXIDE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mary Trujillo

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Solubility, structure and position of charges in a peptide antigen sequence can be mentioned as being amongst the basic features of adsorption. In order to study their effect on adsorption, seven analogue series were synthesized from a MSP-1 peptide sequence by systematically replacing each one of the positions in the peptide sequence by aspartic acid, glutamic acid, serine, alanine, asparagine, glutamine or lysine. Such modifications in analogue peptide sequences showed a non-regular tendency regarding solubility and adsorption data. Aspartic acid and Glutamic acid analogue series showed great improvements in adsorption, especially in peptides where Lysine in position 6 and Arginine in position 13 were replaced. Solubility of position 5 analogue was greater than the position 6 analogue in Aspartic acid series; however, the position 6 analogue showed best adsorption results whilst the Aspartic acid in position 5 analogue showed no adsorption in the same conditions. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance structural analysis revealed differences in the -helical structureextension between these analogues. The Aspartic acid in position 6, located in the polar side of the helix, may allow this analogueto fit better onto the adsorption regions suggesting that the local electrostatic charge is responsible for this behavior.

  1. Atomic structure of a peptide coated gold nanocluster identified using theoretical and experimental studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Hui; Li, Xu; Gao, Liang; Zhai, Jiao; Liu, Ru; Gao, Xueyun; Wang, Dongqi; Zhao, Lina

    2016-06-01

    Peptide coated gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) have a precise molecular formula and atomic structure, which are critical for their unique applications in targeting specific proteins either for protein analysis or drug design. To date, a study of the crystal structure of peptide coated AuNCs is absent primarily due to the difficulty of obtaining their crystalline phases in an experiment. Here we study a typical peptide coated AuNC (Au24Peptide8, Peptide = H2N-CCYKKKKQAGDV-COOH, Anal. Chem., 2015, 87, 2546) to figure out its atomic structure and electronic structure using a theoretical method for the first time. In this work, we identify the explicit configuration of the essential structure of Au24Peptide8, Au24(Cys-Cys)8, using density functional theory (DFT) computations and optical spectroscopic experiments, where Cys denotes cysteine without H bonded to S. As the first multidentate ligand binding AuNC, Au24(Cys-Cys)8 is characterized as a distorted Au13 core with Oh symmetry covered by two Au(Cys-Cys) and three Au3(Cys-Cys)2 staple motifs in its atomic structure. The most stable configuration of Au24(Cys-Cys)8 is confirmed by comparing its UV-vis absorption spectrum from time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) calculations with optical absorption measurements, and these results are consistent with each other. Furthermore, we carry out frontier molecular orbital (FMO) calculations to elucidate that the electronic structure of Au24(Cys-Cys)8 is different from that of Au24(SR)20 as they have a different Au/S ratio, where SR represents alkylthiolate. Importantly, the different ligand coatings, Cys-Cys and SR, in Au24(Cys-Cys)8 and Au24(SR)20 cause the different Au/S ratios in the coated Au24. The reason is that the Au/S ratio is crucial in determining the size of the Au core of the ligand protected AuNC, and the size of the Au core corresponds to a specific electronic structure. By the adjustment of ligand coatings from alkylthiolate to peptide, the Au/S ratio

  2. Rapid discovery of peptide capture candidates with demonstrated specificity for structurally similar toxins

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarkes, Deborah A.; Hurley, Margaret M.; Coppock, Matthew B.; Farrell, Mikella E.; Pellegrino, Paul M.; Stratis-Cullum, Dimitra N.

    2016-05-01

    Peptides have emerged as viable alternatives to antibodies for molecular-based sensing due to their similarity in recognition ability despite their relative structural simplicity. Various methods for peptide capture reagent discovery exist, including phage display, yeast display, and bacterial display. One of the primary advantages of peptide discovery by bacterial display technology is the speed to candidate peptide capture agent, due to both rapid growth of bacteria and direct utilization of the sorted cells displaying each individual peptide for the subsequent round of biopanning. We have previously isolated peptide affinity reagents towards protective antigen of Bacillus anthracis using a commercially available automated magnetic sorting platform with improved enrichment as compared to manual magnetic sorting. In this work, we focus on adapting our automated biopanning method to a more challenging sort, to demonstrate the specificity possible with peptide capture agents. This was achieved using non-toxic, recombinant variants of ricin and abrin, RiVax and abrax, respectively, which are structurally similar Type II ribosomal inactivating proteins with significant sequence homology. After only two rounds of biopanning, enrichment of peptide capture candidates binding abrax but not RiVax was achieved as demonstrated by Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) studies. Further sorting optimization included negative sorting against RiVax, proper selection of autoMACS programs for specific sorting rounds, and using freshly made buffer and freshly thawed protein target for each round of biopanning for continued enrichment over all four rounds. Most of the resulting candidates from biopanning for abrax binding peptides were able to bind abrax but not RiVax, demonstrating that short peptide sequences can be highly specific even at this early discovery stage.

  3. HPEPDOCK: a web server for blind peptide-protein docking based on a hierarchical algorithm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Pei; Jin, Bowen; Li, Hao; Huang, Sheng-You

    2018-05-09

    Protein-peptide interactions are crucial in many cellular functions. Therefore, determining the structure of protein-peptide complexes is important for understanding the molecular mechanism of related biological processes and developing peptide drugs. HPEPDOCK is a novel web server for blind protein-peptide docking through a hierarchical algorithm. Instead of running lengthy simulations to refine peptide conformations, HPEPDOCK considers the peptide flexibility through an ensemble of peptide conformations generated by our MODPEP program. For blind global peptide docking, HPEPDOCK obtained a success rate of 33.3% in binding mode prediction on a benchmark of 57 unbound cases when the top 10 models were considered, compared to 21.1% for pepATTRACT server. HPEPDOCK also performed well in docking against homology models and obtained a success rate of 29.8% within top 10 predictions. For local peptide docking, HPEPDOCK achieved a high success rate of 72.6% on a benchmark of 62 unbound cases within top 10 predictions, compared to 45.2% for HADDOCK peptide protocol. Our HPEPDOCK server is computationally efficient and consumed an average of 29.8 mins for a global peptide docking job and 14.2 mins for a local peptide docking job. The HPEPDOCK web server is available at http://huanglab.phys.hust.edu.cn/hpepdock/.

  4. Collagencin, an antibacterial peptide from fish collagen: Activity, structure and interaction dynamics with membrane

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ennaas, Nadia; Hammami, Riadh; Gomaa, Ahmed; Bédard, François; Biron, Éric; Subirade, Muriel; Beaulieu, Lucie; Fliss, Ismail

    2016-01-01

    In this study, we first report characterization of collagencin, an antimicrobial peptide identified from fish collagen hydrolysate. The peptide completely inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus at 1.88 mM. Although non-toxic up to 470 μM, collagencin was hemolytic at higher concentrations. The secondary structure of collagencin was mainly composed by β-sheet and β-turn as determined by CD measurements and molecular dynamics. The peptide is likely to form β-sheet structure under hydrophobic environments and interacts with both anionic (phosphatidylglycerol) and zwitterionic (phosphoethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine) lipids as shown with CD spectroscopy and molecular dynamics. The peptide formed several hydrogen bonds with both POPG and POPE lipids and remained at membrane–water interface, suggesting that collagencin antibacterial action follows a carpet mechanism. Collagenous fish wastes could be processed by enzymatic hydrolysis and transformed into products of high value having functional or biological properties. Marine collagens are a promising source of antimicrobial peptides with new implications in food safety and human health. - Highlights: • Collagencin, an antibacterial (G+ & G-) peptide identified from fish collagen hydrolysate. • The peptide completely inhibited the growth of S. aureus at 1.88 mM and non-toxic at 470 μM. • The secondary structure was mainly composed by β-sheet and turn as determined by CD and MD. • Collagencin interacts with both anionic and zwitterionic lipids as shown with CD and MD. • Collagencin antibacterial action probably follows a carpet mechanism.

  5. Collagencin, an antibacterial peptide from fish collagen: Activity, structure and interaction dynamics with membrane

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ennaas, Nadia [STELA Dairy Research Centre, Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, Université Laval, G1V 0A6 Québec, QC (Canada); Hammami, Riadh, E-mail: riadh.hammami@fsaa.ulaval.ca [STELA Dairy Research Centre, Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, Université Laval, G1V 0A6 Québec, QC (Canada); Gomaa, Ahmed [STELA Dairy Research Centre, Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, Université Laval, G1V 0A6 Québec, QC (Canada); Bédard, François; Biron, Éric [Faculty of Pharmacy, Université Laval and Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, CHU de Québec Research Centre, G1V 4G2 Québec, QC (Canada); Subirade, Muriel [STELA Dairy Research Centre, Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, Université Laval, G1V 0A6 Québec, QC (Canada); Beaulieu, Lucie, E-mail: lucie.beaulieu@fsaa.ulaval.ca [STELA Dairy Research Centre, Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, Université Laval, G1V 0A6 Québec, QC (Canada); Department of Biology, Chemistry and Geography, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR), 300 Allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, QC G5L 3A1 (Canada); Fliss, Ismail, E-mail: ismail.fliss@fsaa.ulaval.ca [STELA Dairy Research Centre, Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, Université Laval, G1V 0A6 Québec, QC (Canada)

    2016-04-29

    In this study, we first report characterization of collagencin, an antimicrobial peptide identified from fish collagen hydrolysate. The peptide completely inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus at 1.88 mM. Although non-toxic up to 470 μM, collagencin was hemolytic at higher concentrations. The secondary structure of collagencin was mainly composed by β-sheet and β-turn as determined by CD measurements and molecular dynamics. The peptide is likely to form β-sheet structure under hydrophobic environments and interacts with both anionic (phosphatidylglycerol) and zwitterionic (phosphoethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine) lipids as shown with CD spectroscopy and molecular dynamics. The peptide formed several hydrogen bonds with both POPG and POPE lipids and remained at membrane–water interface, suggesting that collagencin antibacterial action follows a carpet mechanism. Collagenous fish wastes could be processed by enzymatic hydrolysis and transformed into products of high value having functional or biological properties. Marine collagens are a promising source of antimicrobial peptides with new implications in food safety and human health. - Highlights: • Collagencin, an antibacterial (G+ & G-) peptide identified from fish collagen hydrolysate. • The peptide completely inhibited the growth of S. aureus at 1.88 mM and non-toxic at 470 μM. • The secondary structure was mainly composed by β-sheet and turn as determined by CD and MD. • Collagencin interacts with both anionic and zwitterionic lipids as shown with CD and MD. • Collagencin antibacterial action probably follows a carpet mechanism.

  6. Identification of prokaryotic and eukaryotic signal peptides and prediction of their cleavage sites

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Henrik; Engelbrecht, Jacob; Brunak, Søren

    1997-01-01

    We have developed a new method for the identification of signal peptides and their cleavage based on neural networks trained on separate sets of prokaryotic and eukaryotic sequence. The method performs significantly better than previous prediction schemes and can easily be applied on genome...

  7. Comprehensive Peptide Ion Structure Studies Using Ion Mobility Techniques: Part 3. Relating Solution-Phase to Gas-Phase Structures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kondalaji, Samaneh Ghassabi; Khakinejad, Mahdiar; Valentine, Stephen J

    2018-06-01

    Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been utilized to study peptide ion conformer establishment during the electrospray process. An explicit water model is used for nanodroplets containing a model peptide and hydronium ions. Simulations are conducted at 300 K for two different peptide ion charge configurations and for droplets containing varying numbers of hydronium ions. For all conditions, modeling has been performed until production of the gas-phase ions and the resultant conformers have been compared to proposed gas-phase structures. The latter species were obtained from previous studies in which in silico candidate structures were filtered according to ion mobility and hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX) reactivity matches. Results from the present study present three key findings namely (1) the evidence from ion production modeling supports previous structure refinement studies based on mobility and HDX reactivity matching, (2) the modeling of the electrospray process is significantly improved by utilizing initial droplets existing below but close to the calculated Rayleigh limit, and (3) peptide ions in the nanodroplets sample significantly different conformers than those in the bulk solution due to altered physicochemical properties of the solvent. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

  8. B and T Cell Epitope-Based Peptides Predicted from Evolutionarily Conserved and Whole Protein Sequences of Ebola Virus as Vaccine Targets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yasmin, T; Nabi, A H M Nurun

    2016-05-01

    Ebola virus (EBV) has become a serious threat to public health. Different approaches were applied to predict continuous and discontinuous B cell epitopes as well as T cell epitopes from the sequence-based and available three-dimensional structural analyses of each protein of EBV. Peptides '(79) VPSATKRWGFRSGVPP(94) ' from GP1 and '(515) LHYWTTQDEGAAIGLA(530) ' from GP2 of Ebola were found to be the consensus peptidic sequences predicted as linear B cell epitope of which the latter contains a region (519) TTQDEG(524) that fulfilled all the criteria of accessibility, hydrophilicity, flexibility and beta turn region for becoming an ideal B cell epitope. Different nonamers as T cell epitopes were obtained that interacted with different numbers of MHC class I and class II alleles with a binding affinity of <100 nm. Interestingly, these alleles also bound to the MHC class I alleles mostly prevalent in African and South Asian regions. Of these, 'LANETTQAL' and 'FLYDRLAST' nonamers were predicted to be the most potent T cell epitopes and they, respectively, interacted with eight and twelve class I alleles that covered 63.79% and 54.16% of world population, respectively. These nonamers were found to be the core sequences of 15mer peptides that interacted with the most common class II allele, HLA-DRB1*01:01. They were further validated for their binding to specific class I alleles using docking technique. Thus, these predicted epitopes may be used as vaccine targets against EBV and can be validated in model hosts to verify their efficacy as vaccine. © 2016 The Foundation for the Scandinavian Journal of Immunology.

  9. Prediction of Impending Type 1 Diabetes through Automated Dual-Label Measurement of Proinsulin:C-Peptide Ratio.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annelien Van Dalem

    Full Text Available The hyperglycemic clamp test, the gold standard of beta cell function, predicts impending type 1 diabetes in islet autoantibody-positive individuals, but the latter may benefit from less invasive function tests such as the proinsulin:C-peptide ratio (PI:C. The present study aims to optimize precision of PI:C measurements by automating a dual-label trefoil-type time-resolved fluorescence immunoassay (TT-TRFIA, and to compare its diagnostic performance for predicting type 1 diabetes with that of clamp-derived C-peptide release.Between-day imprecision (n = 20 and split-sample analysis (n = 95 were used to compare TT-TRFIA (AutoDelfia, Perkin-Elmer with separate methods for proinsulin (in-house TRFIA and C-peptide (Elecsys, Roche. High-risk multiple autoantibody-positive first-degree relatives (n = 49; age 5-39 were tested for fasting PI:C, HOMA2-IR and hyperglycemic clamp and followed for 20-57 months (interquartile range.TT-TRFIA values for proinsulin, C-peptide and PI:C correlated significantly (r2 = 0.96-0.99; P<0.001 with results obtained with separate methods. TT-TRFIA achieved better between-day %CV for PI:C at three different levels (4.5-7.1 vs 6.7-9.5 for separate methods. In high-risk relatives fasting PI:C was significantly and inversely correlated (rs = -0.596; P<0.001 with first-phase C-peptide release during clamp (also with second phase release, only available for age 12-39 years; n = 31, but only after normalization for HOMA2-IR. In ROC- and Cox regression analysis, HOMA2-IR-corrected PI:C predicted 2-year progression to diabetes equally well as clamp-derived C-peptide release.The reproducibility of PI:C benefits from the automated simultaneous determination of both hormones. HOMA2-IR-corrected PI:C may serve as a minimally invasive alternative to the more tedious hyperglycemic clamp test.

  10. HLArestrictor-a tool for patient-specific predictions of HLA restriction elements and optimal epitopes within peptides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Malene Erup; Kloverpris, H.; Stryhn, A.

    2011-01-01

    ://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/HLArestrictor ), which is based on the highly versatile and accurate NetMHCpan predictor, which here has been optimized for the identification of both the MHC restriction element and the corresponding minimal epitope of a T cell response in a given individual. As input, it requires high-resolution (i.e., 4-digit) HLA...... HLA restrictions and minimal epitopes for about 90% of the positive peptide/patient pairs while rejecting more than 95% of the negative peptide-HLA pairs. Furthermore, for 18 peptide/HLA tetramer validated responses, HLArestrictor in all cases predicted both the HLA restriction element and minimal...

  11. Fusion peptide of influenza hemagglutinin requires a fixed angle boomerang structure for activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lai, Alex L; Park, Heather; White, Judith M; Tamm, Lukas K

    2006-03-03

    The fusion peptide of influenza hemagglutinin is crucial for cell entry of this virus. Previous studies showed that this peptide adopts a boomerang-shaped structure in lipid model membranes at the pH of membrane fusion. To examine the role of the boomerang in fusion, we changed several residues proposed to stabilize the kink in this structure and measured fusion. Among these, mutants E11A and W14A expressed hemagglutinins with hemifusion and no fusion activities, and F9A and N12A had no effect on fusion, respectively. Binding enthalpies and free energies of mutant peptides to model membranes and their ability to perturb lipid bilayer structures correlated well with the fusion activities of the parent full-length molecules. The structure of W14A determined by NMR and site-directed spin labeling features a flexible kink that points out of the membrane, in sharp contrast to the more ordered boomerang of the wild-type, which points into the membrane. A specific fixed angle boomerang structure is thus required to support membrane fusion.

  12. Sensitive quantitative predictions of peptide-MHC binding by a 'Query by Committee' artificial neural network approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Buus, S.; Lauemoller, S.L.; Worning, Peder

    2003-01-01

    We have generated Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) capable of performing sensitive, quantitative predictions of peptide binding to the MHC class I molecule, HLA-A*0204. We have shown that such quantitative ANN are superior to conventional classification ANN, that have been trained to predict...

  13. Structural and Thermodynamic Properties of Amyloid-β Peptides: Impact of Fragment Size

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kitahara, T.; Wise-Scira, O.; Coskuner, O.

    2010-10-01

    Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease whose physiological characteristics include the accumulation of amyloid-containing deposits in the brain and consequent synapse and neuron loss. Unfortunately, most widely used drugs for the treatment can palliate the outer symptoms but cannot cure the disease itself. Hence, developing a new drug that can cure it. Most recently, the ``early aggregation and monomer'' hypothesis has become popular and a few drugs have been developed based on this hypothesis. Detailed understanding of the amyloid-β peptide structure can better help us to determine more effective treatment strategies; indeed, the structure of Amyloid has been studied extensively employing experimental and theoretical tools. Nevertheless, those studies have employed different fragment sizes of Amyloid and characterized its conformational nature in different media. Thus, the structural properties might be different from each other and provide a reason for the existing debates in the literature. Here, we performed all-atom MD simulations and present the structural and thermodynamic properties of Aβ1-16, Aβ1-28, and Aβ1-42 in the gas phase and in aqueous solution. Our studies show that the overall structures, secondary structures, and the calculated thermodynamic properties change with increasing peptide size. In addition, we find that the structural properties of those peptides are different from each other in the gas phase and in aqueous solution.

  14. Peptides actively transported across the tympanic membrane: Functional and structural properties.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arwa Kurabi

    Full Text Available Otitis media (OM is the most common infectious disease of children under six, causing more antibiotic prescriptions and surgical procedures than any other pediatric condition. By screening a bacteriophage (phage library genetically engineered to express random peptides on their surfaces, we discovered unique peptides that actively transport phage particles across the intact tympanic membrane (TM and into the middle ear (ME. Herein our goals were to characterize the physiochemical peptide features that may underlie trans-TM phage transport; assess morphological and functional effects of phage peptides on the ME and inner ear (IE; and determine whether peptide-bearing phage transmigrate from the ME into the IE. Incubation of five peptide-bearing phage on the TM for over 4hrs resulted in demonstrably superior transport of one peptide, in level and in exponential increase over time. This suggests a preferred peptide motif for TM active transport. Functional and structural comparisons revealed unique features of this peptide: These include a central lysine residue, isoelectric point of 0.0 at physiological pH and a hydrophobic C-terminus. When the optimal peptide was applied to the TM independent of phage, similar transport was observed, indicating that integration into phage is not required. When 109 particles of the four different trans-TM phage were applied directly into the ME, no morphological effects were detected in the ME or IE when compared to saline or wild-type (WT phage controls. Comparable, reversible hearing loss was observed for saline controls, WT phage and trans-TM peptide phage, suggesting a mild conductive hearing loss due to ME fluid. Perilymph titers after ME incubation established that few copies of trans-TM peptide phage crossed into the IE. The results suggest that, within the parameters tested, trans-TM peptides are safe and could be used as potential agents for noninvasive delivery of drugs, particles and gene therapy

  15. PChopper: high throughput peptide prediction for MRM/SRM transition design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huang Jeffrey T-J

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The use of selective reaction monitoring (SRM based LC-MS/MS analysis for the quantification of phosphorylation stoichiometry has been rapidly increasing. At the same time, the number of sites that can be monitored in a single LC-MS/MS experiment is also increasing. The manual processes associated with running these experiments have highlighted the need for computational assistance to quickly design MRM/SRM candidates. Results PChopper has been developed to predict peptides that can be produced via enzymatic protein digest; this includes single enzyme digests, and combinations of enzymes. It also allows digests to be simulated in 'batch' mode and can combine information from these simulated digests to suggest the most appropriate enzyme(s to use. PChopper also allows users to define the characteristic of their target peptides, and can automatically identify phosphorylation sites that may be of interest. Two application end points are available for interacting with the system; the first is a web based graphical tool, and the second is an API endpoint based on HTTP REST. Conclusions Service oriented architecture was used to rapidly develop a system that can consume and expose several services. A graphical tool was built to provide an easy to follow workflow that allows scientists to quickly and easily identify the enzymes required to produce multiple peptides in parallel via enzymatic digests in a high throughput manner.

  16. DockoMatic: automated peptide analog creation for high throughput virtual screening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacob, Reed B; Bullock, Casey W; Andersen, Tim; McDougal, Owen M

    2011-10-01

    The purpose of this manuscript is threefold: (1) to describe an update to DockoMatic that allows the user to generate cyclic peptide analog structure files based on protein database (pdb) files, (2) to test the accuracy of the peptide analog structure generation utility, and (3) to evaluate the high throughput capacity of DockoMatic. The DockoMatic graphical user interface interfaces with the software program Treepack to create user defined peptide analogs. To validate this approach, DockoMatic produced cyclic peptide analogs were tested for three-dimensional structure consistency and binding affinity against four experimentally determined peptide structure files available in the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics database. The peptides used to evaluate this new functionality were alpha-conotoxins ImI, PnIA, and their published analogs. Peptide analogs were generated by DockoMatic and tested for their ability to bind to X-ray crystal structure models of the acetylcholine binding protein originating from Aplysia californica. The results, consisting of more than 300 simulations, demonstrate that DockoMatic predicts the binding energy of peptide structures to within 3.5 kcal mol(-1), and the orientation of bound ligand compares to within 1.8 Å root mean square deviation for ligand structures as compared to experimental data. Evaluation of high throughput virtual screening capacity demonstrated that Dockomatic can collect, evaluate, and summarize the output of 10,000 AutoDock jobs in less than 2 hours of computational time, while 100,000 jobs requires approximately 15 hours and 1,000,000 jobs is estimated to take up to a week. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  17. Antimicrobial activity predictors benchmarking analysis using shuffled and designed synthetic peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Porto, William F; Pires, Állan S; Franco, Octavio L

    2017-08-07

    The antimicrobial activity prediction tools aim to help the novel antimicrobial peptides (AMP) sequences discovery, utilizing machine learning methods. Such approaches have gained increasing importance in the generation of novel synthetic peptides by means of rational design techniques. This study focused on predictive ability of such approaches to determine the antimicrobial sequence activities, which were previously characterized at the protein level by in vitro studies. Using four web servers and one standalone software, we evaluated 78 sequences generated by the so-called linguistic model, being 40 designed and 38 shuffled sequences, with ∼60 and ∼25% of identity to AMPs, respectively. The ab initio molecular modelling of such sequences indicated that the structure does not affect the predictions, as both sets present similar structures. Overall, the systems failed on predicting shuffled versions of designed peptides, as they are identical in AMPs composition, which implies in accuracies below 30%. The prediction accuracy is negatively affected by the low specificity of all systems here evaluated, as they, on the other hand, reached 100% of sensitivity. Our results suggest that complementary approaches with high specificity, not necessarily high accuracy, should be developed to be used together with the current systems, overcoming their limitations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Structural characterization of the interactions between calmodulin and skeletal muscle myosin light chain kinase: Effect of peptide (576-594)G binding on the Ca2+-binding domains

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seeholzer, S.H.; Wand, A.J.

    1989-01-01

    Calcium-containing calmodulin (CaM) and its complex with a peptide corresponding to the calmodulin-binding domain of skeletal muscle myosin light chain kinase [skMLCK(576-594)G] have been studied by one- and two-dimensional 1 H NMR techniques. Resonances arising from the antiparallel β-sheet structures associated with the calcium-binding domains of CaM and their counterparts in the CaM-skMLCK(576-594)G complex have been assigned. The assignments were initiated by application of the main chain directed assignment strategy. It is found that, despite significant changes in chemical shifts of resonances arising from amino acid residues in this region upon binding of the peptide, the β-sheets have virtually the same structure in the complex as in CaM. Hydrogen exchange rates of amide NH within the β-sheet structures are significantly slowed upon binding of peptide. These data, in conjunction with the observed nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) patterns and relative intensities and the downfield shifts of associated amide and α resonances upon binding of peptide, show that the peptide stabilizes the Ca 2+ -bound state of calmodulin. The observed pattern of NOEs within the β-sheets and their structural similarity correspond closely to those predicted by the crystal structure. These findings imply that the apparent inconsistency of the crystal structure with recently reported low-angle X-ray scattering profiles of CaM may lie within the putative central helix bridging the globular domains

  19. Structural characterization of peptides derived from prosomatostatins I and II isolated from the pancreatic islets of two species of teleostean fish: the daddy sculpin and the flounder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conlon, J M; Davis, M S; Falkmer, S; Thim, L

    1987-11-02

    The primary structures of three peptides from extracts from the pancreatic islets of the daddy sculpin (Cottus scorpius) and three analogous peptides from the islets of the flounder (Platichthys flesus), two species of teleostean fish, have been determined by automated Edman degradation. The structures of the flounder peptides were confirmed by fast-atom bombardment mass spectrometry. The peptides show strong homology to residues (49-60), (63-96) and (98-125) of the predicted sequence of preprosomatostatin II from the anglerfish (Lophius americanus). The amino acid sequences of the peptides suggest that, in the sculpin, prosomatostatin II is cleaved at a dibasic amino acid residue processing site (corresponding to Lys61-Arg62 in anglerfish preprosomatostatin II). The resulting fragments are further cleaved at monobasic residue processing sites (corresponding to Arg48 and Arg97 in anglerfish preprosomatostatin II). In the flounder the same dibasic residue processing site is utilised but cleavage at different monobasic sites takes place (corresponding to Arg50 and Arg97 in anglerfish preprosomatostatin II). A peptide identical to mammalian somatostatin-14 was also isolated from the islets of both species and is presumed to represent a cleavage product of prosomatostatin I.

  20. Using Gas-Phase Guest-Host Chemistry to Probe the Structures of b Ions of Peptides

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somogyi, Árpád; Harrison, Alex G.; Paizs, Béla

    2012-12-01

    Middle-sized b n ( n ≥ 5) fragments of protonated peptides undergo selective complex formation with ammonia under experimental conditions typically used to probe hydrogen-deuterium exchange in Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS). Other usual peptide fragments like y, a, a*, etc., and small b n ( n ≤ 4) fragments do not form stable ammonia adducts. We propose that complex formation of b n ions with ammonia is characteristic to macrocyclic isomers of these fragments. Experiments on a protonated cyclic peptide and N-terminal acetylated peptides fully support this hypothesis; the protonated cyclic peptide does form ammonia adducts while linear b n ions of acetylated peptides do not undergo complexation. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations on the proton-bound dimers of all-Ala b 4 , b 5 , and b 7 ions and ammonia indicate that the ionizing proton initially located on the peptide fragment transfers to ammonia upon adduct formation. The ammonium ion is then solvated by N+-H…O H-bonds; this stabilization is much stronger for macrocyclic b n isomers due to the stable cage-like structure formed and entropy effects. The present study demonstrates that gas-phase guest-host chemistry can be used to selectively probe structural features (i.e., macrocyclic or linear) of fragments of protonated peptides. Stable ammonia adducts of b 9 , b 9 -A, and b 9 -2A of A8YA, and b 13 of A20YVFL are observed indicating that even these large b-type ions form macrocyclic structures.

  1. Structure, signaling mechanism and regulation of the natriuretic peptide receptor guanylate cyclase.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Misono, K. S.; Philo, J. S.; Arakawa, T.; Ogata, C. M.; Qiu, Y.; Ogawa, H.; Young, H. S. (Biosciences Division); (Univ. of Nevada); (Alliance Protein Labs.)

    2011-06-01

    Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and the homologous B-type natriuretic peptide are cardiac hormones that dilate blood vessels and stimulate natriuresis and diuresis, thereby lowering blood pressure and blood volume. ANP and B-type natriuretic peptide counterbalance the actions of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone and neurohormonal systems, and play a central role in cardiovascular regulation. These activities are mediated by natriuretic peptide receptor-A (NPRA), a single transmembrane segment, guanylyl cyclase (GC)-linked receptor that occurs as a homodimer. Here, we present an overview of the structure, possible chloride-mediated regulation and signaling mechanism of NPRA and other receptor GCs. Earlier, we determined the crystal structures of the NPRA extracellular domain with and without bound ANP. Their structural comparison has revealed a novel ANP-induced rotation mechanism occurring in the juxtamembrane region that apparently triggers transmembrane signal transduction. More recently, the crystal structures of the dimerized catalytic domain of green algae GC Cyg12 and that of cyanobacterium GC Cya2 have been reported. These structures closely resemble that of the adenylyl cyclase catalytic domain, consisting of a C1 and C2 subdomain heterodimer. Adenylyl cyclase is activated by binding of G{sub s}{alpha} to C2 and the ensuing 7{sup o} rotation of C1 around an axis parallel to the central cleft, thereby inducing the heterodimer to adopt a catalytically active conformation. We speculate that, in NPRA, the ANP-induced rotation of the juxtamembrane domains, transmitted across the transmembrane helices, may induce a similar rotation in each of the dimerized GC catalytic domains, leading to the stimulation of the GC catalytic activity.

  2. NMR structures of anti-HIV D-peptides derived from the N-terminus of viral chemokine vMIP-II

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mori, Mayuko; Liu Dongxiang; Kumar, Santosh; Huang Ziwei

    2005-01-01

    The viral macrophage inflammatory protein-II (vMIP-II) encoded by Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus has unique biological activities in that it blocks the cell entry by several different human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) strains via chemokine receptors including CXCR4 and CCR5. In this paper, we report the solution structure of all-D-amino acid peptides derived from the N-terminus of vMIP-II, which have been shown to have strong CXCR4 binding activity and potently inhibit HIV-1 entry via CXCR4, by using long mixing time two-dimensional nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy experiments. Both of all-D-peptides vMIP-II (1-10) and vMIP-II (1-21), which are designated as DV3 and DV1, respectively, have higher CXCR4 binding ability than their L-peptide counterparts. They are partially structured in aqueous solution, displaying a turn-like structure over residues 5-8. The small temperature coefficients of His-6 amide proton for both peptides also suggest the formation of a small hydrophobic pocket centered on His-6. The structural features of DV3 are very similar to the reported solution structure of all-L-peptide vMIP-II (1-10) [M.P. Crump, E. Elisseeva, J. Gong, I. Clark-Lewis, B.D. Sykes, Structure/function of human herpesvirus-8 MIP-II (1-71) and the antagonist N-terminal segment (1-10), FEBS Lett. 489 (2001) 171], which is consistent with the notion that D- and L-enantiomeric peptides can adopt mirror image conformations. The NMR structures of the D-peptides provide a structural basis to understand their mechanism of action and design new peptidomimetic analogs to further explore the structure-activity relationship of D-peptide ligand binding to CXCR4

  3. Dataset size and composition impact the reliability of performance benchmarks for peptide-MHC binding predictions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kim, Yohan; Sidney, John; Buus, Søren

    2014-01-01

    Background: It is important to accurately determine the performance of peptide: MHC binding predictions, as this enables users to compare and choose between different prediction methods and provides estimates of the expected error rate. Two common approaches to determine prediction performance...... are cross-validation, in which all available data are iteratively split into training and testing data, and the use of blind sets generated separately from the data used to construct the predictive method. In the present study, we have compared cross-validated prediction performances generated on our last...

  4. Structural and Pharmacological Effects of Ring-Closing Metathesis in Peptides

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pål Rongved

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Applications of ring-closing alkene metathesis (RCM in acyclic α- and β-peptides and closely related systems are reviewed, with a special emphasis on the structural and pharmacological effects of cyclization by RCM.

  5. Structure of HLA-A*1101 in complex with a hepatitis B peptide homologue

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Blicher, Thomas; Kastrup, Jette Sandholm; Pedersen, Lars Østergaard

    2006-01-01

    A high-resolution structure of the human MHC-I molecule HLA-A*1101 is presented in which it forms a complex with a sequence homologue of a peptide that occurs naturally in hepatitis B virus DNA polymerase. The sequence of the bound peptide is AIMPARFYPK, while that of the corresponding natural...

  6. Rational design of DKK3 structure-based small peptides as antagonists of Wnt signaling pathway and in silico evaluation of their efficiency.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mansour Poorebrahim

    Full Text Available Dysregulated Wnt signaling pathway is highly associated with the pathogenesis of several human cancers. Dickkopf proteins (DKKs are thought to inhibit Wnt signaling pathway through binding to lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP 5/6. In this study, based on the 3-dimensional (3D structure of DKK3 Cys-rich domain 2 (CRD2, we have designed and developed several peptide inhibitors of Wnt signaling pathway. Modeller 9.15 package was used to predict 3D structure of CRD2 based on the Homology modeling (HM protocol. After refinement and minimization with GalaxyRefine and NOMAD-REF servers, the quality of selected models was evaluated utilizing VADAR, SAVES and ProSA servers. Molecular docking studies as well as literature-based information revealed two distinct boxes located at CRD2 which are actively involved in the DKK3-LRP5/6 interaction. A peptide library was constructed conducting the backrub sequence tolerance scanning protocol in Rosetta3.5 according to the DKK3-LRP5/6 binding sites. Seven tolerated peptides were chosen and their binding affinity and stability were improved by some logical amino acid substitutions. Molecular dynamics (MD simulations of peptide-LRP5/6 complexes were carried out using GROMACS package. After evaluation of binding free energies, stability, electrostatic potential and some physicochemical properties utilizing computational approaches, three peptides (PEP-I1, PEP-I3 and PEP-II2 demonstrated desirable features. However, all seven improved peptides could sufficiently block the Wnt-binding site of LRP6 in silico. In conclusion, we have designed and improved several small peptides based on the LRP6-binding site of CRD2 of DKK3. These peptides are highly capable of binding to LRP6 in silico, and may prevent the formation of active Wnt-LRP6-Fz complex.

  7. Three-dimensional solution structure of lactoferricin B, an antimicrobial peptide derived from bovine lactoferrin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hwang, P M; Zhou, N; Shan, X; Arrowsmith, C H; Vogel, H J

    1998-03-24

    The solution structure of bovine lactoferricin (LfcinB) has been determined using 2D 1H NMR spectroscopy. LfcinB is a 25-residue antimicrobial peptide released by pepsin cleavage of lactoferrin, an 80 kDa iron-binding glycoprotein with many immunologically important functions. The NMR structure of LfcinB reveals a somewhat distorted antiparallel beta-sheet. This contrasts with the X-ray structure of bovine lactoferrin, in which residues 1-13 (of LfcinB) form an alpha-helix. Hence, this region of lactoferricin B appears able to adopt a helical or sheetlike conformation, similar to what has been proposed for the amyloidogenic prion proteins and Alzheimer's beta-peptides. LfcinB has an extended hydrophobic surface comprised of residues Phe1, Cys3, Trp6, Trp8, Pro16, Ile18, and Cys20. The side chains of these residues are well-defined in the NMR structure. Many hydrophilic and positively charged residues surround the hydrophobic surface, giving LfcinB an amphipathic character. LfcinB bears numerous similarities to a vast number of cationic peptides which exert their antimicrobial activities through membrane disruption. The structures of many of these peptides have been well characterized, and models of their membrane-permeabilizing mechanisms have been proposed. The NMR solution structure of LfcinB may be more relevant to membrane interaction than that suggested by the X-ray structure of intact lactoferrin. Based on the solution structure, it is now possible to propose potential mechanisms for the antimicrobial action of LfcinB.

  8. Structural and pharmacological characteristics of chimeric peptides derived from peptide E and beta-endorphin reveal the crucial role of the C-terminal YGGFL and YKKGE motifs in their analgesic properties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Condamine, Eric; Courchay, Karine; Rego, Jean-Claude Do; Leprince, Jérôme; Mayer, Catherine; Davoust, Daniel; Costentin, Jean; Vaudry, Hubert

    2010-05-01

    Peptide E (a 25-amino acid peptide derived from proenkephalin A) and beta-endorphin (a 31-amino acid peptide derived from proopiomelanocortin) bind with high affinity to opioid receptors and share structural similarities but induce analgesic effects of very different intensity. Indeed, whereas they possess the same N-terminus Met-enkephalin message sequence linked to a helix by a flexible spacer and a C-terminal part in random coil conformation, in contrast with peptide E, beta-endorphin produces a profound analgesia. To determine the key structural elements explaining this very divergent opioid activity, we have compared the structural and pharmacological characteristics of several chimeric peptides derived from peptide E and beta-endorphin. Structures were obtained under the same experimental conditions using circular dichroism, computational estimation of helical content and/or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and NMR-restrained molecular modeling. The hot-plate and writhing tests were used in mice to evaluate the antinociceptive effects of the peptides. Our results indicate that neither the length nor the physicochemical profile of the spacer plays a fundamental role in analgesia. On the other hand, while the functional importance of the helix cannot be excluded, the last 5 residues in the C-terminal part seem to be crucial for the expression or absence of the analgesic activity of these peptides. These data raise the question of the true function of peptides E in opioidergic systems. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Structural Basis of Rap Phosphatase Inhibition by Phr Peptides

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gallego del Sol, Francisca; Marina, Alberto

    2013-01-01

    Two-component systems, composed of a sensor histidine kinase and an effector response regulator (RR), are the main signal transduction devices in bacteria. In Bacillus, the Rap protein family modulates complex signaling processes mediated by two-component systems, such as competence, sporulation, or biofilm formation, by inhibiting the RR components involved in these pathways. Despite the high degree of sequence homology, Rap proteins exert their activity by two completely different mechanisms of action: inducing RR dephosphorylation or blocking RR binding to its target promoter. However the regulatory mechanism involving Rap proteins is even more complex since Rap activity is antagonized by specific signaling peptides (Phr) through a mechanism that remains unknown at the molecular level. Using X-ray analyses, we determined the structure of RapF, the anti-activator of competence RR ComA, alone and in complex with its regulatory peptide PhrF. The structural and functional data presented herein reveal that peptide PhrF blocks the RapF-ComA interaction through an allosteric mechanism. PhrF accommodates in the C-terminal tetratricopeptide repeat domain of RapF by inducing its constriction, a conformational change propagated by a pronounced rotation to the N-terminal ComA-binding domain. This movement partially disrupts the ComA binding site by triggering the ComA disassociation, whose interaction with RapF is also sterically impaired in the PhrF-induced conformation of RapF. Sequence analyses of the Rap proteins, guided by the RapF-PhrF structure, unveil the molecular basis of Phr recognition and discrimination, allowing us to relax the Phr specificity of RapF by a single residue change. PMID:23526880

  10. Structural determinants for selective recognition of peptide ligands for endothelin receptor subtypes ETA and ETB.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lättig, Jens; Oksche, Alexander; Beyermann, Michael; Rosenthal, Walter; Krause, Gerd

    2009-07-01

    The molecular basis for recognition of peptide ligands endothelin-1, -2 and -3 in endothelin receptors is poorly understood. Especially the origin of ligand selectivity for ET(A) or ET(B) is not clearly resolved. We derived sequence-structure-function relationships of peptides and receptors from mutational data and homology modeling. Our major findings are the dissection of peptide ligands into four epitopes and the delineation of four complementary structural portions on receptor side explaining ligand recognition in both endothelin receptor subtypes. In addition, structural determinants for ligand selectivity could be described. As a result, we could improve the selectivity of BQ3020 about 10-fold by a single amino acid substitution, validating our hypothesis for ligand selectivity caused by different entrances to the receptors' transmembrane binding sites. A narrow tunnel shape in ET(A) is restrictive for a selected group of peptide ligands' N-termini, whereas a broad funnel-shaped entrance in ET(B) accepts a variety of different shapes and properties of ligands.

  11. Molecular Design, Structures, and Activity of Antimicrobial Peptide-Mimetic Polymers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takahashi, Haruko; Palermo, Edmund F.; Yasuhara, Kazuma; Caputo, Gregory A.

    2014-01-01

    There is an urgent need for new antibiotics which are effective against drug-resistant bacteria without contributing to resistance development. We have designed and developed antimicrobial copolymers with cationic amphiphilic structures based on the mimicry of naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides. These copolymers exhibit potent antimicrobial activity against a broad spectrum of bacteria including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus with no adverse hemolytic activity. Notably, these polymers also did not result in any measurable resistance development in E. coli. The peptide-mimetic design principle offers significant flexibility and diversity in the creation of new antimicrobial materials and their potential biomedical applications. PMID:23832766

  12. NetMHC-3.0: accurate web accessible predictions of human, mouse and monkey MHC class I affinities for peptides of length 8-11.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lundegaard, Claus; Lamberth, Kasper; Harndahl, Mikkel; Buus, Søren; Lund, Ole; Nielsen, Morten

    2008-07-01

    NetMHC-3.0 is trained on a large number of quantitative peptide data using both affinity data from the Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (IEDB) and elution data from SYFPEITHI. The method generates high-accuracy predictions of major histocompatibility complex (MHC): peptide binding. The predictions are based on artificial neural networks trained on data from 55 MHC alleles (43 Human and 12 non-human), and position-specific scoring matrices (PSSMs) for additional 67 HLA alleles. As only the MHC class I prediction server is available, predictions are possible for peptides of length 8-11 for all 122 alleles. artificial neural network predictions are given as actual IC(50) values whereas PSSM predictions are given as a log-odds likelihood scores. The output is optionally available as download for easy post-processing. The training method underlying the server is the best available, and has been used to predict possible MHC-binding peptides in a series of pathogen viral proteomes including SARS, Influenza and HIV, resulting in an average of 75-80% confirmed MHC binders. Here, the performance is further validated and benchmarked using a large set of newly published affinity data, non-redundant to the training set. The server is free of use and available at: http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHC.

  13. Structural Characterization and Disulfide Assignment of Spider Peptide Phα1β by Mass Spectrometry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wormwood, Kelly L.; Ngounou Wetie, Armand Gatien; Gomez, Marcus Vinicius; Ju, Yue; Kowalski, Paul; Mihasan, Marius; Darie, Costel C.

    2018-05-01

    Native Phα1β is a peptide purified from the venom of the armed spider Phoneutria nigriventer that has been shown to have an extensive analgesic effect with fewer side effects than ω-conotoxin MVIIA. Recombinant Phα1β mimics the effects of the native Phα1β. Because of this, it has been suggested that Phα1β may have potential to be used as a therapeutic for controlling persistent pathological pain. The amino acid sequence of Phα1β is known; however, the exact structure and disulfide arrangement has yet to be determined. Determination of the disulfide linkages and exact structure could greatly assist in pharmacological analysis and determination of why this peptide is such an effective analgesic. Here, we used biochemical and mass spectrometry approaches to determine the disulfide linkages present in the recombinant Phα1β peptide. Using a combination of MALDI-MS, direct infusion ESI-MS, and nanoLC-MS/MS analysis of the undigested recombinant Phα1β peptide and digested with AspN, trypsin, or AspN/trypsin, we were able to identify and confirm all six disulfide linkages present in the peptide as Cys1-2, Cys3-4, Cys5-6, Cys7-8, Cys9-10, and Cys11-12. These results were also partially confirmed in the native Phα1β peptide. These experiments provide essential structural information about Phα1β and may assist in providing insight into the peptide's analgesic effect with very low side effects. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

  14. Structural Characterization and Disulfide Assignment of Spider Peptide Phα1β by Mass Spectrometry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wormwood, Kelly L.; Ngounou Wetie, Armand Gatien; Gomez, Marcus Vinicius; Ju, Yue; Kowalski, Paul; Mihasan, Marius; Darie, Costel C.

    2018-04-01

    Native Phα1β is a peptide purified from the venom of the armed spider Phoneutria nigriventer that has been shown to have an extensive analgesic effect with fewer side effects than ω-conotoxin MVIIA. Recombinant Phα1β mimics the effects of the native Phα1β. Because of this, it has been suggested that Phα1β may have potential to be used as a therapeutic for controlling persistent pathological pain. The amino acid sequence of Phα1β is known; however, the exact structure and disulfide arrangement has yet to be determined. Determination of the disulfide linkages and exact structure could greatly assist in pharmacological analysis and determination of why this peptide is such an effective analgesic. Here, we used biochemical and mass spectrometry approaches to determine the disulfide linkages present in the recombinant Phα1β peptide. Using a combination of MALDI-MS, direct infusion ESI-MS, and nanoLC-MS/MS analysis of the undigested recombinant Phα1β peptide and digested with AspN, trypsin, or AspN/trypsin, we were able to identify and confirm all six disulfide linkages present in the peptide as Cys1-2, Cys3-4, Cys5-6, Cys7-8, Cys9-10, and Cys11-12. These results were also partially confirmed in the native Phα1β peptide. These experiments provide essential structural information about Phα1β and may assist in providing insight into the peptide's analgesic effect with very low side effects. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

  15. De novo design and engineering of non-ribosomal peptide synthetases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bozhüyük, Kenan A. J.; Fleischhacker, Florian; Linck, Annabell; Wesche, Frank; Tietze, Andreas; Niesert, Claus-Peter; Bode, Helge B.

    2018-03-01

    Peptides derived from non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) represent an important class of pharmaceutically relevant drugs. Methods to generate novel non-ribosomal peptides or to modify peptide natural products in an easy and predictable way are therefore of great interest. However, although the overall modular structure of NRPSs suggests the possibility of adjusting domain specificity and selectivity, only a few examples have been reported and these usually show a severe drop in production titre. Here we report a new strategy for the modification of NRPSs that uses defined exchange units (XUs) and not modules as functional units. XUs are fused at specific positions that connect the condensation and adenylation domains and respect the original specificity of the downstream module to enable the production of the desired peptides. We also present the use of internal condensation domains as an alternative to other peptide-chain-releasing domains for the production of cyclic peptides.

  16. RFamide Peptides: Structure, Function, Mechanisms and Pharmaceutical Potential

    Science.gov (United States)

    Findeisen, Maria; Rathmann, Daniel; Beck-Sickinger, Annette G.

    2011-01-01

    Different neuropeptides, all containing a common carboxy-terminal RFamide sequence, have been characterized as ligands of the RFamide peptide receptor family. Currently, five subgroups have been characterized with respect to their N-terminal sequence and hence cover a wide pattern of biological functions, like important neuroendocrine, behavioral, sensory and automatic functions. The RFamide peptide receptor family represents a multiligand/multireceptor system, as many ligands are recognized by several GPCR subtypes within one family. Multireceptor systems are often susceptible to cross-reactions, as their numerous ligands are frequently closely related. In this review we focus on recent results in the field of structure-activity studies as well as mutational exploration of crucial positions within this GPCR system. The review summarizes the reported peptide analogs and recently developed small molecule ligands (agonists and antagonists) to highlight the current understanding of the pharmacophoric elements, required for affinity and activity at the receptor family. Furthermore, we address the biological functions of the ligands and give an overview on their involvement in physiological processes. We provide insights in the knowledge for the design of highly selective ligands for single receptor subtypes to minimize cross-talk and to eliminate effects from interactions within the GPCR system. This will support the drug development of members of the RFamide family.

  17. RFamide Peptides: Structure, Function, Mechanisms and Pharmaceutical Potential

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Findeisen

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Different neuropeptides, all containing a common carboxy-terminal RFamide sequence, have been characterized as ligands of the RFamide peptide receptor family. Currently, five subgroups have been characterized with respect to their N-terminal sequence and hence cover a wide pattern of biological functions, like important neuroendocrine, behavioral, sensory and automatic functions. The RFamide peptide receptor family represents a multiligand/multireceptor system, as many ligands are recognized by several GPCR subtypes within one family. Multireceptor systems are often susceptible to cross-reactions, as their numerous ligands are frequently closely related. In this review we focus on recent results in the field of structure-activity studies as well as mutational exploration of crucial positions within this GPCR system. The review summarizes the reported peptide analogs and recently developed small molecule ligands (agonists and antagonists to highlight the current understanding of the pharmacophoric elements, required for affinity and activity at the receptor family. Furthermore, we address the biological functions of the ligands and give an overview on their involvement in physiological processes. We provide insights in the knowledge for the design of highly selective ligands for single receptor subtypes to minimize cross-talk and to eliminate effects from interactions within the GPCR system. This will support the drug development of members of the RFamide family.

  18. Antimicrobial Peptides in Reptiles

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Hoek, Monique L.

    2014-01-01

    Reptiles are among the oldest known amniotes and are highly diverse in their morphology and ecological niches. These animals have an evolutionarily ancient innate-immune system that is of great interest to scientists trying to identify new and useful antimicrobial peptides. Significant work in the last decade in the fields of biochemistry, proteomics and genomics has begun to reveal the complexity of reptilian antimicrobial peptides. Here, the current knowledge about antimicrobial peptides in reptiles is reviewed, with specific examples in each of the four orders: Testudines (turtles and tortosises), Sphenodontia (tuataras), Squamata (snakes and lizards), and Crocodilia (crocodilans). Examples are presented of the major classes of antimicrobial peptides expressed by reptiles including defensins, cathelicidins, liver-expressed peptides (hepcidin and LEAP-2), lysozyme, crotamine, and others. Some of these peptides have been identified and tested for their antibacterial or antiviral activity; others are only predicted as possible genes from genomic sequencing. Bioinformatic analysis of the reptile genomes is presented, revealing many predicted candidate antimicrobial peptides genes across this diverse class. The study of how these ancient creatures use antimicrobial peptides within their innate immune systems may reveal new understandings of our mammalian innate immune system and may also provide new and powerful antimicrobial peptides as scaffolds for potential therapeutic development. PMID:24918867

  19. The property distance index PD predicts peptides that cross-react with IgE antibodies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ivanciuc, Ovidiu; Midoro-Horiuti, Terumi; Schein, Catherine H.; Xie, Liping; Hillman, Gilbert R.; Goldblum, Randall M.; Braun, Werner

    2009-01-01

    Similarities in the sequence and structure of allergens can explain clinically observed cross-reactivities. Distinguishing sequences that bind IgE in patient sera can be used to identify potentially allergenic protein sequences and aid in the design of hypo-allergenic proteins. The property distance index PD, incorporated in our Structural Database of Allergenic Proteins (SDAP, http://fermi.utmb.edu/SDAP/), may identify potentially cross-reactive segments of proteins, based on their similarity to known IgE epitopes. We sought to obtain experimental validation of the PD index as a quantitative predictor of IgE cross-reactivity, by designing peptide variants with predetermined PD scores relative to three linear IgE epitopes of Jun a 1, the dominant allergen from mountain cedar pollen. For each of the three epitopes, 60 peptides were designed with increasing PD values (decreasing physicochemical similarity) to the starting sequence. The peptides synthesized on a derivatized cellulose membrane were probed with sera from patients who were allergic to Jun a 1, and the experimental data were interpreted with a PD classification method. Peptides with low PD values relative to a given epitope were more likely to bind IgE from the sera than were those with PD values larger than 6. Control sequences, with PD values between 18 and 20 to all the three epitopes, did not bind patient IgE, thus validating our procedure for identifying negative control peptides. The PD index is a statistically validated method to detect discrete regions of proteins that have a high probability of cross-reacting with IgE from allergic patients. PMID:18950868

  20. A unified conformational selection and induced fit approach to protein-peptide docking.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mikael Trellet

    Full Text Available Protein-peptide interactions are vital for the cell. They mediate, inhibit or serve as structural components in nearly 40% of all macromolecular interactions, and are often associated with diseases, making them interesting leads for protein drug design. In recent years, large-scale technologies have enabled exhaustive studies on the peptide recognition preferences for a number of peptide-binding domain families. Yet, the paucity of data regarding their molecular binding mechanisms together with their inherent flexibility makes the structural prediction of protein-peptide interactions very challenging. This leaves flexible docking as one of the few amenable computational techniques to model these complexes. We present here an ensemble, flexible protein-peptide docking protocol that combines conformational selection and induced fit mechanisms. Starting from an ensemble of three peptide conformations (extended, a-helix, polyproline-II, flexible docking with HADDOCK generates 79.4% of high quality models for bound/unbound and 69.4% for unbound/unbound docking when tested against the largest protein-peptide complexes benchmark dataset available to date. Conformational selection at the rigid-body docking stage successfully recovers the most relevant conformation for a given protein-peptide complex and the subsequent flexible refinement further improves the interface by up to 4.5 Å interface RMSD. Cluster-based scoring of the models results in a selection of near-native solutions in the top three for ∼75% of the successfully predicted cases. This unified conformational selection and induced fit approach to protein-peptide docking should open the route to the modeling of challenging systems such as disorder-order transitions taking place upon binding, significantly expanding the applicability limit of biomolecular interaction modeling by docking.

  1. Structural and functional characterization of a multifunctional alanine-rich peptide analogue from Pleuronectes americanus.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ludovico Migliolo

    Full Text Available Recently, defense peptides that are able to act against several targets have been characterized. The present work focuses on structural and functional evaluation of the peptide analogue Pa-MAP, previously isolated as an antifreeze peptide from Pleuronectes americanus. Pa-MAP showed activities against different targets such as tumoral cells in culture (CACO-2, MCF-7 and HCT-116, bacteria (Escherichia coli ATCC 8739 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, viruses (HSV-1 and HSV-2 and fungi (Candida parapsilosis ATCC 22019, Trichophyton mentagrophytes (28d&E and T. rubrum (327. This peptide did not show toxicity against mammalian cells such as erythrocytes, Vero and RAW 264.7 cells. Molecular mechanism of action was related to hydrophobic residues, since only the terminal amino group is charged at pH 7 as confirmed by potentiometric titration. In order to shed some light on its structure-function relations, in vitro and in silico assays were carried out using circular dichroism and molecular dynamics. Furthermore, Pa-MAP showed partial unfolding of the peptide changes in a wide pH (3 to 11 and temperature (25 to 95°C ranges, although it might not reach complete unfolding at 95°C, suggesting a high conformational stability. This peptide also showed a conformational transition with a partial α-helical fold in water and a full α-helical core in SDS and TFE environments. These results were corroborated by spectral data measured at 222 nm and by 50 ns dynamic simulation. In conclusion, data reported here show that Pa-MAP is a potential candidate for drug design against pathogenic microorganisms due to its structural stability and wide activity against a range of targets.

  2. Structural Basis for Antigenic Peptide Recognition and Processing by Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) Aminopeptidase 2.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mpakali, Anastasia; Giastas, Petros; Mathioudakis, Nikolas; Mavridis, Irene M; Saridakis, Emmanuel; Stratikos, Efstratios

    2015-10-23

    Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) aminopeptidases process antigenic peptide precursors to generate epitopes for presentation by MHC class I molecules and help shape the antigenic peptide repertoire and cytotoxic T-cell responses. To perform this function, ER aminopeptidases have to recognize and process a vast variety of peptide sequences. To understand how these enzymes recognize substrates, we determined crystal structures of ER aminopeptidase 2 (ERAP2) in complex with a substrate analogue and a peptidic product to 2.5 and 2.7 Å, respectively, and compared them to the apo-form structure determined to 3.0 Å. The peptides were found within the internal cavity of the enzyme with no direct access to the outside solvent. The substrate analogue extends away from the catalytic center toward the distal end of the internal cavity, making interactions with several shallow pockets along the path. A similar configuration was evident for the peptidic product, although decreasing electron density toward its C terminus indicated progressive disorder. Enzymatic analysis confirmed that visualized interactions can either positively or negatively impact in vitro trimming rates. Opportunistic side-chain interactions and lack of deep specificity pockets support a limited-selectivity model for antigenic peptide processing by ERAP2. In contrast to proposed models for the homologous ERAP1, no specific recognition of the peptide C terminus by ERAP2 was evident, consistent with functional differences in length selection and self-activation between these two enzymes. Our results suggest that ERAP2 selects substrates by sequestering them in its internal cavity and allowing opportunistic interactions to determine trimming rates, thus combining substrate permissiveness with sequence bias. © 2015 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  3. Structure-activity relationship of Trp-containing analogs of the antimicrobial peptide gomesin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Domingues, Tatiana M; Buri, Marcus V; Daffre, Sirlei; Campana, Patricia T; Riske, Karin A; Miranda, Antonio

    2014-06-01

    Gomesin (Gm) has a broad antimicrobial activity making it of great interest for development of drugs. In this study, we analyzed three Gm analogs, [Trp(1) ]-Gm, [Trp(7) ]-Gm, and [Trp(9) ]-Gm, in an attempt to gain insight into the contributions of different regions of the peptide sequence to its activity. The incorporation of the tryptophan residue in different positions has no effect on the antimicrobial and hemolytic activities of the Gm analogs in relation to Gm. Spectroscopic studies (circular dichroism, fluorescence and absorbance) of Gm and its analogs were performed in the presence of SDS, below and above its critical micelle concentration (CMC) (~8 mM), in order to monitor structural changes induced by the interaction with this anionic surfactant (0-15 mM). Interestingly, we found that the analogs interact more strongly with SDS at low concentrations (0.3-6.0 mM) than close to or above its CMC. This suggests that SDS monomers are able to cover the whole peptide, forming large detergent-peptide aggregates. On the other hand, the peptides interact differently with SDS micelles, inserting partially into the micelle core. Among the peptides, Trp in position 1 becomes more motionally-restricted in the presence of SDS, probably because this residue is located at the N-terminal region, which presents higher conformational freedom to interact stronger with SDS molecules. Trp residues in positions 7 and 9, close to and in the region of the turn of the molecule, respectively, induced a more constrained structure and the compounds cannot insert deeper into the micelle core or be completely buried by SDS monomers. Copyright © 2014 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  4. Two-dimensional sum-frequency generation (2D SFG) reveals structure and dynamics of a surface-bound peptide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laaser, Jennifer E.; Skoff, David R.; Ho, Jia-Jung; Joo, Yongho; Serrano, Arnaldo L.; Steinkruger, Jay D.; Gopalan, Padma; Gellman, Samuel H.; Zanni, Martin T.

    2014-01-01

    Surface-bound polypeptides and proteins are increasingly used to functionalize inorganic interfaces such as electrodes, but their structural characterization is exceedingly difficult with standard technologies. In this paper, we report the first two-dimensional sum-frequency generation (2D SFG) spectra of a peptide monolayer, which is collected by adding a mid-IR pulse shaper to a standard femtosecond SFG spectrometer. On a gold surface, standard FTIR spectroscopy is inconclusive about the peptide structure because of solvation-induced frequency shifts, but the 2D lineshapes, anharmonic shifts, and lifetimes obtained from 2D SFG reveal that the peptide is largely α-helical and upright. Random coil residues are also observed, which do not themselves appear in SFG spectra due to their isotropic structural distribution, but which still absorb infrared light and so can be detected by cross-peaks in 2D SFG spectra. We discuss these results in the context of peptide design. Because of the similar way in which the spectra are collected, these 2D SFG spectra can be directly compared to 2D IR spectra, thereby enabling structural interpretations of surface-bound peptides and biomolecules based on the well-studied structure/2D IR spectra relationships established from soluble proteins. PMID:24372101

  5. Structural prediction in aphasia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tessa Warren

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available There is considerable evidence that young healthy comprehenders predict the structure of upcoming material, and that their processing is facilitated when they encounter material matching those predictions (e.g., Staub & Clifton, 2006; Yoshida, Dickey & Sturt, 2013. However, less is known about structural prediction in aphasia. There is evidence that lexical prediction may be spared in aphasia (Dickey et al., 2014; Love & Webb, 1977; cf. Mack et al, 2013. However, predictive mechanisms supporting facilitated lexical access may not necessarily support structural facilitation. Given that many people with aphasia (PWA exhibit syntactic deficits (e.g. Goodglass, 1993, PWA with such impairments may not engage in structural prediction. However, recent evidence suggests that some PWA may indeed predict upcoming structure (Hanne, Burchert, De Bleser, & Vashishth, 2015. Hanne et al. tracked the eyes of PWA (n=8 with sentence-comprehension deficits while they listened to reversible subject-verb-object (SVO and object-verb-subject (OVS sentences in German, in a sentence-picture matching task. Hanne et al. manipulated case and number marking to disambiguate the sentences’ structure. Gazes to an OVS or SVO picture during the unfolding of a sentence were assumed to indicate prediction of the structure congruent with that picture. According to this measure, the PWA’s structural prediction was impaired compared to controls, but they did successfully predict upcoming structure when morphosyntactic cues were strong and unambiguous. Hanne et al.’s visual-world evidence is suggestive, but their forced-choice sentence-picture matching task places tight constraints on possible structural predictions. Clearer evidence of structural prediction would come from paradigms where the content of upcoming material is not as constrained. The current study used self-paced reading study to examine structural prediction among PWA in less constrained contexts. PWA (n=17 who

  6. Predicting HLA class I non-permissive amino acid residues substitutions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T Andrew Binkowski

    Full Text Available Prediction of peptide binding to human leukocyte antigen (HLA molecules is essential to a wide range of clinical entities from vaccine design to stem cell transplant compatibility. Here we present a new structure-based methodology that applies robust computational tools to model peptide-HLA (p-HLA binding interactions. The method leverages the structural conservation observed in p-HLA complexes to significantly reduce the search space and calculate the system's binding free energy. This approach is benchmarked against existing p-HLA complexes and the prediction performance is measured against a library of experimentally validated peptides. The effect on binding activity across a large set of high-affinity peptides is used to investigate amino acid mismatches reported as high-risk factors in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

  7. Statistical deconvolution of enthalpic energetic contributions to MHC-peptide binding affinity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Drew Michael GB

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background MHC Class I molecules present antigenic peptides to cytotoxic T cells, which forms an integral part of the adaptive immune response. Peptides are bound within a groove formed by the MHC heavy chain. Previous approaches to MHC Class I-peptide binding prediction have largely concentrated on the peptide anchor residues located at the P2 and C-terminus positions. Results A large dataset comprising MHC-peptide structural complexes was created by re-modelling pre-determined x-ray crystallographic structures. Static energetic analysis, following energy minimisation, was performed on the dataset in order to characterise interactions between bound peptides and the MHC Class I molecule, partitioning the interactions within the groove into van der Waals, electrostatic and total non-bonded energy contributions. Conclusion The QSAR techniques of Genetic Function Approximation (GFA and Genetic Partial Least Squares (G/PLS algorithms were used to identify key interactions between the two molecules by comparing the calculated energy values with experimentally-determined BL50 data. Although the peptide termini binding interactions help ensure the stability of the MHC Class I-peptide complex, the central region of the peptide is also important in defining the specificity of the interaction. As thermodynamic studies indicate that peptide association and dissociation may be driven entropically, it may be necessary to incorporate entropic contributions into future calculations.

  8. Sensitive quantitative predictions of peptide-MHC binding by a 'Query by Committee' artificial neural network approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Buus, S.; Lauemoller, S.L.; Worning, Peder

    2003-01-01

    We have generated Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) capable of performing sensitive, quantitative predictions of peptide binding to the MHC class I molecule, HLA-A*0204. We have shown that such quantitative ANN are superior to conventional classification ANN, that have been trained to predict bind...... of an iterative feedback loop whereby advanced, computational bioinformatics optimize experimental strategy, and vice versa....

  9. Prospects in the use of aptamers for characterizing the structure and stability of bioactive proteins and peptides in food.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agyei, Dominic; Acquah, Caleb; Tan, Kei Xian; Hii, Hieng Kok; Rajendran, Subin R C K; Udenigwe, Chibuike C; Danquah, Michael K

    2018-01-01

    Food-derived bioactive proteins and peptides have gained acceptance among researchers, food manufacturers and consumers as health-enhancing functional food components that also serve as natural alternatives for disease prevention and/or management. Bioactivity in food proteins and peptides is determined by their conformations and binding characteristics, which in turn depend on their primary and secondary structures. To maintain their bioactivities, the molecular integrity of bioactive peptides must remain intact, and this warrants the study of peptide form and structure, ideally with robust, highly specific and sensitive techniques. Short single-stranded nucleic acids (i.e. aptamers) are known to have high affinity for cognate targets such as proteins and peptides. Aptamers can be produced cost-effectively and chemically derivatized to increase their stability and shelf life. Their improved binding characteristics and minimal modification of the target molecular signature suggests their suitability for real-time detection of conformational changes in both proteins and peptides. This review discusses the developmental progress of systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX), an iterative technology for generating cost-effective aptamers with low dissociation constants (K d ) for monitoring the form and structure of bioactive proteins and peptides. The review also presents case studies of this technique in monitoring the structural stability of bioactive peptide formulations to encourage applications in functional foods. The challenges and potential of aptamers in this research field are also discussed. Graphical abstract Advancing bioactive proteins and peptide functionality via aptameric ligands.

  10. Skin peptide tyrosine-tyrosine, a member of the pancreatic polypeptide family: isolation, structure, synthesis, and endocrine activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mor, A; Chartrel, N; Vaudry, H; Nicolas, P

    1994-10-25

    Pancreatic polypeptide, peptide tyrosine-tyrosine (PYY), and neuropeptide tyrosine (NPY), three members of a family of structurally related peptides, are mainly expressed in the endocrine pancreas, in endocrine cells of the gut, and in the brain, respectively. In the present study, we have isolated a peptide of the pancreatic polypeptide family from the skin of the South American arboreal frog Phyllomedusa bicolor. The primary structure of the peptide was established as Tyr-Pro-Pro-Lys-Pro-Glu-Ser-Pro-Gly-Glu10-Asp-Ala-Ser-Pro-Glu-Glu- Met-Asn- Lys-Tyr20-Leu-Thr-Ala-Leu-Arg-His-Tyr-Ile-Asn-Leu30-Val-Thr- Arg-Gln-Arg-Tyr-NH2 . This unusual peptide, named skin peptide tyrosine-tyrosine (SPYY), exhibits 94% similarity with PYY from the frog Rana ridibunda. A synthetic replicate of SPYY inhibits melanotropin release from perifused frog neurointermediate lobes in very much the same way as NPY. These results demonstrate the occurrence of a PYY-like peptide in frog skin. Our data also suggest the existence of a pituitary-skin regulatory loop in amphibians.

  11. The structural basis for peptide selection by the transport receptor OppA

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Berntsson, Ronnie P-A; Doeven, Mark K.; Fusetti, Fabrizia; Duurkens, Ria H.; Sengupta, Durba; Marrink, Siewert-Jan; Thunnissen, Andy-Mark W. H.; Poolman, Bert; Slotboom, Dirk-Jan

    2009-01-01

    Oligopeptide-binding protein A (OppA) from Lactococcus lactis binds peptides of an exceptionally wide range of lengths (4-35 residues), with no apparent sequence preference. Here, we present the crystal structures of OppA in the open-and closed-liganded conformations. The structures directly explain

  12. Isolation and structural analysis of antihypertensive peptides that exist naturally in Gouda cheese.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saito, T; Nakamura, T; Kitazawa, H; Kawai, Y; Itoh, T

    2000-07-01

    Seven kinds of ripened cheeses (8-mo-aged and 24-mo-aged Gouda, Emmental, Blue, Camembert, Edam, and Havarti) were homogenized with distilled water, and water-soluble peptides were prepared by C-18 hydrophobic chromatography. The inhibitory activity to angiotensin I-converting enzyme and decrease in the systolic blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats were measured before and after oral administration of each peptide sample. The strongest depressive effect in the systolic blood pressure (-24.7 mm Hg) and intensive inhibitory activity to angiotensin I-converting enzyme (75.7%) were detected in the peptides from 8-mo-aged Gouda cheese. Four peptides were isolated by HPLC with reverse-phase and gel filtration modes. Their chemical structures and origins, clarified by combination analyses of protein sequencing, amino acid composition, and mass spectrometry, were as follows: peptide A, Arg-Pro-Lys-His-Pro-Ile-Lys-His-Gln [alpha(s1)-casein (CN), B-8P; f 1-9]; peptide B, Arg-Pro-Lys-His-Pro-Ile-Lys-His-Gln-Gly-Leu-Pro-Gln (alpha(s1)-CN, B-8P; f 1-13); peptide F, Tyr-Pro-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro-Ile-Pro-Asn (beta-CN, A2-5P; f 60-68); and peptide G, Met-Pro-Phe-Pro-Lys-Tyr-Pro-Val-Gln-Pro-Phe (beta-CN, A2-5P; f 109-119). Peptides A and F, which were chemically synthesized, showed potent angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitory activity with little antihypertensive effects.

  13. SVMTriP: a method to predict antigenic epitopes using support vector machine to integrate tri-peptide similarity and propensity.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bo Yao

    Full Text Available Identifying protein surface regions preferentially recognizable by antibodies (antigenic epitopes is at the heart of new immuno-diagnostic reagent discovery and vaccine design, and computational methods for antigenic epitope prediction provide crucial means to serve this purpose. Many linear B-cell epitope prediction methods were developed, such as BepiPred, ABCPred, AAP, BCPred, BayesB, BEOracle/BROracle, and BEST, towards this goal. However, effective immunological research demands more robust performance of the prediction method than what the current algorithms could provide. In this work, a new method to predict linear antigenic epitopes is developed; Support Vector Machine has been utilized by combining the Tri-peptide similarity and Propensity scores (SVMTriP. Applied to non-redundant B-cell linear epitopes extracted from IEDB, SVMTriP achieves a sensitivity of 80.1% and a precision of 55.2% with a five-fold cross-validation. The AUC value is 0.702. The combination of similarity and propensity of tri-peptide subsequences can improve the prediction performance for linear B-cell epitopes. Moreover, SVMTriP is capable of recognizing viral peptides from a human protein sequence background. A web server based on our method is constructed for public use. The server and all datasets used in the current study are available at http://sysbio.unl.edu/SVMTriP.

  14. Structure and dynamics of cationic membrane peptides and proteins: Insights from solid-state NMR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong, Mei; Su, Yongchao

    2011-01-01

    Many membrane peptides and protein domains contain functionally important cationic Arg and Lys residues, whose insertion into the hydrophobic interior of the lipid bilayer encounters significant energy barriers. To understand how these cationic molecules overcome the free energy barrier to insert into the lipid membrane, we have used solid-state NMR spectroscopy to determine the membrane-bound topology of these peptides. A versatile array of solid-state NMR experiments now readily yields the conformation, dynamics, orientation, depth of insertion, and site-specific protein–lipid interactions of these molecules. We summarize key findings of several Arg-rich membrane peptides, including β-sheet antimicrobial peptides, unstructured cell-penetrating peptides, and the voltage-sensing helix of voltage-gated potassium channels. Our results indicate the central role of guanidinium-phosphate and guanidinium-water interactions in dictating the structural topology of these cationic molecules in the lipid membrane, which in turn account for the mechanisms of this functionally diverse class of membrane peptides. PMID:21344534

  15. Peptides Trapping Dioxins: A Docking-Based Inverse Screening Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    German Perez

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available A rapid and cost-effective computational methodology for designing and rationalizing the selection of small peptides as receptors for dioxin-like compounds was proposed. The backbone of the dioxin Ah receptor binding site was used to design a series of penta- and hexapeptide libraries, with 1400 elements in total. Peptide flexibility was considered and 10 conformers were found to be a good option to represent peptide conformational space with fair speed-accuracy ratio. Each peptide conformer was treated as a possible receptor, generating a dedicated box and then running a docking process using as ligands a family of 76 dibenzo-p-dioxins and 113 dibenzofurans mono- and polychlorinated. Significant predictions were confirmed by comparing primary structure of top and bottom ranked peptides binding dioxins confirming that scrambled positions of the same amino acids gave completely different predicted binding. The hexapeptide EWFQPW, with the best binding score, was chosen as selective sorbent material in solid-phase extraction. The retention performances were tested using the 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and two polychlorinated biphenyls in order to verify the hexapeptide specificity. The solid-phase extraction experimental procedure was optimized, and analytical parameters of hexapeptide sorbent material were compared with the resin without hexapeptide and a commercial reversed phase cartridge.

  16. SANDPUMA: ensemble predictions of nonribosomal peptide chemistry reveal biosynthetic diversity across Actinobacteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chevrette, Marc G; Aicheler, Fabian; Kohlbacher, Oliver; Currie, Cameron R; Medema, Marnix H

    2017-10-15

    Nonribosomally synthesized peptides (NRPs) are natural products with widespread applications in medicine and biotechnology. Many algorithms have been developed to predict the substrate specificities of nonribosomal peptide synthetase adenylation (A) domains from DNA sequences, which enables prioritization and dereplication, and integration with other data types in discovery efforts. However, insufficient training data and a lack of clarity regarding prediction quality have impeded optimal use. Here, we introduce prediCAT, a new phylogenetics-inspired algorithm, which quantitatively estimates the degree of predictability of each A-domain. We then systematically benchmarked all algorithms on a newly gathered, independent test set of 434 A-domain sequences, showing that active-site-motif-based algorithms outperform whole-domain-based methods. Subsequently, we developed SANDPUMA, a powerful ensemble algorithm, based on newly trained versions of all high-performing algorithms, which significantly outperforms individual methods. Finally, we deployed SANDPUMA in a systematic investigation of 7635 Actinobacteria genomes, suggesting that NRP chemical diversity is much higher than previously estimated. SANDPUMA has been integrated into the widely used antiSMASH biosynthetic gene cluster analysis pipeline and is also available as an open-source, standalone tool. SANDPUMA is freely available at https://bitbucket.org/chevrm/sandpuma and as a docker image at https://hub.docker.com/r/chevrm/sandpuma/ under the GNU Public License 3 (GPL3). chevrette@wisc.edu or marnix.medema@wur.nl. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

  17. Peptide and Peptide-Dependent Motions in MHC Proteins: Immunological Implications and Biophysical Underpinnings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cory M. Ayres

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Structural biology of peptides presented by class I and class II MHC proteins has transformed immunology, impacting our understanding of fundamental immune mechanisms and allowing researchers to rationalize immunogenicity and design novel vaccines. However, proteins are not static structures as often inferred from crystallographic structures. Their components move and breathe individually and collectively over a range of timescales. Peptides bound within MHC peptide-binding grooves are no exception and their motions have been shown to impact recognition by T cell and other receptors in ways that influence function. Furthermore, peptides tune the motions of MHC proteins themselves, which impacts recognition of peptide/MHC complexes by other proteins. Here, we review the motional properties of peptides in MHC binding grooves and discuss how peptide properties can influence MHC motions. We briefly review theoretical concepts about protein motion and highlight key data that illustrate immunological consequences. We focus primarily on class I systems due to greater availability of data, but segue into class II systems as the concepts and consequences overlap. We suggest that characterization of the dynamic “energy landscapes” of peptide/MHC complexes and the resulting functional consequences is one of the next frontiers in structural immunology.

  18. Learning a peptide-protein binding affinity predictor with kernel ridge regression

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Background The cellular function of a vast majority of proteins is performed through physical interactions with other biomolecules, which, most of the time, are other proteins. Peptides represent templates of choice for mimicking a secondary structure in order to modulate protein-protein interaction. They are thus an interesting class of therapeutics since they also display strong activity, high selectivity, low toxicity and few drug-drug interactions. Furthermore, predicting peptides that would bind to a specific MHC alleles would be of tremendous benefit to improve vaccine based therapy and possibly generate antibodies with greater affinity. Modern computational methods have the potential to accelerate and lower the cost of drug and vaccine discovery by selecting potential compounds for testing in silico prior to biological validation. Results We propose a specialized string kernel for small bio-molecules, peptides and pseudo-sequences of binding interfaces. The kernel incorporates physico-chemical properties of amino acids and elegantly generalizes eight kernels, comprised of the Oligo, the Weighted Degree, the Blended Spectrum, and the Radial Basis Function. We provide a low complexity dynamic programming algorithm for the exact computation of the kernel and a linear time algorithm for it’s approximation. Combined with kernel ridge regression and SupCK, a novel binding pocket kernel, the proposed kernel yields biologically relevant and good prediction accuracy on the PepX database. For the first time, a machine learning predictor is capable of predicting the binding affinity of any peptide to any protein with reasonable accuracy. The method was also applied to both single-target and pan-specific Major Histocompatibility Complex class II benchmark datasets and three Quantitative Structure Affinity Model benchmark datasets. Conclusion On all benchmarks, our method significantly (p-value ≤ 0.057) outperforms the current state-of-the-art methods at predicting

  19. β-Boomerang Antimicrobial and Antiendotoxic Peptides: Lipidation and Disulfide Bond Effects on Activity and Structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohanram, Harini; Bhattacharjya, Surajit

    2014-04-21

    Drug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial pathogens and endotoxin- or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-mediated inflammations are among some of the most  prominent health issues globally. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are eminent molecules that can kill drug-resistant strains and neutralize LPS toxicity. LPS, the outer layer of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria safeguards cell integrity against hydrophobic compounds, including antibiotics and AMPs. Apart from maintaining structural integrity, LPS, when released into the blood stream, also induces inflammatory pathways leading to septic shock. In previous works, we have reported the de novo design of a set of 12-amino acid long cationic/hydrophobic peptides for LPS binding and activity. These peptides adopt β-boomerang like conformations in complex with LPS. Structure-activity studies demonstrated some critical features of the β-boomerang scaffold that may be utilized for the further development of potent analogs. In this work, β-boomerang lipopeptides were designed and structure-activity correlation studies were carried out. These lipopeptides were homo-dimerized through a disulfide bridge to stabilize conformations and for improved activity. The designed peptides exhibited potent antibacterial activity and efficiently neutralized LPS toxicity under in vitro assays. NMR structure of C4YI13C in aqueous solution demonstrated the conserved folding of the lipopeptide with a boomerang aromatic lock stabilized with disulfide bond at the C-terminus and acylation at the N-terminus. These lipo-peptides displaying bacterial sterilization and low hemolytic activity may be useful for future applications as antimicrobial and antiendotoxin molecules.

  20. β-Boomerang Antimicrobial and Antiendotoxic Peptides: Lipidation and Disulfide Bond Effects on Activity and Structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harini Mohanram

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Drug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial pathogens and endotoxin- or lipopolysaccharide (LPS-mediated inflammations are among some of the most  prominent health issues globally. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs are eminent molecules that can kill drug-resistant strains and neutralize LPS toxicity. LPS, the outer layer of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria safeguards cell integrity against hydrophobic compounds, including antibiotics and AMPs. Apart from maintaining structural integrity, LPS, when released into the blood stream, also induces inflammatory pathways leading to septic shock. In previous works, we have reported the de novo design of a set of 12-amino acid long cationic/hydrophobic peptides for LPS binding and activity. These peptides adopt β-boomerang like conformations in complex with LPS. Structure-activity studies demonstrated some critical features of the β-boomerang scaffold that may be utilized for the further development of potent analogs. In this work, β-boomerang lipopeptides were designed and structure-activity correlation studies were carried out. These lipopeptides were homo-dimerized through a disulfide bridge to stabilize conformations and for improved activity. The designed peptides exhibited potent antibacterial activity and efficiently neutralized LPS toxicity under in vitro assays. NMR structure of C4YI13C in aqueous solution demonstrated the conserved folding of the lipopeptide with a boomerang aromatic lock stabilized with disulfide bond at the C-terminus and acylation at the N-terminus. These lipo-peptides displaying bacterial sterilization and low hemolytic activity may be useful for future applications as antimicrobial and antiendotoxin molecules.

  1. Can Natural Proteins Designed with ‘Inverted’ Peptide Sequences Adopt Native-Like Protein Folds?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sridhar, Settu; Guruprasad, Kunchur

    2014-01-01

    We have carried out a systematic computational analysis on a representative dataset of proteins of known three-dimensional structure, in order to evaluate whether it would possible to ‘swap’ certain short peptide sequences in naturally occurring proteins with their corresponding ‘inverted’ peptides and generate ‘artificial’ proteins that are predicted to retain native-like protein fold. The analysis of 3,967 representative proteins from the Protein Data Bank revealed 102,677 unique identical inverted peptide sequence pairs that vary in sequence length between 5–12 and 18 amino acid residues. Our analysis illustrates with examples that such ‘artificial’ proteins may be generated by identifying peptides with ‘similar structural environment’ and by using comparative protein modeling and validation studies. Our analysis suggests that natural proteins may be tolerant to accommodating such peptides. PMID:25210740

  2. Mapping the antigenic structure of porcine parvovirus at the level of peptides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kamstrup, Søren; Langeveld, Jan; Bøtner, Anette

    1998-01-01

    The antigenic structure of the capsid proteins of porcine parvovirus (PPV) was investigated. A total of nine linear epitopes were identified by Pepscan using porcine or rabbit anti-PPV antisera. No sites were identified with a panel of neutralising monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). All epitopes were...... located in the region corresponding to the major capsid protein VP2. Based on this information, and on analogy to other autonomous parvoviruses, 24 different peptides were synthesised, coupled to keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH) and used to immunise rabbits. Most antisera were able to bind viral protein....... It is concluded that in PPV, the VP2 N-terminus is involved in virus neutralisation (VN) and peptides from this region are therefore primary targets for developing peptide-based vaccines against this virus....

  3. Double-Stranded Peptide Nucleic Acids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2001-01-01

    A novel class of compounds, known as peptide nucleic acids, form double-stranded structures with one another and with ssDNA. The peptide nucleic acids generally comprise ligands such as naturally occurring DNA bases attached to a peptide backbone through a suitable linker.......A novel class of compounds, known as peptide nucleic acids, form double-stranded structures with one another and with ssDNA. The peptide nucleic acids generally comprise ligands such as naturally occurring DNA bases attached to a peptide backbone through a suitable linker....

  4. Structure of the superantigen staphylococcal enterotoxin B in complex with TCR and peptide-MHC demonstrates absence of TCR-peptide contacts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rödström, Karin E J; Elbing, Karin; Lindkvist-Petersson, Karin

    2014-08-15

    Superantigens are immune-stimulatory toxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus, which are able to interact with host immune receptors to induce a massive release of cytokines, causing toxic shock syndrome and possibly death. In this article, we present the x-ray structure of staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) in complex with its receptors, the TCR and MHC class II, forming a ternary complex. The structure, in combination with functional analyses, clearly shows how SEB adopts a wedge-like position when binding to the β-chain of TCR, allowing for an interaction between the α-chain of TCR and MHC. Furthermore, the binding mode also circumvents contact between TCR and the peptide presented by MHC, which enables SEB to initiate a peptide-independent activation of T cells. Copyright © 2014 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc.

  5. Cloning of cDNAs encoding new peptides of the dermaseptin-family.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wechselberger, C

    1998-10-14

    Dermaseptins are a group of basic (lysine-rich) peptides, 27-34 amino acids in length and involved in the defense of frog skin against microbial invasion. By using a degenerated oligonucleotide primer binding to the 5'-untranslated region of previously characterized cDNAs of these peptides, it was possible to identify new members of the dermaseptin family in the South American frogs Agalychnis annae and Pachymedusa dacnicolor. Amino acid alignment and secondary structure prediction reveals, that only five of the deduced peptides can be supposed to be also functional homologs to the known dermaseptins from Phyllomedusa bicolor and Phyllomedusa sauvagei. The remaining six peptides described in this paper have not been isolated and characterized yet.

  6. Driving engineering of novel antimicrobial peptides from simulations of peptide-micelle interactions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Khandelia, Himanshu; Langham, Allison A; Kaznessis, Yiannis N

    2006-01-01

    Simulations of antimicrobial peptides in membrane mimics can provide the high resolution, atomistic picture that is necessary to decipher which sequence and structure components are responsible for activity and toxicity. With such detailed insight, engineering new sequences that are active but non...... peptides and their interaction with membrane mimics. In this article, we discuss the promise and the challenges of widely used models and detail our recent work on peptide-micelle simulations as an attractive alternative to peptide-bilayer simulations. We detail our results with two large structural...... classes of peptides, helical and beta-sheet and demonstrate how simulations can assist in engineering of novel antimicrobials with therapeutic potential....

  7. Structure and dynamics of the peptide strand KRFK from the thrombospondin TSP-1 in water.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taleb Bendiab, W; Benomrane, B; Bounaceur, B; Dauchez, M; Krallafa, A M

    2018-02-14

    Theoretical investigations of a solute in liquid water at normal temperature and pressure can be performed at different levels of theory. Static quantum calculations as well as classical and ab initio molecular dynamics are used to completely explore the conformational space for large solvated molecular systems. In the classical approach, it is essential to describe all of the interactions of the solute and the solvent in detail. Water molecules are very often described as rigid bodies when the most commonly used interaction potentials, such as the SPCE and the TIP4P models, are employed. Recently, a physical model based upon a cluster of rigid water molecules with a tetrahedral architecture (AB 4 ) was proposed that describes liquid water as a mixture of both TIP4P and SPCE molecular species that occur in the proportions implied by the tetrahedral architecture (one central molecule versus four outer molecules; i.e., 20% TIP4P versus 80% SPCE molecules). In this work, theoretical spectroscopic data for a peptide strand were correlated with the structural properties of the peptide strand solvated in water, based on data calculated using different theoretical approaches and physical models. We focused on a particular peptide strand, KRFK (lysine-arginine-phenylalanine-lysine), found in the thrombospondin TSP-1, due to its interesting properties. As the activity and electronic structure of this system is strongly linked to its structure, we correlated its structure with charge-density maps obtained using different semi-empirical charge Q eq equations. The structural and thermodynamic properties obtained from classical simulations were correlated with ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) data. Structural changes in the peptide strand were rationalized in terms of the motions of atoms and groups of atoms. To achieve this, conformational changes were investigated using calculated infrared spectra for the peptide in the gas phase and in water solvent. The calculated AIMD

  8. Probing alpha-helical and beta-sheet structures of peptides at solid/liquid interfaces with SFG.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Xiaoyun; Wang, Jie; Sniadecki, Jason J; Even, Mark A; Chen, Zhan

    2005-03-29

    We demonstrated that sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy can distinguish different secondary structures of proteins or peptides adsorbed at solid/liquid interfaces. The SFG spectrum for tachyplesin I at the polystyrene (PS)/solution interface has a fingerprint peak corresponding to the B1/B3 mode of the antiparallel beta-sheet. This peak disappeared upon the addition of dithiothreitol, which can disrupt the beta-sheet structure. The SFG spectrum indicative of the MSI594 alpha-helical structure was observed at the PS/MSI594 solution interface. This research validates SFG as a powerful technique for revealing detailed secondary structures of interfacial proteins and peptides.

  9. The peptide-receptive transition state of MHC-1 molecules: Insight from structure and molecular dynamics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Robinson H.; Mage, M.; Dolan, M.; Wang, R.; Boyd, L.; Revilleza, M.; Natarajan, K.; Myers, N.; Hansen, T.; Margulies, D.

    2012-05-01

    MHC class I (MHC-I) proteins of the adaptive immune system require antigenic peptides for maintenance of mature conformation and immune function via specific recognition by MHC-I-restricted CD8(+) T lymphocytes. New MHC-I molecules in the endoplasmic reticulum are held by chaperones in a peptide-receptive (PR) transition state pending release by tightly binding peptides. In this study, we show, by crystallographic, docking, and molecular dynamics methods, dramatic movement of a hinged unit containing a conserved 3(10) helix that flips from an exposed 'open' position in the PR transition state to a 'closed' position with buried hydrophobic side chains in the peptide-loaded mature molecule. Crystallography of hinged unit residues 46-53 of murine H-2L(d) MHC-I H chain, complexed with mAb 64-3-7, demonstrates solvent exposure of these residues in the PR conformation. Docking and molecular dynamics predict how this segment moves to help form the A and B pockets crucial for the tight peptide binding needed for stability of the mature peptide-loaded conformation, chaperone dissociation, and Ag presentation.

  10. Toxin structures as evolutionary tools: Using conserved 3D folds to study the evolution of rapidly evolving peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Undheim, Eivind A B; Mobli, Mehdi; King, Glenn F

    2016-06-01

    Three-dimensional (3D) structures have been used to explore the evolution of proteins for decades, yet they have rarely been utilized to study the molecular evolution of peptides. Here, we highlight areas in which 3D structures can be particularly useful for studying the molecular evolution of peptide toxins. Although we focus our discussion on animal toxins, including one of the most widespread disulfide-rich peptide folds known, the inhibitor cystine knot, our conclusions should be widely applicable to studies of the evolution of disulfide-constrained peptides. We show that conserved 3D folds can be used to identify evolutionary links and test hypotheses regarding the evolutionary origin of peptides with extremely low sequence identity; construct accurate multiple sequence alignments; and better understand the evolutionary forces that drive the molecular evolution of peptides. Also watch the video abstract. © 2016 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.

  11. Structural analysis of a functional DIAP1 fragment bound to grim and hid peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, J W; Cocina, A E; Chai, J; Hay, B A; Shi, Y

    2001-07-01

    The inhibitor of apoptosis protein DIAP1 suppresses apoptosis in Drosophila, with the second BIR domain (BIR2) playing an important role. Three proteins, Hid, Grim, and Reaper, promote apoptosis, in part by binding to DIAP1 through their conserved N-terminal sequences. The crystal structures of DIAP1-BIR2 by itself and in complex with the N-terminal peptides from Hid and Grim reveal that these peptides bind a surface groove on DIAP1, with the first four amino acids mimicking the binding of the Smac tetrapeptide to XIAP. The next 3 residues also contribute to binding through hydrophobic interactions. Interestingly, peptide binding induces the formation of an additional alpha helix in DIAP1. Our study reveals the structural conservation and diversity necessary for the binding of IAPs by the Drosophila Hid/Grim/Reaper and the mammalian Smac proteins.

  12. Acetone-Linked Peptides: A Convergent Approach for Peptide Macrocyclization and Labeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Assem, Naila; Ferreira, David J; Wolan, Dennis W; Dawson, Philip E

    2015-07-20

    Macrocyclization is a broadly applied approach for overcoming the intrinsically disordered nature of linear peptides. Herein, it is shown that dichloroacetone (DCA) enhances helical secondary structures when introduced between peptide nucleophiles, such as thiols, to yield an acetone-linked bridge (ACE). Aside from stabilizing helical structures, the ketone moiety embedded in the linker can be modified with diverse molecular tags by oxime ligation. Insights into the structure of the tether were obtained through co-crystallization of a constrained S-peptide in complex with RNAse S. The scope of the acetone-linked peptides was further explored through the generation of N-terminus to side chain macrocycles and a new approach for generating fused macrocycles (bicycles). Together, these studies suggest that acetone linking is generally applicable to peptide macrocycles with a specific utility in the synthesis of stabilized helices that incorporate functional tags. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  13. Flanking signal and mature peptide residues influence signal peptide cleavage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ranganathan Shoba

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Signal peptides (SPs mediate the targeting of secretory precursor proteins to the correct subcellular compartments in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Identifying these transient peptides is crucial to the medical, food and beverage and biotechnology industries yet our understanding of these peptides remains limited. This paper examines the most common type of signal peptides cleavable by the endoprotease signal peptidase I (SPase I, and the residues flanking the cleavage sites of three groups of signal peptide sequences, namely (i eukaryotes (Euk (ii Gram-positive (Gram+ bacteria, and (iii Gram-negative (Gram- bacteria. Results In this study, 2352 secretory peptide sequences from a variety of organisms with amino-terminal SPs are extracted from the manually curated SPdb database for analysis based on physicochemical properties such as pI, aliphatic index, GRAVY score, hydrophobicity, net charge and position-specific residue preferences. Our findings show that the three groups share several similarities in general, but they display distinctive features upon examination in terms of their amino acid compositions and frequencies, and various physico-chemical properties. Thus, analysis or prediction of their sequences should be separated and treated as distinct groups. Conclusion We conclude that the peptide segment recognized by SPase I extends to the start of the mature protein to a limited extent, upon our survey of the amino acid residues surrounding the cleavage processing site. These flanking residues possibly influence the cleavage processing and contribute to non-canonical cleavage sites. Our findings are applicable in defining more accurate prediction tools for recognition and identification of cleavage site of SPs.

  14. Database-Guided Discovery of Potent Peptides to Combat HIV-1 or Superbugs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guangshun Wang

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs, small host defense proteins, are indispensable for the protection of multicellular organisms such as plants and animals from infection. The number of AMPs discovered per year increased steadily since the 1980s. Over 2,000 natural AMPs from bacteria, protozoa, fungi, plants, and animals have been registered into the antimicrobial peptide database (APD. The majority of these AMPs (>86% possess 11–50 amino acids with a net charge from 0 to +7 and hydrophobic percentages between 31–70%. This article summarizes peptide discovery on the basis of the APD. The major methods are the linguistic model, database screening, de novo design, and template-based design. Using these methods, we identified various potent peptides against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1 or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA. While the stepwise designed anti-HIV peptide is disulfide-linked and rich in arginines, the ab initio designed anti-MRSA peptide is linear and rich in leucines. Thus, there are different requirements for antiviral and antibacterial peptides, which could kill pathogens via different molecular targets. The biased amino acid composition in the database-designed peptides, or natural peptides such as θ-defensins, requires the use of the improved two-dimensional NMR method for structural determination to avoid the publication of misleading structure and dynamics. In the case of human cathelicidin LL-37, structural determination requires 3D NMR techniques. The high-quality structure of LL-37 provides a solid basis for understanding its interactions with membranes of bacteria and other pathogens. In conclusion, the APD database is a comprehensive platform for storing, classifying, searching, predicting, and designing potent peptides against pathogenic bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and cancer cells.

  15. Structure of Calmodulin Bound to a Calcineurin Peptide: A New Way of Making an Old Binding Mode

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ye, Q.; Li, X.; Wong, A.; Wei, Q.; Jia, Z.

    2006-01-01

    Calcineurin is a calmodulin-binding protein in brain and the only serine/threonine protein phosphatase under the control of Ca 2+ /calmodulin (CaM), which plays a critical role in coupling Ca 2+ signals to cellular responses. CaM up-regulates the phosphatase activity of calcineurin by binding to the CaM-binding domain (CBD) of calcineurin subunit A. Here, we report crystal structural studies of CaM bound to a CBD peptide. The chimeric protein containing CaM and the CBD peptide forms an intimate homodimer, in which CaM displays a native-like extended conformation and the CBD peptide shows -helical structure. Unexpectedly, the N-terminal lobe from one CaM and the C-terminal lobe from the second molecule form a combined binding site to trap the peptide. Thus, the dimer provides two binding sites, each of which is reminiscent of the fully collapsed conformation of CaM commonly observed in complex with, for example, the myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) peptide. The interaction between the peptide and CaM is highly specific and similar to MLCK

  16. Elevated C-peptide and insulin predict increased risk of colorectal adenomas in normal mucosa

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vidal, Adriana C; Keku, Temitope O; Lund, Pauline Kay; Hoyo, Cathrine; Galanko, Joseph; Burcal, Lauren; Holston, Rachel; Massa, Berri; Omofoye, Oluwaseun; Sandler, Robert S

    2012-01-01

    Lower concentrations of the insulin–like growth factor binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) and elevated concentrations of insulin or C-peptide have been associated with an increase in colorectal cancer risk (CRC). However few studies have evaluated IGFBP-1 and C-peptide in relation to adenomatous polyps, the only known precursor for CRC. Between November 2001 and December 2002, we examined associations between circulating concentrations of insulin, C-peptide, IGFBP-1 and apoptosis among 190 individuals with one or more adenomatous polyps and 488 with no adenomatous polyps using logistic regression models. Individuals with the highest concentrations of C-peptide were more likely to have adenomas (OR = 2.2, 95% CI 1.4-4.0) than those with the lowest concentrations; associations that appeared to be stronger in men (OR = 4.4, 95% CI 1.7-10.9) than women. Individuals with high insulin concentrations also had a higher risk of adenomas (OR = 3.5, 95% CI 1.7-7.4), whereas higher levels of IGFBP-1 were associated with a reduced risk of adenomas in men only (OR = 0.3, 95% CI 0.1-0.7). Overweight and obese individuals with higher C-peptide levels (>1 st Q) were at increased risk for lower apoptosis index (OR = 2.5, 95% CI 0.9-7.1), an association that remained strong in overweight and obese men (OR = 6.3, 95% CI 1.0-36.7). Higher levels of IGFBP-1 in overweight and obese individuals were associated with a reduced risk of low apoptosis (OR = 0.3, 95% CI 0.1-1.0). Associations between these peptides and the apoptosis index in overweight and obese individuals, suggest that the mechanism by which C-peptide could induce adenomas may include its anti-apoptotic properties. This study suggests that hyperinsulinemia and IGF hormones predict adenoma risk, and that outcomes associated with colorectal carcinogenesis maybe modified by gender

  17. Bioinformatics analysis of the predicted polyprenol reductase genes in higher plants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basyuni, M.; Wati, R.

    2018-03-01

    The present study evaluates the bioinformatics methods to analyze twenty-four predicted polyprenol reductase genes from higher plants on GenBank as well as predicted the structure, composition, similarity, subcellular localization, and phylogenetic. The physicochemical properties of plant polyprenol showed diversity among the observed genes. The percentage of the secondary structure of plant polyprenol genes followed the ratio order of α helix > random coil > extended chain structure. The values of chloroplast but not signal peptide were too low, indicated that few chloroplast transit peptide in plant polyprenol reductase genes. The possibility of the potential transit peptide showed variation among the plant polyprenol reductase, suggested the importance of understanding the variety of peptide components of plant polyprenol genes. To clarify this finding, a phylogenetic tree was drawn. The phylogenetic tree shows several branches in the tree, suggested that plant polyprenol reductase genes grouped into divergent clusters in the tree.

  18. Buckwheat trypsin inhibitor with helical hairpin structure belongs to a new family of plant defence peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oparin, Peter B; Mineev, Konstantin S; Dunaevsky, Yakov E; Arseniev, Alexander S; Belozersky, Mikhail A; Grishin, Eugene V; Egorov, Tsezi A; Vassilevski, Alexander A

    2012-08-15

    A new peptide trypsin inhibitor named BWI-2c was obtained from buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) seeds by sequential affinity, ion exchange and reversed-phase chromatography. The peptide was sequenced and found to contain 41 amino acid residues, with four cysteine residues involved in two intramolecular disulfide bonds. Recombinant BWI-2c identical to the natural peptide was produced in Escherichia coli in a form of a cleavable fusion with thioredoxin. The 3D (three-dimensional) structure of the peptide in solution was determined by NMR spectroscopy, revealing two antiparallel α-helices stapled by disulfide bonds. Together with VhTI, a trypsin inhibitor from veronica (Veronica hederifolia), BWI-2c represents a new family of protease inhibitors with an unusual α-helical hairpin fold. The linker sequence between the helices represents the so-called trypsin inhibitory loop responsible for direct binding to the active site of the enzyme that cleaves BWI-2c at the functionally important residue Arg(19). The inhibition constant was determined for BWI-2c against trypsin (1.7×10(-1)0 M), and the peptide was tested on other enzymes, including those from various insect digestive systems, revealing high selectivity to trypsin-like proteases. Structural similarity shared by BWI-2c, VhTI and several other plant defence peptides leads to the acknowledgement of a new widespread family of plant peptides termed α-hairpinins.

  19. Structural characterization by NMR of a double phosphorylated chimeric peptide vaccine for treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramírez-Gualito, Karla; Richter, Monique; Matzapetakis, Manolis; Singer, David; Berger, Stefan

    2013-04-26

    Rational design of peptide vaccines becomes important for the treatment of some diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorders. In this study, as part of a larger effort to explore correlations of structure and activity, we attempt to characterize the doubly phosphorylated chimeric peptide vaccine targeting a hyperphosphorylated epitope of the Tau protein. The 28-mer linear chimeric peptide consists of the double phosphorylated B cell epitope Tau₂₂₉₋₂₃₇[pThr231/pSer235] and the immunomodulatory T cell epitope Ag85B₂₄₁₋₂₅₅ originating from the well-known antigen Ag85B of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis, linked by a four amino acid sequence -GPSL-. NMR chemical shift analysis of our construct demonstrated that the synthesized peptide is essentially unfolded with a tendency to form a β-turn due to the linker. In conclusion, the -GPSL- unit presumably connects the two parts of the vaccine without transferring any structural information from one part to the other. Therefore, the double phosphorylated epitope of the Tau peptide is flexible and accessible.

  20. Inhibition of the Hantavirus Fusion Process by Predicted Domain III and Stem Peptides from Glycoprotein Gc.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barriga, Gonzalo P; Villalón-Letelier, Fernando; Márquez, Chantal L; Bignon, Eduardo A; Acuña, Rodrigo; Ross, Breyan H; Monasterio, Octavio; Mardones, Gonzalo A; Vidal, Simon E; Tischler, Nicole D

    2016-07-01

    Hantaviruses can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome or hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in humans. To enter cells, hantaviruses fuse their envelope membrane with host cell membranes. Previously, we have shown that the Gc envelope glycoprotein is the viral fusion protein sharing characteristics with class II fusion proteins. The ectodomain of class II fusion proteins is composed of three domains connected by a stem region to a transmembrane anchor in the viral envelope. These fusion proteins can be inhibited through exogenous fusion protein fragments spanning domain III (DIII) and the stem region. Such fragments are thought to interact with the core of the fusion protein trimer during the transition from its pre-fusion to its post-fusion conformation. Based on our previous homology model structure for Gc from Andes hantavirus (ANDV), here we predicted and generated recombinant DIII and stem peptides to test whether these fragments inhibit hantavirus membrane fusion and cell entry. Recombinant ANDV DIII was soluble, presented disulfide bridges and beta-sheet secondary structure, supporting the in silico model. Using DIII and the C-terminal part of the stem region, the infection of cells by ANDV was blocked up to 60% when fusion of ANDV occurred within the endosomal route, and up to 95% when fusion occurred with the plasma membrane. Furthermore, the fragments impaired ANDV glycoprotein-mediated cell-cell fusion, and cross-inhibited the fusion mediated by the glycoproteins from Puumala virus (PUUV). The Gc fragments interfered in ANDV cell entry by preventing membrane hemifusion and pore formation, retaining Gc in a non-resistant homotrimer stage, as described for DIII and stem peptide inhibitors of class II fusion proteins. Collectively, our results demonstrate that hantavirus Gc shares not only structural, but also mechanistic similarity with class II viral fusion proteins, and will hopefully help in developing novel therapeutic strategies against hantaviruses.

  1. Unusual structural transition of antimicrobial VP1 peptide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shanmugam, Ganesh; Phambu, Nsoki; Polavarapu, Prasad L

    2011-05-01

    VP1 peptide, an active domain of m-calpain enzyme with antimicrobial activity is found to undergo an unusual conformational transition in trifluoroethanol (TFE) solvent. The nature of, and time dependent variations in, circular dichroism associated with the amide I vibrations, suggest that VP1 undergoes self-aggregation forming anti-parallel β-sheet structure in TFE. Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) images revealed that β-sheet aggregates formed by VP1 possess fibril-like assemblies. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Structured pathway across the transition state for peptide folding revealed by molecular dynamics simulations.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lipi Thukral

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Small globular proteins and peptides commonly exhibit two-state folding kinetics in which the rate limiting step of folding is the surmounting of a single free energy barrier at the transition state (TS separating the folded and the unfolded states. An intriguing question is whether the polypeptide chain reaches, and leaves, the TS by completely random fluctuations, or whether there is a directed, stepwise process. Here, the folding TS of a 15-residue β-hairpin peptide, Peptide 1, is characterized using independent 2.5 μs-long unbiased atomistic molecular dynamics (MD simulations (a total of 15 μs. The trajectories were started from fully unfolded structures. Multiple (spontaneous folding events to the NMR-derived conformation are observed, allowing both structural and dynamical characterization of the folding TS. A common loop-like topology is observed in all the TS structures with native end-to-end and turn contacts, while the central segments of the strands are not in contact. Non-native sidechain contacts are present in the TS between the only tryptophan (W11 and the turn region (P7-G9. Prior to the TS the turn is found to be already locked by the W11 sidechain, while the ends are apart. Once the ends have also come into contact, the TS is reached. Finally, along the reactive folding paths the cooperative loss of the W11 non-native contacts and the formation of the central inter-strand native contacts lead to the peptide rapidly proceeding from the TS to the native state. The present results indicate a directed stepwise process to folding the peptide.

  3. Outcome prediction in pneumonia induced ALI/ARDS by clinical features and peptide patterns of BALF determined by mass spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frenzel, Jochen; Gessner, Christian; Sandvoss, Torsten; Hammerschmidt, Stefan; Schellenberger, Wolfgang; Sack, Ulrich; Eschrich, Klaus; Wirtz, Hubert

    2011-01-01

    Peptide patterns of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were assumed to reflect the complex pathology of acute lung injury (ALI)/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) better than clinical and inflammatory parameters and may be superior for outcome prediction. A training group of patients suffering from ALI/ARDS was compiled from equal numbers of survivors and nonsurvivors. Clinical history, ventilation parameters, Murray's lung injury severity score (Murray's LISS) and interleukins in BALF were gathered. In addition, samples of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were analyzed by means of hydrophobic chromatography and MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF MS). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis for each clinical and cytokine parameter revealed interleukin-6>interleukin-8>diabetes mellitus>Murray's LISS as the best outcome predictors. Outcome predicted on the basis of BALF levels of interleukin-6 resulted in 79.4% accuracy, 82.7% sensitivity and 76.1% specificity (area under the ROC curve, AUC, 0.853). Both clinical parameters and cytokines as well as peptide patterns determined by MALDI-ToF MS were analyzed by classification and regression tree (CART) analysis and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms. CART analysis including Murray's LISS, interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 in combination was correct in 78.0%. MALDI-ToF MS of BALF peptides did not reveal a single identifiable biomarker for ARDS. However, classification of patients was successfully achieved based on the entire peptide pattern analyzed using SVM. This method resulted in 90% accuracy, 93.3% sensitivity and 86.7% specificity following a 10-fold cross validation (AUC = 0.953). Subsequent validation of the optimized SVM algorithm with a test group of patients with unknown prognosis yielded 87.5% accuracy, 83.3% sensitivity and 90.0% specificity. MALDI-ToF MS peptide patterns of BALF, evaluated by appropriate mathematical methods can be of value in predicting outcome in pneumonia induced

  4. Human lactoferricin derived di-peptides deploying loop structures induce apoptosis specifically in cancer cells through targeting membranous phosphatidylserine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riedl, Sabrina; Leber, Regina; Rinner, Beate; Schaider, Helmut; Lohner, Karl; Zweytick, Dagmar

    2015-11-01

    Host defense-derived peptides have emerged as a novel strategy for the development of alternative anticancer therapies. In this study we report on characteristic features of human lactoferricin (hLFcin) derivatives which facilitate specific killing of cancer cells of melanoma, glioblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma compared with non-specific derivatives and the synthetic peptide RW-AH. Changes in amino acid sequence of hLFcin providing 9-11 amino acids stretched derivatives LF11-316, -318 and -322 only yielded low antitumor activity. However, the addition of the repeat (di-peptide) and the retro-repeat (di-retro-peptide) sequences highly improved cancer cell toxicity up to 100% at 20 μM peptide concentration. Compared to the complete parent sequence hLFcin the derivatives showed toxicity on the melanoma cell line A375 increased by 10-fold and on the glioblastoma cell line U-87mg by 2-3-fold. Reduced killing velocity, apoptotic blebbing, activation of caspase 3/7 and formation of apoptotic DNA fragments proved that the active and cancer selective peptides, e.g. R-DIM-P-LF11-322, trigger apoptosis, whereas highly active, though non-selective peptides, such as DIM-LF11-318 and RW-AH seem to kill rapidly via necrosis inducing membrane lyses. Structural studies revealed specific toxicity on cancer cells by peptide derivatives with loop structures, whereas non-specific peptides comprised α-helical structures without loop. Model studies with the cancer membrane mimic phosphatidylserine (PS) gave strong evidence that PS only exposed by cancer cells is an important target for specific hLFcin derivatives. Other negatively charged membrane exposed molecules as sialic acid, heparan and chondroitin sulfate were shown to have minor impact on peptide activity. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  5. Recognition and Binding of a Helix-Loop-Helix Peptide to Carbonic Anhydrase Occurs via Partly Folded Intermediate Structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lignell, Martin; Becker, Hans-Christian

    2010-01-01

    Abstract We have studied the association of a helix-loop-helix peptide scaffold carrying a benzenesulfonamide ligand to carbonic anhydrase using steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The helix-loop-helix peptide, developed for biosensing applications, is labeled with the fluorescent probe dansyl, which serves as a polarity-sensitive reporter of the binding event. Using maximum entropy analysis of the fluorescence lifetime of dansyl at 1:1 stoichiometry reveals three characteristic fluorescence lifetime groups, interpreted as differently interacting peptide/protein structures. We characterize these peptide/protein complexes as mostly bound but unfolded, bound and partly folded, and strongly bound and folded. Furthermore, analysis of the fluorescence anisotropy decay resulted in three different dansyl rotational correlation times, namely 0.18, 1.2, and 23 ns. Using the amplitudes of these times, we can correlate the lifetime groups with the corresponding fluorescence anisotropy component. The 23-ns rotational correlation time, which appears with the same amplitude as a 17-ns fluorescence lifetime, shows that the dansyl fluorophore follows the rotational diffusion of carbonic anhydrase when it is a part of the folded peptide/protein complex. A partly folded and partly hydrated interfacial structure is manifested in an 8-ns dansyl fluorescence lifetime and a 1.2-ns rotational correlation time. This structure, we believe, is similar to a molten-globule-like interfacial structure, which allows segmental movement and has a higher degree of solvent exposure of dansyl. Indirect excitation of dansyl on the helix-loop-helix peptide through Förster energy transfer from one or several tryptophans in the carbonic anhydrase shows that the helix-loop-helix scaffold binds to a tryptophan-rich domain of the carbonic anhydrase. We conclude that binding of the peptide to carbonic anhydrase involves a transition from a disordered to an ordered structure of the

  6. Prediction of Antimicrobial Peptides Based on Sequence Alignment and Support Vector Machine-Pairwise Algorithm Utilizing LZ-Complexity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xin Yi Ng

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This study concerns an attempt to establish a new method for predicting antimicrobial peptides (AMPs which are important to the immune system. Recently, researchers are interested in designing alternative drugs based on AMPs because they have found that a large number of bacterial strains have become resistant to available antibiotics. However, researchers have encountered obstacles in the AMPs designing process as experiments to extract AMPs from protein sequences are costly and require a long set-up time. Therefore, a computational tool for AMPs prediction is needed to resolve this problem. In this study, an integrated algorithm is newly introduced to predict AMPs by integrating sequence alignment and support vector machine- (SVM- LZ complexity pairwise algorithm. It was observed that, when all sequences in the training set are used, the sensitivity of the proposed algorithm is 95.28% in jackknife test and 87.59% in independent test, while the sensitivity obtained for jackknife test and independent test is 88.74% and 78.70%, respectively, when only the sequences that has less than 70% similarity are used. Applying the proposed algorithm may allow researchers to effectively predict AMPs from unknown protein peptide sequences with higher sensitivity.

  7. Reconciling structural and thermodynamic predictions using all-atom and coarse-grain force fields: the case of charged oligo-arginine translocation into DMPC bilayers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Yuan; Sinha, Sudipta Kumar; Patel, Sandeep

    2014-10-16

    Using the translocation of short, charged cationic oligo-arginine peptides (mono-, di-, and triarginine) from bulk aqueous solution into model DMPC bilayers, we explore the question of the similarity of thermodynamic and structural predictions obtained from molecular dynamics simulations using all-atom and Martini coarse-grain force fields. Specifically, we estimate potentials of mean force associated with translocation using standard all-atom (CHARMM36 lipid) and polarizable and nonpolarizable Martini force fields, as well as a series of modified Martini-based parameter sets. We find that we are able to reproduce qualitative features of potentials of mean force of single amino acid side chain analogues into model bilayers. In particular, modifications of peptide-water and peptide-membrane interactions allow prediction of free energy minima at the bilayer-water interface as obtained with all-atom force fields. In the case of oligo-arginine peptides, the modified parameter sets predict interfacial free energy minima as well as free energy barriers in almost quantitative agreement with all-atom force field based simulations. Interfacial free energy minima predicted by a modified coarse-grained parameter set are -2.51, -4.28, and -5.42 for mono-, di-, and triarginine; corresponding values from all-atom simulations are -0.83, -3.33, and -3.29, respectively, all in units of kcal/mol. We found that a stronger interaction between oligo-arginine and the membrane components and a weaker interaction between oligo-arginine and water are crucial for producing such minima in PMFs using the polarizable CG model. The difference between bulk aqueous and bilayer center states predicted by the modified coarse-grain force field are 11.71, 14.14, and 16.53 kcal/mol, and those by the all-atom model are 6.94, 8.64, and 12.80 kcal/mol; those are of almost the same order of magnitude. Our simulations also demonstrate a remarkable similarity in the structural aspects of the ensemble of

  8. Structural Study of a New HIV-1 Entry Inhibitor and Interaction with the HIV-1 Fusion Peptide in Dodecylphosphocholine Micelles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez, Yolanda; Gómara, Maria José; Yuste, Eloísa; Gómez-Gutierrez, Patricia; Pérez, Juan Jesús; Haro, Isabel

    2017-08-25

    Previous studies support the hypothesis that the envelope GB virus C (GBV-C) E1 protein interferes the HIV-1 entry and that a peptide, derived from the region 139-156 of this protein, has been defined as a novel HIV-1 entry inhibitor. In this work, we firstly focus on the characterization of the structural features of this peptide, which are determinant for its anti-HIV-1 activity and secondly, on the study of its interaction with the proposed viral target (i.e., the HIV-1 fusion peptide). We report the structure of the peptide determined by NMR spectroscopy in dodecylphosphocholine (DPC) micelles solved by using restrained molecular dynamics calculations. The acquisition of different NMR experiments in DPC micelles (i.e., peptide-peptide titration, diffusion NMR spectroscopy, and addition of paramagnetic relaxation agents) allows a proposal of an inhibition mechanism. We conclude that a 18-mer peptide from the non-pathogenic E1 GBV-C protein, with a helix-turn-helix structure inhibits HIV-1 by binding to the HIV-1 fusion peptide at the membrane level, thereby interfering with those domains in the HIV-1, which are critical for stabilizing the six-helix bundle formation in a membranous environment. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  9. Linguistic Structure Prediction

    CERN Document Server

    Smith, Noah A

    2011-01-01

    A major part of natural language processing now depends on the use of text data to build linguistic analyzers. We consider statistical, computational approaches to modeling linguistic structure. We seek to unify across many approaches and many kinds of linguistic structures. Assuming a basic understanding of natural language processing and/or machine learning, we seek to bridge the gap between the two fields. Approaches to decoding (i.e., carrying out linguistic structure prediction) and supervised and unsupervised learning of models that predict discrete structures as outputs are the focus. W

  10. Review: evolution of GnIH and related peptides structure and function in the chordates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osugi, Tomohiro; Ubuka, Takayoshi; Tsutsui, Kazuyoshi

    2014-01-01

    Discovery of gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH) in the Japanese quail in 2000 was the first to demonstrate the existence of a hypothalamic neuropeptide inhibiting gonadotropin release. We now know that GnIH regulates reproduction by inhibiting gonadotropin synthesis and release via action on the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) system and the gonadotrope in various vertebrates. GnIH peptides identified in birds and mammals have a common LPXRF-amide (X = L or Q) motif at the C-terminus and inhibit pituitary gonadotropin secretion. However, the function and structure of GnIH peptides are diverse in fish. Goldfish GnIHs possessing a C-terminal LPXRF-amide motif have both stimulatory and inhibitory effects on gonadotropin synthesis or release. The C-terminal sequence of grass puffer and medaka GnIHs are MPQRF-amide. To investigate the evolutionary origin of GnIH and its ancestral structure and function, we searched for GnIH in agnathans, the most ancient lineage of vertebrates. We identified GnIH precursor gene and mature GnIH peptides with C-terminal QPQRF-amide or RPQRF-amide from the brain of sea lamprey. Lamprey GnIH fibers were in close proximity to GnRH-III neurons. Further, one of lamprey GnIHs stimulated the expression of lamprey GnRH-III peptide in the hypothalamus and gonadotropic hormone β mRNA expression in the pituitary. We further identified the ancestral form of GnIH, which had a C-terminal RPQRF-amide, and its receptors in amphioxus, the most basal chordate species. The amphioxus GnIH inhibited cAMP signaling in vitro. In sum, the original forms of GnIH may date back to the time of the emergence of early chordates. GnIH peptides may have had various C-terminal structures slightly different from LPXRF-amide in basal chordates, which had stimulatory and/or inhibitory functions on reproduction. The C-terminal LPXRF-amide structure and its inhibitory function on reproduction may be selected in later-evolved vertebrates, such as birds and mammals.

  11. From viral genome to specific peptide epitopes: methods for identifying porcine T cell epitopes based on in silico predictions, in vitro identification and ex vivo verification

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Lasse Eggers; Rasmussen, Michael; Harndah, Mikkel

    2013-01-01

    to predict likely candidates for peptide-SLA binding. These results were combined with binding predictions generated by the algorithm, NetMHCpan (http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCpan/) in order to select peptide candidates for in vitro analysis. The correlation between high affinity and high stability.......000 peptides. T cell epitopes were identified using peptide-SLA complexes assembled into fluorescent tetramers to stain swine influenza specific CTLs derived from immunized animals and MHC-defined pigs vaccinated against foot-and-mouth disease virus. These results demonstrate the broad applicability of methods...... originally developed for analysis of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) presentation of peptides. The methods presented provide a timely and cost-effective approach to CTL epitope discovery that can be applied to diseases of swine and of other mammalian species of interest....

  12. Structures of self-assembled amphiphilic peptide-heterodimers: effects of concentration, pH, temperature and ionic strength

    KAUST Repository

    Luo, Zhongli; Å kerman, Bjö rn; Zhang, Shuguang; Nordé n, Bengt

    2010-01-01

    -studies indicate that the NaCl has only a minor effect on the peptide secondary structure we propose that the main role of the added salt is to screen the electrostatic repulsion between the peptide building blocks. According to the AFM images ADG and AKG support a

  13. HIPdb: a database of experimentally validated HIV inhibiting peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qureshi, Abid; Thakur, Nishant; Kumar, Manoj

    2013-01-01

    Besides antiretroviral drugs, peptides have also demonstrated potential to inhibit the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). For example, T20 has been discovered to effectively block the HIV entry and was approved by the FDA as a novel anti-HIV peptide (AHP). We have collated all experimental information on AHPs at a single platform. HIPdb is a manually curated database of experimentally verified HIV inhibiting peptides targeting various steps or proteins involved in the life cycle of HIV e.g. fusion, integration, reverse transcription etc. This database provides experimental information of 981 peptides. These are of varying length obtained from natural as well as synthetic sources and tested on different cell lines. Important fields included are peptide sequence, length, source, target, cell line, inhibition/IC(50), assay and reference. The database provides user friendly browse, search, sort and filter options. It also contains useful services like BLAST and 'Map' for alignment with user provided sequences. In addition, predicted structure and physicochemical properties of the peptides are also included. HIPdb database is freely available at http://crdd.osdd.net/servers/hipdb. Comprehensive information of this database will be helpful in selecting/designing effective anti-HIV peptides. Thus it may prove a useful resource to researchers for peptide based therapeutics development.

  14. The FMRFamide-like peptide family in nematodes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katleen ePeymen

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available In the three decades since the FMRFamide peptide was isolated from the mollusk Macrocallista nimbosa, structurally similar peptides sharing a C-terminal RFamide motif have been identified across the animal kingdom. FMRFamide-like peptides (FLPs represent the largest known family of neuropeptides in invertebrates. In the phylum Nematoda, at least 32 flp genes are classified, making the FLP system of nematodes unusually complex. The diversity of the nematode FLP complement is most extensively mapped in Caenorhabditis elegans, where over 70 FLPs have been predicted. FLPs have shown to be expressed in the majority of the 302 C. elegans neurons including interneurons, sensory and motor neurons. The vast expression of FLPs is reflected in the broad functional repertoire of nematode FLP signaling, including neuroendocrine and neuromodulatory effects on locomotory activity, reproduction, feeding, and behavior. In contrast to the many identified nematode FLPs, only few peptides have been assigned a receptor and there is the need to clarify the pathway components and working mechanisms of the FLP signaling network. Here, we review the diversity, distribution, and functions of FLPs in nematodes.

  15. Tuning peptide amphiphile supramolecular structure for biomedical applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pashuck, Eugene Thomas, III

    The use of biomaterials in regenerative medicine has been an active area of research for more than a decade. Peptide amphiphiles, which are short peptide sequences coupled to alkyl tails, have been studied in the Stupp group since the beginning of the decade and been used for a variety of biomedical applications. Most of the work has focused on the bioactive epitopes places on the periphery of the PA molecules, but the interior amino acids, known as the beta-sheet region, give the PA nanofiber gel much of its mechanical strength. To study the important parameters in the beta-sheet region, six PA molecules were constructed to determine the influence of beta-sheet length and order of the amino acids in the beta-sheet. It was found that having beta-sheet forming amino acids near the center of the fiber improves PA gel stiffness, and that having extra amino acids that have preferences for other secondary structures, like alpha-helix decreased the gels stiffness. Using FTIR and circular dichroism it was found that the mechanical properties are influenced by the amount of twist in the beta-sheet, and PAs that have more twisted beta-sheets form weaker gels. The effect amino acid properties have on peptide amphiphile self-assembly where studied by synthesizining molecules with varying side group size and hydrophobicity. It was found that smaller amino acids lead to stiffer gels and when two amino acids had the same size the amino acid with the larger beta-sheet propensity lead to a stiffer gel. Furthermore, small changes in peptide structure were found to lead to big changes in nanostructure, as leucine and isoleucine, which have the same size but slightly different structures, form flat ribbons and cylindrical nanofibers, respectively. Phenylalanine and alanine were studied more indepth because they represent the effects of adding an aromatic group to amino acids in the beta-sheet regon. These phenylalanine PAs formed short, twisted ribbons when freshly dissolved in water

  16. An HMM posterior decoder for sequence feature prediction that includes homology information

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Käll, Lukas; Krogh, Anders Stærmose; Sonnhammer, Erik L. L.

    2005-01-01

    Motivation: When predicting sequence features like transmembrane topology, signal peptides, coil-coil structures, protein secondary structure or genes, extra support can be gained from homologs. Results: We present here a general hidden Markov model (HMM) decoding algorithm that combines probabil......Motivation: When predicting sequence features like transmembrane topology, signal peptides, coil-coil structures, protein secondary structure or genes, extra support can be gained from homologs. Results: We present here a general hidden Markov model (HMM) decoding algorithm that combines......://phobius.cgb.ki.se/poly.html . An implementation of the algorithm is available on request from the authors....

  17. Quantitative PET Imaging with Novel HER3-Targeted Peptides Selected by Phage Display to Predict Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer Progression

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-12-01

    Independent Prostate Cancer Progression PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Benjamin Larimer, PhD CONTRACTING ORGANIZATION: Massachusetts General Hospital Boston...TYPE Final 3. DATES COVERED 1 Aug 2016 – 19 August 2017 Selected by Phage Display to Predict Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer Progression 5a...highly specific peptide that targets HER3 for prostate cancer imaging. The peptide was labeled with a PET imaging radionuclide and injected into mice

  18. Impact of the antimicrobial peptide Novicidin on membrane structure and integrity

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Søren B; Otzen, Daniel Erik

    2010-01-01

    We have studied the impact of an 18-residue cationic antimicrobial peptide Novicidin (Nc) on the structure and integrity of partially anionic lipid membranes using oriented circular dichroism (OCD), quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D), dual polarization interferometry (DPI......), calcein dye leakage and fluorescence spectroscopy. OCD consistently showed that Nc is bound in an alpha-helical, surface bound state over a range of peptide to lipid (P/L) ratios up to approximately 1:15. Realignment of Nc at higher P/L ratios correlates to loss of membrane integrity as shown by Laurdan...... concentration, probably through formation of transient pores or transient disruption of the membrane integrity, followed by more extensive membrane disintegration at higher P/L ratios....

  19. Solution structure of the human Grb7-SH2 domain/erbB2 peptide complex and structural basis for Grb7 binding to ErbB2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ivancic, Monika; Daly, Roger J.; Lyons, Barbara A.

    2003-01-01

    The solution structure of the hGrb7-SH2 domain in complex with a ten amino acid phosphorylated peptide ligand representative of the erbB2 receptor tyrosine kinase (pY1139) is presented as determined by nuclear magnetic resonance methods. The hGrb7-SH2 domain structure reveals the Src homology 2 domain topology consisting of a central β-sheet capped at each end by an α-helix. The presence of a four residue insertion in the region between β-strand E and the EF loop and resulting influences on the SH2 domain/peptide complex structure are discussed. The binding conformation of the erbB2 peptide is in a β-turn similar to that found in phosphorylated tyrosine peptides bound to the Grb2-SH2 domain. To our knowledge this is only the second example of an SH2 domain binding its naturally occurring ligands in a turn, instead of extended, conformation. Close contacts between residues responsible for binding specificity in hGrb7-SH2 and the erbB2 peptide are characterized and the potential effect of mutation of these residues on the hGrb7-SH2 domain structure is discussed

  20. Systematic Moiety Variations of Ultrashort Peptides Produce Profound Effects on Self-Assembly, Nanostructure Formation, Hydrogelation, and Phase Transition

    KAUST Repository

    Chan, Kiat Hwa

    2017-10-04

    Self-assembly of small biomolecules is a prevalent phenomenon that is increasingly being recognised to hold the key to building complex structures from simple monomeric units. Small peptides, in particular ultrashort peptides containing up to seven amino acids, for which our laboratory has found many biomedical applications, exhibit immense potential in this regard. For next-generation applications, more intricate control is required over the self-assembly processes. We seek to find out how subtle moiety variation of peptides can affect self-assembly and nanostructure formation. To this end, we have selected a library of 54 tripeptides, derived from systematic moiety variations from seven tripeptides. Our study reveals that subtle structural changes in the tripeptides can exert profound effects on self-assembly, nanostructure formation, hydrogelation, and even phase transition of peptide nanostructures. By comparing the X-ray crystal structures of two tripeptides, acetylated leucine-leucine-glutamic acid (Ac-LLE) and acetylated tyrosine-leucine-aspartic acid (Ac-YLD), we obtained valuable insights into the structural factors that can influence the formation of supramolecular peptide structures. We believe that our results have major implications on the understanding of the factors that affect peptide self-assembly. In addition, our findings can potentially assist current computational efforts to predict and design self-assembling peptide systems for diverse biomedical applications.

  1. Prediction of binding free energy for adsorption of antimicrobial peptide lactoferricin B on a POPC membrane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vivcharuk, Victor; Tomberli, Bruno; Tolokh, Igor S.; Gray, C. G.

    2008-03-01

    Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to study the interaction of a zwitterionic palmitoyl-oleoyl-phosphatidylcholine (POPC) bilayer with the cationic antimicrobial peptide bovine lactoferricin (LFCinB) in a 100 mM NaCl solution at 310 K. The interaction of LFCinB with POPC is used as a model system for studying the details of membrane-peptide interactions, with the peptide selected because of its antimicrobial nature. Seventy-two 3 ns MD simulations, with six orientations of LFCinB at 12 different distances from a POPC membrane, are carried out to determine the potential of mean force (PMF) or free energy profile for the peptide as a function of the distance between LFCinB and the membrane surface. To calculate the PMF for this relatively large system a new variant of constrained MD and thermodynamic integration is developed. A simplified method for relating the PMF to the LFCinB-membrane binding free energy is described and used to predict a free energy of adsorption (or binding) of -1.05±0.39kcal/mol , and corresponding maximum binding force of about 20 pN, for LFCinB-POPC. The contributions of the ions-LFCinB and the water-LFCinB interactions to the PMF are discussed. The method developed will be a useful starting point for future work simulating peptides interacting with charged membranes and interactions involved in the penetration of membranes, features necessary to understand in order to rationally design peptides as potential alternatives to traditional antibiotics.

  2. Structural Characterization by NMR of a Double Phosphorylated Chimeric Peptide Vaccine for Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stefan Berger

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Rational design of peptide vaccines becomes important for the treatment of some diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD and related disorders. In this study, as part of a larger effort to explore correlations of structure and activity, we attempt to characterize the doubly phosphorylated chimeric peptide vaccine targeting a hyperphosphorylated epitope of the Tau protein. The 28-mer linear chimeric peptide consists of the double phosphorylated B cell epitope Tau229-237[pThr231/pSer235] and the immunomodulatory T cell epitope Ag85B241-255 originating from the well-known antigen Ag85B of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis, linked by a four amino acid sequence -GPSL-. NMR chemical shift analysis of our construct demonstrated that the synthesized peptide is essentially unfolded with a tendency to form a β-turn due to the linker. In conclusion, the -GPSL- unit presumably connects the two parts of the vaccine without transferring any structural information from one part to the other. Therefore, the double phosphorylated epitope of the Tau peptide is flexible and accessible.

  3. NetMHC-3.0: accurate web accessible predictions of human, mouse and monkey MHC class I affinities for peptides of length 8-11

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lundegaard, Claus; Lamberth, K; Harndahl, M

    2008-01-01

    NetMHC-3.0 is trained on a large number of quantitative peptide data using both affinity data from the Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (IEDB) and elution data from SYFPEITHI. The method generates high-accuracy predictions of major histocompatibility complex (MHC): peptide binding...

  4. Conformation-specific spectroscopy of capped glutamine-containing peptides: role of a single glutamine residue on peptide backbone preferences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walsh, Patrick S; Dean, Jacob C; McBurney, Carl; Kang, Hyuk; Gellman, Samuel H; Zwier, Timothy S

    2016-04-28

    The conformational preferences of a series of short, aromatic-capped, glutamine-containing peptides have been studied under jet-cooled conditions in the gas phase. This work seeks a bottom-up understanding of the role played by glutamine residues in directing peptide structures that lead to neurodegenerative diseases. Resonant ion-dip infrared (RIDIR) spectroscopy is used to record single-conformation infrared spectra in the NH stretch, amide I and amide II regions. Comparison of the experimental spectra with the predictions of calculations carried out at the DFT M05-2X/6-31+G(d) level of theory lead to firm assignments for the H-bonding architectures of a total of eight conformers of four molecules, including three in Z-Gln-OH, one in Z-Gln-NHMe, three in Ac-Gln-NHBn, and one in Ac-Ala-Gln-NHBn. The Gln side chain engages actively in forming H-bonds with nearest-neighbor amide groups, forming C8 H-bonds to the C-terminal side, C9 H-bonds to the N-terminal side, and an amide-stacked geometry, all with an extended (C5) peptide backbone about the Gln residue. The Gln side chain also stabilizes an inverse γ-turn in the peptide backbone by forming a pair of H-bonds that bridge the γ-turn and stabilize it. Finally, the entire conformer population of Ac-Ala-Gln-NHBn is funneled into a single structure that incorporates the peptide backbone in a type I β-turn, stabilized by the Gln side chain forming a C7 H-bond to the central amide group in the β-turn not otherwise involved in a hydrogen bond. This β-turn backbone structure is nearly identical to that observed in a series of X-(AQ)-Y β-turns in the protein data bank, demonstrating that the gas-phase structure is robust to perturbations imposed by the crystalline protein environment.

  5. Membrane-Active Epithelial Keratin 6A Fragments (KAMPs) Are Unique Human Antimicrobial Peptides with a Non-αβ Structure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Judy T. Y.; Wang, Guangshun; Tam, Yu Tong; Tam, Connie

    2016-01-01

    Antibiotic resistance is a pressing global health problem that threatens millions of lives each year. Natural antimicrobial peptides and their synthetic derivatives, including peptoids and peptidomimetics, are promising candidates as novel antibiotics. Recently, the C-terminal glycine-rich fragments of human epithelial keratin 6A were found to have bactericidal and cytoprotective activities. Here, we used an improved 2-dimensional NMR method coupled with a new protocol for structural refinement by low temperature simulated annealing to characterize the solution structure of these kerain-derived antimicrobial peptides (KAMPs). Two specific KAMPs in complex with membrane mimicking sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles displayed amphipathic conformations with only local bends and turns, and a central 10-residue glycine-rich hydrophobic strip that is central to bactericidal activity. To our knowledge, this is the first report of non-αβ structure for human antimicrobial peptides. Direct observation of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by scanning and transmission electron microscopy showed that KAMPs deformed bacterial cell envelopes and induced pore formation. Notably, in competitive binding experiments, KAMPs demonstrated binding affinities to LPS and LTA that did not correlate with their bactericidal activities, suggesting peptide-LPS and peptide-LTA interactions are less important in their mechanisms of action. Moreover, immunoprecipitation of KAMPs-bacterial factor complexes indicated that membrane surface lipoprotein SlyB and intracellular machineries NQR sodium pump and ribosomes are potential molecular targets for the peptides. Results of this study improve our understanding of the bactericidal function of epithelial cytokeratin fragments, and highlight an unexplored class of human antimicrobial peptides, which may serve as non-αβ peptide scaffolds for the design of novel peptide-based antibiotics. PMID:27891122

  6. Membrane-Active Epithelial Keratin 6A Fragments (KAMPs Are Unique Human Antimicrobial Peptides with a Non-αβ Structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Judy Tsz Ying Lee

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Antibiotic resistance is a pressing global health problem that threatens millions of lives each year. Natural antimicrobial peptides and their synthetic derivatives, including peptoids and peptidomimetics, are promising candidates as novel antibiotics. Recently, the C-terminal glycine-rich fragments of human epithelial keratin 6A were found to have bactericidal and cytoprotective activities. Here, we used an improved 2-dimensional NMR method coupled with a new protocol for structural refinement by low temperature simulated annealing to characterize the solution structure of these kerain-derived antimicrobial peptides (KAMPs. Two specific KAMPs in complex with membrane mimicking sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS micelles displayed amphipathic conformations with only local bends and turns, and a central 10-residue glycine-rich hydrophobic strip that is central to bactericidal activity. To our knowledge, this is the first report of non-αβ structure for human antimicrobial peptides. Direct observation of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by scanning and transmission electron microscopy showed that KAMPs deformed bacterial cell envelopes and induced pore formation. Notably, in competitive binding experiments, KAMPs demonstrated binding affinities to LPS and LTA that did not correlate with their bactericidal activities, suggesting peptide-LPS and peptide-LTA interactions are less important in their mechanisms of action. Moreover, immunoprecipitation of KAMPs-bacterial factor complexes indicated that membrane surface lipoprotein SlyB and intracellular machineries NQR sodium pump and ribosomes are potential molecular targets for the peptides. Results of this study improve our understanding of the bactericidal function of epithelial cytokeratin fragments, and highlight an unexplored class of human antimicrobial peptides, which may serve as non-αβ peptide scaffolds for the design of novel peptide-based antibiotics.

  7. SABinder: A Web Service for Predicting Streptavidin-Binding Peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Bifang; Kang, Juanjuan; Ru, Beibei; Ding, Hui; Zhou, Peng; Huang, Jian

    2016-01-01

    Streptavidin is sometimes used as the intended target to screen phage-displayed combinatorial peptide libraries for streptavidin-binding peptides (SBPs). More often in the biopanning system, however, streptavidin is just a commonly used anchoring molecule that can efficiently capture the biotinylated target. In this case, SBPs creeping into the biopanning results are not desired binders but target-unrelated peptides (TUP). Taking them as intended binders may mislead subsequent studies. Therefore, it is important to find if a peptide is likely to be an SBP when streptavidin is either the intended target or just the anchoring molecule. In this paper, we describe an SVM-based ensemble predictor called SABinder. It is the first predictor for SBP. The model was built with the feature of optimized dipeptide composition. It was observed that 89.20% (MCC = 0.78; AUC = 0.93; permutation test, p binders. In either case, it will be helpful and can benefit related scientific community.

  8. Kinetic and structural characterization of amyloid-β peptide hydrolysis by human angiotensin-1-converting enzyme.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larmuth, Kate M; Masuyer, Geoffrey; Douglas, Ross G; Schwager, Sylva L; Acharya, K Ravi; Sturrock, Edward D

    2016-03-01

    Angiotensin-1-converting enzyme (ACE), a zinc metallopeptidase, consists of two homologous catalytic domains (N and C) with different substrate specificities. Here we report kinetic parameters of five different forms of human ACE with various amyloid beta (Aβ) substrates together with high resolution crystal structures of the N-domain in complex with Aβ fragments. For the physiological Aβ(1-16) peptide, a novel ACE cleavage site was found at His14-Gln15. Furthermore, Aβ(1-16) was preferentially cleaved by the individual N-domain; however, the presence of an inactive C-domain in full-length somatic ACE (sACE) greatly reduced enzyme activity and affected apparent selectivity. Two fluorogenic substrates, Aβ(4-10)Q and Aβ(4-10)Y, underwent endoproteolytic cleavage at the Asp7-Ser8 bond with all ACE constructs showing greater catalytic efficiency for Aβ(4-10)Y. Surprisingly, in contrast to Aβ(1-16) and Aβ(4-10)Q, sACE showed positive domain cooperativity and the double C-domain (CC-sACE) construct no cooperativity towards Aβ(4-10)Y. The structures of the Aβ peptide-ACE complexes revealed a common mode of peptide binding for both domains which principally targets the C-terminal P2' position to the S2' pocket and recognizes the main chain of the P1' peptide. It is likely that N-domain selectivity for the amyloid peptide is conferred through the N-domain specific S2' residue Thr358. Additionally, the N-domain can accommodate larger substrates through movement of the N-terminal helices, as suggested by the disorder of the hinge region in the crystal structures. Our findings are important for the design of domain selective inhibitors as the differences in domain selectivity are more pronounced with the truncated domains compared to the more physiological full-length forms. The atomic coordinates and structure factors for N-domain ACE with Aβ peptides 4-10 (5AM8), 10-16 (5AM9), 1-16 (5AMA), 35-42 (5AMB) and (4-10)Y (5AMC) complexes have been deposited in the

  9. Development of Antimicrobial Peptide Prediction Tool for Aquaculture Industries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gautam, Aditi; Sharma, Asuda; Jaiswal, Sarika; Fatma, Samar; Arora, Vasu; Iquebal, M A; Nandi, S; Sundaray, J K; Jayasankar, P; Rai, Anil; Kumar, Dinesh

    2016-09-01

    Microbial diseases in fish, plant, animal and human are rising constantly; thus, discovery of their antidote is imperative. The use of antibiotic in aquaculture further compounds the problem by development of resistance and consequent consumer health risk by bio-magnification. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been highly promising as natural alternative to chemical antibiotics. Though AMPs are molecules of innate immune defense of all advance eukaryotic organisms, fish being heavily dependent on their innate immune defense has been a good source of AMPs with much wider applicability. Machine learning-based prediction method using wet laboratory-validated fish AMP can accelerate the AMP discovery using available fish genomic and proteomic data. Earlier AMP prediction servers are based on multi-phyla/species data, and we report here the world's first AMP prediction server in fishes. It is freely accessible at http://webapp.cabgrid.res.in/fishamp/ . A total of 151 AMPs related to fish collected from various databases and published literature were taken for this study. For model development and prediction, N-terminus residues, C-terminus residues and full sequences were considered. Best models were with kernels polynomial-2, linear and radial basis function with accuracy of 97, 99 and 97 %, respectively. We found that performance of support vector machine-based models is superior to artificial neural network. This in silico approach can drastically reduce the time and cost of AMP discovery. This accelerated discovery of lead AMP molecules having potential wider applications in diverse area like fish and human health as substitute of antibiotics, immunomodulator, antitumor, vaccine adjuvant and inactivator, and also for packaged food can be of much importance for industries.

  10. Exploring biological effects of MoS2 nanosheets on native structures of α-helical peptides

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gu, Zonglin; Li, Weifeng; Hong, Linbi; Zhou, Ruhong

    2016-01-01

    Recent reports of mono- and few-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ), a representative transition metal dichacogenide (TMD), as antibacterial and anticancer agents have shed light on their potential in biomedical applications. To better facilitate these promising applications, one needs to understand the biological effects of these TMDs as well, such as their potential adverse effects on protein structure and function. Here, we sought to understand the interaction of MoS 2 nanosheets with peptides using molecular dynamics simulations and a simple model polyalanine with various lengths (PA n , n = 10, 20, 30, and 40; mainly α − helices). Our results demonstrated that MoS 2 monolayer has an exceptional capability to bind all peptides in a fast and strong manner. The strong attraction from the MoS 2 nanosheet is more than enough to compensate the energy needed to unfold the peptide, regardless of the length, which induces drastic disruptions to the intra-peptide hydrogen bonds and subsequent secondary structures of α − helices. This universal phenomenon may point to the potential nanotoxicity of MoS 2 when used in biological systems. Moreover, these results aligned well with previous findings on the potential cytotoxicity of TMD nanomaterials.

  11. Structure of the antimicrobial beta-hairpin peptide protegrin-1 in a DLPC lipid bilayer investigated by molecular dynamics simulation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Khandelia, Himanshu; Kaznessis, Yiannis N

    2007-01-01

    -550]), and to delineate specific peptide-membrane interactions which are responsible for the peptide's membrane binding properties. A novel, previously unknown, "kick" shaped conformation of the peptide was detected, where a bend at the C-terminal beta-strand of the peptide caused the peptide backbone at residues 16...... different initial orientations of the peptide converged to the same final equilibrium orientation of the peptide relative to the bilayer. The kick-shaped conformation was observed only in one of the two simulations....... of the peptide in a membrane environment (previously solved only in solution [R.L. Fahrner, T. Dieckmann, S.S.L. Harwig, R.I. Lehrer, D. Eisenberg, J. Feigon, Solution structure of protegrin-1, a broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptide from porcine leukocytes. Chemistry and Biology, 3 (1996) 543...

  12. A Hydrogen-Bonded Polar Network in the Core of the Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Is a Fulcrum for Biased Agonism: Lessons from Class B Crystal Structures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wootten, Denise; Reynolds, Christopher A; Koole, Cassandra; Smith, Kevin J; Mobarec, Juan C; Simms, John; Quon, Tezz; Coudrat, Thomas; Furness, Sebastian G B; Miller, Laurence J; Christopoulos, Arthur; Sexton, Patrick M

    2016-03-01

    The glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor is a class B G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that is a key target for treatments for type II diabetes and obesity. This receptor, like other class B GPCRs, displays biased agonism, though the physiologic significance of this is yet to be elucidated. Previous work has implicated R2.60(190), N3.43(240), Q7.49(394), and H6.52(363) as key residues involved in peptide-mediated biased agonism, with R2.60(190), N3.43(240), and Q7.49(394) predicted to form a polar interaction network. In this study, we used novel insight gained from recent crystal structures of the transmembrane domains of the glucagon and corticotropin releasing factor 1 (CRF1) receptors to develop improved models of the GLP-1 receptor that predict additional key molecular interactions with these amino acids. We have introduced E6.53(364)A, N3.43(240)Q, Q7.49(394)N, and N3.43(240)Q/Q7.49(394)N mutations to probe the role of predicted H-bonding and charge-charge interactions in driving cAMP, calcium, or extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling. A polar interaction between E6.53(364) and R2.60(190) was predicted to be important for GLP-1- and exendin-4-, but not oxyntomodulin-mediated cAMP formation and also ERK1/2 phosphorylation. In contrast, Q7.49(394), but not R2.60(190)/E6.53(364) was critical for calcium mobilization for all three peptides. Mutation of N3.43(240) and Q7.49(394) had differential effects on individual peptides, providing evidence for molecular differences in activation transition. Collectively, this work expands our understanding of peptide-mediated signaling from the GLP-1 receptor and the key role that the central polar network plays in these events. Copyright © 2016 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

  13. Using 1H and 13C NMR chemical shifts to determine cyclic peptide conformations: a combined molecular dynamics and quantum mechanics approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, Q Nhu N; Schwochert, Joshua; Tantillo, Dean J; Lokey, R Scott

    2018-05-10

    Solving conformations of cyclic peptides can provide insight into structure-activity and structure-property relationships, which can help in the design of compounds with improved bioactivity and/or ADME characteristics. The most common approaches for determining the structures of cyclic peptides are based on NMR-derived distance restraints obtained from NOESY or ROESY cross-peak intensities, and 3J-based dihedral restraints using the Karplus relationship. Unfortunately, these observables are often too weak, sparse, or degenerate to provide unequivocal, high-confidence solution structures, prompting us to investigate an alternative approach that relies only on 1H and 13C chemical shifts as experimental observables. This method, which we call conformational analysis from NMR and density-functional prediction of low-energy ensembles (CANDLE), uses molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to generate conformer families and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to predict their 1H and 13C chemical shifts. Iterative conformer searches and DFT energy calculations on a cyclic peptide-peptoid hybrid yielded Boltzmann ensembles whose predicted chemical shifts matched the experimental values better than any single conformer. For these compounds, CANDLE outperformed the classic NOE- and 3J-coupling-based approach by disambiguating similar β-turn types and also enabled the structural elucidation of the minor conformer. Through the use of chemical shifts, in conjunction with DFT and MD calculations, CANDLE can help illuminate conformational ensembles of cyclic peptides in solution.

  14. Neural Networks for protein Structure Prediction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bohr, Henrik

    1998-01-01

    This is a review about neural network applications in bioinformatics. Especially the applications to protein structure prediction, e.g. prediction of secondary structures, prediction of surface structure, fold class recognition and prediction of the 3-dimensional structure of protein backbones...

  15. Outcome prediction in pneumonia induced ALI/ARDS by clinical features and peptide patterns of BALF determined by mass spectrometry.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jochen Frenzel

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Peptide patterns of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF were assumed to reflect the complex pathology of acute lung injury (ALI/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS better than clinical and inflammatory parameters and may be superior for outcome prediction. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A training group of patients suffering from ALI/ARDS was compiled from equal numbers of survivors and nonsurvivors. Clinical history, ventilation parameters, Murray's lung injury severity score (Murray's LISS and interleukins in BALF were gathered. In addition, samples of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were analyzed by means of hydrophobic chromatography and MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF MS. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC analysis for each clinical and cytokine parameter revealed interleukin-6>interleukin-8>diabetes mellitus>Murray's LISS as the best outcome predictors. Outcome predicted on the basis of BALF levels of interleukin-6 resulted in 79.4% accuracy, 82.7% sensitivity and 76.1% specificity (area under the ROC curve, AUC, 0.853. Both clinical parameters and cytokines as well as peptide patterns determined by MALDI-ToF MS were analyzed by classification and regression tree (CART analysis and support vector machine (SVM algorithms. CART analysis including Murray's LISS, interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 in combination was correct in 78.0%. MALDI-ToF MS of BALF peptides did not reveal a single identifiable biomarker for ARDS. However, classification of patients was successfully achieved based on the entire peptide pattern analyzed using SVM. This method resulted in 90% accuracy, 93.3% sensitivity and 86.7% specificity following a 10-fold cross validation (AUC = 0.953. Subsequent validation of the optimized SVM algorithm with a test group of patients with unknown prognosis yielded 87.5% accuracy, 83.3% sensitivity and 90.0% specificity. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: MALDI-ToF MS peptide patterns of BALF, evaluated by appropriate

  16. Crystal structure of the ligand-bound glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor extracellular domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Runge, Steffen; Thøgersen, Henning; Madsen, Kjeld; Lau, Jesper; Rudolph, Rainer

    2008-04-25

    The glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) belongs to Family B1 of the seven-transmembrane G protein-coupled receptors, and its natural agonist ligand is the peptide hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). GLP-1 is involved in glucose homeostasis, and activation of GLP-1R in the plasma membrane of pancreatic beta-cells potentiates glucose-dependent insulin secretion. The N-terminal extracellular domain (nGLP-1R) is an important ligand binding domain that binds GLP-1 and the homologous peptide Exendin-4 with differential affinity. Exendin-4 has a C-terminal extension of nine amino acid residues known as the "Trp cage", which is absent in GLP-1. The Trp cage was believed to interact with nGLP-1R and thereby explain the superior affinity of Exendin-4. However, the molecular details that govern ligand binding and specificity of nGLP-1R remain undefined. Here we report the crystal structure of human nGLP-1R in complex with the antagonist Exendin-4(9-39) solved by the multiwavelength anomalous dispersion method to 2.2A resolution. The structure reveals that Exendin-4(9-39) is an amphipathic alpha-helix forming both hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions with nGLP-1R. The Trp cage of Exendin-4 is not involved in binding to nGLP-1R. The hydrophobic binding site of nGLP-1R is defined by discontinuous segments including primarily a well defined alpha-helix in the N terminus of nGLP-1R and a loop between two antiparallel beta-strands. The structure provides for the first time detailed molecular insight into ligand binding of the human GLP-1 receptor, an established target for treatment of type 2 diabetes.

  17. Functional and structural characterization of recombinant dermcidin-1L, a human antimicrobial peptide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lai Yuping; Peng Yifei; Zuo Yi; Li Jun; Huang Jing; Wang Linfa; Wu Zirong

    2005-01-01

    Antimicrobial peptides from human skin are an important component of the innate immune response and play a key role as a first line of defense against infections. One such peptide is the recently discovered dermcidin-1L. To better understand its mechanism and to further investigate its antimicrobial spectrum, recombinant dermcidin-1L was expressed in Escherichia coli as a fusion protein and purified by affinity chromatography. The fusion protein was cleaved by factor Xa protease to produce recombinant dermcidin-1L. Antimicrobial and hemolytic assays demonstrated that dermcidin-1L displayed microbicidal activity against several opportunistic nosocomial pathogens, but no hemolytic activity against human erythrocytes even at concentrations up to 100 μM. Structural studies performed by circular dichroism spectroscopy indicated that the secondary structure of dermcidin-1L was very flexible, and both α-helix and β-sheet structures might be required for the antimicrobial activity. Our results confirmed previous findings indicating that dermcidin-1L could have promising therapeutic potentials and shed new light on the structure-function relationship of dermcidin-1L

  18. Crystal structure of importin-{alpha} complexed with a classic nuclear localization sequence obtained by oriented peptide library screening

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Takeda, A.A.S.; Fontes, M.R.M. [UNESP, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Botucatu, SP (Brazil); Yang, S.N.Y. [University of Melbourne, Melbourne (Australia); Harris, J.M. [Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane (Australia); Jans, D.A. [Monash University, Clayton (Australia); Kobe, B. [University of Queensland, Brisbane, QU (Australia)

    2012-07-01

    Full text: Importin-{alpha} (Imp{alpha}) plays a role in the classical nuclear import pathway, binding to cargo proteins with activities in the nucleus. Different Imp{alpha} paralogs responsible for specific cargos can be found in a single organism. The cargos contain nuclear localization sequences (NLSs), which are characterized by one or two clusters of basic amino acids (monopartite and bipartite NLSs, respectively). In this work we present the crystal structure of Imp{alpha} from M. musculus (residues 70-529, lacking the auto inhibitory domain) bound to a NLS peptide (pepTM). The peptide corresponds to the optimal sequence obtained by an oriented peptide library experiment designed to probe the specificity of the major NLS binding site. The peptide library used five degenerate positions and identified the sequence KKKRR as the optimal sequence for binding to this site for mouse Imp{alpha} (70-529). The protein was obtained using an E. coli expression system and purified by affinity chromatography followed by an ion exchange chromatography. A single crystal of Imp{alpha} -pepTM complex was grown by the hanging drop method. The data were collected using the Synchrotron Radiation Source LNLS, Brazil and processed to 2.3. Molecular replacement techniques were used to determine the crystal structure. Electron density corresponding to the peptide was present in both major and minor binding sites The peptide is bound to Imp{alpha} similar as the simian virus 40 (SV40) large tumour (T)-antigen NLS. Binding assays confirmed that the peptide bound to Imp{alpha} with low nM affinities. This is the first time that structural information has been linked to an oriented peptide library screening approach for importin-{alpha}; the results will contribute to understanding of the sequence determinants of classical NLSs, and may help identify as yet unidentified classical NLSs in novel proteins. (author)

  19. The utility and limitations of current web-available algorithms to predict peptides recognized by CD4 T cells in response to pathogen infection #

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaves, Francisco A.; Lee, Alvin H.; Nayak, Jennifer; Richards, Katherine A.; Sant, Andrea J.

    2012-01-01

    The ability to track CD4 T cells elicited in response to pathogen infection or vaccination is critical because of the role these cells play in protective immunity. Coupled with advances in genome sequencing of pathogenic organisms, there is considerable appeal for implementation of computer-based algorithms to predict peptides that bind to the class II molecules, forming the complex recognized by CD4 T cells. Despite recent progress in this area, there is a paucity of data regarding their success in identifying actual pathogen-derived epitopes. In this study, we sought to rigorously evaluate the performance of multiple web-available algorithms by comparing their predictions and our results using purely empirical methods for epitope discovery in influenza that utilized overlapping peptides and cytokine Elispots, for three independent class II molecules. We analyzed the data in different ways, trying to anticipate how an investigator might use these computational tools for epitope discovery. We come to the conclusion that currently available algorithms can indeed facilitate epitope discovery, but all shared a high degree of false positive and false negative predictions. Therefore, efficiencies were low. We also found dramatic disparities among algorithms and between predicted IC50 values and true dissociation rates of peptide:MHC class II complexes. We suggest that improved success of predictive algorithms will depend less on changes in computational methods or increased data sets and more on changes in parameters used to “train” the algorithms that factor in elements of T cell repertoire and peptide acquisition by class II molecules. PMID:22467652

  20. [Plant signaling peptides. Cysteine-rich peptides].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ostrowski, Maciej; Kowalczyk, Stanisław

    2015-01-01

    Recent bioinformatic and genetic analyses of several model plant genomes have revealed the existence of a highly abundant group of signaling peptides that are defined as cysteine-rich peptides (CRPs). CRPs are usually in size between 50 and 90 amino acid residues, they are positively charged, and they contain 4-16 cysteine residues that are important for the correct conformational folding. Despite the structural differences among CRP classes, members from each class have striking similarities in their molecular properties and function. The present review presents the recent progress in research on signaling peptides from several families including: EPF/EPFL, SP11/SCR, PrsS, RALF, LURE, and some other peptides belonging to CRP group. There is convincing evidence indicating multiple roles for these CRPs as signaling molecules during the plant life cycle, ranging from stomata development and patterning, self-incompatibility, pollen tube growth and guidance, reproductive processes, and nodule formation.

  1. The determinants of bond angle variability in protein/peptide backbones: A comprehensive statistical/quantum mechanics analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Improta, Roberto; Vitagliano, Luigi; Esposito, Luciana

    2015-11-01

    The elucidation of the mutual influence between peptide bond geometry and local conformation has important implications for protein structure refinement, validation, and prediction. To gain insights into the structural determinants and the energetic contributions associated with protein/peptide backbone plasticity, we here report an extensive analysis of the variability of the peptide bond angles by combining statistical analyses of protein structures and quantum mechanics calculations on small model peptide systems. Our analyses demonstrate that all the backbone bond angles strongly depend on the peptide conformation and unveil the existence of regular trends as function of ψ and/or φ. The excellent agreement of the quantum mechanics calculations with the statistical surveys of protein structures validates the computational scheme here employed and demonstrates that the valence geometry of protein/peptide backbone is primarily dictated by local interactions. Notably, for the first time we show that the position of the H(α) hydrogen atom, which is an important parameter in NMR structural studies, is also dependent on the local conformation. Most of the trends observed may be satisfactorily explained by invoking steric repulsive interactions; in some specific cases the valence bond variability is also influenced by hydrogen-bond like interactions. Moreover, we can provide a reliable estimate of the energies involved in the interplay between geometry and conformations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Identifying Residual Structure in Intrinsically Disordered Systems : A 2D IR Spectroscopic Study of the GVGXPGVG Peptide

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lessing, Joshua; Roy, Santanu; Reppert, Mike; Baer, Marcel; Marx, Dominik; Jansen, Thomas La Cour; Knoester, Jasper; Tokmakoff, Andrei

    2012-01-01

    The peptide amide-I vibration of a proline turn encodes information on the turn structure. In this study, FTIR, two-dimensional IR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations were employed to characterize the varying turn conformations that exist in the GVGX(L)PGVG family of disordered peptides.

  3. Identifying residual structure in intrinsically disordered systems: a 2D IR spectroscopic study of the GVGXPGVG peptide.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lessing, J.; Roy, S.; Reppert, M.; Baer, M.; Marx, D.; Jansen, T.L.Th.A.; Knoester, J.; Tokmakoff, A.

    2012-01-01

    The peptide amide-I vibration of a proline turn encodes information on the turn structure. In this study, FTIR, two-dimensional IR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations were employed to characterize the varying turn conformations that exist in the GVGX(L)PGVG family of disordered peptides.

  4. Structure and further fragmentation of significant [a3 + Na - H]+ ions from sodium-cationized peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Huixin; Wang, Bing; Wei, Zhonglin; Zhang, Hao; Guo, Xinhua

    2015-01-01

    A good understanding of gas-phase fragmentation chemistry of peptides is important for accurate protein identification. Additional product ions obtained by sodiated peptides can provide useful sequence information supplementary to protonated peptides and improve protein identification. In this work, we first demonstrate that the sodiated a3 ions are abundant in the tandem mass spectra of sodium-cationized peptides although observations of a3 ions have rarely been reported in protonated peptides. Quantum chemical calculations combined with tandem mass spectrometry are used to investigate this phenomenon by using a model tetrapeptide GGAG. Our results reveal that the most stable [a3 + Na - H](+) ion is present as a bidentate linear structure in which the sodium cation coordinates to the two backbone carbonyl oxygen atoms. Due to structural inflexibility, further fragmentation of the [a3 + Na - H](+) ion needs to overcome several relatively high energetic barriers to form [b2 + Na - H](+) ion with a diketopiperazine structure. As a result, low abundance of [b2 + Na - H](+) ion is detected at relatively high collision energy. In addition, our computational data also indicate that the common oxazolone pathway to generate [b2 + Na - H](+) from the [a3 + Na - H](+) ion is unlikely. The present work provides a mechanistic insight into how a sodium ion affects the fragmentation behaviors of peptides. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  5. Computer-Aided Design of Antimicrobial Peptides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fjell, Christopher D.; Hancock, Robert E.W.; Jenssen, Håvard

    2010-01-01

    in antimicrobial activity. Consequently, the majority of peptides put into clinical trials have failed at some point, underlining the importance of a thorough peptide optimization. An important tool in peptide design and optimization is quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis, correlating...... chemical parameters with biological activities of the peptide, using statistical methods. In this review we will discuss two different in silico strategies of computer-aided antibacterial peptide design, a linear correlation model build as an extension of traditional principal component analysis (PCA......) and a non-linear artificial neural network model. Studies on structurally diverse peptides, have concluded that the PCA derived model are able to guide the antibacterial peptide design in a meaningful way, however requiring rather a high homology between the peptides in the test-set and the in silico...

  6. NMR structure of the Arctic mutation of the Alzheimer's Aβ(1-40) peptide docked to SDS micelles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Usachev, K. S.; Filippov, A. V.; Khairutdinov, B. I.; Antzutkin, O. N.; Klochkov, V. V.

    2014-11-01

    The “Arctic” point mutation of the Alzheimer's amyloid β-peptide is a rare mutation leading to an early onset of Alzheimer's disease. The peptide may interact with neuronal membranes, where it can provide its toxic effects. We used 2D NMR spectroscopy to investigate the conformation of the “Arctic” mutant of Aβ1-40 Alzheimer's amyloid peptide in sodium dodecyl sulfate micelle solutions, which are the type of amphiphilic structures mimicking some properties of biomembranes. The study showed that the Arctic mutant of Aβ1-40 interacts with the surface of SDS micelles mainly through the Leu17-Asn27 310-helical region, while the Ile31-Val40 region is buried in the hydrophobic interior of the micelle. In contrast, wild-type Aβ1-40 interacts with SDS micelles through the Lys16-Asp23 α-helical region and Gly29-Met35. Both the Arctic mutant and the wild-type Aβ1-40 peptides interactions with SDS micelles are hydrophobic in nature. Aβ peptides are thought to be capable of forming pores in biomembranes that can cause changes in neuronal and endothelial cell membrane permeability. It has also been shown that Aβ peptides containing the “Arctic” mutation are more neurotoxic and aggregate more readily than the wild-type Aβ peptides at physiological conditions. Here, we propose that the extension of the helical structure of Leu17-Asn27 and a high aliphaticity (neutrality) of the C-terminal region in the Arctic Aβ peptides are consistent with the idea that formation of ion-permeable pores by Aβ oligomers may be one of prevailing mechanisms of a larger neuronal toxicity of the Arctic Aβ compared to the wild-type Aβ peptides, independent of oxidative damage and lipid peroxidation.

  7. NetH2pan: A Computational Tool to Guide MHC peptide prediction on Murine Tumors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    DeVette, Christa I; Andreatta, Massimo; Bardet, Wilfried

    2018-01-01

    With the advancement of personalized cancer immunotherapies, new tools are needed to identify tumor antigens and evaluate T-cell responses in model systems, specifically those that exhibit clinically relevant tumor progression. Key transgenic mouse models of breast cancer are generated and mainta......With the advancement of personalized cancer immunotherapies, new tools are needed to identify tumor antigens and evaluate T-cell responses in model systems, specifically those that exhibit clinically relevant tumor progression. Key transgenic mouse models of breast cancer are generated...... for evaluating antigen specificity in the murine FVB strain. Our study provides the first detailed molecular and immunoproteomic characterization of the FVB H-2q MHC Class I alleles, including >8500 unique peptide ligands, a multi-allele murine MHC peptide prediction tool, and in vivo validation of these data...

  8. Structural basis for phosphopantetheinyl carrier domain interactions in the terminal module of nonribosomal peptide synthetases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Ye; Zheng, Tengfei; Bruner, Steven D.

    2011-01-01

    Summary Phosphopantetheine-modified carrier domains play a central role in the template-directed, biosynthesis of several classes of primary and secondary metabolites. Fatty acids, polyketides and nonribosomal peptides are constructed on multidomain enzyme assemblies using phosphopantetheinyl thioester-linked carrier domains to traffic and activate building blocks. The carrier domain is a dynamic component of the process, shuttling pathway intermediates to sequential enzyme active sites. Here we report an approach to structurally fix carrier domain/enzyme constructs suitable for X-ray crystallographic analysis. The structure of a two-domain construct of E. coli EntF was determined with a conjugated phosphopantetheinyl-based inhibitor. The didomain structure is locked in an active orientation relevant to the chemistry of nonribosomal peptide biosynthesis. This structure provides details into the interaction of phosphopantetheine arm with the carrier domain and the active site of the thioesterase domain. PMID:22118682

  9. Interplay between Peptide Bond Geometrical Parameters in Nonglobular Structural Contexts

    OpenAIRE

    Esposito, Luciana; Balasco, Nicole; De Simone, Alfonso; Berisio, Rita; Vitagliano, Luigi

    2013-01-01

    Several investigations performed in the last two decades have unveiled that geometrical parameters of protein backbone show a remarkable variability. Although these studies have provided interesting insights into one of the basic aspects of protein structure, they have been conducted on globular and water-soluble proteins. We report here a detailed analysis of backbone geometrical parameters in nonglobular proteins/peptides. We considered membrane proteins and two distinct fibrous systems (am...

  10. Investigation of Self-assembly Structure and Properties of a Novel Designed Lego-type Peptide with Double Amphiphilic Surfaces

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Liang [Sichuan University, Sichuan (China); Zhao, Xiao Jun [Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (United States)

    2010-12-15

    A typically designed 'Peptide Lego' has two distinct surfaces: a hydrophilic side that contains the complete charge distribution and a hydrophobic side. In this article, we describe the fabrication of a unique lego-type peptide with the AEAEYAKAK sequence. The novel peptide with double amphiphilic surfaces is different from typical peptides due to special arrangement of the residues. The results of CD, FT-IR, AFM and DLS demonstrate that the peptide with the random coil characteristic was able to form stable nanostructures that were mediated by non-covalent interactions in an aqueous solution. The data further indicated that despite its different structure, the peptide was able to undergo self-assembly similar to a typical peptide. In addition, the use of hydrophobic pyrene as a model allowed the peptide to provide a new type of potential nanomaterial for drug delivery. These efforts collectively open up a new direction in the fabrication of nanomaterials that are more perfect and versatile.

  11. Investigation of Self-assembly Structure and Properties of a Novel Designed Lego-type Peptide with Double Amphiphilic Surfaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Liang; Zhao, Xiao Jun

    2010-01-01

    A typically designed 'Peptide Lego' has two distinct surfaces: a hydrophilic side that contains the complete charge distribution and a hydrophobic side. In this article, we describe the fabrication of a unique lego-type peptide with the AEAEYAKAK sequence. The novel peptide with double amphiphilic surfaces is different from typical peptides due to special arrangement of the residues. The results of CD, FT-IR, AFM and DLS demonstrate that the peptide with the random coil characteristic was able to form stable nanostructures that were mediated by non-covalent interactions in an aqueous solution. The data further indicated that despite its different structure, the peptide was able to undergo self-assembly similar to a typical peptide. In addition, the use of hydrophobic pyrene as a model allowed the peptide to provide a new type of potential nanomaterial for drug delivery. These efforts collectively open up a new direction in the fabrication of nanomaterials that are more perfect and versatile

  12. Designing Antibacterial Peptides with Enhanced Killing Kinetics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Faiza H. Waghu

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs are gaining attention as substitutes for antibiotics in order to combat the risk posed by multi-drug resistant pathogens. Several research groups are engaged in design of potent anti-infective agents using natural AMPs as templates. In this study, a library of peptides with high sequence similarity to Myeloid Antimicrobial Peptide (MAP family were screened using popular online prediction algorithms. These peptide variants were designed in a manner to retain the conserved residues within the MAP family. The prediction algorithms were found to effectively classify peptides based on their antimicrobial nature. In order to improve the activity of the identified peptides, molecular dynamics (MD simulations, using bilayer and micellar systems could be used to design and predict effect of residue substitution on membranes of microbial and mammalian cells. The inference from MD simulation studies well corroborated with the wet-lab observations indicating that MD-guided rational design could lead to discovery of potent AMPs. The effect of the residue substitution on membrane activity was studied in greater detail using killing kinetic analysis. Killing kinetics studies on Gram-positive, negative and human erythrocytes indicated that a single residue change has a drastic effect on the potency of AMPs. An interesting outcome was a switch from monophasic to biphasic death rate constant of Staphylococcus aureus due to a single residue mutation in the peptide.

  13. Molecular structure and diversity of PBAN/Pyrokinin family peptides in ants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Man-Yeon eChoi

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available Neuropeptides are the largest group of insect hormones. They are produced in the central and peripheral nervous systems and affect insect development, reproduction, feeding and behavior. A variety of neuropeptide families have been identified in insects. One of these families is the PBAN/pyrokinin family defined by a common FXPRLamide or similar amino acid fragment at the C-terminal end. These peptides, found in all insects studied thus far, have been conserved throughout evolution. The most well studied physiological function is regulation of moth sex pheromone biosynthesis through the Pheromone Biosynthesis Activating Neurohormone (PBAN, although several developmental functions have also been reported. Over the past years we have extended knowledge of the PBAN/pyrokinin family of peptides to ants, focusing mainly on the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. The fire ant is one of the most studied social insects and over the last 60 years a great deal has been learned about many aspects of this ant, including the behaviors and chemistry of pheromone communication. However, virtually nothing is known about the regulation of these pheromone systems. Recently, we demonstrated the presence of PBAN/pyrokinin immunoreactive neurons in the fire ant, and identified and characterized PBAN and additional neuropeptides. We have mapped the fire ant PBAN gene structure and determined the tissue expression level in the central nervous system of the ant. We review here our research to date on the molecular structure and diversity of ant PBAN/pyrokinin peptides in preparation for determining the function of the neuropeptides in ants and other social insects.

  14. Three-residue turns in alpha/beta-peptides and their application in the design of tertiary structures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Gangavaram V M; Nagendar, Pendem; Ramakrishna, Kallaganti V S; Chandramouli, Nagula; Choudhary, Madavi; Kunwar, Ajit C

    2008-06-02

    A new three-residue turn was serendipitously discovered in alpha/beta hybrid peptides derived from alternating C-linked carbo-beta-amino acids (beta-Caa) and L-Ala residues. The three-residue beta-alpha-beta turn at the C termini, nucleated by a helix at the N termini, resulted in helix-turn (HT) supersecondary structures in these peptides. The turn in the HT motif is stabilized by two H bonds-CO(i-2)-NH(i), with a seven-membered pseudoring (gamma turn) in the backward direction, and NH(i-2)-CO(i), with a 13-membered pseudoring in the forward direction (i being the last residue)--at the C termini. The study was extended to generalize the new three-residue turn (beta-alpha-beta) by using different alpha- and beta-amino acids. Furthermore, the HT motifs were efficiently converted, by an extension with helical oligomers at the C termini, into peptides with novel helix-turn-helix (HTH) tertiary structures. However, this resulted in the destabilization of the beta-alpha-beta turn with the concomitant nucleation of another three-residue turn, alpha-beta-beta, which is stabilized by 11- and 15-membered bifurcated H bonds. Extensive NMR spectroscopic studies were carried out to delineate the secondary and tertiary structures in these peptides, which are further supported by molecular dynamics (MD) investigations.

  15. Structure of the complex between teicoplanin and a bacterial cell-wall peptide: use of a carrier-protein approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Economou, Nicoleta J.; Zentner, Isaac J.; Lazo, Edwin; Jakoncic, Jean; Stojanoff, Vivian; Weeks, Stephen D.; Grasty, Kimberly C.; Cocklin, Simon; Loll, Patrick J.

    2013-01-01

    Using a carrier-protein strategy, the structure of teicoplanin bound to its bacterial cell-wall target has been determined. The structure reveals the molecular determinants of target recognition, flexibility in the antibiotic backbone and intrinsic radiation sensitivity of teicoplanin. Multidrug-resistant bacterial infections are commonly treated with glycopeptide antibiotics such as teicoplanin. This drug inhibits bacterial cell-wall biosynthesis by binding and sequestering a cell-wall precursor: a d-alanine-containing peptide. A carrier-protein strategy was used to crystallize the complex of teicoplanin and its target peptide by fusing the cell-wall peptide to either MBP or ubiquitin via native chemical ligation and subsequently crystallizing the protein–peptide–antibiotic complex. The 2.05 Å resolution MBP–peptide–teicoplanin structure shows that teicoplanin recognizes its ligand through a combination of five hydrogen bonds and multiple van der Waals interactions. Comparison of this teicoplanin structure with that of unliganded teicoplanin reveals a flexibility in the antibiotic peptide backbone that has significant implications for ligand recognition. Diffraction experiments revealed an X-ray-induced dechlorination of the sixth amino acid of the antibiotic; it is shown that teicoplanin is significantly more radiation-sensitive than other similar antibiotics and that ligand binding increases radiosensitivity. Insights derived from this new teicoplanin structure may contribute to the development of next-generation antibacterials designed to overcome bacterial resistance

  16. Solution structures of the linear leaderless bacteriocins enterocin 7A and 7B resemble carnocyclin A, a circular antimicrobial peptide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lohans, Christopher T; Towle, Kaitlyn M; Miskolzie, Mark; McKay, Ryan T; van Belkum, Marco J; McMullen, Lynn M; Vederas, John C

    2013-06-11

    Leaderless bacteriocins are a class of ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial peptides that are produced by certain Gram-positive bacteria without an N-terminal leader section. These bacteriocins are of great interest due to their potent inhibition of many Gram-positive organisms, including food-borne pathogens such as Listeria and Clostridium spp. We now report the NMR solution structures of enterocins 7A and 7B, leaderless bacteriocins recently isolated from Enterococcus faecalis 710C. These are the first three-dimensional structures to be reported for bacteriocins of this class. Unlike most other linear Gram-positive bacteriocins, enterocins 7A and 7B are highly structured in aqueous conditions. Both peptides are primarily α-helical, adopting a similar overall fold. The structures can be divided into three separate α-helical regions: the N- and C-termini are both α-helical, separated by a central kinked α-helix. The overall structures bear an unexpected resemblance to carnocyclin A, a 60-residue peptide that is cyclized via an amide bond between the C- and N-termini and has a saposin fold. Because of synergism observed for other two-peptide leaderless bacteriocins, it was of interest to probe possible binding interactions between enterocins 7A and 7B. However, despite synergistic activity observed between these peptides, no significant binding interaction was observed based on NMR and isothermal calorimetry.

  17. Solution Structure of LXXLL-related Cofactor Peptide of Orphan Nuclear Receptor FTZ-F1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yun, Ji Hye; Lee, Chul Jin; Jung, Jin Won; Lee, Weon Tae

    2012-01-01

    Functional interaction between Drosophila orphan receptor FTZ-F1 (NR5A3) and a segmentation gene product fushi tarazu (FTZ) is crucial for regulating genes related to define the identities of alternate segmental regions in the Drosophila embryo. FTZ binding to the ligand-binding domain (LBD) of FTZ-F1 is of essence in activating its transcription process. We determined solution structures of the cofactor peptide (FTZ PEP ) derived from FTZ by NMR spectroscopy. The cofactor peptide showed a nascent helical conformation in aqueous solution, however, the helicity was increased in the presence of TFE. Furthermore, FTZ PEP formed α- helical conformation upon FTZ-F1 binding, which provides a receptor bound structure of FTZ PEP . The solution structure of FTZ PEP in the presence of FTZ-F1 displays a long stretch of the α-helix with a bend in the middle of helix

  18. Solution Structure of LXXLL-related Cofactor Peptide of Orphan Nuclear Receptor FTZ-F1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yun, Ji Hye; Lee, Chul Jin; Jung, Jin Won; Lee, Weon Tae [Yonsei University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2012-02-15

    Functional interaction between Drosophila orphan receptor FTZ-F1 (NR5A3) and a segmentation gene product fushi tarazu (FTZ) is crucial for regulating genes related to define the identities of alternate segmental regions in the Drosophila embryo. FTZ binding to the ligand-binding domain (LBD) of FTZ-F1 is of essence in activating its transcription process. We determined solution structures of the cofactor peptide (FTZ{sup PEP}) derived from FTZ by NMR spectroscopy. The cofactor peptide showed a nascent helical conformation in aqueous solution, however, the helicity was increased in the presence of TFE. Furthermore, FTZ{sup PEP} formed α- helical conformation upon FTZ-F1 binding, which provides a receptor bound structure of FTZ{sup PEP}. The solution structure of FTZ{sup PEP} in the presence of FTZ-F1 displays a long stretch of the α-helix with a bend in the middle of helix.

  19. Structural Basis for Degenerate Recognition of Natural HIV Peptide Variants by Cytotoxic Lymphocytes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martinez-Hackert, E.; Anikeeva, N.; Kalams, S.; Walker, B.; Hendrickson, W.; Sykulev, Y.

    2006-01-01

    It is well established that even small changes in amino acid side chains of antigenic peptide bound to MHC protein may completely abrogate recognition of the peptide-MHC (pMHC) complex by the T-cell receptor (TCR). Often, however, several non-conservative substitutions in the peptide antigen are accommodated and do not impair its recognition by TCR. For example, a preponderance of natural sequence variants of the HIV p17 Gag-derived peptide SLYNTVATL (SL9) are recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), which implies that interactions with SL9 variants are degenerate both with respect to the class I MHC molecule and with respect to TCR. Here we study the molecular basis for this degenerate recognition of SL9 variants. We show that several SL9 variants bind comparably well to soluble HLA-A2 and to a particular soluble TCR and that these variants are active in the cognate cytotoxicity assay. Natural SL9 variation is restricted by its context in the HIV p17 matrix protein, and we have used synthetic variants to explore the wider spectrum of recognition. High-resolution crystal structures of seven selected SL9 variants bound to HLA-A2 all have remarkably similar peptide conformations and side-chain dispositions outside sites of substitution. This preservation of the peptide conformation despite epitope variations suggests a mechanism for the observed degeneracy in pMHC recognition by TCR, and may contribute to the persistence of SL9-mediated immune responses in chronically infected individuals

  20. Prediction of molecular crystal structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Beyer, Theresa

    2001-01-01

    The ab initio prediction of molecular crystal structures is a scientific challenge. Reliability of first-principle prediction calculations would show a fundamental understanding of crystallisation. Crystal structure prediction is also of considerable practical importance as different crystalline arrangements of the same molecule in the solid state (polymorphs)are likely to have different physical properties. A method of crystal structure prediction based on lattice energy minimisation has been developed in this work. The choice of the intermolecular potential and of the molecular model is crucial for the results of such studies and both of these criteria have been investigated. An empirical atom-atom repulsion-dispersion potential for carboxylic acids has been derived and applied in a crystal structure prediction study of formic, benzoic and the polymorphic system of tetrolic acid. As many experimental crystal structure determinations at different temperatures are available for the polymorphic system of paracetamol (acetaminophen), the influence of the variations of the molecular model on the crystal structure lattice energy minima, has also been studied. The general problem of prediction methods based on the assumption that the experimental thermodynamically stable polymorph corresponds to the global lattice energy minimum, is that more hypothetical low lattice energy structures are found within a few kJ mol -1 of the global minimum than are likely to be experimentally observed polymorphs. This is illustrated by the results for molecule I, 3-oxabicyclo(3.2.0)hepta-1,4-diene, studied for the first international blindtest for small organic crystal structures organised by the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) in May 1999. To reduce the number of predicted polymorphs, additional factors to thermodynamic criteria have to be considered. Therefore the elastic constants and vapour growth morphologies have been calculated for the lowest lattice energy

  1. Prediction of molecular crystal structures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Beyer, Theresa

    2001-07-01

    The ab initio prediction of molecular crystal structures is a scientific challenge. Reliability of first-principle prediction calculations would show a fundamental understanding of crystallisation. Crystal structure prediction is also of considerable practical importance as different crystalline arrangements of the same molecule in the solid state (polymorphs)are likely to have different physical properties. A method of crystal structure prediction based on lattice energy minimisation has been developed in this work. The choice of the intermolecular potential and of the molecular model is crucial for the results of such studies and both of these criteria have been investigated. An empirical atom-atom repulsion-dispersion potential for carboxylic acids has been derived and applied in a crystal structure prediction study of formic, benzoic and the polymorphic system of tetrolic acid. As many experimental crystal structure determinations at different temperatures are available for the polymorphic system of paracetamol (acetaminophen), the influence of the variations of the molecular model on the crystal structure lattice energy minima, has also been studied. The general problem of prediction methods based on the assumption that the experimental thermodynamically stable polymorph corresponds to the global lattice energy minimum, is that more hypothetical low lattice energy structures are found within a few kJ mol{sup -1} of the global minimum than are likely to be experimentally observed polymorphs. This is illustrated by the results for molecule I, 3-oxabicyclo(3.2.0)hepta-1,4-diene, studied for the first international blindtest for small organic crystal structures organised by the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) in May 1999. To reduce the number of predicted polymorphs, additional factors to thermodynamic criteria have to be considered. Therefore the elastic constants and vapour growth morphologies have been calculated for the lowest lattice energy

  2. A Simple PB/LIE Free Energy Function Accurately Predicts the Peptide Binding Specificity of the Tiam1 PDZ Domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panel, Nicolas; Sun, Young Joo; Fuentes, Ernesto J; Simonson, Thomas

    2017-01-01

    PDZ domains generally bind short amino acid sequences at the C-terminus of target proteins, and short peptides can be used as inhibitors or model ligands. Here, we used experimental binding assays and molecular dynamics simulations to characterize 51 complexes involving the Tiam1 PDZ domain and to test the performance of a semi-empirical free energy function. The free energy function combined a Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) continuum electrostatic term, a van der Waals interaction energy, and a surface area term. Each term was empirically weighted, giving a Linear Interaction Energy or "PB/LIE" free energy. The model yielded a mean unsigned deviation of 0.43 kcal/mol and a Pearson correlation of 0.64 between experimental and computed free energies, which was superior to a Null model that assumes all complexes have the same affinity. Analyses of the models support several experimental observations that indicate the orientation of the α 2 helix is a critical determinant for peptide specificity. The models were also used to predict binding free energies for nine new variants, corresponding to point mutants of the Syndecan1 and Caspr4 peptides. The predictions did not reveal improved binding; however, they suggest that an unnatural amino acid could be used to increase protease resistance and peptide lifetimes in vivo . The overall performance of the model should allow its use in the design of new PDZ ligands in the future.

  3. A Simple PB/LIE Free Energy Function Accurately Predicts the Peptide Binding Specificity of the Tiam1 PDZ Domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolas Panel

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available PDZ domains generally bind short amino acid sequences at the C-terminus of target proteins, and short peptides can be used as inhibitors or model ligands. Here, we used experimental binding assays and molecular dynamics simulations to characterize 51 complexes involving the Tiam1 PDZ domain and to test the performance of a semi-empirical free energy function. The free energy function combined a Poisson-Boltzmann (PB continuum electrostatic term, a van der Waals interaction energy, and a surface area term. Each term was empirically weighted, giving a Linear Interaction Energy or “PB/LIE” free energy. The model yielded a mean unsigned deviation of 0.43 kcal/mol and a Pearson correlation of 0.64 between experimental and computed free energies, which was superior to a Null model that assumes all complexes have the same affinity. Analyses of the models support several experimental observations that indicate the orientation of the α2 helix is a critical determinant for peptide specificity. The models were also used to predict binding free energies for nine new variants, corresponding to point mutants of the Syndecan1 and Caspr4 peptides. The predictions did not reveal improved binding; however, they suggest that an unnatural amino acid could be used to increase protease resistance and peptide lifetimes in vivo. The overall performance of the model should allow its use in the design of new PDZ ligands in the future.

  4. Solution structure of the 45-residue MgATP-binding peptide of adenylate kinase as examined by 2-D NMR, FTIR, and CD spectroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fry, D.C.; Byler, D.M.; Susi, H.; Brown, M.; Kuby, S.A.; Mildvan, A.S.

    1988-01-01

    The structure of a synthetic peptide corresponding to residues 1-45 of rabbit muscle adenylate kinase has been studied in aqueous solution by two-dimensional NMR, FTIR, and CD spectroscopy. This peptide, which binds MgATP and is believed to represent most of the MgATP-binding site of the enzyme, appears to maintain a conformation similar to that of residues 1-45 in the X-ray structure of intact porcine adenylate kinase, with 42% of the residues of the peptide showing NOEs indicative of phi and psi angles corresponding to those found in the protein. The NMR studies suggest that the peptide is composed of two helical regions of residues 4-7 and 23-29, and three stretches of β-strand at residues 8-15, 30-32, and 35-40, yielding an overall secondary structure consisting of 24% α-helix, 38% β-structure, and 38% aperiodic. Although the resolution-enhanced amide I band of the peptide FTIR spectrum is broad and rather featureless, possible due to disorder, it can be fit by using methods developed on well-characterized globular proteins. The CD spectrum is best fit by assuming the presence of at most 13% α-helix in the peptide, 24 +/- 2% β-structure, and 66 +/- 4% aperiodic. The inability of the high-frequency FTIR and CD methods to detect helices in the amount found by NMR may result from the short helical lengths as well as from static and dynamic disorder in the peptide. Upon binding of MgATP, numerous conformation changes in the backbone of the peptide are detected by NMR, with smaller alterations in the overall secondary structure as assess by CD

  5. Dynameomics: Data-driven methods and models for utilizing large-scale protein structure repositories for improving fragment-based loop prediction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rysavy, Steven J; Beck, David AC; Daggett, Valerie

    2014-01-01

    Protein function is intimately linked to protein structure and dynamics yet experimentally determined structures frequently omit regions within a protein due to indeterminate data, which is often due protein dynamics. We propose that atomistic molecular dynamics simulations provide a diverse sampling of biologically relevant structures for these missing segments (and beyond) to improve structural modeling and structure prediction. Here we make use of the Dynameomics data warehouse, which contains simulations of representatives of essentially all known protein folds. We developed novel computational methods to efficiently identify, rank and retrieve small peptide structures, or fragments, from this database. We also created a novel data model to analyze and compare large repositories of structural data, such as contained within the Protein Data Bank and the Dynameomics data warehouse. Our evaluation compares these structural repositories for improving loop predictions and analyzes the utility of our methods and models. Using a standard set of loop structures, containing 510 loops, 30 for each loop length from 4 to 20 residues, we find that the inclusion of Dynameomics structures in fragment-based methods improves the quality of the loop predictions without being dependent on sequence homology. Depending on loop length, ∼25–75% of the best predictions came from the Dynameomics set, resulting in lower main chain root-mean-square deviations for all fragment lengths using the combined fragment library. We also provide specific cases where Dynameomics fragments provide better predictions for NMR loop structures than fragments from crystal structures. Online access to these fragment libraries is available at http://www.dynameomics.org/fragments. PMID:25142412

  6. Dynameomics: data-driven methods and models for utilizing large-scale protein structure repositories for improving fragment-based loop prediction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rysavy, Steven J; Beck, David A C; Daggett, Valerie

    2014-11-01

    Protein function is intimately linked to protein structure and dynamics yet experimentally determined structures frequently omit regions within a protein due to indeterminate data, which is often due protein dynamics. We propose that atomistic molecular dynamics simulations provide a diverse sampling of biologically relevant structures for these missing segments (and beyond) to improve structural modeling and structure prediction. Here we make use of the Dynameomics data warehouse, which contains simulations of representatives of essentially all known protein folds. We developed novel computational methods to efficiently identify, rank and retrieve small peptide structures, or fragments, from this database. We also created a novel data model to analyze and compare large repositories of structural data, such as contained within the Protein Data Bank and the Dynameomics data warehouse. Our evaluation compares these structural repositories for improving loop predictions and analyzes the utility of our methods and models. Using a standard set of loop structures, containing 510 loops, 30 for each loop length from 4 to 20 residues, we find that the inclusion of Dynameomics structures in fragment-based methods improves the quality of the loop predictions without being dependent on sequence homology. Depending on loop length, ∼ 25-75% of the best predictions came from the Dynameomics set, resulting in lower main chain root-mean-square deviations for all fragment lengths using the combined fragment library. We also provide specific cases where Dynameomics fragments provide better predictions for NMR loop structures than fragments from crystal structures. Online access to these fragment libraries is available at http://www.dynameomics.org/fragments. © 2014 The Protein Society.

  7. A neural network method for identification of prokaryotic and eukaryotic signal peptides and prediction of their cleavage sites

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Henrik; Engelbrecht, Jacob; Brunak, Søren

    1997-01-01

    We have developed a new method for the identication of signal peptides and their cleavage sites based on neural networks trained on separate sets of prokaryotic and eukaryotic sequences. The method performs signicantly better than previous prediction schemes, and can easily be applied to genome...

  8. Identification of a new androgen receptor (AR) co-regulator BUD31 and related peptides to suppress wild-type and mutated AR-mediated prostate cancer growth via peptide screening and X-ray structure analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, Cheng-Lung; Liu, Jai-Shin; Wu, Po-Long; Guan, Hong-Hsiang; Chen, Yuh-Ling; Lin, An-Chi; Ting, Huei-Ju; Pang, See-Tong; Yeh, Shauh-Der; Ma, Wen-Lung; Chen, Chung-Jung; Wu, Wen-Guey; Chang, Chawnshang

    2014-12-01

    Treatment with individual anti-androgens is associated with the development of hot-spot mutations in the androgen receptor (AR). Here, we found that anti-androgens-mt-ARs have similar binary structure to the 5α-dihydrotestosterone-wt-AR. Phage display revealed that these ARs bound to similar peptides, including BUD31, containing an Fxx(F/H/L/W/Y)Y motif cluster with Tyr in the +5 position. Structural analyses of the AR-LBD-BUD31 complex revealed formation of an extra hydrogen bond between the Tyr+5 residue of the peptide and the AR. Functional studies showed that BUD31-related peptides suppressed AR transactivation, interrupted AR N-C interaction, and suppressed AR-mediated cell growth. Combination of peptide screening and X-ray structure analysis may serve as a new strategy for developing anti-ARs that simultaneously suppress both wt and mutated AR function. Copyright © 2014 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Membrane interactions of a self-assembling model peptide that mimics the self-association, structure and toxicity of Aβ(1-40)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salay, Luiz C.; Qi, Wei; Keshet, Ben; Tamm, Lukas K.; Fernandez, Erik J.

    2013-01-01

    β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) is a primary protein component of senile plaques in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and plays an important, but not fully understood role in neurotoxicity. Model peptides with the demonstrated ability to mimic the structural and toxicity behavior of Aβ could provide a means to evaluate the contributions to toxicity that are common to self–associating peptides from many disease states. In this work, we have studied the peptide-membrane interactions of a model β-sheet peptide, P11-2 (CH3CO-Gln-Gln-Arg-Phe-Gln-Trp-Gln-Phe-Glu-Gln-Gln-NH2), by fluorescence, infrared spectroscopy, and hydrogen-deuterium exchange. Like Aβ(1-40), the peptide is toxic, and conditions which produce intermediate oligomers show higher toxicity against cells than either monomeric forms or higher aggregates of the peptide. Further, P11-2 also binds to both zwitterionic (POPC) and negatively charged (POPC:POPG) liposomes, acquires a partial β-sheet conformation in presence of lipid, and is protected against deuterium exchange in the presence of lipids. The results show that a simple rationally designed model β-sheet peptide recapitulates many important features of Aβ peptide structure and function, reinforcing the idea that toxicity arises, at least in part, from a common mode of action on membranes that is independent of specific aspects of the amino acid sequence. Further studies of such well-behaved model peptide systems will facilitate the investigation of the general principles that govern the molecular interactions of aggregation-prone disease-associated peptides with cell and/or membrane surfaces. PMID:19393615

  10. Molecular descriptor subset selection in theoretical peptide quantitative structure-retention relationship model development using nature-inspired optimization algorithms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Žuvela, Petar; Liu, J Jay; Macur, Katarzyna; Bączek, Tomasz

    2015-10-06

    In this work, performance of five nature-inspired optimization algorithms, genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), artificial bee colony (ABC), firefly algorithm (FA), and flower pollination algorithm (FPA), was compared in molecular descriptor selection for development of quantitative structure-retention relationship (QSRR) models for 83 peptides that originate from eight model proteins. The matrix with 423 descriptors was used as input, and QSRR models based on selected descriptors were built using partial least squares (PLS), whereas root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) was used as a fitness function for their selection. Three performance criteria, prediction accuracy, computational cost, and the number of selected descriptors, were used to evaluate the developed QSRR models. The results show that all five variable selection methods outperform interval PLS (iPLS), sparse PLS (sPLS), and the full PLS model, whereas GA is superior because of its lowest computational cost and higher accuracy (RMSEP of 5.534%) with a smaller number of variables (nine descriptors). The GA-QSRR model was validated initially through Y-randomization. In addition, it was successfully validated with an external testing set out of 102 peptides originating from Bacillus subtilis proteomes (RMSEP of 22.030%). Its applicability domain was defined, from which it was evident that the developed GA-QSRR exhibited strong robustness. All the sources of the model's error were identified, thus allowing for further application of the developed methodology in proteomics.

  11. Peptide-tagged proteins in aqueous two-phase systems

    OpenAIRE

    Nilsson, Anna

    2002-01-01

    This thesis deals with proteins containing peptide tags for improved partitioning in aqueous two-phase systems. Qualitatively the peptide-tagged protein partitioning could be predicted from peptide data, i.e. partitioning trends found for peptides were also found for the peptide-tagged proteins. However, full effect of the tag as expected from peptide partitioning was not found in the tagged protein. When alkyl-ethylene oxide surfactant was included in a two-polymer system, almost full effect...

  12. Enhancing bioactive peptide release and identification using targeted enzymatic hydrolysis of milk proteins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nongonierma, Alice B; FitzGerald, Richard J

    2018-06-01

    Milk proteins have been extensively studied for their ability to yield a range of bioactive peptides following enzymatic hydrolysis/digestion. However, many hurdles still exist regarding the widespread utilization of milk protein-derived bioactive peptides as health enhancing agents for humans. These mostly arise from the fact that most milk protein-derived bioactive peptides are not highly potent. In addition, they may be degraded during gastrointestinal digestion and/or have a low intestinal permeability. The targeted release of bioactive peptides during the enzymatic hydrolysis of milk proteins may allow the generation of particularly potent bioactive hydrolysates and peptides. Therefore, the development of milk protein hydrolysates capable of improving human health requires, in the first instance, optimized targeted release of specific bioactive peptides. The targeted hydrolysis of milk proteins has been aided by a range of in silico tools. These include peptide cutters and predictive modeling linking bioactivity to peptide structure [i.e., molecular docking, quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR)], or hydrolysis parameters [design of experiments (DOE)]. Different targeted enzymatic release strategies employed during the generation of milk protein hydrolysates are reviewed herein and their limitations are outlined. In addition, specific examples are provided to demonstrate how in silico tools may help in the identification and discovery of potent milk protein-derived peptides. It is anticipated that the development of novel strategies employing a range of in silico tools may help in the generation of milk protein hydrolysates containing potent and bioavailable peptides, which in turn may be used to validate their health promoting effects in humans. Graphical abstract The targeted enzymatic hydrolysis of milk proteins may allow the generation of highly potent and bioavailable bioactive peptides.

  13. Fabrication of platinum nanopillars on peptide-based soft structures using a focused ion beam

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joshi, K B; Singh, Prabhpreet; Verma, Sandeep

    2009-01-01

    An expedient entry into the construction of bionanocomposites by merging peptide self-assembly, focused ion beam milling, and electron beam-induced deposition is described. Hexapeptides 1 and 2 revealed spherical self-assembled structures which are confirmed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), focused ion beam/high-resolution scanning electron microscope (FIB-HRSEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The microspheres from 1 and 2 are milled with the help of an ion beam to create different shapes. Soft spherical peptide-based structures were also subjected to fabrication under a gallium ion beam, followed by deposition of platinum pillars through a direct write process. It is envisaged that such hybrid bionanocomposites could have applications ranging from Pt-based hydrogenation catalysts to bioelectronics. In addition, such a fabrication process might also be useful to electrically connect two biological systems in order to study an electrical signal or electron transport phenomenon and structural transformations

  14. Designed β-Boomerang Antiendotoxic and Antimicrobial Peptides

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhunia, Anirban; Mohanram, Harini; Domadia, Prerna N.; Torres, Jaume; Bhattacharjya, Surajit

    2009-01-01

    Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), an integral part of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, is involved in a variety of biological processes including inflammation, septic shock, and resistance to host-defense molecules. LPS also provides an environment for folding of outer membrane proteins. In this work, we describe the structure-activity correlation of a series of 12-residue peptides in LPS. NMR structures of the peptides derived in complex with LPS reveal boomerang-like β-strand conformations that are stabilized by intimate packing between the two aromatic residues located at the 4 and 9 positions. This structural feature renders these peptides with a high ability to neutralize endotoxicity, >80% at 10 nm concentration, of LPS. Replacements of these aromatic residues either with Ala or with Leu destabilizes the boomerang structure with the concomitant loss of antiendotoxic and antimicrobial activities. Furthermore, the aromatic packing stabilizing the β-boomerang structure in LPS is found to be maintained even in a truncated octapeptide, defining a structured LPS binding motif. The mode of action of the active designed peptides correlates well with their ability to perturb LPS micelle structures. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies of the peptides delineate β-type conformations and immobilization of phosphate head groups of LPS. Trp fluorescence studies demonstrated selective interactions with LPS and the depth of insertion into the LPS bilayer. Our results demonstrate the requirement of LPS-specific structures of peptides for endotoxin neutralizations. In addition, we propose that structures of these peptides may be employed to design proteins for the outer membrane. PMID:19520860

  15. Contribution to the study of proteins and peptides structure by hydrogen isotopic exchange

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nabedryk-Viala, Eliane.

    1978-01-01

    Development of hydrogen exchange measurement methods to study the structure and the molecular interaction of globular protein molecules in aqueous solution (ribonuclease A, cytochrome c, coupling factors of chloroplasts), in peptide hormones in trifluoroethanol solution (angiotensin II, corticotropin) and in proteins of membranes (rhodopsin) [fr

  16. Stepwise identification of HLA-A*0201-restricted CD8+ T-cell epitope peptides from herpes simplex virus type 1 genome boosted by a StepRank scheme.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bi, Jianjun; Song, Rengang; Yang, Huilan; Li, Bingling; Fan, Jianyong; Liu, Zhongrong; Long, Chaoqin

    2011-01-01

    Identification of immunodominant epitopes is the first step in the rational design of peptide vaccines aimed at T-cell immunity. To date, however, it is yet a great challenge for accurately predicting the potent epitope peptides from a pool of large-scale candidates with an efficient manner. In this study, a method that we named StepRank has been developed for the reliable and rapid prediction of binding capabilities/affinities between proteins and genome-wide peptides. In this procedure, instead of single strategy used in most traditional epitope identification algorithms, four steps with different purposes and thus different computational demands are employed in turn to screen the large-scale peptide candidates that are normally generated from, for example, pathogenic genome. The steps 1 and 2 aim at qualitative exclusion of typical nonbinders by using empirical rule and linear statistical approach, while the steps 3 and 4 focus on quantitative examination and prediction of the interaction energy profile and binding affinity of peptide to target protein via quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) and structure-based free energy analysis. We exemplify this method through its application to binding predictions of the peptide segments derived from the 76 known open-reading frames (ORFs) of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) genome with or without affinity to human major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC I) molecule HLA-A*0201, and find that the predictive results are well compatible with the classical anchor residue theory and perfectly match for the extended motif pattern of MHC I-binding peptides. The putative epitopes are further confirmed by comparisons with 11 experimentally measured HLA-A*0201-restrcited peptides from the HSV-1 glycoproteins D and K. We expect that this well-designed scheme can be applied in the computational screening of other viral genomes as well.

  17. Structural features governing the activity of lactoferricin-derived peptides that act in synergy with antibiotics against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in vitro and in vivo.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sánchez-Gómez, Susana; Japelj, Bostjan; Jerala, Roman; Moriyón, Ignacio; Fernández Alonso, Mirian; Leiva, José; Blondelle, Sylvie E; Andrä, Jörg; Brandenburg, Klaus; Lohner, Karl; Martínez de Tejada, Guillermo

    2011-01-01

    Pseudomonas aeruginosa is naturally resistant to many antibiotics, and infections caused by this organism are a serious threat, especially to hospitalized patients. The intrinsic low permeability of P. aeruginosa to antibiotics results from the coordinated action of several mechanisms, such as the presence of restrictive porins and the expression of multidrug efflux pump systems. Our goal was to develop antimicrobial peptides with an improved bacterial membrane-permeabilizing ability, so that they enhance the antibacterial activity of antibiotics. We carried out a structure activity relationship analysis to investigate the parameters that govern the permeabilizing activity of short (8- to 12-amino-acid) lactoferricin-derived peptides. We used a new class of constitutional and sequence-dependent descriptors called PEDES (peptide descriptors from sequence) that allowed us to predict (Spearman's ρ = 0.74; P < 0.001) the permeabilizing activity of a new peptide generation. To study if peptide-mediated permeabilization could neutralize antibiotic resistance mechanisms, the most potent peptides were combined with antibiotics, and the antimicrobial activities of the combinations were determined on P. aeruginosa strains whose mechanisms of resistance to those antibiotics had been previously characterized. A subinhibitory concentration of compound P2-15 or P2-27 sensitized P. aeruginosa to most classes of antibiotics tested and counteracted several mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, including loss of the OprD porin and overexpression of several multidrug efflux pump systems. Using a mouse model of lethal infection, we demonstrated that whereas P2-15 and erythromycin were unable to protect mice when administered separately, concomitant administration of the compounds afforded long-lasting protection to one-third of the animals.

  18. Combination of Ambiguous and Unambiguous Data in the Restraint-driven Docking of Flexible Peptides with HADDOCK: The Binding of the Spider Toxin PcTx1 to the Acid Sensing Ion Channel (ASIC) 1a.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deplazes, Evelyne; Davies, Josephine; Bonvin, Alexandre M J J; King, Glenn F; Mark, Alan E

    2016-01-25

    Peptides that bind to ion channels have attracted much interest as potential lead molecules for the development of new drugs and insecticides. However, the structure determination of large peptide-channel complexes using experimental methods is challenging. Thus structural models are often derived from combining experimental information with restraint-driven docking approaches. Using the complex formed by the venom peptide PcTx1 and the acid sensing ion channel (ASIC) 1a as a case study, we have examined the effect of different combinations of restraints and input structures on the statistical likelihood of (a) correctly predicting the structure of the binding interface and (b) the ability to predict which residues are involved in specific pairwise peptide-channel interactions. For this, we have analyzed over 200,000 water-refined docked structures obtained with various amounts and types of restraints of the peptide-channel complex predicted using the docking program HADDOCK. We found that increasing the number of restraints or even the use of pairwise interaction data resulted in only a modest improvement in the likelihood of finding a structure within a given accuracy. This suggests that shape complementarity and the force field make a large contribution to the accuracy of the predicted structure. The results also showed that there are large variations in the accuracy of the predicted structure depending on the precise combination of residues used as restraints. Finally, we reflect on the limitations of relying on geometric criteria such as root-mean square deviations to assess the accuracy of docking procedures. We propose that in addition to currently used measures, the likelihood of finding a structure within a given level of accuracy should be also used to evaluate docking methods.

  19. A Novel MS-Cleavable Azo Cross-Linker for Peptide Structure Analysis by Free Radical Initiated Peptide Sequencing (FRIPS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iacobucci, Claudio; Hage, Christoph; Schäfer, Mathias; Sinz, Andrea

    2017-10-01

    The chemical cross-linking/mass spectrometry (MS) approach is a growing research field in structural proteomics that allows gaining insights into protein conformations. It relies on creating distance constraints between cross-linked amino acid side chains that can further be used to derive protein structures. Currently, the most urgent task for designing novel cross-linking principles is an unambiguous and automated assignment of the created cross-linked products. Here, we introduce the homobifunctional, amine-reactive, and water soluble cross-linker azobisimidoester (ABI) as a prototype of a novel class of cross-linkers. The ABI-linker possesses an innovative modular scaffold combining the benefits of collisional activation lability with open shell chemistry. This MS-cleavable cross-linker can be efficiently operated via free radical initiated peptide sequencing (FRIPS) in positive ionization mode. Our proof-of-principle study challenges the gas phase behavior of the ABI-linker for the three amino acids, lysine, leucine, and isoleucine, as well as the model peptide thymopentin. The isomeric amino acids leucine and isoleucine could be discriminated by their characteristic side chain fragments. Collisional activation experiments were conducted via positive electrospray ionization (ESI) on two Orbitrap mass spectrometers. The ABI-mediated formation of odd electron product ions in MS/MS and MS3 experiments was evaluated and compared with a previously described azo-based cross-linker. All cross-linked products were amenable to automated analysis by the MeroX software, underlining the future potential of the ABI-linker for structural proteomics studies. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

  20. Efficient molecular mechanics simulations of the folding, orientation, and assembly of peptides in lipid bilayers using an implicit atomic solvation model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bordner, Andrew J.; Zorman, Barry; Abagyan, Ruben

    2011-10-01

    Membrane proteins comprise a significant fraction of the proteomes of sequenced organisms and are the targets of approximately half of marketed drugs. However, in spite of their prevalence and biomedical importance, relatively few experimental structures are available due to technical challenges. Computational simulations can potentially address this deficit by providing structural models of membrane proteins. Solvation within the spatially heterogeneous membrane/solvent environment provides a major component of the energetics driving protein folding and association within the membrane. We have developed an implicit solvation model for membranes that is both computationally efficient and accurate enough to enable molecular mechanics predictions for the folding and association of peptides within the membrane. We derived the new atomic solvation model parameters using an unbiased fitting procedure to experimental data and have applied it to diverse problems in order to test its accuracy and to gain insight into membrane protein folding. First, we predicted the positions and orientations of peptides and complexes within the lipid bilayer and compared the simulation results with solid-state NMR structures. Additionally, we performed folding simulations for a series of host-guest peptides with varying propensities to form alpha helices in a hydrophobic environment and compared the structures with experimental measurements. We were also able to successfully predict the structures of amphipathic peptides as well as the structures for dimeric complexes of short hexapeptides that have experimentally characterized propensities to form beta sheets within the membrane. Finally, we compared calculated relative transfer energies with data from experiments measuring the effects of mutations on the free energies of translocon-mediated insertion of proteins into lipid bilayers and of combined folding and membrane insertion of a beta barrel protein.

  1. Evaluation of a FRET-peptide substrate to predict virulence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wendy E Kaman

    Full Text Available Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces a number of proteases that are associated with virulence and disease progression. A substrate able to detect P. aeruginosa-specific proteolytic activity could help to rapidly alert clinicians to the virulence potential of individual P. aeruginosa strains. For this purpose we designed a set of P. aeruginosa-specific fluorogenic substrates, comprising fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET-labeled peptides, and evaluated their applicability to P. aeruginosa virulence in a range of clinical isolates. A FRET-peptide comprising three glycines (3xGly was found to be specific for the detection of P. aeruginosa proteases. Further screening of 97 P. aeruginosa clinical isolates showed a wide variation in 3xGly cleavage activity. The absence of 3xGly degradation by a lasI knock out strain indicated that 3xGly cleavage by P. aeruginosa could be quorum sensing (QS-related, a hypothesis strengthened by the observation of a strong correlation between 3xGly cleavage, LasA staphylolytic activity and pyocyanin production. Additionally, isolates able to cleave 3xGly were more susceptible to the QS inhibiting antibiotic azithromycin (AZM. In conclusion, we designed and evaluated a 3xGly substrate possibly useful as a simple tool to predict virulence and AZM susceptibility.

  2. Structural properties of a peptide derived from H+-V-ATPase subunit a

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vermeer, L.S.; Reat, V.; Hemminga, M.A.; Milon, A.

    2009-01-01

    The 3D structure of a peptide derived from the putative transmembrane segment 7 (TM7) of subunit a from H+-V-ATPase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been determined by solution state NMR in SDS. A stable helix is formed from L736 up to and including Q745, the lumenal half of the putative TM7. The

  3. Exploring biological effects of MoS{sub 2} nanosheets on native structures of α-helical peptides

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gu, Zonglin; Li, Weifeng, E-mail: wfli@suda.edu.cn, E-mail: ruhong@us.ibm.com [School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123 (China); Hong, Linbi [Computational Biological Center, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598 (United States); Zhou, Ruhong, E-mail: wfli@suda.edu.cn, E-mail: ruhong@us.ibm.com [School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123 (China); Computational Biological Center, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598 (United States); Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027 (United States)

    2016-05-07

    Recent reports of mono- and few-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS{sub 2}), a representative transition metal dichacogenide (TMD), as antibacterial and anticancer agents have shed light on their potential in biomedical applications. To better facilitate these promising applications, one needs to understand the biological effects of these TMDs as well, such as their potential adverse effects on protein structure and function. Here, we sought to understand the interaction of MoS{sub 2} nanosheets with peptides using molecular dynamics simulations and a simple model polyalanine with various lengths (PA{sub n}, n = 10, 20, 30, and 40; mainly α − helices). Our results demonstrated that MoS{sub 2} monolayer has an exceptional capability to bind all peptides in a fast and strong manner. The strong attraction from the MoS{sub 2} nanosheet is more than enough to compensate the energy needed to unfold the peptide, regardless of the length, which induces drastic disruptions to the intra-peptide hydrogen bonds and subsequent secondary structures of α − helices. This universal phenomenon may point to the potential nanotoxicity of MoS{sub 2} when used in biological systems. Moreover, these results aligned well with previous findings on the potential cytotoxicity of TMD nanomaterials.

  4. Optimization and high-throughput screening of antimicrobial peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blondelle, Sylvie E; Lohner, Karl

    2010-01-01

    While a well-established process for lead compound discovery in for-profit companies, high-throughput screening is becoming more popular in basic and applied research settings in academia. The development of combinatorial libraries combined with easy and less expensive access to new technologies have greatly contributed to the implementation of high-throughput screening in academic laboratories. While such techniques were earlier applied to simple assays involving single targets or based on binding affinity, they have now been extended to more complex systems such as whole cell-based assays. In particular, the urgent need for new antimicrobial compounds that would overcome the rapid rise of drug-resistant microorganisms, where multiple target assays or cell-based assays are often required, has forced scientists to focus onto high-throughput technologies. Based on their existence in natural host defense systems and their different mode of action relative to commercial antibiotics, antimicrobial peptides represent a new hope in discovering novel antibiotics against multi-resistant bacteria. The ease of generating peptide libraries in different formats has allowed a rapid adaptation of high-throughput assays to the search for novel antimicrobial peptides. Similarly, the availability nowadays of high-quantity and high-quality antimicrobial peptide data has permitted the development of predictive algorithms to facilitate the optimization process. This review summarizes the various library formats that lead to de novo antimicrobial peptide sequences as well as the latest structural knowledge and optimization processes aimed at improving the peptides selectivity.

  5. Dissociation Behavior of a TEMPO-Active Ester Cross-Linker for Peptide Structure Analysis by Free Radical Initiated Peptide Sequencing (FRIPS) in Negative ESI-MS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hage, Christoph; Ihling, Christian H; Götze, Michael; Schäfer, Mathias; Sinz, Andrea

    2017-01-01

    We have synthesized a homobifunctional amine-reactive cross-linking reagent, containing a TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxy) and a benzyl group (Bz), termed TEMPO-Bz-linker, to derive three-dimensional structural information of proteins. The aim for designing this novel cross-linker was to facilitate the mass spectrometric analysis of cross-linked products by free radical initiated peptide sequencing (FRIPS). In an initial study, we had investigated the fragmentation behavior of TEMPO-Bz-derivatized peptides upon collision activation in (+)-electrospray ionization collision-induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-CID-MS/MS) experiments. In addition to the homolytic NO-C bond cleavage FRIPS pathway delivering the desired odd-electron product ions, an alternative heterolytic NO-C bond cleavage, resulting in even-electron product ions mechanism was found to be relevant. The latter fragmentation route clearly depends on the protonation of the TEMPO-Bz-moiety itself, which motivated us to conduct (-)-ESI-MS, CID-MS/MS, and MS 3 experiments of TEMPO-Bz-cross-linked peptides to further clarify the fragmentation behavior of TEMPO-Bz-peptide molecular ions. We show that the TEMPO-Bz-linker is highly beneficial for conducting FRIPS in negative ionization mode as the desired homolytic cleavage of the NO-C bond is the major fragmentation pathway. Based on characteristic fragments, the isomeric amino acids leucine and isoleucine could be discriminated. Interestingly, we observed pronounced amino acid side chain losses in cross-linked peptides if the cross-linked peptides contain a high number of acidic amino acids. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

  6. Structure-Based Drug Design of Small Molecule Peptide Deformylase Inhibitors to Treat Cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jian Gao

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Human peptide deformylase (HsPDF is an important target for anticancer drug discovery. In view of the limited HsPDF, inhibitors were reported, and high-throughput virtual screening (HTVS studies based on HsPDF for developing new PDF inhibitors remain to be reported. We reported here on diverse small molecule inhibitors with excellent anticancer activities designed based on HTVS and molecular docking studies using the crystal structure of HsPDF. The compound M7594_0037 exhibited potent anticancer activities against HeLa, A549 and MCF-7 cell lines with IC50s of 35.26, 29.63 and 24.63 μM, respectively. Molecular docking studies suggested that M7594_0037 and its three derivatives could interact with HsPDF by several conserved hydrogen bonds. Moreover, the pharmacokinetic and toxicity properties of M7594_0037 and its derivatives were predicted using the OSIRIS property explorer. Thus, M7594_0037 and its derivatives might represent a promising scaffold for the further development of novel anticancer drugs.

  7. High-resolution NMR structure of the antimicrobial peptide protegrin-2 in the presence of DPC micelles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Usachev, K. S., E-mail: k.usachev@kpfu.ru; Efimov, S. V.; Kolosova, O. A.; Filippov, A. V.; Klochkov, V. V. [Kazan Federal University (Russian Federation)

    2015-04-15

    PG-1 adopts a dimeric structure in dodecylphosphocholine (DPC) micelles, and a channel is formed by the association of several dimers but the molecular mechanisms of the membrane damage by non-α-helical peptides are still unknown. The formation of the PG-1 dimer is important for pore formation in the lipid bilayer, since the dimer can be regarded as the primary unit for assembly into the ordered aggregates. It was supposed that only 12 residues (RGGRL-CYCRR-RFCVC-V) are needed to endow protegrin molecules with strong antibacterial activity and that at least four additional residues are needed to add potent antifungal properties. Thus, the 16-residue protegrin (PG-2) represents the minimal structure needed for broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity encompassing bacteria and fungi. As the peptide conformation and peptide-to-membrane binding properties are very sensitive to single amino acid substitutions, the solution structure of PG-2 in solution and in a membrane mimicking environment are crucial. In order to find evidence if the oligomerization state of PG-1 in a lipid environment will be the same or not for another protegrins, we investigate in the present work the PG-2 NMR solution structure in the presence of perdeuterated DPC micelles. The NMR study reported in the present work indicates that PG-2 form a well-defined structure (PDB: 2MUH) composed of a two-stranded antiparallel β-sheet when it binds to DPC micelles.

  8. Designing of peptides with desired half-life in intestine-like environment

    KAUST Repository

    Sharma, Arun

    2014-08-20

    Background: In past, a number of peptides have been reported to possess highly diverse properties ranging from cell penetrating, tumor homing, anticancer, anti-hypertensive, antiviral to antimicrobials. Owing to their excellent specificity, low-toxicity, rich chemical diversity and availability from natural sources, FDA has successfully approved a number of peptide-based drugs and several are in various stages of drug development. Though peptides are proven good drug candidates, their usage is still hindered mainly because of their high susceptibility towards proteases degradation. We have developed an in silico method to predict the half-life of peptides in intestine-like environment and to design better peptides having optimized physicochemical properties and half-life.Results: In this study, we have used 10mer (HL10) and 16mer (HL16) peptides dataset to develop prediction models for peptide half-life in intestine-like environment. First, SVM based models were developed on HL10 dataset which achieved maximum correlation R/R2 of 0.57/0.32, 0.68/0.46, and 0.69/0.47 using amino acid, dipeptide and tripeptide composition, respectively. Secondly, models developed on HL16 dataset showed maximum R/R2 of 0.91/0.82, 0.90/0.39, and 0.90/0.31 using amino acid, dipeptide and tripeptide composition, respectively. Furthermore, models that were developed on selected features, achieved a correlation (R) of 0.70 and 0.98 on HL10 and HL16 dataset, respectively. Preliminary analysis suggests the role of charged residue and amino acid size in peptide half-life/stability. Based on above models, we have developed a web server named HLP (Half Life Prediction), for predicting and designing peptides with desired half-life. The web server provides three facilities; i) half-life prediction, ii) physicochemical properties calculation and iii) designing mutant peptides.Conclusion: In summary, this study describes a web server \\'HLP\\' that has been developed for assisting scientific

  9. PaFlexPepDock: parallel ab-initio docking of peptides onto their receptors with full flexibility based on Rosetta.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Haiou; Lu, Liyao; Chen, Rong; Quan, Lijun; Xia, Xiaoyan; Lü, Qiang

    2014-01-01

    Structural information related to protein-peptide complexes can be very useful for novel drug discovery and design. The computational docking of protein and peptide can supplement the structural information available on protein-peptide interactions explored by experimental ways. Protein-peptide docking of this paper can be described as three processes that occur in parallel: ab-initio peptide folding, peptide docking with its receptor, and refinement of some flexible areas of the receptor as the peptide is approaching. Several existing methods have been used to sample the degrees of freedom in the three processes, which are usually triggered in an organized sequential scheme. In this paper, we proposed a parallel approach that combines all the three processes during the docking of a folding peptide with a flexible receptor. This approach mimics the actual protein-peptide docking process in parallel way, and is expected to deliver better performance than sequential approaches. We used 22 unbound protein-peptide docking examples to evaluate our method. Our analysis of the results showed that the explicit refinement of the flexible areas of the receptor facilitated more accurate modeling of the interfaces of the complexes, while combining all of the moves in parallel helped the constructing of energy funnels for predictions.

  10. PaFlexPepDock: parallel ab-initio docking of peptides onto their receptors with full flexibility based on Rosetta.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haiou Li

    Full Text Available Structural information related to protein-peptide complexes can be very useful for novel drug discovery and design. The computational docking of protein and peptide can supplement the structural information available on protein-peptide interactions explored by experimental ways. Protein-peptide docking of this paper can be described as three processes that occur in parallel: ab-initio peptide folding, peptide docking with its receptor, and refinement of some flexible areas of the receptor as the peptide is approaching. Several existing methods have been used to sample the degrees of freedom in the three processes, which are usually triggered in an organized sequential scheme. In this paper, we proposed a parallel approach that combines all the three processes during the docking of a folding peptide with a flexible receptor. This approach mimics the actual protein-peptide docking process in parallel way, and is expected to deliver better performance than sequential approaches. We used 22 unbound protein-peptide docking examples to evaluate our method. Our analysis of the results showed that the explicit refinement of the flexible areas of the receptor facilitated more accurate modeling of the interfaces of the complexes, while combining all of the moves in parallel helped the constructing of energy funnels for predictions.

  11. RNA-SSPT: RNA Secondary Structure Prediction Tools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmad, Freed; Mahboob, Shahid; Gulzar, Tahsin; Din, Salah U; Hanif, Tanzeela; Ahmad, Hifza; Afzal, Muhammad

    2013-01-01

    The prediction of RNA structure is useful for understanding evolution for both in silico and in vitro studies. Physical methods like NMR studies to predict RNA secondary structure are expensive and difficult. Computational RNA secondary structure prediction is easier. Comparative sequence analysis provides the best solution. But secondary structure prediction of a single RNA sequence is challenging. RNA-SSPT is a tool that computationally predicts secondary structure of a single RNA sequence. Most of the RNA secondary structure prediction tools do not allow pseudoknots in the structure or are unable to locate them. Nussinov dynamic programming algorithm has been implemented in RNA-SSPT. The current studies shows only energetically most favorable secondary structure is required and the algorithm modification is also available that produces base pairs to lower the total free energy of the secondary structure. For visualization of RNA secondary structure, NAVIEW in C language is used and modified in C# for tool requirement. RNA-SSPT is built in C# using Dot Net 2.0 in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional edition. The accuracy of RNA-SSPT is tested in terms of Sensitivity and Positive Predicted Value. It is a tool which serves both secondary structure prediction and secondary structure visualization purposes.

  12. Towards Identify Selective Antibacterial Peptides Based on Abstracts Meaning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liliana I. Barbosa-Santillán

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available We present an Identify Selective Antibacterial Peptides (ISAP approach based on abstracts meaning. Laboratories and researchers have significantly increased the report of their discoveries related to antibacterial peptides in primary publications. It is important to find antibacterial peptides that have been reported in primary publications because they can produce antibiotics of different generations that attack and destroy the bacteria. Unfortunately, researchers used heterogeneous forms of natural language to describe their discoveries (sometimes without the sequence of the peptides. Thus, we propose that learning the words meaning instead of the antibacterial peptides sequence is possible to identify and predict antibacterial peptides reported in the PubMed engine. The ISAP approach consists of two stages: training and discovering. ISAP founds that the 35% of the abstracts sample had antibacterial peptides and we tested in the updated Antimicrobial Peptide Database 2 (APD2. ISAP predicted that 45% of the abstracts had antibacterial peptides. That is, ISAP found that 810 antibacterial peptides were not classified like that, so they are not reported in APD2. As a result, this new search tool would complement the APD2 with a set of peptides that are candidates to be antibacterial. Finally, 20% of the abstracts were not semantic related to APD2.

  13. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy of peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bakshi, Kunal; Liyanage, Mangala R; Volkin, David B; Middaugh, C Russell

    2014-01-01

    Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy provides data that are widely used for secondary structure characterization of peptides. A wide array of available sampling methods permits structural analysis of peptides in diverse environments such as aqueous solution (including optically turbid media), powders, detergent micelles, and lipid bilayers. In some cases, side chain vibrations can also be resolved and used for tertiary structure and chemical analysis. Data from several low-resolution spectroscopic techniques, including FTIR, can be combined to generate an empirical phase diagram, an overall picture of peptide structure as a function of environmental conditions that can aid in the global interpretation of large amounts of spectroscopic data.

  14. Osteoinductive peptide-functionalized nanofibers with highly ordered structure as biomimetic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Xiang; Zhang, Xiaohong; Song, Jinlin; Xu, Xiao; Xu, Anxiu; Wang, Mengke; Xie, Bingwu; Huang, Enyi; Deng, Feng; Wei, Shicheng

    2015-01-01

    The construction of functional biomimetic scaffolds that recapitulate the topographical and biochemical features of bone tissue extracellular matrix is now of topical interest in bone tissue engineering. In this study, a novel surface-functionalized electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofiber scaffold with highly ordered structure was developed to simulate the critical features of native bone tissue via a single step of catechol chemistry. Specially, under slightly alkaline aqueous solution, polydopamine (pDA) was coated on the surface of aligned PCL nanofibers after electrospinning, followed by covalent immobilization of bone morphogenetic protein-7-derived peptides onto the pDA-coated nanofiber surface. Contact angle measurement, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the presence of pDA and peptides on PCL nanofiber surface. Our results demonstrated that surface modification with osteoinductive peptides could improve cytocompatibility of nanofibers in terms of cell adhesion, spreading, and proliferation. Most importantly, Alizarin Red S staining, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, immunostaining, and Western blot revealed that human mesenchymal stem cells cultured on aligned nanofibers with osteoinductive peptides exhibited enhanced osteogenic differentiation potential than cells on randomly oriented nanofibers. Furthermore, the aligned nanofibers with osteoinductive peptides could direct osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells even in the absence of osteoinducting factors, suggesting superior osteogenic efficacy of biomimetic design that combines the advantages of osteoinductive peptide signal and highly ordered nanofibers on cell fate decision. The presented peptide-decorated bone-mimic nanofiber scaffolds hold a promising potential in the context of bone tissue engineering.

  15. Assessment of the amide-I local modes in gamma- and beta-turns of peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jianping

    2009-07-14

    The amide-I local modes, mainly the C[double bond, length as m-dash]O stretching vibrations, form the structural basis of femtosecond 2D IR spectroscopy in characterizing backbone structures and dynamics of peptides and proteins. In this work, a density functional theory (DFT) level of computational assessment of the amide-I local modes in oligomers mostly in the turn conformations was carried out. It is shown that local mode properties, including transition frequencies and transition dipole magnitudes and orientations, are slightly conformational dependent. However, the distributions of these properties in the peptide oligomers are narrow and have mean values almost identical to those from an isolated peptide monomer, justifying the prevalent use of a uniform local mode in modeling the 1D and 2D IR spectra. In addition, it is shown that the transition dipole magnitude and orientation of the peptide monomer predicted by the DFT calculations can be well approximated by electrostatic potential-based transition charge schemes, e.g. Merz-Singh-Kollman, CHELP, as well as CHELPG.

  16. Structural organization and spectroscopy of peptide-actinide(IV) complexes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dahou, S.

    2010-01-01

    The contamination of living organisms by actinide elements is at the origin of both radiological and chemical toxicity that may lead to severe dysfunction. Most of the data available on the actinide interaction with biological systems are macroscopic physiological measurements and are lacking a molecular description of the systems. Because of the intricacy of these systems, classical biochemical methods are difficult to implement. Our strategy consisted in designing simplified biomimetic peptides, and describing the corresponding intramolecular interactions with actinides. A carboxylic pentapeptide of the form DDPDD has been at the starting point of this work in order to further assess the influence of the peptide sequence on the topology of the complexes.To do so, various linear (Asp/Ala permutations, peptoids) and cyclic analogues have been synthesized. Furthermore, in order to include the hydroxamic function (with a high affinity for Fe(III)) in the peptide, both desferrioxamine and acetohydroxamic acid have been investigated. However because of difficulties in synthesis, we have not been able to test these peptides. Three actinide cations have been considered at oxidation state +IV (Th, Np, Pu) and compared to Fe(III), often considered as a biological surrogate of Pu(IV). The spatial arrangement of the peptide around the cation has been probed by spectrophotometry and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy. The spectroscopic data and EXAFS data adjustment lead us to rationalize the topology of the complexes as a function of the peptide sequence: mix hydroxy polynuclear species for linear and cyclic peptides, mononuclear for the desferrioxamine complexes. Furthermore, significant differences have appeared between Fe(III) and actinide(IV), related to differences of reactivity in aqueous medium. (author)

  17. Effects of the KIF2C neck peptide on microtubules: lateral disintegration of microtubules and β-structure formation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shimizu, Youské; Shimizu, Takashi; Nara, Masayuki; Kikumoto, Mahito; Kojima, Hiroaki; Morii, Hisayuki

    2013-04-01

    Members of the kinesin-13 sub-family, including KIF2C, depolymerize microtubules. The positive charge-rich 'neck' region extending from the N-terminus of the catalytic head is considered to be important in the depolymerization activity. Chemically synthesized peptides, covering the basic region (A182-E200), induced a sigmoidal increase in the turbidity of a microtubule suspension. The increase was suppressed by salt addition or by reduction of basicity by amino acid substitutions. Electron microscopic observations revealed ring structures surrounding the microtubules at high peptide concentrations. Using the peptide A182-D218, we also detected free thin straight filaments, probably protofilaments disintegrated from microtubules. Therefore, the neck region, even without the catalytic head domain, may induce lateral disintegration of microtubules. With microtubules lacking anion-rich C-termini as a result of subtilisin treatment, addition of the peptide induced only a moderate increase in turbidity, and rings and protofilaments were rarely detected, while aggregations, also thought to be caused by lateral disintegration, were often observed in electron micrographs. Thus, the C-termini are not crucial for the action of the peptides in lateral disintegration but contribute to structural stabilization of the protofilaments. Previous structural studies indicated that the neck region of KIF2C is flexible, but our IR analysis suggests that the cation-rich region (K190-A204) forms β-structure in the presence of microtubules, which may be of significance with regard to the action of the neck region. Therefore, the neck region of KIF2C is sufficient to cause disintegration of microtubules into protofilaments, and this may contribute to the ability of KIF2C to cause depolymerization of microtubules. © 2013 The Authors Journal compilation © 2013 FEBS.

  18. Computational Studies of Difference in Binding Modes of Peptide and Non-Peptide Inhibitors to MDM2/MDMX Based on Molecular Dynamics Simulations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuxin Zhang

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available Inhibition of p53-MDM2/MDMX interaction is considered to be a promising strategy for anticancer drug design to activate wild-type p53 in tumors. We carry out molecular dynamics (MD simulations to study the binding mechanisms of peptide and non-peptide inhibitors to MDM2/MDMX. The rank of binding free energies calculated by molecular mechanics generalized Born surface area (MM-GBSA method agrees with one of the experimental values. The results suggest that van der Waals energy drives two kinds of inhibitors to MDM2/MDMX. We also find that the peptide inhibitors can produce more interaction contacts with MDM2/MDMX than the non-peptide inhibitors. Binding mode predictions based on the inhibitor-residue interactions show that the π–π, CH–π and CH–CH interactions dominated by shape complimentarity, govern the binding of the inhibitors in the hydrophobic cleft of MDM2/MDMX. Our studies confirm the residue Tyr99 in MDMX can generate a steric clash with the inhibitors due to energy and structure. This finding may theoretically provide help to develop potent dual-specific or MDMX inhibitors.

  19. Structural Features Governing the Activity of Lactoferricin-Derived Peptides That Act in Synergy with Antibiotics against Pseudomonas aeruginosa In Vitro and In Vivo▿ †

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sánchez-Gómez, Susana; Japelj, Bostjan; Jerala, Roman; Moriyón, Ignacio; Fernández Alonso, Mirian; Leiva, José; Blondelle, Sylvie E.; Andrä, Jörg; Brandenburg, Klaus; Lohner, Karl; Martínez de Tejada, Guillermo

    2011-01-01

    Pseudomonas aeruginosa is naturally resistant to many antibiotics, and infections caused by this organism are a serious threat, especially to hospitalized patients. The intrinsic low permeability of P. aeruginosa to antibiotics results from the coordinated action of several mechanisms, such as the presence of restrictive porins and the expression of multidrug efflux pump systems. Our goal was to develop antimicrobial peptides with an improved bacterial membrane-permeabilizing ability, so that they enhance the antibacterial activity of antibiotics. We carried out a structure activity relationship analysis to investigate the parameters that govern the permeabilizing activity of short (8- to 12-amino-acid) lactoferricin-derived peptides. We used a new class of constitutional and sequence-dependent descriptors called PEDES (peptide descriptors from sequence) that allowed us to predict (Spearman's ρ = 0.74; P < 0.001) the permeabilizing activity of a new peptide generation. To study if peptide-mediated permeabilization could neutralize antibiotic resistance mechanisms, the most potent peptides were combined with antibiotics, and the antimicrobial activities of the combinations were determined on P. aeruginosa strains whose mechanisms of resistance to those antibiotics had been previously characterized. A subinhibitory concentration of compound P2-15 or P2-27 sensitized P. aeruginosa to most classes of antibiotics tested and counteracted several mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, including loss of the OprD porin and overexpression of several multidrug efflux pump systems. Using a mouse model of lethal infection, we demonstrated that whereas P2-15 and erythromycin were unable to protect mice when administered separately, concomitant administration of the compounds afforded long-lasting protection to one-third of the animals. PMID:20956602

  20. Molecular dynamics simulations of helical antimicrobial peptides in SDS micelles: what do point mutations achieve?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Khandelia, Himanshu; Kaznessis, Yiannis N

    2005-01-01

    We report long time scale simulations of the 18-residue helical antimicrobial peptide ovispirin-1 and its analogs novispirin-G10 and novispirin-T7 in SDS micelles. The SDS micelle serves as an economical and effective model for a cellular membrane. Ovispirin, which is initially placed along...... a micelle diameter, diffuses out to the water-SDS interface and stabilizes to an interface-bound steady state in 16.35 ns of simulation. The final conformation, orientation, and the structure of ovispirin are in good agreement with the experimentally observed properties of the peptide in presence of lipid...... bilayers. The simulation succeeds in capturing subtle differences of the membrane-bound peptide structure as predicted by solid state NMR. The novispirins also undergo identical diffusion patterns and similar final conformations. Although the final interface-bound states are similar, the simulations...

  1. Therapeutic peptides for cancer therapy. Part I - peptide inhibitors of signal transduction cascades.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bidwell, Gene L; Raucher, Drazen

    2009-10-01

    Therapeutic peptides have great potential as anticancer agents owing to their ease of rational design and target specificity. However, their utility in vivo is limited by low stability and poor tumor penetration. The authors review the development of peptide inhibitors with potential for cancer therapy. Peptides that inhibit signal transduction cascades are discussed. The authors searched Medline for articles concerning the development of therapeutic peptides and their delivery. Given our current knowledge of protein sequences, structures and interaction interfaces, therapeutic peptides that inhibit interactions of interest are easily designed. These peptides are advantageous because they are highly specific for the interaction of interest, and they are much more easily developed than small molecule inhibitors of the same interactions. The main hurdle to application of peptides for cancer therapy is their poor pharmacokinetic and biodistribution parameters. Therefore, successful development of peptide delivery vectors could potentially make possible the use of this new and very promising class of anticancer agents.

  2. Self-assembled peptide nanotubes as electronic materials: An evaluation from first-principles calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Akdim, Brahim; Pachter, Ruth; Naik, Rajesh R.

    2015-01-01

    In this letter, we report on the evaluation of diphenylalanine (FF), dityrosine (YY), and phenylalanine-tryptophan (FW) self-assembled peptide nanotube structures for electronics and photonics applications. Realistic bulk peptide nanotube material models were used in density functional theory calculations to mimic the well-ordered tubular nanostructures. Importantly, validated functionals were applied, specifically by using a London dispersion correction to model intertube interactions and a range-separated hybrid functional for accurate bandgap calculations. Bandgaps were found consistent with available experimental data for FF, and also corroborate the higher conductance reported for FW in comparison to FF peptide nanotubes. Interestingly, the predicted bandgap for the YY tubular nanostructure was found to be slightly higher than that of FW, suggesting higher conductance as well. In addition, the band structure calculations along the high symmetry line of nanotube axis revealed a direct bandgap for FF. The results enhance our understanding of the electronic properties of these material systems and will pave the way into their application in devices

  3. A multi-state coarse grained modeling approach for an intrinsically disordered peptide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramezanghorbani, Farhad; Dalgicdir, Cahit; Sayar, Mehmet

    2017-09-01

    Many proteins display a marginally stable tertiary structure, which can be altered via external stimuli. Since a majority of coarse grained (CG) models are aimed at structure prediction, their success for an intrinsically disordered peptide's conformational space with marginal stability and sensitivity to external stimuli cannot be taken for granted. In this study, by using the LKα 14 peptide as a test system, we demonstrate a bottom-up approach for constructing a multi-state CG model, which can capture the conformational behavior of this peptide in three distinct environments with a unique set of interaction parameters. LKα 14 is disordered in dilute solutions; however, it strictly adopts the α -helix conformation upon aggregation or when in contact with a hydrophobic/hydrophilic interface. Our bottom-up approach combines a generic base model, that is unbiased for any particular secondary structure, with nonbonded interactions which represent hydrogen bonds, electrostatics, and hydrophobic forces. We demonstrate that by using carefully designed all atom potential of mean force calculations from all three states of interest, one can get a balanced representation of the nonbonded interactions. Our CG model behaves intrinsically disordered in bulk water, folds into an α -helix in the presence of an interface or a neighboring peptide, and is stable as a tetrameric unit, successfully reproducing the all atom molecular dynamics simulations and experimental results.

  4. Total synthesis, structure, and oral absorption of a thiazole cyclic peptide, sanguinamide A

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Daniel S; Hoang, Huy N; Lohman, Rink-Jan

    2012-01-01

    The first total synthesis and three-dimensional solution structure are reported for sanguinamide A, a thiazole-containing cyclic peptide from the sea slug H. sanguineus. Solution phase fragment synthesis, solid phase fragment assembly, and solution macrocyclization were combined to give (1) in 10......% yield. Spectral properties were identical for the natural product, requiring revision of its structure from (2) to (1). Intramolecular transannular hydrogen bonds help to bury polar atoms, which enables oral absorption from the gut....

  5. Artificial neural network study on organ-targeting peptides

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jung, Eunkyoung; Kim, Junhyoung; Choi, Seung-Hoon; Kim, Minkyoung; Rhee, Hokyoung; Shin, Jae-Min; Choi, Kihang; Kang, Sang-Kee; Lee, Nam Kyung; Choi, Yun-Jaie; Jung, Dong Hyun

    2010-01-01

    We report a new approach to studying organ targeting of peptides on the basis of peptide sequence information. The positive control data sets consist of organ-targeting peptide sequences identified by the peroral phage-display technique for four organs, and the negative control data are prepared from random sequences. The capacity of our models to make appropriate predictions is validated by statistical indicators including sensitivity, specificity, enrichment curve, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (the ROC score). VHSE descriptor produces statistically significant training models and the models with simple neural network architectures show slightly greater predictive power than those with complex ones. The training and test set statistics indicate that our models could discriminate between organ-targeting and random sequences. We anticipate that our models will be applicable to the selection of organ-targeting peptides for generating peptide drugs or peptidomimetics.

  6. Cation-pi interactions stabilize the structure of the antimicrobial peptide indolicidin near membranes: molecular dynamics simulations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Khandelia, Himanshu; Kaznessis, Yiannis N

    2007-01-01

    We implemented molecular dynamics simulations of the 13-residue antimicrobial peptide indolicidin (ILPWKWPWWPWRR-NH2) in dodecylphosphocholine (DPC) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles. In DPC, a persistent cation-pi interaction between TRP11 and ARG13 defined the structure of the peptide...... near the interface. A transient cation-pi interaction was also observed between TRP4 and the choline group on DPC lipids. We also implemented simulation of a mutant of indolicidin in the DPC micelle where TRP11 was replaced by ALA11. As a result of the mutation, the boat-shaped conformation is lost...... and the structure becomes significantly less defined. On the basis of this evidence, we argue that cation-pi interactions determine the experimentally measured, well-defined boat-shaped structure of indolicidin. In SDS, the lack of such interactions and the electrostatic binding of the terminal arginine residues...

  7. Antimicrobial Peptides from Plants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James P. Tam

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Plant antimicrobial peptides (AMPs have evolved differently from AMPs from other life forms. They are generally rich in cysteine residues which form multiple disulfides. In turn, the disulfides cross-braced plant AMPs as cystine-rich peptides to confer them with extraordinary high chemical, thermal and proteolytic stability. The cystine-rich or commonly known as cysteine-rich peptides (CRPs of plant AMPs are classified into families based on their sequence similarity, cysteine motifs that determine their distinctive disulfide bond patterns and tertiary structure fold. Cystine-rich plant AMP families include thionins, defensins, hevein-like peptides, knottin-type peptides (linear and cyclic, lipid transfer proteins, α-hairpinin and snakins family. In addition, there are AMPs which are rich in other amino acids. The ability of plant AMPs to organize into specific families with conserved structural folds that enable sequence variation of non-Cys residues encased in the same scaffold within a particular family to play multiple functions. Furthermore, the ability of plant AMPs to tolerate hypervariable sequences using a conserved scaffold provides diversity to recognize different targets by varying the sequence of the non-cysteine residues. These properties bode well for developing plant AMPs as potential therapeutics and for protection of crops through transgenic methods. This review provides an overview of the major families of plant AMPs, including their structures, functions, and putative mechanisms.

  8. C9/12 Ribbon-Like Structures in Hybrid Peptides Alternating α- and Thiazole-Based γ-Amino Acids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonnel, Clément; Legrand, Baptiste; Simon, Matthieu; Martinez, Jean; Bantignies, Jean-Louis; Kang, Young Kee; Wenger, Emmanuel; Hoh, Francois; Masurier, Nicolas; Maillard, Ludovic T

    2017-12-11

    According to their restricted conformational freedom, heterocyclic γ-amino acids are usually considered to be related to Z-vinylogous γ-amino acids. In this context, oligomers alternating α-amino acids and thiazole-based γ-amino acids (ATCs) were expected to fold into a canonical 12-helical shape as described for α/γ-hybrid peptides composed of cis-α/β-unsaturated γ-amino acids. However, through a combination of X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, FTIR experiments, and DFT calculations, it was determined that the folding behavior of ATC-containing hybrid peptides is much more complex. The homochiral α/(S)-ATC sequences were unable to adopt a stable conformation, whereas the heterochiral α/(R)-ATC peptides displayed novel ribbon structures stabilized by unusual C 9/12 -bifurcated hydrogen bonds. These ribbon structures could be considered as a succession of pre-organized γ/α dipeptides and may provide the basis for designing original α-helix mimics. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  9. Bicyclic peptide inhibitor of urokinase-type plasminogen activator

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Roodbeen, Renée; Jensen, Berit Paaske; Jiang, Longguang

    2013-01-01

    The development of protease inhibitors for pharmacological intervention has taken a new turn with the use of peptide-based inhibitors. Here, we report the rational design of bicyclic peptide inhibitors of the serine protease urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), based on the established...... investigated the solution structures of the bicyclic peptide by NMR spectroscopy to map possible conformations. An X-ray structure of the bicyclic-peptide-uPA complex confirmed an interaction similar to that for the previous upain-1/upain-2-uPA complexes. These physical studies of the peptide...

  10. Structural and antimicrobial properties of human pre-elafin/trappin-2 and derived peptides against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gagné Stéphane M

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Pre-elafin/trappin-2 is a human innate defense molecule initially described as a potent inhibitor of neutrophil elastase. The full-length protein as well as the N-terminal "cementoin" and C-terminal "elafin" domains were also shown to possess broad antimicrobial activity, namely against the opportunistic pathogen P. aeruginosa. The mode of action of these peptides has, however, yet to be fully elucidated. Both domains of pre-elafin/trappin-2 are polycationic, but only the structure of the elafin domain is currently known. The aim of the present study was to determine the secondary structures of the cementoin domain and to characterize the antibacterial properties of these peptides against P. aeruginosa. Results We show here that the cementoin domain adopts an α-helical conformation both by circular dichroism and nuclear magnetic resonance analyses in the presence of membrane mimetics, a characteristic shared with a large number of linear polycationic antimicrobial peptides. However, pre-elafin/trappin-2 and its domains display only weak lytic properties, as assessed by scanning electron micrography, outer and inner membrane depolarization studies with P. aeruginosa and leakage of liposome-entrapped calcein. Confocal microscopy of fluorescein-labeled pre-elafin/trappin-2 suggests that this protein possesses the ability to translocate across membranes. This correlates with the finding that pre-elafin/trappin-2 and elafin bind to DNA in vitro and attenuate the expression of some P. aeruginosa virulence factors, namely the biofilm formation and the secretion of pyoverdine. Conclusions The N-terminal cementoin domain adopts α-helical secondary structures in a membrane mimetic environment, which is common in antimicrobial peptides. However, unlike numerous linear polycationic antimicrobial peptides, membrane disruption does not appear to be the main function of either cementoin, elafin or full-length pre-elafin/trappin-2 against

  11. The inverted free energy landscape of an intrinsically disordered peptide by simulations and experiments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Granata, Daniele; Baftizadeh, Fahimeh; Habchi, Johnny; Galvagnion, Celine; De Simone, Alfonso; Camilloni, Carlo; Laio, Alessandro; Vendruscolo, Michele

    2015-10-26

    The free energy landscape theory has been very successful in rationalizing the folding behaviour of globular proteins, as this representation provides intuitive information on the number of states involved in the folding process, their populations and pathways of interconversion. We extend here this formalism to the case of the Aβ40 peptide, a 40-residue intrinsically disordered protein fragment associated with Alzheimer's disease. By using an advanced sampling technique that enables free energy calculations to reach convergence also in the case of highly disordered states of proteins, we provide a precise structural characterization of the free energy landscape of this peptide. We find that such landscape has inverted features with respect to those typical of folded proteins. While the global free energy minimum consists of highly disordered structures, higher free energy regions correspond to a large variety of transiently structured conformations with secondary structure elements arranged in several different manners, and are not separated from each other by sizeable free energy barriers. From this peculiar structure of the free energy landscape we predict that this peptide should become more structured and not only more compact, with increasing temperatures, and we show that this is the case through a series of biophysical measurements.

  12. Antimicrobial Peptides in 2014

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guangshun Wang

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available This article highlights new members, novel mechanisms of action, new functions, and interesting applications of antimicrobial peptides reported in 2014. As of December 2014, over 100 new peptides were registered into the Antimicrobial Peptide Database, increasing the total number of entries to 2493. Unique antimicrobial peptides have been identified from marine bacteria, fungi, and plants. Environmental conditions clearly influence peptide activity or function. Human α-defensin HD-6 is only antimicrobial under reduced conditions. The pH-dependent oligomerization of human cathelicidin LL-37 is linked to double-stranded RNA delivery to endosomes, where the acidic pH triggers the dissociation of the peptide aggregate to release its cargo. Proline-rich peptides, previously known to bind to heat shock proteins, are shown to inhibit protein synthesis. A model antimicrobial peptide is demonstrated to have multiple hits on bacteria, including surface protein delocalization. While cell surface modification to decrease cationic peptide binding is a recognized resistance mechanism for pathogenic bacteria, it is also used as a survival strategy for commensal bacteria. The year 2014 also witnessed continued efforts in exploiting potential applications of antimicrobial peptides. We highlight 3D structure-based design of peptide antimicrobials and vaccines, surface coating, delivery systems, and microbial detection devices involving antimicrobial peptides. The 2014 results also support that combination therapy is preferred over monotherapy in treating biofilms.

  13. Structure, Content, and Bioactivity of Food-Derived Peptides in the Body.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sato, Kenji

    2018-03-28

    Orally administered peptides are assumed to be degraded into amino acids in the body. However, our recent studies revealed some food-derived prolyl and pyroglutamyl peptides with 2-3 amino acid residues in the blood of humans and animals, while most of the peptides in the endoproteinase digest of food protein are degraded by exopeptidase. Some food-derived dipeptides in the body display in vitro and in vivo biological activities. These facts indicate that the biological activities of food-derived peptides in the body rather than those in food are crucial to understanding the mechanism of the beneficial effects of orally administered peptides.

  14. Predicting RNA Structure Using Mutual Information

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Freyhult, E.; Moulton, V.; Gardner, P. P.

    2005-01-01

    , to display and predict conserved RNA secondary structure (including pseudoknots) from an alignment. Results: We show that MIfold can be used to predict simple pseudoknots, and that the performance can be adjusted to make it either more sensitive or more selective. We also demonstrate that the overall...... package. Conclusion: MIfold provides a useful supplementary tool to programs such as RNA Structure Logo, RNAalifold and COVE, and should be useful for automatically generating structural predictions for databases such as Rfam. Availability: MIfold is freely available from http......Background: With the ever-increasing number of sequenced RNAs and the establishment of new RNA databases, such as the Comparative RNA Web Site and Rfam, there is a growing need for accurately and automatically predicting RNA structures from multiple alignments. Since RNA secondary structure...

  15. Ligand and Structure-Based Approaches for the Identification of Peptide Deformylase Inhibitors as Antibacterial Drugs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Jian; Liang, Li; Zhu, Yasheng; Qiu, Shengzhi; Wang, Tao; Zhang, Ling

    2016-07-15

    Peptide deformylase (PDF) is a metalloprotease catalyzing the removal of a formyl group from newly synthesized proteins, which makes it an important antibacterial drug target. Given the importance of PDF inhibitors like actinonin in antibacterial drug discovery, several reported potent PDF inhibitors were used to develop pharmacophore models using the Galahad module of Sybyl 7.1 software. Generated pharmacophore models were composed of two donor atom centers, four acceptor atom centers and two hydrophobic groups. Model-1 was screened against the Zinc database and several compounds were retrieved as hits. Compounds with Qfit values of more than 60 were employed to perform a molecular docking study with the receptor Escherichia coli PDF, then compounds with docking score values of more than 6 were used to predict the in silico pharmacokinetic and toxicity risk via OSIRIS property explorer. Two known PDF inhibitors were also used to perform a molecular docking study with E. coli PDF as reference molecules. The results of the molecular docking study were validated by reproducing the crystal structure of actinonin. Molecular docking and in silico pharmacokinetic and toxicity prediction studies suggested that ZINC08740166 has a relatively high docking score of 7.44 and a drug score of 0.78.

  16. Novel cyclo-peptides inhibit Ebola pseudotyped virus entry by targeting primed GP protein.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Quanjie; Ma, Ling; Yi, Dongrong; Wang, Han; Wang, Jing; Zhang, Yongxin; Guo, Ying; Li, Xiaoyu; Zhou, Jinming; Shi, Yi; Gao, George F; Cen, Shan

    2018-07-01

    Ebola virus (EBOV) causes fatal hemorrhagic fever with high death rates in human. Currently, there are no available clinically-approved prophylactic or therapeutic treatments. The recently solved crystal structure of cleavage-primed EBOV glycoprotein (GPcl) in complex with the C domain of endosomal protein Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) provides a new target for the development of EBOV entry inhibitors. In this work, a computational approach using docking and molecular dynamic simulations is carried out for the rational design of peptide inhibitors. A novel cyclo-peptide (Pep-3.3) was identified to target at the late stage of EBOV entry and exhibit specific inhibitory activity against EBOV-GP pseudotyped viruses, with 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 5.1 μM. In vitro binding assay and molecular simulations revealed that Pep-3.3 binds to GPcl with a KD value of 69.7 μM, through interacting with predicted residues in the hydrophobic binding pocket of GPcl. Mutation of predicted residues T83 caused resistance to Pep-3.3 inhibition in viral infectivity, providing preliminary support for the model of the peptide binding to GPcl. This study demonstrates the feasibility of inhibiting EBOV entry by targeting GPcl with peptides. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Diagnostic value of C-peptide determination

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kober, G.; Rainer, O.H.

    1983-01-01

    C-peptide and insulin serum determinations were performed in 94 glucagon-stimulated diabetics and in 15 healthy persons. A minimal increase of 1.5 ng C-peptide/ml serum after glucagon injection (1 mg i.v.) was found to be a useful parameter for the differentiation of insulin dependent and non-insulin dependent diabetics. The maximal response to glucagon occurred during the first 10-minutes after the injection (blood was drawn at 2-minutes intervals). Serum insulin levels and basal C-peptide concentrations were of no value in predicting insulin-dependency. Basal C-peptide levels were significantly different from control in juvenile insulin dependent diabetics (decrease) only. (Author)

  18. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte response to peptide vaccination predicts survival in stage III colorectal cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kawamura, Junichiro; Sugiura, Fumiaki; Sukegawa, Yasushi; Yoshioka, Yasumasa; Hida, Jin-Ichi; Hazama, Shoichi; Okuno, Kiyotaka

    2018-02-23

    We previously reported a phase I clinical trial of a peptide vaccine ring finger protein 43 (RNF43) and 34-kDa translocase of the outer mitochondrial membrane (TOMM34) combined with uracil-tegafur (UFT)/LV for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC), and demonstrated the safety and immunological responsiveness of this combination therapy. In this study, we evaluated vaccination-induced immune responses to clarify the survival benefit of the combination therapy as adjuvant treatment. We enrolled 44 patients initially in an HLA-masked fashion. After the disclosure of HLA, 28 patients were in the HLA-A*2402-matched and 16 were in the unmatched group. In the HLA-matched group, 14 patients had positive CTL responses specific for the RNF43 and/or TOMM34 peptides after 2 cycles of treatment and 9 had negative responses; in the HLA-unmatched group, 10 CTL responses were positive and 2 negative. In the HLA-matched group, 3-year relapse-free survival (RFS) was significantly better in the positive CTL subgroup than in the negative-response subgroup. Patients with negative vaccination-induced CTL responses showed a significant trend towards shorter RFS than those with positive responses. Moreover, in the HLA-unmatched group, the positive CTL response subgroup showed an equally good 3-year RFS as in the HLA-matched group. In conclusion, vaccination-induced CTL response to peptide vaccination could predict survival in the adjuvant setting for stage III CRC. © 2018 The Authors. Cancer Science published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japanese Cancer Association.

  19. Cry1A(b)16 toxin from Bacillus thuringiensis: Theoretical refinement of three-dimensional structure and prediction of peptides as molecular markers for detection of genetically modified organisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plácido, Alexandra; Coelho, Andreia; Abreu Nascimento, Lucas; Gomes Vasconcelos, Andreanne; Fátima Barroso, Maria; Ramos-Jesus, Joilson; Costa, Vladimir; das Chagas Alves Lima, Francisco; Delerue-Matos, Cristina; Martins Ramos, Ricardo; Marani, Mariela M; Roberto de Souza de Almeida Leite, José

    2017-07-01

    Transgenic maize produced by the insertion of the Cry transgene into its genome became the second most cultivated crop worldwide. Cry gene from Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki expresses protein derivatives of crystalline endotoxins which confer insect resistance onto the maize crop. Mandatory labeling of processed food containing or made by genetically modified organisms is in force in many countries, so, it is very urgent to develop fast and practical methods for GMO identification, for example, biosensors. In the absence of an available empirical structure of Cry1A(b)16 protein, a theoretical model was effectively generated, in this work, by homology modeling and molecular dynamics simulations based on two available homologous protein structures. Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to refine the selected model, and an analysis of its global structure was performed. The refined models of Cry1A(b)16 showed a standard fold and structural characteristics similar to those seen in Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1A(a) insecticidal toxin and Bacillus thuringiensis serovar kurstaki Cry1A(c) toxin. After in silico analysis of Cry1A(b)16, two immunoreactive candidate peptides were selected and specific polyclonal antibodies were produced resulting in antibody-peptide interaction. Biosensing devices are expected to be developed for detection of the Cry1A(b) protein as a marker of transgenic maize in food. Proteins 2017; 85:1248-1257. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Determination of the minimal fusion peptide of bovine leukemia virus gp30

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lorin, Aurelien; Lins, Laurence; Stroobant, Vincent; Brasseur, Robert; Charloteaux, Benoit

    2007-01-01

    In this study, we determined the minimal N-terminal fusion peptide of the gp30 of the bovine leukemia virus on the basis of the tilted peptide theory. We first used molecular modelling to predict that the gp30 minimal fusion peptide corresponds to the 15 first residues. Liposome lipid-mixing and leakage assays confirmed that the 15-residue long peptide induces fusion in vitro and that it is the shortest peptide inducing optimal fusion since longer peptides destabilize liposomes to the same extent but not shorter ones. The 15-residue long peptide can thus be considered as the minimal fusion peptide. The effect of mutations reported in the literature was also investigated. Interestingly, mutations related to glycoproteins unable to induce syncytia in cell-cell fusion assays correspond to peptides predicted as non-tilted. The relationship between obliquity and fusogenicity was also confirmed in vitro for one tilted and one non-tilted mutant peptide

  1. Polarization switching and patterning in self-assembled peptide tubular structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bdikin, Igor; Bystrov, Vladimir; Delgadillo, Ivonne; Gracio, José; Kopyl, Svitlana; Wojtas, Maciej; Mishina, Elena; Sigov, Alexander; Kholkin, Andrei L.

    2012-04-01

    Self-assembled peptide nanotubes are unique nanoscale objects that have great potential for a multitude of applications, including biosensors, nanotemplates, tissue engineering, biosurfactants, etc. The discovery of strong piezoactivity and polar properties in aromatic dipeptides [A. Kholkin, N. Amdursky, I. Bdikin, E. Gazit, and G. Rosenman, ACS Nano 4, 610 (2010)] opened up a new perspective for their use as biocompatible nanoactuators, nanomotors, and molecular machines. Another, as yet unexplored functional property is the ability to switch polarization and create artificial polarization patterns useful in various electronic and optical applications. In this work, we demonstrate that diphenylalanine peptide nanotubes are indeed electrically switchable if annealed at a temperature of about 150 °C. The new orthorhombic antipolar structure that appears after annealing allows for the existence of a radial polarization component, which is directly probed by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) measurements. Observation of the relatively stable polarization patterns and hysteresis loops via PFM testifies to the local reorientation of molecular dipoles in the radial direction. The experimental results are complemented with rigorous molecular calculations and create a solid background of electric-field induced deformation of aromatic rings and corresponding polarization switching in this emergent material.

  2. Structure/Function Analysis of Cotton-Based Peptide-Cellulose Conjugates: Spatiotemporal/Kinetic Assessment of Protease Aerogels Compared to Nanocrystalline and Paper Cellulose

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Vincent Edwards

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Nanocellulose has high specific surface area, hydration properties, and ease of derivatization to prepare protease sensors. A Human Neutrophil Elastase sensor designed with a nanocellulose aerogel transducer surface derived from cotton is compared with cotton filter paper, and nanocrystalline cellulose versions of the sensor. X-ray crystallography was employed along with Michaelis–Menten enzyme kinetics, and circular dichroism to contrast the structure/function relations of the peptide-cellulose conjugate conformation to enzyme/substrate binding and turnover rates. The nanocellulosic aerogel was found to have a cellulose II structure. The spatiotemporal relation of crystallite surface to peptide-cellulose conformation is discussed in light of observed enzyme kinetics. A higher substrate binding affinity (Km of elastase was observed with the nanocellulose aerogel and nanocrystalline peptide-cellulose conjugates than with the solution-based elastase substrate. An increased Km observed for the nanocellulosic aerogel sensor yields a higher enzyme efficiency (kcat/Km, attributable to binding of the serine protease to the negatively charged cellulose surface. The effect of crystallite size and β-turn peptide conformation are related to the peptide-cellulose kinetics. Models demonstrating the orientation of cellulose to peptide O6-hydroxymethyl rotamers of the conjugates at the surface of the cellulose crystal suggest the relative accessibility of the peptide-cellulose conjugates for enzyme active site binding.

  3. Structure/Function Analysis of Cotton-Based Peptide-Cellulose Conjugates: Spatiotemporal/Kinetic Assessment of Protease Aerogels Compared to Nanocrystalline and Paper Cellulose

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, J. Vincent; Fontenot, Krystal; Liebner, Falk; Pircher, Nicole Doyle nee; French, Alfred D.; Condon, Brian D.

    2018-01-01

    Nanocellulose has high specific surface area, hydration properties, and ease of derivatization to prepare protease sensors. A Human Neutrophil Elastase sensor designed with a nanocellulose aerogel transducer surface derived from cotton is compared with cotton filter paper, and nanocrystalline cellulose versions of the sensor. X-ray crystallography was employed along with Michaelis–Menten enzyme kinetics, and circular dichroism to contrast the structure/function relations of the peptide-cellulose conjugate conformation to enzyme/substrate binding and turnover rates. The nanocellulosic aerogel was found to have a cellulose II structure. The spatiotemporal relation of crystallite surface to peptide-cellulose conformation is discussed in light of observed enzyme kinetics. A higher substrate binding affinity (Km) of elastase was observed with the nanocellulose aerogel and nanocrystalline peptide-cellulose conjugates than with the solution-based elastase substrate. An increased Km observed for the nanocellulosic aerogel sensor yields a higher enzyme efficiency (kcat/Km), attributable to binding of the serine protease to the negatively charged cellulose surface. The effect of crystallite size and β-turn peptide conformation are related to the peptide-cellulose kinetics. Models demonstrating the orientation of cellulose to peptide O6-hydroxymethyl rotamers of the conjugates at the surface of the cellulose crystal suggest the relative accessibility of the peptide-cellulose conjugates for enzyme active site binding. PMID:29534033

  4. Peptides in headlock--a novel high-affinity and versatile peptide-binding nanobody for proteomics and microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braun, Michael B; Traenkle, Bjoern; Koch, Philipp A; Emele, Felix; Weiss, Frederik; Poetz, Oliver; Stehle, Thilo; Rothbauer, Ulrich

    2016-01-21

    Nanobodies are highly valuable tools for numerous bioanalytical and biotechnical applications. Here, we report the characterization of a nanobody that binds a short peptide epitope with extraordinary affinity. Structural analysis reveals an unusual binding mode where the extended peptide becomes part of a β-sheet structure in the nanobody. This interaction relies on sequence-independent backbone interactions augmented by a small number of specificity-determining side chain contacts. Once bound, the peptide is fastened by two nanobody side chains that clamp it in a headlock fashion. Exploiting this unusual binding mode, we generated a novel nanobody-derived capture and detection system. Matrix-coupled nanobody enables the fast and efficient isolation of epitope-tagged proteins from prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems. Additionally, the fluorescently labeled nanobody visualizes subcellular structures in different cellular compartments. The high-affinity-binding and modifiable peptide tag of this system renders it a versatile and robust tool to combine biochemical analysis with microscopic studies.

  5. NetMHCpan-3.0; improved prediction of binding to MHC class I molecules integrating information from multiple receptor and peptide length datasets

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Morten; Andreatta, Massimo

    2016-01-01

    Background: Binding of peptides to MHC class I molecules (MHC-I) is essential for antigen presentation to cytotoxic T-cells.Results: Here, we demonstrate how a simple alignment step allowing insertions and deletions in a pan-specific MHC-I binding machine-learning model enables combining informat...... specificities and ligand length scales, and demonstrated how this approach significantly improves the accuracy for prediction of peptide binding and identification of MHC ligands. The method is available at www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCpan-3.0....

  6. Peptides for functionalization of InP semiconductors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Estephan, Elias; Saab, Marie-belle; Larroque, Christian; Martin, Marta; Olsson, Fredrik; Lourdudoss, Sebastian; Gergely, Csilla

    2009-09-15

    The challenge is to achieve high specificity in molecular sensing by proper functionalization of micro/nano-structured semiconductors by peptides that reveal specific recognition for these structures. Here we report on surface modification of the InP semiconductors by adhesion peptides produced by the phage display technique. An M13 bacteriophage library has been used to screen 10(10) different peptides against the InP(001) and the InP(111) surfaces to finally isolate specific peptides for each orientation of the InP. MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry has been employed to study real affinity of the peptide towards the InP surfaces. The peptides serve for controlled placement of biotin onto InP to bind then streptavidin. Our Atomic Force Microscopy study revealed a total surface coverage of molecules when the InP surface was functionalized by its specific biotinylated peptide (YAIKGPSHFRPS). Finally, fluorescence microscopy has been employed to demonstrate the preferential attachment of the peptide onto a micro-patterned InP surface. Use of substrate specific peptides could present an alternative solution for the problems encountered in the actually existing sensing methods and molecular self-assembly due to the unwanted unspecific interactions.

  7. Syntheses and structures of technetium(V) and rhenium(V) oxo complexes of peptide having KYC-sequence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takayama, T.; Suzuki, K.; Sekine, T.; Kudo, H.

    2000-01-01

    Technetium(V) and rhenium(V) oxo complexes of a peptide having a KYC-sequence such as KYCAR (H 3 L 5 ) and KYCAREPPTRTNAYQGQG-NH 2 (H 3 L 18 ) were synthesized, and structures of the complexes were characterized by spectroscopic techniques. All of the complexes were synthesized by the ligand exchange reaction of [(n-C 4 H 9 ) 4 N][MOCl 4 ] (M = 99 Tc, Re) with peptide in methanol or dimethylformamide solution. These complexes have a square pyramidal structure with an oxo ligand at the apical position. The peptide is coordinated to a metal atom through N amine of lysine. S thiol of cysteine, and N amide of tyrosine and cysteine in the equatorial plane. A lysine (CH 2 ) 4 NH 2 group of the L 5 ligand has the syn conformation with respect to metal-oxo bonding in the complex. The syn isomer was selectively formed in the ligand exchange reaction. The conversion of the syn isomer to the anti isomer was observed only for syn-[ReO(L 5 )], in which the coordination of water to the trans position of the oxo ligand was involved. (orig.)

  8. Structures of a Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetase Module Bound to MbtH-like Proteins Support a Highly Dynamic Domain Architecture

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Miller, Bradley R.; Drake, Eric J.; Shi, Ce; Aldrich, Courtney C.; Gulick, Andrew M. (UMM); (HWMRI)

    2016-09-05

    Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) produce a wide variety of peptide natural products. During synthesis, the multidomain NRPSs act as an assembly line, passing the growing product from one module to the next. Each module generally consists of an integrated peptidyl carrier protein, an amino acid-loading adenylation domain, and a condensation domain that catalyzes peptide bond formation. Some adenylation domains interact with small partner proteins called MbtH-like proteins (MLPs) that enhance solubility or activity. A structure of an MLP bound to an adenylation domain has been previously reported using a truncated adenylation domain, precluding any insight that might be derived from understanding the influence of the MLP on the intact adenylation domain or on the dynamics of the entire NRPS module. Here, we present the structures of the full-length NRPS EntF bound to the MLPs from Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These new structures, along with biochemical and bioinformatics support, further elaborate the residues that define the MLP-adenylation domain interface. Additionally, the structures highlight the dynamic behavior of NRPS modules, including the module core formed by the adenylation and condensation domains as well as the orientation of the mobile thioesterase domain.

  9. Structural Insights into the Mechanisms of Action of Short-Peptide HIV-1 Fusion Inhibitors Targeting the Gp41 Pocket

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiujuan Zhang

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The deep hydrophobic pocket of HIV-1 gp41 has been considered a drug target, but short-peptides targeting this site usually lack potent antiviral activity. By applying the M-T hook structure, we previously generated highly potent short-peptide fusion inhibitors that specifically targeted the pocket site, such as MT-SC22EK, HP23L, and LP-11. Here, the crystal structures of HP23L and LP-11 bound to the target mimic peptide N36 demonstrated the critical intrahelical and interhelical interactions, especially verifying that the hook-like conformation was finely adopted while the methionine residue was replaced by the oxidation-less prone residue leucine, and that addition of an extra glutamic acid significantly enhanced the binding and inhibitory activities. The structure of HP23L bound to N36 with two mutations (E49K and L57R revealed the critical residues and motifs mediating drug resistance and provided new insights into the mechanism of action of inhibitors. Therefore, the present data help our understanding for the structure-activity relationship (SAR of HIV-1 fusion inhibitors and facilitate the development of novel antiviral drugs.

  10. Improving the accuracy of protein secondary structure prediction using structural alignment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gallin Warren J

    2006-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The accuracy of protein secondary structure prediction has steadily improved over the past 30 years. Now many secondary structure prediction methods routinely achieve an accuracy (Q3 of about 75%. We believe this accuracy could be further improved by including structure (as opposed to sequence database comparisons as part of the prediction process. Indeed, given the large size of the Protein Data Bank (>35,000 sequences, the probability of a newly identified sequence having a structural homologue is actually quite high. Results We have developed a method that performs structure-based sequence alignments as part of the secondary structure prediction process. By mapping the structure of a known homologue (sequence ID >25% onto the query protein's sequence, it is possible to predict at least a portion of that query protein's secondary structure. By integrating this structural alignment approach with conventional (sequence-based secondary structure methods and then combining it with a "jury-of-experts" system to generate a consensus result, it is possible to attain very high prediction accuracy. Using a sequence-unique test set of 1644 proteins from EVA, this new method achieves an average Q3 score of 81.3%. Extensive testing indicates this is approximately 4–5% better than any other method currently available. Assessments using non sequence-unique test sets (typical of those used in proteome annotation or structural genomics indicate that this new method can achieve a Q3 score approaching 88%. Conclusion By using both sequence and structure databases and by exploiting the latest techniques in machine learning it is possible to routinely predict protein secondary structure with an accuracy well above 80%. A program and web server, called PROTEUS, that performs these secondary structure predictions is accessible at http://wishart.biology.ualberta.ca/proteus. For high throughput or batch sequence analyses, the PROTEUS programs

  11. Ensemble-based prediction of RNA secondary structures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aghaeepour, Nima; Hoos, Holger H

    2013-04-24

    Accurate structure prediction methods play an important role for the understanding of RNA function. Energy-based, pseudoknot-free secondary structure prediction is one of the most widely used and versatile approaches, and improved methods for this task have received much attention over the past five years. Despite the impressive progress that as been achieved in this area, existing evaluations of the prediction accuracy achieved by various algorithms do not provide a comprehensive, statistically sound assessment. Furthermore, while there is increasing evidence that no prediction algorithm consistently outperforms all others, no work has been done to exploit the complementary strengths of multiple approaches. In this work, we present two contributions to the area of RNA secondary structure prediction. Firstly, we use state-of-the-art, resampling-based statistical methods together with a previously published and increasingly widely used dataset of high-quality RNA structures to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of existing RNA secondary structure prediction procedures. The results from this evaluation clarify the performance relationship between ten well-known existing energy-based pseudoknot-free RNA secondary structure prediction methods and clearly demonstrate the progress that has been achieved in recent years. Secondly, we introduce AveRNA, a generic and powerful method for combining a set of existing secondary structure prediction procedures into an ensemble-based method that achieves significantly higher prediction accuracies than obtained from any of its component procedures. Our new, ensemble-based method, AveRNA, improves the state of the art for energy-based, pseudoknot-free RNA secondary structure prediction by exploiting the complementary strengths of multiple existing prediction procedures, as demonstrated using a state-of-the-art statistical resampling approach. In addition, AveRNA allows an intuitive and effective control of the trade-off between

  12. Changes in the structure of calmodulin induced by a peptide based on the calmodulin-binding domain of myosin light chain kinase

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heidorn, D.B.; Seeger, P.A.; Rokop, S.E.; Blumenthal, D.K.; Means, A.R.; Crespi, H.; Trewhella, J.

    1989-01-01

    Small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering data were used to study the solution structure of calmodulin complexed with a synthetic peptide corresponding to residues 577-603 of rabbit skeletal muscle myosin light chain kinase. The X-ray data indicate that, in the presence of Ca 2+ , the calmodulin-peptide complex has a structure that is considerably more compact than uncomplexed calmodulin. The radius of gyration, R g , for the complex is approximately 20% smaller than that of uncomplexed Ca 2+ ·calmodulin, and the maximum dimension, d max , for the complex is also about 20% smaller. The peptide-induced conformational rearrangement of calmodulin is [Ca 2+ ] dependent. The length distribution function for the complex is more symmetric than that for uncomplexed Ca 2+ ·calmodulin, indicating that more of the mass is distributed toward the center of mass for the complex, compared with the dumbbell-shaped Ca 2+ ·calmodulin. The solvent contrast dependence of R g for neutron scattering indicates that the peptide is located more toward the center of the complex, while the calmodulin is located more peripherally, and that the centers of mass of the calmodulin and the peptide are not coincident. The scattering data support the hypothesis that the interconnecting helix region observed in the crystal structure for calmodulin is quite flexible in solution, allowing the two lobes of calmodulin to form close contacts on binding the peptide. This flexibility of the central helix may play a critical role in activating target enzymes such as myosin light chain kinase

  13. Deamidation of asparagine and glutamine residues in proteins and peptides: structural determinants and analytical methodology

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bischoff, Rainer; Kolbe, H.V.

    1994-01-01

    Non-enzymatic deamidation of asparagine and glutamine residues in proteins and peptides are reviewed by first outlining the well-described reaction mechanism involving cyclic imide intermediates, followed by a discussion of structural features which influence the reaction rate. The second and major

  14. Effect of secondary structure on the interactions of peptide T4 LYS (11-36) in mixtures of aqueous sodium chloride and 2,2,2,-Trifluoroethanol

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anderson, Camille O.; Spiegelberg, Susanne; Prausnitz, John M.; Blanch, Harvey W.

    2001-10-01

    The potential of mean force for protein-protein interactions is key to the development of a statistical-mechanical model for salt-induced protein precipitation and crystallization, and for understanding certain disease states, including cataract formation and {beta}-amyloid pathology in Alzheimer's disease. Fluorescence anisotropy provides a method for quantitative characterization of intermolecular interactions due to reversible association. Monomer-dimer equilibria for the peptide T4 LYS(11-36) were studied by fluorescence anisotropy. This peptide, derived from the {beta}-sheet region of the T4 lysozyme molecule, has the potential to form amyloid fibrils. 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE) induces a change in peptide secondary structure, and was used in aqueous solutions at concentrations from 0 to 50% (v/v) at 25 and 37 C to examine the role of peptide conformation on peptide-peptide interactions. The association constant for dimerization increased with rising TFE concentration and with falling temperature. The peptide-peptide potential of mean force was computed from these association constants. Circular-dichroism measurements showed that the secondary structure of the peptide plays an important role in these strong attractive interactions due to intermolecular hydrogen-bond formation and hydrophobic interactions.

  15. Gastrointestinal Endogenous Proteins as a Source of Bioactive Peptides - An In Silico Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dave, Lakshmi A.; Montoya, Carlos A.; Rutherfurd, Shane M.; Moughan, Paul J.

    2014-01-01

    Dietary proteins are known to contain bioactive peptides that are released during digestion. Endogenous proteins secreted into the gastrointestinal tract represent a quantitatively greater supply of protein to the gut lumen than those of dietary origin. Many of these endogenous proteins are digested in the gastrointestinal tract but the possibility that these are also a source of bioactive peptides has not been considered. An in silico prediction method was used to test if bioactive peptides could be derived from the gastrointestinal digestion of gut endogenous proteins. Twenty six gut endogenous proteins and seven dietary proteins were evaluated. The peptides present after gastric and intestinal digestion were predicted based on the amino acid sequence of the proteins and the known specificities of the major gastrointestinal proteases. The predicted resultant peptides possessing amino acid sequences identical to those of known bioactive peptides were identified. After gastrointestinal digestion (based on the in silico simulation), the total number of bioactive peptides predicted to be released ranged from 1 (gliadin) to 55 (myosin) for the selected dietary proteins and from 1 (secretin) to 39 (mucin-5AC) for the selected gut endogenous proteins. Within the intact proteins and after simulated gastrointestinal digestion, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory peptide sequences were the most frequently observed in both the dietary and endogenous proteins. Among the dietary proteins, after in silico simulated gastrointestinal digestion, myosin was found to have the highest number of ACE-inhibitory peptide sequences (49 peptides), while for the gut endogenous proteins, mucin-5AC had the greatest number of ACE-inhibitory peptide sequences (38 peptides). Gut endogenous proteins may be an important source of bioactive peptides in the gut particularly since gut endogenous proteins represent a quantitatively large and consistent source of protein. PMID:24901416

  16. Gastrointestinal endogenous proteins as a source of bioactive peptides--an in silico study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dave, Lakshmi A; Montoya, Carlos A; Rutherfurd, Shane M; Moughan, Paul J

    2014-01-01

    Dietary proteins are known to contain bioactive peptides that are released during digestion. Endogenous proteins secreted into the gastrointestinal tract represent a quantitatively greater supply of protein to the gut lumen than those of dietary origin. Many of these endogenous proteins are digested in the gastrointestinal tract but the possibility that these are also a source of bioactive peptides has not been considered. An in silico prediction method was used to test if bioactive peptides could be derived from the gastrointestinal digestion of gut endogenous proteins. Twenty six gut endogenous proteins and seven dietary proteins were evaluated. The peptides present after gastric and intestinal digestion were predicted based on the amino acid sequence of the proteins and the known specificities of the major gastrointestinal proteases. The predicted resultant peptides possessing amino acid sequences identical to those of known bioactive peptides were identified. After gastrointestinal digestion (based on the in silico simulation), the total number of bioactive peptides predicted to be released ranged from 1 (gliadin) to 55 (myosin) for the selected dietary proteins and from 1 (secretin) to 39 (mucin-5AC) for the selected gut endogenous proteins. Within the intact proteins and after simulated gastrointestinal digestion, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory peptide sequences were the most frequently observed in both the dietary and endogenous proteins. Among the dietary proteins, after in silico simulated gastrointestinal digestion, myosin was found to have the highest number of ACE-inhibitory peptide sequences (49 peptides), while for the gut endogenous proteins, mucin-5AC had the greatest number of ACE-inhibitory peptide sequences (38 peptides). Gut endogenous proteins may be an important source of bioactive peptides in the gut particularly since gut endogenous proteins represent a quantitatively large and consistent source of protein.

  17. Representing environment-induced helix-coil transitions in a coarse grained peptide model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dalgicdir, Cahit; Globisch, Christoph; Sayar, Mehmet; Peter, Christine

    2016-10-01

    Coarse grained (CG) models are widely used in studying peptide self-assembly and nanostructure formation. One of the recurrent challenges in CG modeling is the problem of limited transferability, for example to different thermodynamic state points and system compositions. Understanding transferability is generally a prerequisite to knowing for which problems a model can be reliably used and predictive. For peptides, one crucial transferability question is whether a model reproduces the molecule's conformational response to a change in its molecular environment. This is of particular importance since CG peptide models often have to resort to auxiliary interactions that aid secondary structure formation. Such interactions take care of properties of the real system that are per se lost in the coarse graining process such as dihedral-angle correlations along the backbone or backbone hydrogen bonding. These auxiliary interactions may then easily overstabilize certain conformational propensities and therefore destroy the ability of the model to respond to stimuli and environment changes, i.e. they impede transferability. In the present paper we have investigated a short peptide with amphiphilic EALA repeats which undergoes conformational transitions between a disordered and a helical state upon a change in pH value or due to the presence of a soft apolar/polar interface. We designed a base CG peptide model that does not carry a specific (backbone) bias towards a secondary structure. This base model was combined with two typical approaches of ensuring secondary structure formation, namely a C α -C α -C α -C α pseudodihedral angle potential or a virtual site interaction that mimics hydrogen bonding. We have investigated the ability of the two resulting CG models to represent the environment-induced conformational changes in the helix-coil equilibrium of EALA. We show that with both approaches a CG peptide model can be obtained that is environment-transferable and that

  18. Structure-activity study of macropin, a novel antimicrobial peptide from the venom of solitary bee Macropis fulvipes (Hymenoptera: Melittidae).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monincová, Lenka; Veverka, Václav; Slaninová, Jiřina; Buděšínský, Miloš; Fučík, Vladimír; Bednárová, Lucie; Straka, Jakub; Ceřovský, Václav

    2014-06-01

    A novel antimicrobial peptide, designated macropin (MAC-1) with sequence Gly-Phe-Gly-Met-Ala-Leu-Lys-Leu-Leu-Lys-Lys-Val-Leu-NH2 , was isolated from the venom of the solitary bee Macropis fulvipes. MAC-1 exhibited antimicrobial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, antifungal activity, and moderate hemolytic activity against human red blood cells. A series of macropin analogs were prepared to further evaluate the effect of structural alterations on antimicrobial and hemolytic activities and stability in human serum. The antimicrobial activities of several analogs against pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa were significantly increased while their toxicity against human red blood cells was decreased. The activity enhancement is related to the introduction of either l- or d-lysine in selected positions. Furthermore, all-d analog and analogs with d-amino acid residues introduced at the N-terminal part of the peptide chain exhibited better serum stability than did natural macropin. Data obtained by CD spectroscopy suggest a propensity of the peptide to adopt an amphipathic α-helical secondary structure in the presence of trifluoroethanol or membrane-mimicking sodium dodecyl sulfate. In addition, the study elucidates the structure-activity relationship for the effect of d-amino acid substitutions in MAC-1 using NMR spectroscopy. Copyright © 2014 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  19. Structure of a SARS coronavirus-derived peptide bound to the human major histocompatibility complex class I molecule HLA-B*1501

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Røder, Gustav; Kristensen, Ole; Kastrup, Jette S

    2008-01-01

    , the crystal structure of HLA-B*1501 in complex with a SARS coronavirus-derived nonapeptide (VQQESSFVM) has been determined at high resolution (1.87 A). The peptide is deeply anchored in the B and F pockets, but with the Glu4 residue pointing away from the floor in the peptide-binding groove, making...

  20. Anti-angiogenic SPARC peptides inhibit progression of neuroblastoma tumors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tian Yufeng

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background New, more effective strategies are needed to treat highly aggressive neuroblastoma. Our laboratory has previously shown that full-length Secreted Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine (SPARC and a SPARC peptide corresponding to the follistatin domain of the protein (FS-E potently block angiogenesis and inhibit the growth of neuroblastoma tumors in preclinical models. Peptide FS-E is structurally complex and difficult to produce, limiting its potential as a therapeutic in the clinic. Results In this study, we synthesized two smaller and structurally more simple SPARC peptides, FSEN and FSEC, that respectively correspond to the N-and C-terminal loops of peptide FS-E. We show that both peptides FSEN and FSEC have anti-angiogenic activity in vitro and in vivo, although FSEC is more potent. Peptide FSEC also significantly inhibited the growth of neuroblastoma xenografts. Histologic examination demonstrated characteristic features of tumor angiogenesis with structurally abnormal, tortuous blood vessels in control neuroblastoma xenografts. In contrast, the blood vessels observed in tumors, treated with SPARC peptides, were thin walled and structurally more normal. Using a novel method to quantitatively assess blood vessel abnormality we demonstrated that both SPARC peptides induced changes in blood vessel architecture that are consistent with blood vessel normalization. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that SPARC peptide FSEC has potent anti-angiogenic and anti-tumorigenic effects in neuroblastoma. Its simple structure and ease of production indicate that it may have clinical utility in the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma and other types of pediatric and adult cancers, which depend on angiogenesis.

  1. Structure-activity relationship study of Aib-containing amphipathic helical peptide-cyclic RGD conjugates as carriers for siRNA delivery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wada, Shun-Ichi; Takesada, Anna; Nagamura, Yurie; Sogabe, Eri; Ohki, Rieko; Hayashi, Junsuke; Urata, Hidehito

    2017-12-15

    The conjugation of Aib-containing amphipathic helical peptide with cyclo(-Arg-Gly-Asp-d-Phe-Cys-) (cRGDfC) at the C-terminus of the helix peptide (PI) has been reported to be useful for constructing a carrier for targeted siRNA delivery into cells. In order to explore structure-activity relationships for the development of potential carriers for siRNA delivery, we synthesized conjugates of Aib-containing amphipathic helical peptide with cRGDfC at the N-terminus (PII) and both the N- and C-termini (PIII) of the helical peptide. Furthermore, to examine the influence of PI helical chain length on siRNA delivery, truncated peptides containing 16 (PIV), 12 (PV), and 8 (PVI) amino acid residues at the N-terminus of the helical chain were synthesized. PII and PIII, as well as PI, could deliver anti-luciferase siRNA into cells to induce the knockdown of luciferase stably expressed in cells. In contrast, all of the truncated peptides were unlikely to transport siRNA into cells. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Transcriptomic Analysis of Neuropeptides and Peptide Hormones in the Barnacle Balanus amphitrite: Evidence of Roles in Larval Settlement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Xing-Cheng; Chen, Zhang-Fan; Sun, Jin; Matsumura, Kiyotaka; Wu, Rudolf S. S.; Qian, Pei-Yuan

    2012-01-01

    The barnacle Balanus amphitrite is a globally distributed marine crustacean and has been used as a model species for intertidal ecology and biofouling studies. Its life cycle consists of seven planktonic larval stages followed by a sessile juvenile/adult stage. The transitional processes between larval stages and juveniles are crucial for barnacle development and recruitment. Although some studies have been conducted on the neuroanatomy and neuroactive substances of the barnacle, a comprehensive understanding of neuropeptides and peptide hormones remains lacking. To better characterize barnacle neuropeptidome and its potential roles in larval settlement, an in silico identification of putative transcripts encoding neuropeptides/peptide hormones was performed, based on transcriptome of the barnacle B. amphitrite that has been recently sequenced. Potential cleavage sites andstructure of mature peptides were predicted through homology search of known arthropod peptides. In total, 16 neuropeptide families/subfamilies were predicted from the barnacle transcriptome, and 14 of them were confirmed as genuine neuropeptides by Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends. Analysis of peptide precursor structures and mature sequences showed that some neuropeptides of B. amphitrite are novel isoforms and shared similar characteristics with their homologs from insects. The expression profiling of predicted neuropeptide genes revealed that pigment dispersing hormone, SIFamide, calcitonin, and B-type allatostatin had the highest expression level in cypris stage, while tachykinin-related peptide was down regulated in both cyprids and juveniles. Furthermore, an inhibitor of proprotein convertase related to peptide maturation effectively delayed larval metamorphosis. Combination of real-time PCR results and bioassay indicated that certain neuropeptides may play an important role in cypris settlement. Overall, new insight into neuropeptides/peptide hormones characterized in this study shall

  3. Transcriptomic analysis of neuropeptides and peptide hormones in the barnacle Balanus amphitrite: evidence of roles in larval settlement.

    KAUST Repository

    Yan, Xing-Cheng

    2012-10-02

    The barnacle Balanus amphitrite is a globally distributed marine crustacean and has been used as a model species for intertidal ecology and biofouling studies. Its life cycle consists of seven planktonic larval stages followed by a sessile juvenile/adult stage. The transitional processes between larval stages and juveniles are crucial for barnacle development and recruitment. Although some studies have been conducted on the neuroanatomy and neuroactive substances of the barnacle, a comprehensive understanding of neuropeptides and peptide hormones remains lacking. To better characterize barnacle neuropeptidome and its potential roles in larval settlement, an in silico identification of putative transcripts encoding neuropeptides/peptide hormones was performed, based on transcriptome of the barnacle B. amphitrite that has been recently sequenced. Potential cleavage sites andstructure of mature peptides were predicted through homology search of known arthropod peptides. In total, 16 neuropeptide families/subfamilies were predicted from the barnacle transcriptome, and 14 of them were confirmed as genuine neuropeptides by Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends. Analysis of peptide precursor structures and mature sequences showed that some neuropeptides of B. amphitrite are novel isoforms and shared similar characteristics with their homologs from insects. The expression profiling of predicted neuropeptide genes revealed that pigment dispersing hormone, SIFamide, calcitonin, and B-type allatostatin had the highest expression level in cypris stage, while tachykinin-related peptide was down regulated in both cyprids and juveniles. Furthermore, an inhibitor of proprotein convertase related to peptide maturation effectively delayed larval metamorphosis. Combination of real-time PCR results and bioassay indicated that certain neuropeptides may play an important role in cypris settlement. Overall, new insight into neuropeptides/peptide hormones characterized in this study shall

  4. Transcriptomic analysis of neuropeptides and peptide hormones in the barnacle Balanus amphitrite: evidence of roles in larval settlement.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xing-Cheng Yan

    Full Text Available The barnacle Balanus amphitrite is a globally distributed marine crustacean and has been used as a model species for intertidal ecology and biofouling studies. Its life cycle consists of seven planktonic larval stages followed by a sessile juvenile/adult stage. The transitional processes between larval stages and juveniles are crucial for barnacle development and recruitment. Although some studies have been conducted on the neuroanatomy and neuroactive substances of the barnacle, a comprehensive understanding of neuropeptides and peptide hormones remains lacking. To better characterize barnacle neuropeptidome and its potential roles in larval settlement, an in silico identification of putative transcripts encoding neuropeptides/peptide hormones was performed, based on transcriptome of the barnacle B. amphitrite that has been recently sequenced. Potential cleavage sites andstructure of mature peptides were predicted through homology search of known arthropod peptides. In total, 16 neuropeptide families/subfamilies were predicted from the barnacle transcriptome, and 14 of them were confirmed as genuine neuropeptides by Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends. Analysis of peptide precursor structures and mature sequences showed that some neuropeptides of B. amphitrite are novel isoforms and shared similar characteristics with their homologs from insects. The expression profiling of predicted neuropeptide genes revealed that pigment dispersing hormone, SIFamide, calcitonin, and B-type allatostatin had the highest expression level in cypris stage, while tachykinin-related peptide was down regulated in both cyprids and juveniles. Furthermore, an inhibitor of proprotein convertase related to peptide maturation effectively delayed larval metamorphosis. Combination of real-time PCR results and bioassay indicated that certain neuropeptides may play an important role in cypris settlement. Overall, new insight into neuropeptides/peptide hormones characterized in

  5. Transcriptomic analysis of neuropeptides and peptide hormones in the barnacle Balanus amphitrite: evidence of roles in larval settlement.

    KAUST Repository

    Yan, Xing-Cheng; Chen, Zhang-Fan; Sun, Jin; Matsumura, Kiyotaka; Wu, Rudolf S S; Qian, Pei-Yuan

    2012-01-01

    The barnacle Balanus amphitrite is a globally distributed marine crustacean and has been used as a model species for intertidal ecology and biofouling studies. Its life cycle consists of seven planktonic larval stages followed by a sessile juvenile/adult stage. The transitional processes between larval stages and juveniles are crucial for barnacle development and recruitment. Although some studies have been conducted on the neuroanatomy and neuroactive substances of the barnacle, a comprehensive understanding of neuropeptides and peptide hormones remains lacking. To better characterize barnacle neuropeptidome and its potential roles in larval settlement, an in silico identification of putative transcripts encoding neuropeptides/peptide hormones was performed, based on transcriptome of the barnacle B. amphitrite that has been recently sequenced. Potential cleavage sites andstructure of mature peptides were predicted through homology search of known arthropod peptides. In total, 16 neuropeptide families/subfamilies were predicted from the barnacle transcriptome, and 14 of them were confirmed as genuine neuropeptides by Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends. Analysis of peptide precursor structures and mature sequences showed that some neuropeptides of B. amphitrite are novel isoforms and shared similar characteristics with their homologs from insects. The expression profiling of predicted neuropeptide genes revealed that pigment dispersing hormone, SIFamide, calcitonin, and B-type allatostatin had the highest expression level in cypris stage, while tachykinin-related peptide was down regulated in both cyprids and juveniles. Furthermore, an inhibitor of proprotein convertase related to peptide maturation effectively delayed larval metamorphosis. Combination of real-time PCR results and bioassay indicated that certain neuropeptides may play an important role in cypris settlement. Overall, new insight into neuropeptides/peptide hormones characterized in this study shall

  6. Applications of contact predictions to structural biology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Felix Simkovic

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Evolutionary pressure on residue interactions, intramolecular or intermolecular, that are important for protein structure or function can lead to covariance between the two positions. Recent methodological advances allow much more accurate contact predictions to be derived from this evolutionary covariance signal. The practical application of contact predictions has largely been confined to structural bioinformatics, yet, as this work seeks to demonstrate, the data can be of enormous value to the structural biologist working in X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM or NMR. Integrative structural bioinformatics packages such as Rosetta can already exploit contact predictions in a variety of ways. The contribution of contact predictions begins at construct design, where structural domains may need to be expressed separately and contact predictions can help to predict domain limits. Structure solution by molecular replacement (MR benefits from contact predictions in diverse ways: in difficult cases, more accurate search models can be constructed using ab initio modelling when predictions are available, while intermolecular contact predictions can allow the construction of larger, oligomeric search models. Furthermore, MR using supersecondary motifs or large-scale screens against the PDB can exploit information, such as the parallel or antiparallel nature of any β-strand pairing in the target, that can be inferred from contact predictions. Contact information will be particularly valuable in the determination of lower resolution structures by helping to assign sequence register. In large complexes, contact information may allow the identity of a protein responsible for a certain region of density to be determined and then assist in the orientation of an available model within that density. In NMR, predicted contacts can provide long-range information to extend the upper size limit of the technique in a manner analogous but complementary to experimental

  7. PeptX: Using Genetic Algorithms to optimize peptides for MHC binding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ribarics Reiner

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The binding between the major histocompatibility complex and the presented peptide is an indispensable prerequisite for the adaptive immune response. There is a plethora of different in silico techniques for the prediction of the peptide binding affinity to major histocompatibility complexes. Most studies screen a set of peptides for promising candidates to predict possible T cell epitopes. In this study we ask the question vice versa: Which peptides do have highest binding affinities to a given major histocompatibility complex according to certain in silico scoring functions? Results Since a full screening of all possible peptides is not feasible in reasonable runtime, we introduce a heuristic approach. We developed a framework for Genetic Algorithms to optimize peptides for the binding to major histocompatibility complexes. In an extensive benchmark we tested various operator combinations. We found that (1 selection operators have a strong influence on the convergence of the population while recombination operators have minor influence and (2 that five different binding prediction methods lead to five different sets of "optimal" peptides for the same major histocompatibility complex. The consensus peptides were experimentally verified as high affinity binders. Conclusion We provide a generalized framework to calculate sets of high affinity binders based on different previously published scoring functions in reasonable runtime. Furthermore we give insight into the different behaviours of operators and scoring functions of the Genetic Algorithm.

  8. Probing the Gaseous Structure of a β-Hairpin Peptide with H/D Exchange and Electron Capture Dissociation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Straus, Rita N; Jockusch, Rebecca A

    2017-02-01

    An improved understanding of the extent to which native protein structure is retained upon transfer to the gas phase promises to enhance biological mass spectrometry, potentially streamlining workflows and providing fundamental insights into hydration effects. Here, we investigate the gaseous conformation of a model β-hairpin peptide using gas-phase hydrogen-deuterium (H/D) exchange with subsequent electron capture dissociation (ECD). Global gas-phase H/D exchange levels, and residue-specific exchange levels derived from ECD data, are compared among the wild type 16-residue peptide GB1p and several variants. High protection from H/D exchange observed for GB1p, but not for a truncated version, is consistent with the retention of secondary structure of GB1p in the gas phase or its refolding into some other compact structure. Four alanine mutants that destabilize the hairpin in solution show levels of protection similar to that of GB1p, suggesting collapse or (re)folding of these peptides upon transfer to the gas phase. These results offer a starting point from which to understand how a key secondary structural element, the β-hairpin, is affected by transfer to the gas phase. This work also demonstrates the utility of a much-needed addition to the tool set that is currently available for the investigation of the gaseous conformation of biomolecules, which can be employed in the future to better characterize gaseous proteins and protein complexes. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

  9. BioPepDB: an integrated data platform for food-derived bioactive peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Qilin; Zhang, Chao; Chen, Hongjun; Xue, Jitong; Guo, Xiaolei; Liang, Ming; Chen, Ming

    2018-03-12

    Food-derived bioactive peptides play critical roles in regulating most biological processes and have considerable biological, medical and industrial importance. However, a large number of active peptides data, including sequence, function, source, commercial product information, references and other information are poorly integrated. BioPepDB is a searchable database of food-derived bioactive peptides and their related articles, including more than four thousand bioactive peptide entries. Moreover, BioPepDB provides modules of prediction and hydrolysis-simulation for discovering novel peptides. It can serve as a reference database to investigate the function of different bioactive peptides. BioPepDB is available at http://bis.zju.edu.cn/biopepdbr/ . The web page utilises Apache, PHP5 and MySQL to provide the user interface for accessing the database and predict novel peptides. The database itself is operated on a specialised server.

  10. Peptides in headlock – a novel high-affinity and versatile peptide-binding nanobody for proteomics and microscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braun, Michael B.; Traenkle, Bjoern; Koch, Philipp A.; Emele, Felix; Weiss, Frederik; Poetz, Oliver; Stehle, Thilo; Rothbauer, Ulrich

    2016-01-01

    Nanobodies are highly valuable tools for numerous bioanalytical and biotechnical applications. Here, we report the characterization of a nanobody that binds a short peptide epitope with extraordinary affinity. Structural analysis reveals an unusual binding mode where the extended peptide becomes part of a β-sheet structure in the nanobody. This interaction relies on sequence-independent backbone interactions augmented by a small number of specificity-determining side chain contacts. Once bound, the peptide is fastened by two nanobody side chains that clamp it in a headlock fashion. Exploiting this unusual binding mode, we generated a novel nanobody-derived capture and detection system. Matrix-coupled nanobody enables the fast and efficient isolation of epitope-tagged proteins from prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems. Additionally, the fluorescently labeled nanobody visualizes subcellular structures in different cellular compartments. The high-affinity-binding and modifiable peptide tag of this system renders it a versatile and robust tool to combine biochemical analysis with microscopic studies. PMID:26791954

  11. Gas-phase structure and fragmentation pathways of singly protonated peptides with N-terminal arginine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bythell, Benjamin J; Csonka, István P; Suhai, Sándor; Barofsky, Douglas F; Paizs, Béla

    2010-11-25

    The gas-phase structures and fragmentation pathways of the singly protonated peptide arginylglycylaspartic acid (RGD) are investigated by means of collision-induced-dissociation (CID) and detailed molecular mechanics and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. It is demonstrated that despite the ionizing proton being strongly sequestered at the guanidine group, protonated RGD can easily be fragmented on charge directed fragmentation pathways. This is due to facile mobilization of the C-terminal or aspartic acid COOH protons thereby generating salt-bridge (SB) stabilized structures. These SB intermediates can directly fragment to generate b(2) ions or facilely rearrange to form anhydrides from which both b(2) and b(2)+H(2)O fragments can be formed. The salt-bridge stabilized and anhydride transition structures (TSs) necessary to form b(2) and b(2)+H(2)O are much lower in energy than their traditional charge solvated counterparts. These mechanisms provide compelling evidence of the role of SB and anhydride structures in protonated peptide fragmentation which complements and supports our recent findings for tryptic systems (Bythell, B. J.; Suhai, S.; Somogyi, A.; Paizs, B. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 14057-14065.). In addition to these findings we also report on the mechanisms for the formation of the b(1) ion, neutral loss (H(2)O, NH(3), guanidine) fragment ions, and the d(3) ion.

  12. Chemical construction and structural permutation of potent cytotoxin polytheonamide B: discovery of artificial peptides with distinct functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itoh, Hiroaki; Inoue, Masayuki

    2013-07-16

    Polytheonamide B (1), isolated from the marine sponge Theonella swinhoei, is a posttranslationally modified ribosomal peptide (MW 5030 Da) that displays extraordinary cytotoxicity. Among its 48 amino acid residues, this peptide includes a variety D- and L-amino acids that do not occur in proteins, and the chiralities of these amino acids alternate in sequence. These structural features induce the formation of a stable β6.3-helix, giving rise to a tubular structure of over 4 nm in length. In the biological setting, this fold is believed to transport cations across the lipid bilayer through a pore, thereby acting as an ion channel. In this Account, we discuss the construction and structural permutations of this potent cytotoxin. First we describe the 161-step chemical construction of this unusual peptide 1. By developing a synthetic route to 1, we established the chemical basis for subsequent SAR studies to pinpoint the proteinogenic and nonproteinogenic building blocks within the molecule that confer its toxicity and channel function. Using fully synthetic 1, we generated seven analogues with point mutations, and studies of their activity revealed the importance of the N-terminal moiety. Next, we simplified the structure of 1 by substituting six amino acid residues of 1 to design a more synthetically accessible analogue 9. This dansylated polytheonamide mimic 9 was synthesized in 127 total steps, and we evaluated its function to show that it can emulate the toxic and ion channel activities of 1 despite its multiple structural modifications. Finally, we applied a highly automated synthetic route to 48-mer 9 to generate 13 substructures of 27-39-mers. The 37-mer 12 exhibited nanomolar level toxicity through a potentially distinct mode of action from 1 and 9. The SAR studies of polytheonamide B and the 21 artificial analogues have deepened our understanding of the precise structural requirements for the biological functions of 1. They have also led to the discovery of

  13. Peptide modification in T cell immunology - from molecule to animal

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haan, Ellen Christine de

    2003-01-01

    Chemical knowledge can be applied in the field of immunology. It provides a better understanding of how a peptide interacts with proteins and cells of the immune system. However, it is not possible to predict the outcome of peptide administration in an animal. Peptides are used in experimental

  14. B-Type Natriuretic Peptide: From Posttranslational Processing to Clinical Measurement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Goetze, Jens P

    2012-01-01

    BACKGROUND:Plasma cardiac natriuretic peptides and peptide fragments from their molecular precursors are markers of heart disease. Clinical studies have defined the current diagnostic utility of these markers, whereas biochemical elucidation of peptide structure and posttranslational processing has...... revealed new plasma peptide forms of potential clinical use.CONTENT:Natriuretic propeptide structures undergo variable degrees of endo- and exoproteolytic cleavages as well as amino acid modifications, which leave the plasma phase of the peptides highly heterogeneous and dependent on cardiac......-atrial natriuretic peptide and pro-B-type natriuretic peptide are useful plasma markers in heart failure. New data have defined cardiac myocytes as competent endocrine cells in posttranslational processing and cellular secretion....

  15. Treating autoimmune disorders with venom-derived peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Bingzheng; Cao, Zhijian; Li, Wenxin; Sabatier, Jean-Marc; Wu, Yingliang

    2017-09-01

    The effective treatment of autoimmune diseases remains a challenge. Voltage-gated potassium Kv1.3 channels, which are expressed in lymphocytes, are a new therapeutic target for treating autoimmune disease. Consequently, Kv1.3 channel-inhibiting venom-derived peptides are a prospective resource for new drug discovery and clinical application. Area covered: Preclinical and clinical studies have produced a wealth of information on Kv1.3 channel-inhibiting venom-derived peptides, especially from venomous scorpions and sea anemones. This review highlights the advances in screening and design of these peptides with diverse structures and potencies. It focuses on representative strategies for improving peptide selectivity and discusses the preclinical research on those venom-derived peptides as well as their clinical developmental status. Expert opinion: Encouraging results indicate that peptides isolated from the venom of venomous animals are a large resource for discovering immunomodulators that act on Kv1.3 channels. Since the structural diversity of venom-derived peptides determines the variety of their pharmacological activities, the design and optimization of venom-peptides for improved Kv1.3 channel-specificity has been advanced through some representative strategies, such as peptide chemical modification, amino acid residue truncation and binding interface modulation. These advances should further accelerate research, development and the future clinical application of venom-derived peptides selectively targeting Kv1.3 channels.

  16. Peptides as Therapeutic Agents for Dengue Virus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chew, Miaw-Fang; Poh, Keat-Seong; Poh, Chit-Laa

    2017-01-01

    Dengue is an important global threat caused by dengue virus (DENV) that records an estimated 390 million infections annually. Despite the availability of CYD-TDV as a commercial vaccine, its long-term efficacy against all four dengue virus serotypes remains unsatisfactory. There is therefore an urgent need for the development of antiviral drugs for the treatment of dengue. Peptide was once a neglected choice of medical treatment but it has lately regained interest from the pharmaceutical industry following pioneering advancements in technology. In this review, the design of peptide drugs, antiviral activities and mechanisms of peptides and peptidomimetics (modified peptides) action against dengue virus are discussed. The development of peptides as inhibitors for viral entry, replication and translation is also described, with a focus on the three main targets, namely, the host cell receptors, viral structural proteins and viral non-structural proteins. The antiviral peptides designed based on these approaches may lead to the discovery of novel anti-DENV therapeutics that can treat dengue patients.

  17. Describing the Peptide Binding Specificity of HLA-C

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmussen, Michael; Harndahl, Mikkel Nors; Nielsen, Morten

    for 5 HLA-C molecules and for all, but one, molecule we find a high frequency of binders, >70%, among these peptides. To extend the examined peptide space, we use bioinformatic prediction tools to search for additional binders. Finally, we update our prediction tool, NetMHCpan, with the HLA-C affinity......Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) presents peptides to T-cells for immune scrutiny. Whereas HLA-A and -B have been described in great detail, HLA-C has received much less attention. Here, to increase the coverage of HLA-C and the accuracy of the corresponding tools, we have generated HLA-C molecules...... data and show that the predictive performance for HLA-C molecules now is increased to a level comparable withthat of HLA-A and -B. These novel HLA-C molecules and predictors are successfully used to generate HLA-C tetramers and validate HLA-C-restricted T cell responses....

  18. Structural and functional comparisons and production of recombinant crustacean hyperglycemic hormone (CHH) and CHH-like peptides from the mud crab Scylla olivacea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Chih-Chun; Tsai, Kuo-Wei; Hsiao, Nai-Wan; Chang, Cheng-Yen; Lin, Chih-Lung; Watson, R Douglas; Lee, Chi-Ying

    2010-05-15

    Sco-CHH and Sco-CHH-L (CHH-like peptide), two structural variants of the crustacean hyperglycemic hormone family identified in the mud crab (Scylla olivacea), are presumably alternatively spliced gene products. In this study, Sco-CHH and Sco-CHH-L were isolated from the tissues using high performance liquid chromatography. Identity of the native peptides was confirmed using mass spectrometric (MS) analyses of purified materials and of trypsin-digested peptide fragments. Additionally, characterizations using circular dichroism (CD) spectrometry revealed that the 2 peptides have similar CD spectral profiles, showing they are composed mainly of alpha-helices, and are similarly thermo-stable with a melting temperature of 74-75 degrees C. Results of bioassays indicated that Sco-CHH exerted hyperglycemic and molt-inhibiting activity, whereas Sco-CHH-L did not. Further, recombinant Sco-CHH-Gly (rSco-CHH-Gly, a glycine extended Sco-CHH) and Sco-CHH-L (rSco-CHH-L) were produced using an Escherichia coli expression system, refolded, and purified. rSco-CHH-Gly was further alpha-amidated at the C-terminal end to produce rSco-CHH. MS analyses of enzyme-digested peptide fragments of rSco-CHH-Gly and rSco-CHH-L showed that the two peptides share a common disulfide bond pattern: C7-C43, C23-C39, and C26-C52. Circular dichroism analyses and hyperglycemic assay revealed that rSco-CHH and rSco-CHH-L resemble their native counterparts, in terms of CD spectral profiles, melting curve profiles, and biological activity. rSco-CHH-Gly has a lower alpha-helical content (32%) than rSco-CHH (47%), a structural deviation that may be responsible for the significant decrease in the biological activity of rSco-CHH-Gly. Finally, modeled structure of Sco-CHH and Sco-CHH-L indicated that they are similarly folded, each with an N-terminal tail region and 4 alpha-helices. Putative surface residues located in corresponding positions of Sco-CHH and Sco-CHH-L but with side chains of different properties

  19. Development of an artificial neural network model for risk assessment of skin sensitization using human cell line activation test, direct peptide reactivity assay, KeratinoSens™ and in silico structure alert parameter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirota, Morihiko; Ashikaga, Takao; Kouzuki, Hirokazu

    2018-04-01

    It is important to predict the potential of cosmetic ingredients to cause skin sensitization, and in accordance with the European Union cosmetic directive for the replacement of animal tests, several in vitro tests based on the adverse outcome pathway have been developed for hazard identification, such as the direct peptide reactivity assay, KeratinoSens™ and the human cell line activation test. Here, we describe the development of an artificial neural network (ANN) prediction model for skin sensitization risk assessment based on the integrated testing strategy concept, using direct peptide reactivity assay, KeratinoSens™, human cell line activation test and an in silico or structure alert parameter. We first investigated the relationship between published murine local lymph node assay EC3 values, which represent skin sensitization potency, and in vitro test results using a panel of about 134 chemicals for which all the required data were available. Predictions based on ANN analysis using combinations of parameters from all three in vitro tests showed a good correlation with local lymph node assay EC3 values. However, when the ANN model was applied to a testing set of 28 chemicals that had not been included in the training set, predicted EC3s were overestimated for some chemicals. Incorporation of an additional in silico or structure alert descriptor (obtained with TIMES-M or Toxtree software) in the ANN model improved the results. Our findings suggest that the ANN model based on the integrated testing strategy concept could be useful for evaluating the skin sensitization potential. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  20. Structural Principles in the Development of Cyclic Peptidic Enzyme Inhibitors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Peng; Andreasen, Peter A.; Huang, Mingdong

    2017-01-01

    This review summarizes our studies in the development of small cyclic peptides for specifically modulating enzyme activity. Serine proteases share highly similar active sites but perform diverse physiological and pathological functions. From a phage-display peptide library, we isolated two mono-cyclic peptides, upain-1 (CSWRGLENHRMC) and mupain-1 (CPAYSRYLDC), which inhibit the activity of human and murine urokinase-type plasminogen activators (huPA and muPA) with Ki values in the micromolar or sub-micromolar range, respectively. The following affinity maturations significantly enhanced the potencies of the two peptides, 10-fold and >250-fold for upain-1 and mupain-1, respectively. The most potent muPA inhibitor has a potency (Ki = 2 nM) and specificity comparable to mono-clonal antibodies. Furthermore, we also found an unusual feature of mupain-1 that its inhibitory potency can be enhanced by increasing the flexibility, which challenges the traditional viewpoint that higher rigidity leading to higher affinity. Moreover, by changing a few key residues, we converted mupain-1 from a uPA inhibitor to inhibitors of other serine proteases, including plasma kallikrein (PK) and coagulation factor XIa (fXIa). PK and fXIa inhibitors showed Ki values in the low nanomolar range and high specificity. Our studies demonstrate the versatility of small cyclic peptides to engineer inhibitory potency against serine proteases and to provide a new strategy for generating peptide inhibitors of serine proteases. PMID:29104489

  1. Competitor analogs for defined T cell antigens: peptides incorporating a putative binding motif and polyproline or polyglycine spacers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maryanski, J L; Verdini, A S; Weber, P C; Salemme, F R; Corradin, G

    1990-01-12

    We describe a new approach for modeling antigenic peptides recognized by T cells. Peptide A24 170-182 can compete with other antigenic peptides that are recognized by H-2kd-restricted cytolytic T cells, presumably by binding to the Kd molecule. By comparing substituted A24 peptides as competitors in a functional competition assay, the A24 residues Tyr-171, Thr-178, and Leu-179 were identified as possible contact residues for Kd. A highly active competitor peptide analog was synthesized in which Tyr was separated from the Thr-Leu pair by a pentaproline spacer. The choice of proline allowed the prediction of a probable conformation for the analog when bound to the Kd molecule. The simplest conformation of the A24 peptide that allows the same spacing and orientation of the motif as in the analog would be a nearly extended polypeptide chain incorporating a single 3(10) helical turn or similar structural kink.

  2. Diagnostic value of C-peptide determination. [Radioimmunoassay

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kober, G; Rainer, O H [Landeskrankenhaus Klagenfurt (Austria). Nuklearmedizinische Abt.

    1983-01-01

    C-peptide and insulin serum determinations were performed in 94 glucagon-stimulated diabetics and in 15 healthy persons. A minimal increase of 1.5 ng C-peptide/ml serum after glucagon injection (1 mg i.v.) was found to be a useful parameter for the differentiation of insulin dependent and non-insulin dependent diabetics. The maximal response to glucagon occurred during the first 10-minutes after the injection (blood was drawn at 2-minutes intervals). Serum insulin levels and basal C-peptide concentrations were of no value in predicting insulin-dependency. Basal C-peptide levels were significantly different from control in juvenile insulin dependent diabetics (decrease) only.

  3. Tidbits for the synthesis of bis(2-sulfanylethyl)amido (SEA) polystyrene resin, SEA peptides and peptide thioesters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ollivier, Nathalie; Raibaut, Laurent; Blanpain, Annick; Desmet, Rémi; Dheur, Julien; Mhidia, Reda; Boll, Emmanuelle; Drobecq, Hervé; Pira, Silvain L; Melnyk, Oleg

    2014-02-01

    Protein total chemical synthesis enables the atom-by-atom control of the protein structure and therefore has a great potential for studying protein function. Native chemical ligation of C-terminal peptide thioesters with N-terminal cysteinyl peptides and related methodologies are central to the field of protein total synthesis. Consequently, methods enabling the facile synthesis of peptide thioesters using Fmoc-SPPS are of great value. Herein, we provide a detailed protocol for the preparation of bis(2-sulfanylethyl)amino polystyrene resin as a starting point for the synthesis of C-terminal bis(2-sulfanylethyl)amido peptides and of peptide thioesters derived from 3-mercaptopropionic acid. Copyright © 2013 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  4. Syntheses and structures of technetium(V) and rhenium(V) oxo complexes of peptide having KYC-sequence

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Takayama, T.; Suzuki, K.; Sekine, T.; Kudo, H. [Dept. of Chemistry, Tohoku Univ., Sendai (Japan)

    2000-07-01

    Technetium(V) and rhenium(V) oxo complexes of a peptide having a KYC-sequence such as KYCAR (H{sub 3}L{sup 5}) and KYCAREPPTRTNAYQGQG-NH{sub 2} (H{sub 3}L{sup 18}) were synthesized, and structures of the complexes were characterized by spectroscopic techniques. All of the complexes were synthesized by the ligand exchange reaction of [(n-C{sub 4}H{sub 9}){sub 4}N][MOCl{sub 4}] (M = {sup 99}Tc, Re) with peptide in methanol or dimethylformamide solution. These complexes have a square pyramidal structure with an oxo ligand at the apical position. The peptide is coordinated to a metal atom through N{sub amine} of lysine. S{sub thiol} of cysteine, and N{sub amide} of tyrosine and cysteine in the equatorial plane. A lysine (CH{sub 2}){sub 4}NH{sub 2} group of the L{sup 5} ligand has the syn conformation with respect to metal-oxo bonding in the complex. The syn isomer was selectively formed in the ligand exchange reaction. The conversion of the syn isomer to the anti isomer was observed only for syn-[ReO(L{sup 5})], in which the coordination of water to the trans position of the oxo ligand was involved. (orig.)

  5. Osteoinductive peptide-functionalized nanofibers with highly ordered structure as biomimetic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gao X

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Xiang Gao,1,2,* Xiaohong Zhang,3,* Jinlin Song,1,2 Xiao Xu,4 Anxiu Xu,1 Mengke Wang,4 Bingwu Xie,1 Enyi Huang,2 Feng Deng,1,2 Shicheng Wei2–41College of Stomatology, 2Chongqing Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and Biomedical Sciences, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 3Center for Biomedical Materials and Tissue Engineering, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, 4Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workAbstract: The construction of functional biomimetic scaffolds that recapitulate the topographical and biochemical features of bone tissue extracellular matrix is now of topical interest in bone tissue engineering. In this study, a novel surface-functionalized electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL nanofiber scaffold with highly ordered structure was developed to simulate the critical features of native bone tissue via a single step of catechol chemistry. Specially, under slightly alkaline aqueous solution, polydopamine (pDA was coated on the surface of aligned PCL nanofibers after electrospinning, followed by covalent immobilization of bone morphogenetic protein-7-derived peptides onto the pDA-coated nanofiber surface. Contact angle measurement, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the presence of pDA and peptides on PCL nanofiber surface. Our results demonstrated that surface modification with osteoinductive peptides could improve cytocompatibility of nanofibers in terms of cell adhesion, spreading, and proliferation. Most importantly, Alizarin Red S staining, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, immunostaining, and Western blot revealed that human mesenchymal stem cells cultured on aligned nanofibers with osteoinductive peptides exhibited enhanced osteogenic differentiation potential than

  6. Peptides in headlock ? a novel high-affinity and versatile peptide-binding nanobody for proteomics and microscopy

    OpenAIRE

    Braun, Michael B.; Traenkle, Bjoern; Koch, Philipp A.; Emele, Felix; Weiss, Frederik; Poetz, Oliver; Stehle, Thilo; Rothbauer, Ulrich

    2016-01-01

    Nanobodies are highly valuable tools for numerous bioanalytical and biotechnical applications. Here, we report the characterization of a nanobody that binds a short peptide epitope with extraordinary affinity. Structural analysis reveals an unusual binding mode where the extended peptide becomes part of a ?-sheet structure in the nanobody. This interaction relies on sequence-independent backbone interactions augmented by a small number of specificity-determining side chain contacts. Once boun...

  7. Characteristics and Prediction of RNA Structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hengwu Li

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available RNA secondary structures with pseudoknots are often predicted by minimizing free energy, which is NP-hard. Most RNAs fold during transcription from DNA into RNA through a hierarchical pathway wherein secondary structures form prior to tertiary structures. Real RNA secondary structures often have local instead of global optimization because of kinetic reasons. The performance of RNA structure prediction may be improved by considering dynamic and hierarchical folding mechanisms. This study is a novel report on RNA folding that accords with the golden mean characteristic based on the statistical analysis of the real RNA secondary structures of all 480 sequences from RNA STRAND, which are validated by NMR or X-ray. The length ratios of domains in these sequences are approximately 0.382L, 0.5L, 0.618L, and L, where L is the sequence length. These points are just the important golden sections of sequence. With this characteristic, an algorithm is designed to predict RNA hierarchical structures and simulate RNA folding by dynamically folding RNA structures according to the above golden section points. The sensitivity and number of predicted pseudoknots of our algorithm are better than those of the Mfold, HotKnots, McQfold, ProbKnot, and Lhw-Zhu algorithms. Experimental results reflect the folding rules of RNA from a new angle that is close to natural folding.

  8. Biomedical Applications of Self-Assembling Peptides

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Radmalekshahi, Mazda; Lempsink, Ludwijn; Amidi, Maryam; Hennink, Wim E.; Mastrobattista, Enrico

    2016-01-01

    Self-assembling peptides have gained increasing attention as versatile molecules to generate diverse supramolecular structures with tunable functionality. Because of the possibility to integrate a wide range of functional domains into self-assembling peptides including cell attachment sequences,

  9. Disturbance of gut satiety peptide in purging disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keel, Pamela K; Eckel, Lisa A; Hildebrandt, Britny A; Haedt-Matt, Alissa A; Appelbaum, Jonathan; Jimerson, David C

    2018-01-01

    Little is known about biological factors that contribute to purging after normal amounts of food-the central feature of purging disorder (PD). This study comes from a series of nested studies examining ingestive behaviors in bulimic syndromes and specifically evaluated the satiety peptide YY (PYY) and the hunger peptide ghrelin in women with PD (n = 25), bulimia nervosa-purging (BNp) (n = 26), and controls (n = 26). Based on distinct subjective responses to a fixed meal in PD (Keel, Wolfe, Liddle, DeYoung, & Jimerson, ), we tested whether postprandial PYY response was significantly greater and ghrelin levels significantly lower in women with PD compared to controls and women with BNp. Participants completed structured clinical interviews, self-report questionnaires, and laboratory assessments of gut peptide and subjective responses to a fixed meal. Women with PD demonstrated a significantly greater postprandial PYY response compared to women with BNp and controls, who did not differ significantly. PD women also endorsed significantly greater gastrointestinal distress, and PYY predicted gastrointestinal intestinal distress. Ghrelin levels were significantly greater in PD and BNp compared to controls, but did not differ significantly between eating disorders. Women with BNp endorsed significantly greater postprandial hunger, and ghrelin predicted hunger. PD is associated with a unique disturbance in PYY response. Findings contribute to growing evidence of physiological distinctions between PD and BNp. Future research should examine whether these distinctions account for differences in clinical presentation as this could inform the development of specific interventions for patients with PD. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  10. Novel Inhibitor Cystine Knot Peptides from Momordica charantia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Richard J.; Tang, Jun; Zeng, Guang-Zhi; Franco, Octavio L.; Cantacessi, Cinzia; Craik, David J.; Daly, Norelle L.; Tan, Ning-Hua

    2013-01-01

    Two new peptides, MCh-1 and MCh-2, along with three known trypsin inhibitors (MCTI-I, MCTI-II and MCTI-III), were isolated from the seeds of the tropical vine Momordica charantia. The sequences of the peptides were determined using mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. Using a strategy involving partial reduction and stepwise alkylation of the peptides, followed by enzymatic digestion and tandem mass spectrometry sequencing, the disulfide connectivity of MCh-1 was elucidated to be CysI-CysIV, CysII-CysV and CysIII-CysVI. The three-dimensional structures of MCh-1 and MCh-2 were determined using NMR spectroscopy and found to contain the inhibitor cystine knot (ICK) motif. The sequences of the novel peptides differ significantly from peptides previously isolated from this plant. Therefore, this study expands the known peptide diversity in M. charantia and the range of sequences that can be accommodated by the ICK motif. Furthermore, we show that a stable two-disulfide intermediate is involved in the oxidative folding of MCh-1. This disulfide intermediate is structurally homologous to the proposed ancestral fold of ICK peptides, and provides a possible pathway for the evolution of this structural motif, which is highly prevalent in nature. PMID:24116036

  11. Novel inhibitor cystine knot peptides from Momordica charantia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wen-Jun He

    Full Text Available Two new peptides, MCh-1 and MCh-2, along with three known trypsin inhibitors (MCTI-I, MCTI-II and MCTI-III, were isolated from the seeds of the tropical vine Momordica charantia. The sequences of the peptides were determined using mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. Using a strategy involving partial reduction and stepwise alkylation of the peptides, followed by enzymatic digestion and tandem mass spectrometry sequencing, the disulfide connectivity of MCh-1 was elucidated to be CysI-CysIV, CysII-CysV and CysIII-CysVI. The three-dimensional structures of MCh-1 and MCh-2 were determined using NMR spectroscopy and found to contain the inhibitor cystine knot (ICK motif. The sequences of the novel peptides differ significantly from peptides previously isolated from this plant. Therefore, this study expands the known peptide diversity in M. charantia and the range of sequences that can be accommodated by the ICK motif. Furthermore, we show that a stable two-disulfide intermediate is involved in the oxidative folding of MCh-1. This disulfide intermediate is structurally homologous to the proposed ancestral fold of ICK peptides, and provides a possible pathway for the evolution of this structural motif, which is highly prevalent in nature.

  12. Lattice model for amyloid peptides: OPEP force field parametrization and applications to the nucleus size of Alzheimer’s peptides

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tran, Thanh Thuy; Nguyen, Phuong H., E-mail: phuong.nguyen@ibpc.fr; Derreumaux, Philippe, E-mail: philippe.derreumaux@ibpc.fr [Laboratoire de Biochimie Théorique, UPR 9080, CNRS, Université Denis Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité IBPC, 13 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005 Paris (France)

    2016-05-28

    Coarse-grained protein lattice models approximate atomistic details and keep the essential interactions. They are, therefore, suitable for capturing generic features of protein folding and amyloid formation at low computational cost. As our aim is to study the critical nucleus sizes of two experimentally well-characterized peptide fragments Aβ{sub 16−22} and Aβ{sub 37−42} of the full length Aβ{sub 1−42} Alzheimer’s peptide, it is important that simulations with the lattice model reproduce all-atom simulations. In this study, we present a comprehensive force field parameterization based on the OPEP (Optimized Potential for Efficient protein structure Prediction) force field for an on-lattice protein model, which incorporates explicitly the formation of hydrogen bonds and directions of side-chains. Our bottom-up approach starts with the determination of the best lattice force parameters for the Aβ{sub 16−22} dimer by fitting its equilibrium parallel and anti-parallel β-sheet populations to all-atom simulation results. Surprisingly, the calibrated force field is transferable to the trimer of Aβ{sub 16−22} and the dimer and trimer of Aβ{sub 37−42}. Encouraged by this finding, we characterized the free energy landscapes of the two decamers. The dominant structure of the Aβ{sub 16−22} decamer matches the microcrystal structure. Pushing the simulations for aggregates between 4-mer and 12-mer suggests a nucleus size for fibril formation of 10 chains. In contrast, the Aβ{sub 37−42} decamer is largely disordered with mixed by parallel and antiparallel chains, suggesting that the nucleus size is >10 peptides. Our refined force field coupled to this on-lattice model should provide useful insights into the critical nucleation number associated with neurodegenerative diseases.

  13. Roles of beta-turns in protein folding: from peptide models to protein engineering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marcelino, Anna Marie C; Gierasch, Lila M

    2008-05-01

    Reverse turns are a major class of protein secondary structure; they represent sites of chain reversal and thus sites where the globular character of a protein is created. It has been speculated for many years that turns may nucleate the formation of structure in protein folding, as their propensity to occur will favor the approximation of their flanking regions and their general tendency to be hydrophilic will favor their disposition at the solvent-accessible surface. Reverse turns are local features, and it is therefore not surprising that their structural properties have been extensively studied using peptide models. In this article, we review research on peptide models of turns to test the hypothesis that the propensities of turns to form in short peptides will relate to the roles of corresponding sequences in protein folding. Turns with significant stability as isolated entities should actively promote the folding of a protein, and by contrast, turn sequences that merely allow the chain to adopt conformations required for chain reversal are predicted to be passive in the folding mechanism. We discuss results of protein engineering studies of the roles of turn residues in folding mechanisms. Factors that correlate with the importance of turns in folding indeed include their intrinsic stability, as well as their topological context and their participation in hydrophobic networks within the protein's structure.

  14. Solution structure of the first SH3 domain of human vinexin and its interaction with vinculin peptides

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Jiahai; Li, Xiang; Yao, Bo; Shen, Weiqun; Sun, Hongbin; Xu, Chao; Wu, Jihui; Shi, Yunyu

    2007-01-01

    Solution structure of the first Src homology (SH) 3 domain of human vinexin (V S H3 1 ) was determined using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method and revealed that it was a canonical SH3 domain, which has a typical β-β-β-β-α-β fold. Using chemical shift perturbation and surface plasmon resonance experiments, we studied the binding properties of the SH3 domain with two different peptides from vinculin hinge regions: P856 and P868. The observations illustrated slightly different affinities of the two peptides binding to V S H3 1 . The interaction between P868 and V S H3 1 belonged to intermediate exchange with a modest binding affinity, while the interaction between P856 and V S H3 1 had a low binding affinity. The structure and ligand-binding interface of V S H3 1 provide a structural basis for the further functional study of this important molecule

  15. Comparison of copeptin, B-type natriuretic peptide, and amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide in patients with chronic heart failure: prediction of death at different stages of the disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neuhold, Stephanie; Huelsmann, Martin; Strunk, Guido; Stoiser, Brigitte; Struck, Joachim; Morgenthaler, Nils G; Bergmann, Andreas; Moertl, Deddo; Berger, Rudolf; Pacher, Richard

    2008-07-22

    This study sought to evaluate the predictive value of copeptin over the entire spectrum of heart failure (HF) and compare it to the current benchmark markers, B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). Vasopressin has been shown to increase with the severity of chronic HF. Copeptin is a fragment of pre-pro-vasopressin that is synthesized and secreted in equimolar amounts to vasopressin. Both hormones have a short lifetime in vivo, similar to BNPs, but in contrast to vasopressin, copeptin is very stable in vitro. The predictive value of copeptin has been shown in advanced HF, where it was superior to BNP for predicting 24-month mortality. This was a long-term observational study in 786 HF patients from the whole spectrum of heart failure (New York Heart Association [NYHA] functional class I to IV, BNP 688 +/- 948 pg/ml [range 3 to 8,536 pg/ml], left ventricular ejection fraction 25 +/- 10% [range 5% to 65%]). The NYHA functional class was the most potent single predictor of 24-month outcome in a stepwise Cox regression model. The BNP, copeptin, and glomerular filtration rate were related to NYHA functional class (p linked to excess mortality, and this link is maintained irrespective of the clinical signs of severity of the disease. Copeptin was superior to BNP or NT-proBNP in this study, but the markers seem to be closely related.

  16. Turn stability in beta-hairpin peptides: Investigation of peptides containing 3:5 type I G1 bulge turns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blandl, Tamas; Cochran, Andrea G; Skelton, Nicholas J

    2003-02-01

    The turn-forming ability of a series of three-residue sequences was investigated by substituting them into a well-characterized beta-hairpin peptide. The starting scaffold, bhpW, is a disulfide-cyclized 10-residue peptide that folds into a stable beta-hairpin with two antiparallel strands connected by a two-residue reverse turn. Substitution of the central two residues with the three-residue test sequences leads to less stable hairpins, as judged by thiol-disulfide equilibrium measurements. However, analysis of NMR parameters indicated that each molecule retains a significant folded population, and that the type of turn adopted by the three-residue sequence is the same in all cases. The solution structure of a selected peptide with a PDG turn contained an antiparallel beta-hairpin with a 3:5 type I + G1 bulge turn. Analysis of the energetic contributions of individual turn residues in the series of peptides indicates that substitution effects have significant context dependence, limiting the predictive power of individual amino acid propensities for turn formation. The most stable and least stable sequences were also substituted into a more stable disulfide-cyclized scaffold and a linear beta-hairpin scaffold. The relative stabilities remained the same, suggesting that experimental measurements in the bhpW context are a useful way to evaluate turn stability for use in protein design projects. Moreover, these scaffolds are capable of displaying a diverse set of turns, which can be exploited for the mimicry of protein loops or for generating libraries of reverse turns.

  17. Evaluation of MAP-specific peptides following vaccination of goats

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lybeck, Kari; Sjurseth, Siri K.; Melvang, Heidi Mikkelsen

    species or 2) selected based on “experience”. Peptides predicted to bind bovine MHC II by in silico analysis were included in further studies, resulting in two panels 1) genome-based and 2) selected. Initially, two groups of 15 healthy goats were vaccinated with one of the two panels (50 µg/peptide in CAF......01 adjuvant/CAF04 for boosting). Four MAP-infected goats were also vaccinated. In a second vaccination trail, groups of 8 healthy goat kids were vaccinated with genome-based peptides, selected peptides or selected peptides linked together in a recombinant protein (20 µg/peptide or 50 µg protein...... peptides. IFN-γ responses in healthy goats after the first vaccination were low, but testing of T cell lines from MAP-infected goats identified peptides inducing strong proliferative responses. Peptides for a second vaccination were selected by combining results from this study with a parallel cattle study...

  18. [The predictive value of plasma B-type natriuretic peptide levels on outcome in children with pulmonary hypertension undergoing congenital heart surgery].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baysal, Ayse; Saşmazel, Ahmet; Yildirim, Ayse; Ozyaprak, Buket; Gundogus, Narin; Kocak, Tuncer

    2014-01-01

    In children undergoing congenital heart surgery, plasma brain natriuretic peptide levels may have a role in development of low cardiac output syndrome that is defined as a combination of clinical findings and interventions to augment cardiac output in children with pulmonary hypertension. In a prospective observational study, fifty-one children undergoing congenital heart surgery with preoperative echocardiographic study showing pulmonary hypertension were enrolled. The plasma brain natriuretic peptide levels were collected before operation, 12, 24 and 48h after operation. The patients enrolled into the study were divided into two groups depending on: (1) Development of LCOS which is defined as a combination of clinical findings or interventions to augment cardiac output postoperatively; (2) Determination of preoperative brain natriuretic peptide cut-off value by receiver operating curve analysis for low cardiac output syndrome. The secondary end points were: (1) duration of mechanical ventilation ≥72h, (2) intensive care unit stay >7days, and (3) mortality. The differences in preoperative and postoperative brain natriuretic peptide levels of patients with or without low cardiac output syndrome (n=35, n=16, respectively) showed significant differences in repeated measurement time points (p=0.0001). The preoperative brain natriuretic peptide cut-off value of 125.5pgmL-1 was found to have the highest sensitivity of 88.9% and specificity of 96.9% in predicting low cardiac output syndrome in patients with pulmonary hypertension. A good correlation was found between preoperative plasma brain natriuretic peptide level and duration of mechanical ventilation (r=0.67, p=0.0001). In patients with pulmonary hypertension undergoing congenital heart surgery, 91% of patients with preoperative plasma brain natriuretic peptide levels above 125.5pgmL-1 are at risk of developing low cardiac output syndrome which is an important postoperative outcome. Copyright © 2013 Sociedade

  19. The predictive value of plasma B-type natriuretic peptide levels on outcome in children with pulmonary hypertension undergoing congenital heart surgery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ayse Baysal

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Background and objectives: In children undergoing congenital heart surgery, plasma brain natriuretic peptide levels may have a role in development of low cardiac output syndrome that is defined as a combination of clinical findings and interventions to augment cardiac output in children with pulmonary hypertension. Methods: In a prospective observational study, fifty-one children undergoing congenital heart surgery with preoperative echocardiographic study showing pulmonary hypertension were enrolled. The plasma brain natriuretic peptide levels were collected before operation, 12, 24 and 48 h after operation. The patients enrolled into the study were divided into two groups depending on: (1 Development of LCOS which is defined as a combination of clinical findings or interventions to augment cardiac output postoperatively; (2 Determination of preoperative brain natriuretic peptide cut-off value by receiver operating curve analysis for low cardiac output syndrome. The secondary end points were: (1 duration of mechanical ventilation ≥72 h, (2 intensive care unit stay >7days, and (3 mortality. Results: The differences in preoperative and postoperative brain natriuretic peptide levels of patients with or without low cardiac output syndrome (n = 35, n = 16, respectively showed significant differences in repeated measurement time points (p = 0.0001. The preoperative brain natriuretic peptide cut-off value of 125.5 pg mL−1 was found to have the highest sensitivity of 88.9% and specificity of 96.9% in predicting low cardiac output syndrome in patients with pulmonary hypertension. A good correlation was found between preoperative plasma brain natriuretic peptide level and duration of mechanical ventilation (r = 0.67, p = 0.0001. Conclusions: In patients with pulmonary hypertension undergoing congenital heart surgery, 91% of patients with preoperative plasma brain natriuretic peptide levels above 125.5 pg mL−1 are at risk of developing low cardiac

  20. Peptide ligands for targeting the extracellular domain of EGFR: Comparison between linear and cyclic peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Tyrslai M; Sable, Rushikesh; Singh, Sitanshu; Vicente, Maria Graca H; Jois, Seetharama D

    2018-02-01

    Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common solid internal malignancy among cancers. Early detection of cancer is key to increasing the survival rate of colorectal cancer patients. Overexpression of the EGFR protein is associated with CRC. We have designed a series of peptides that are highly specific for the extracellular domain of EGFR, based on our earlier studies on linear peptides. The previously reported linear peptide LARLLT, known to bind to EGFR, was modified with the goals of increasing its stability and its specificity toward EGFR. Peptide modifications, including D-amino acid substitution, cyclization, and chain reversal, were investigated. In addition, to facilitate labeling of the peptide with a fluorescent dye, an additional lysine residue was introduced onto the linear (KLARLLT) and cyclic peptides cyclo(KLARLLT) (Cyclo.L1). The lysine residue was also converted into an azide group in both a linear and reversed cyclic peptide sequences cyclo(K(N3)larllt) (Cyclo.L1.1) to allow for subsequent "click" conjugation. The cyclic peptides showed enhanced binding to EGFR by SPR. NMR and molecular modeling studies suggest that the peptides acquire a β-turn structure in solution. In vitro stability studies in human serum show that the cyclic peptide is more stable than the linear peptide. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

  1. Structural changes of the ligand and of the receptor alters the receptor preference for neutrophil activating peptides starting with a 3 formylmethionyl group

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Forsman, Huamei; Winther, Malene; Gabl, Michael

    2015-01-01

    Pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus strains produce N-formylmethionyl containing peptides, of which the tetrapeptide fMIFL is a potent activator of the neutrophil formyl peptide receptor 1 (FPR1) and the PSMα2 peptide is a potent activator of the closely related FPR2. Variants derived from these two...... peptide activators were used to disclose the structural determinants for receptor interaction. Removal of five amino acids from the C-terminus of PSMα2 gave rise to a peptide that had lost the receptor-independent neutrophil permeabilizing effect, whereas neutrophil activation capacity as well as its...... preference for FPR2 was retained. Shorter peptides, PSMα21–10 and PSMα21–5, activate neutrophils, but the receptor preference for these peptides was switched to FPR1. The fMIFL-PSM5–16 peptide, in which the N-terminus of PSMα21–16 was replaced by the sequence fMIFL, was a dual agonist for FPR1/FPR2, whereas...

  2. Identification of a moronecidin-like antimicrobial peptide in the venomous fish Pterois volitans: Functional and structural study of pteroicidin-α.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houyvet, Baptiste; Bouchon-Navaro, Yolande; Bouchon, Claude; Goux, Didier; Bernay, Benoît; Corre, Erwan; Zatylny-Gaudin, Céline

    2018-01-01

    The present study characterizes for the first time an antimicrobial peptide in lionfish (Pterois volitans), a venomous fish. Using a peptidomic approach, we identified a mature piscidin in lionfish and called it pteroicidin-α. We detected an amidated form (pteroicidin-α- CONH 2 ) and a non-amidated form (pteroicidin-α-COOH), and then performed their functional and structural study. Interestingly, the two peptides displayed different antibacterial and hemolytic activity levels. Pteroicidin-α-CONH 2 was bactericidal on human pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus or Escherichia coli, as well as on the fish pathogen Aeromonas salmonicida, while pteroicidin-α-COOH only inhibited their growth. Furthermore, the two peptides induced hemolysis of red blood cells from different vertebrates, namely humans, sea bass and lesser-spotted dogfish. Hemolysis occurred with low concentrations of pteroicidin-α-CONH 2 , indicating greater toxicity of the amidated form. Circular dichroism analysis showed that both peptides adopted a helical conformation, yet with a greater α-helix content in pteroicidin-α-CONH 2 . Overall, these results suggest that amidation strongly influences pteroicidin-α by modifying its structure and its physico-chemical characteristics and by increasing its hemolytic activity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Single-subunit oligosaccharyltransferases of Trypanosoma brucei display different and predictable peptide acceptor specificities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jinnelov, Anders; Ali, Liaqat; Tinti, Michele; Güther, Maria Lucia S; Ferguson, Michael A J

    2017-12-08

    Trypanosoma brucei causes African trypanosomiasis and contains three full-length oligosaccharyltransferase (OST) genes; two of which, Tb STT3A and Tb STT3B, are expressed in the bloodstream form of the parasite. These OSTs have different peptide acceptor and lipid-linked oligosaccharide donor specificities, and trypanosomes do not follow many of the canonical rules developed for other eukaryotic N -glycosylation pathways, raising questions as to the basic architecture and detailed function of trypanosome OSTs. Here, we show by blue-native gel electrophoresis and stable isotope labeling in cell culture proteomics that the Tb STT3A and Tb STT3B proteins associate with each other in large complexes that contain no other detectable protein subunits. We probed the peptide acceptor specificities of the OSTs in vivo using a transgenic glycoprotein reporter system and performed glycoproteomics on endogenous parasite glycoproteins using sequential endoglycosidase H and peptide: N -glycosidase-F digestions. This allowed us to assess the relative occupancies of numerous N -glycosylation sites by endoglycosidase H-resistant N -glycans originating from Man 5 GlcNAc 2 -PP-dolichol transferred by Tb STT3A, and endoglycosidase H-sensitive N -glycans originating from Man 9 GlcNAc 2 -PP-dolichol transferred by Tb STT3B. Using machine learning, we assessed the features that best define Tb STT3A and Tb STT3B substrates in vivo and built an algorithm to predict the types of N -glycan most likely to predominate at all the putative N -glycosylation sites in the parasite proteome. Finally, molecular modeling was used to suggest why Tb STT3A has a distinct preference for sequons containing and/or flanked by acidic amino acid residues. Together, these studies provide insights into how a highly divergent eukaryote has re-wired protein N -glycosylation to provide protein sequence-specific N -glycan modifications. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifiers PXD007236, PXD007267

  4. How Does Amino Acid Ligand Modulate Au Core Structure and Characteristics in Peptide Coated Au Nanocluster?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Nan; Li, Xu; Zhao, Hongkang; Zhao, Lina

    2018-03-01

    The atomic structures and the corresponding physicochemical properties of peptide coated Au nanoclusters determine their distinctive biological targeting applications. To learn the modulation of amino acid ligand on the atomic structure and electronic characteristics of coated Au core is the fundamental knowledge for peptide coated Au nanocluster design and construction. Based on our recent coated Au nanocluster configuration study (Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 11454), we built the typically simplified Au13(Cys-Au-Cys) system to more clearly learn the basic modulation information of amino acid ligand on Au core by the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. There are two isomers as ligand adjacent bonding (Iso1) and diagonal bonding (Iso2) to Au13 cores. The geometry optimizations indicate the adjacent bonding Iso1 is more stable than Iso2. More important, the Au13 core of Iso1 distorts much more significantly than that of Iso2 by Cys-Au-Cys bonding through the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) analysis, which modulate their electronic characteristics in different ways. In addition, the frontier molecular orbital results of Au13(Cys-Au-Cys) isomers confirm that the Au cores mainly determine the blue shifts of Au13(Cys-Au-Cys) systems versus the original Au13 core in their UV-visible absorption spectrum studies. The configuration of Au13 core performs deformation under Cys-Au-Cys ligand modulation to reach new stability with distinct atomic structure and electronic properties, which could be the theory basis for peptide coated AuNCs design and construction.

  5. Deciphering complex patterns of class-I HLA-peptide cross-reactivity via hierarchical grouping.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mukherjee, Sumanta; Warwicker, Jim; Chandra, Nagasuma

    2015-07-01

    T-cell responses in humans are initiated by the binding of a peptide antigen to a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecule. The peptide-HLA complex then recruits an appropriate T cell, leading to cell-mediated immunity. More than 2000 HLA class-I alleles are known in humans, and they vary only in their peptide-binding grooves. The polymorphism they exhibit enables them to bind a wide range of peptide antigens from diverse sources. HLA molecules and peptides present a complex molecular recognition pattern, as many peptides bind to a given allele and a given peptide can be recognized by many alleles. A powerful grouping scheme that not only provides an insightful classification, but is also capable of dissecting the physicochemical basis of recognition specificity is necessary to address this complexity. We present a hierarchical classification of 2010 class-I alleles by using a systematic divisive clustering method. All-pair distances of alleles were obtained by comparing binding pockets in the structural models. By varying the similarity thresholds, a multilevel classification was obtained, with 7 supergroups, each further subclassifying to yield 72 groups. An independent clustering performed based only on similarities in their epitope pools correlated highly with pocket-based clustering. Physicochemical feature combinations that best explain the basis of clustering are identified. Mutual information calculated for the set of peptide ligands enables identification of binding site residues contributing to peptide specificity. The grouping of HLA molecules achieved here will be useful for rational vaccine design, understanding disease susceptibilities and predicting risk of organ transplants.

  6. Paramagnetic relaxation enhancements in NMR peptide-membrane interaction studies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kosol, S.

    2011-01-01

    Small membrane-bound proteins or peptides are involved in numerous essential biological processes, like cellular recognition, signaling, channel formation, and cytolysis. The secondary structure, orientation, mode of interaction and dynamics of these peptides can be as varied as their functions. Their localization in the membrane, the immersion depth, and their binding mode are factors critical to the function of these peptides. The atomic 3D solution structure of peptides bound to micelles can be determined by NMR spectroscopy. However, by employing paramagnetic relaxation enhancements (PREs) information on the complete topology of peptide bound to a micelle can be obtained. The antimicrobial peptide maximin H6, fst, a bacterial toxin, and the human peptide hormone ghrelin served as membrane-bound model peptides of similar sizes but strongly differing amino acid sequences. Their structures and binding behavior were determined and compared.The measured PREs provided suitable data for determining and distinguishing the different topologies of the investigated peptides bound to micelles. Maximin H6 and fst fold into α-helices upon insertion into a membrane, whereas the unstructured ghrelin is freely mobile in solution and interacts only via a covalently bound octanoyl group with the lipids. Maximin H6 is oriented parallel to the membrane surface, enabling the peptide to aggregate at the membrane water interface. Fst binds in transmembrane orientation with a protruding intrinsically disordered region near the C-terminus. Aside from determining the orientation of the bound peptides from the PREs, the moieties critical for membrane binding could be mapped in ghrelin. If suitable relaxation-edited spectra are acquired, the complete orientation and immersion depth of a peptide bound to a micelle can readily be obtained. (author) [de

  7. Computer-aided designing of immunosuppressive peptides based on IL-10 inducing potential

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagpal, Gandharva; Usmani, Salman Sadullah; Dhanda, Sandeep Kumar; Kaur, Harpreet; Singh, Sandeep; Sharma, Meenu; Raghava, Gajendra P. S.

    2017-01-01

    In the past, numerous methods have been developed to predict MHC class II binders or T-helper epitopes for designing the epitope-based vaccines against pathogens. In contrast, limited attempts have been made to develop methods for predicting T-helper epitopes/peptides that can induce a specific type of cytokine. This paper describes a method, developed for predicting interleukin-10 (IL-10) inducing peptides, a cytokine responsible for suppressing the immune system. All models were trained and tested on experimentally validated 394 IL-10 inducing and 848 non-inducing peptides. It was observed that certain types of residues and motifs are more frequent in IL-10 inducing peptides than in non-inducing peptides. Based on this analysis, we developed composition-based models using various machine-learning techniques. Random Forest-based model achieved the maximum Matthews’s Correlation Coefficient (MCC) value of 0.59 with an accuracy of 81.24% developed using dipeptide composition. In order to facilitate the community, we developed a web server “IL-10pred”, standalone packages and a mobile app for designing IL-10 inducing peptides (http://crdd.osdd.net/raghava/IL-10pred/). PMID:28211521

  8. Algorithms for Protein Structure Prediction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Paluszewski, Martin

    -trace. Here we present three different approaches for reconstruction of C-traces from predictable measures. In our first approach [63, 62], the C-trace is positioned on a lattice and a tabu-search algorithm is applied to find minimum energy structures. The energy function is based on half-sphere-exposure (HSE......) is more robust than standard Monte Carlo search. In the second approach for reconstruction of C-traces, an exact branch and bound algorithm has been developed [67, 65]. The model is discrete and makes use of secondary structure predictions, HSE, CN and radius of gyration. We show how to compute good lower...... bounds for partial structures very fast. Using these lower bounds, we are able to find global minimum structures in a huge conformational space in reasonable time. We show that many of these global minimum structures are of good quality compared to the native structure. Our branch and bound algorithm...

  9. Characterization of cyclic peptides containing disulfide bonds

    OpenAIRE

    Johnson, Mindy; Liu, Mingtao; Struble, Elaine; Hettiarachchi, Kanthi

    2015-01-01

    Unlike linear peptides, analysis of cyclic peptides containing disulfide bonds is not straightforward and demands indirect methods to achieve a rigorous proof of structure. Three peptides that belong to this category, p-Cl-Phe-DPDPE, DPDPE, and CTOP, were analyzed and the results are presented in this paper. The great potential of two dimensional NMR and ESI tandem mass spectrometry was harnessed during the course of peptide characterizations. A new RP-HPLC method for the analysis of trifluor...

  10. Predictive value of natriuretic peptides in dogs with mitral valve disease

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tarnow, Inge; Olsen, Lisbeth Høier; Kvart, Clarence

    2009-01-01

    Natriuretic peptides are useful in diagnosing heart failure in dogs. However, their usefulness in detecting early stages of myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) has been debated. This study evaluated N-terminal (NT) fragment pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (NT-proANP) and NT-pro-brain natriuretic...... peptide (NT-proBNP) in 39 Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (CKCS) with pre-clinical mitral valve regurgitation (MR), sixteen dogs with clinical signs of heart failure (HF) and thirteen healthy control dogs. Twenty seven CKCS and ten control dogs were re-examined 4 years after the initial examination...... and the status of the dogs 5 years after the initial examination was determined by telephone calls to the owner. All dogs were evaluated by clinical examination and echocardiography. CKCS with severe MR had higher NT-proANP and NT-proBNP compared to controls and CKCS with less severe MR. Dogs with clinical signs...

  11. Cardiovascular risk prediction by N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide and high sensitivity C-reactive protein is affected by age and sex

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olsen, M.H.; Hansen, T.W.; Christensen, M.K.

    2008-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that the urine albumin/creatinine ratio (UACR), high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide (Nt-proBNP) predict cardiovascular events in a general population aged 41, 51, 61 or 71 years. This study investigated...

  12. Solution structure of the 45-residue ATP-binding peptide of adenylate kinase as determined by 2-D NMR, FTIR, and CD spectroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fry, D.C.; Byler, D.M.; Susi, H.; Brown, E.M.; Kuby, S.A.; Mildyan, A.S.

    1986-01-01

    In the X-ray structure of adenylate kinase residues 1-45 exist as 47% α-helix, 29% β-structure (strands and turns) and 24% coil. The solution structure of a synthetic peptide corresponding to residues 1-45, which constitutes the MgATP binding site was studied by 3 independent spectroscopic methods. Globularity of the peptide was shown by its broad NMR resonances which narrow upon denaturation, and by its ability to bind MgATP with similar affinity and conformation as the intact enzyme does. COSY and NOESY NMR methods at 250 and 500 MHz reveal proximities among NH, Cα, and Cβ protons indicative of >20% α-helix, and >20% β-structure. Correlation of regions of secondary structure with the primary sequence by 2D NMR indicates at least one α-helix (res. 23 to 29) and two β-strands (res. 12 to 15 and 34 to 38). The broad amide I band in the deconvoluted FTIR spectrum could be fit as the sum of 4 peaks due to specific secondary structures, yielding ≤=45% α-helix, ≤=40% β-structure and ≥=15% coil. The CD spectrum, from 185-250 nm, interpreted with a 3-parameter basis set, yielded 20 +/- 5% α=helix, and ≤=20% β-structure. The solution structure of peptide 1-45 thus approximates that of residues 1-45 in the crystal

  13. Computational prediction of the pKas of small peptides through Conceptual DFT descriptors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frau, Juan; Hernández-Haro, Noemí; Glossman-Mitnik, Daniel

    2017-03-01

    The experimental pKa of a group of simple amines have been plotted against several Conceptual DFT descriptors calculated by means of different density functionals, basis sets and solvation schemes. It was found that the best fits are those that relate the pKa of the amines with the global hardness η through the MN12SX density functional in connection with the Def2TZVP basis set and the SMD solvation model, using water as a solvent. The parameterized equation resulting from the linear regression analysis has then been used for the prediction of the pKa of small peptides of interest in the study of diabetes and Alzheimer disease. The accuracy of the results is relatively good, with a MAD of 0.36 units of pKa.

  14. Structural Bioinformatics-Based Prediction of Exceptional Selectivity of p38 MAP Kinase Inhibitor PH-797804

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xing, Li; Shieh, Huey S.; Selness, Shaun R.; Devraj, Rajesh V.; Walker, John K.; Devadas, Balekudru; Hope, Heidi R.; Compton, Robert P.; Schindler, John F.; Hirsch, Jeffrey L.; Benson, Alan G.; Kurumbail, Ravi G.; Stegeman, Roderick A.; Williams, Jennifer M.; Broadus, Richard M.; Walden, Zara; Monahan, Joseph B.; Pfizer

    2009-07-24

    PH-797804 is a diarylpyridinone inhibitor of p38{alpha} mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase derived from a racemic mixture as the more potent atropisomer (aS), first proposed by molecular modeling and subsequently confirmed by experiments. On the basis of structural comparison with a different biaryl pyrazole template and supported by dozens of high-resolution crystal structures of p38{alpha} inhibitor complexes, PH-797804 is predicted to possess a high level of specificity across the broad human kinase genome. We used a structural bioinformatics approach to identify two selectivity elements encoded by the TXXXG sequence motif on the p38{alpha} kinase hinge: (i) Thr106 that serves as the gatekeeper to the buried hydrophobic pocket occupied by 2,4-difluorophenyl of PH-797804 and (ii) the bidentate hydrogen bonds formed by the pyridinone moiety with the kinase hinge requiring an induced 180{sup o} rotation of the Met109-Gly110 peptide bond. The peptide flip occurs in p38{alpha} kinase due to the critical glycine residue marked by its conformational flexibility. Kinome-wide sequence mining revealed rare presentation of the selectivity motif. Corroboratively, PH-797804 exhibited exceptionally high specificity against MAP kinases and the related kinases. No cross-reactivity was observed in large panels of kinase screens (selectivity ratio of >500-fold). In cellular assays, PH-797804 demonstrated superior potency and selectivity consistent with the biochemical measurements. PH-797804 has met safety criteria in human phase I studies and is under clinical development for several inflammatory conditions. Understanding the rationale for selectivity at the molecular level helps elucidate the biological function and design of specific p38{alpha} kinase inhibitors.

  15. YY-39, a tick anti-thrombosis peptide containing RGD domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Jing; Fang, Yaqun; Han, Yajun; Bai, Xuewei; Yan, Xiuwen; Zhang, Yun; Lai, Ren; Zhang, Zhiye

    2015-06-01

    Ticks are obligatory blood feeding ectoparasites, which continuously attach to their hosts for 1-2 weeks. There are many biologically active compounds in tick salivary glands interfering host haemostatic system and to successfully obtain blood meal. Several platelet aggregation inhibitors have been identified from ticks. A family of conserved peptides, which were identified from transcriptome analysis of many tick salivary glands, were found to contain unique primary structure including predicted mature peptides of 39-47 amino acid residues in length and a Pro/Glu(P/E)-Pro/His(P/H)-Lys-Gly-Asp(RGD) domain. Given their unique structure and RGD domain, they are considered a novel family of disintegrins that inhibit platelet aggregation. One of them (YY-39) was tested for its effects on platelets and thrombosis in vivo. YY-39 was found effectively to inhibit platelet aggregation induced by adenosine diphosphate (ADP), thrombin and thromboxane A2 (TXA2). Furthermore, YY-39 blocked platelet adhesion to soluble collagen and bound to purified GPIIb/IIIa in a dose-dependent manner. In in vivo experiments, YY-39 reduced thrombus weight effectively in a rat arteriovenous shunt model and inhibited thrombosis in a carrageenan-induced mouse tail thrombosis model. Combined with their prevalence in ticks and platelet inhibitory functions, this family of peptides might be conserved tick anti-haemostatic molecules. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Identification of structural traits that increase the antimicrobial activity of a chimeric peptide of human β-defensins 2 and 3.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spudy, Björn; Sönnichsen, Frank D; Waetzig, Georg H; Grötzinger, Joachim; Jung, Sascha

    2012-10-12

    Antimicrobial peptides participate in the first line of defence of many organisms against pathogens. In humans, the family of β-defensins plays a pivotal role in innate immunity. Two human β-defensins, β-defensin-2 and -3 (HBD2 and HBD3), show substantial sequence identity and structural similarity. However, HBD3 kills Staphylococcus (S.) aureus with a 4- to 8-fold higher efficiency compared to HBD2, whereas their activities against Escherichia (E.) coli are very similar. The generation of six HBD2/HBD3-chimeric molecules led to the identification of distinct molecular regions which mediate their divergent killing properties. One of the chimeras (chimera C3) killed both E. coli and S. aureus with an even higher efficacy compared to the wild-type molecules. Due to the broad spectrum of its antimicrobial activity against many human multidrug-resistant pathogens, this HBD2/HBD3-chimeric peptide represents a promising candidate for a new class of antibiotics. In order to investigate the structural basis of its exceptional antimicrobial activity, the peptide's tertiary structure was determined by NMR spectroscopy, which allowed its direct comparison to the published structures of HBD2 and HBD3 and the identification of the activity-increasing molecular features. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Dinosaur peptides suggest mechanisms of protein survival.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Antonio, James D; Schweitzer, Mary H; Jensen, Shane T; Kalluri, Raghu; Buckley, Michael; Orgel, Joseph P R O

    2011-01-01

    Eleven collagen peptide sequences recovered from chemical extracts of dinosaur bones were mapped onto molecular models of the vertebrate collagen fibril derived from extant taxa. The dinosaur peptides localized to fibril regions protected by the close packing of collagen molecules, and contained few acidic amino acids. Four peptides mapped to collagen regions crucial for cell-collagen interactions and tissue development. Dinosaur peptides were not represented in more exposed parts of the collagen fibril or regions mediating intermolecular cross-linking. Thus functionally significant regions of collagen fibrils that are physically shielded within the fibril may be preferentially preserved in fossils. These results show empirically that structure-function relationships at the molecular level could contribute to selective preservation in fossilized vertebrate remains across geological time, suggest a 'preservation motif', and bolster current concepts linking collagen structure to biological function. This non-random distribution supports the hypothesis that the peptides are produced by the extinct organisms and suggests a chemical mechanism for survival.

  18. Dinosaur Peptides Suggest Mechanisms of Protein Survival

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    San Antonio, James D.; Schweitzer, Mary H.; Jensen, Shane T.; Kalluri, Raghu; Buckley, Michael; Orgel, Joseph P.R.O. (Harvard-Med); (IIT); (NCSU); (UPENN); (Manchester); (Orthovita)

    2011-09-16

    Eleven collagen peptide sequences recovered from chemical extracts of dinosaur bones were mapped onto molecular models of the vertebrate collagen fibril derived from extant taxa. The dinosaur peptides localized to fibril regions protected by the close packing of collagen molecules, and contained few acidic amino acids. Four peptides mapped to collagen regions crucial for cell-collagen interactions and tissue development. Dinosaur peptides were not represented in more exposed parts of the collagen fibril or regions mediating intermolecular cross-linking. Thus functionally significant regions of collagen fibrils that are physically shielded within the fibril may be preferentially preserved in fossils. These results show empirically that structure-function relationships at the molecular level could contribute to selective preservation in fossilized vertebrate remains across geological time, suggest a 'preservation motif', and bolster current concepts linking collagen structure to biological function. This non-random distribution supports the hypothesis that the peptides are produced by the extinct organisms and suggests a chemical mechanism for survival.

  19. Critical Features of Fragment Libraries for Protein Structure Prediction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trevizani, Raphael; Custódio, Fábio Lima; Dos Santos, Karina Baptista; Dardenne, Laurent Emmanuel

    2017-01-01

    The use of fragment libraries is a popular approach among protein structure prediction methods and has proven to substantially improve the quality of predicted structures. However, some vital aspects of a fragment library that influence the accuracy of modeling a native structure remain to be determined. This study investigates some of these features. Particularly, we analyze the effect of using secondary structure prediction guiding fragments selection, different fragments sizes and the effect of structural clustering of fragments within libraries. To have a clearer view of how these factors affect protein structure prediction, we isolated the process of model building by fragment assembly from some common limitations associated with prediction methods, e.g., imprecise energy functions and optimization algorithms, by employing an exact structure-based objective function under a greedy algorithm. Our results indicate that shorter fragments reproduce the native structure more accurately than the longer. Libraries composed of multiple fragment lengths generate even better structures, where longer fragments show to be more useful at the beginning of the simulations. The use of many different fragment sizes shows little improvement when compared to predictions carried out with libraries that comprise only three different fragment sizes. Models obtained from libraries built using only sequence similarity are, on average, better than those built with a secondary structure prediction bias. However, we found that the use of secondary structure prediction allows greater reduction of the search space, which is invaluable for prediction methods. The results of this study can be critical guidelines for the use of fragment libraries in protein structure prediction.

  20. Antimicrobial peptides design by evolutionary multiobjective optimization.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giuseppe Maccari

    Full Text Available Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs are an abundant and wide class of molecules produced by many tissues and cell types in a variety of mammals, plant and animal species. Linear alpha-helical antimicrobial peptides are among the most widespread membrane-disruptive AMPs in nature, representing a particularly successful structural arrangement in innate defense. Recently, AMPs have received increasing attention as potential therapeutic agents, owing to their broad activity spectrum and their reduced tendency to induce resistance. The introduction of non-natural amino acids will be a key requisite in order to contrast host resistance and increase compound's life. In this work, the possibility to design novel AMP sequences with non-natural amino acids was achieved through a flexible computational approach, based on chemophysical profiles of peptide sequences. Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR descriptors were employed to code each peptide and train two statistical models in order to account for structural and functional properties of alpha-helical amphipathic AMPs. These models were then used as fitness functions for a multi-objective evolutional algorithm, together with a set of constraints for the design of a series of candidate AMPs. Two ab-initio natural peptides were synthesized and experimentally validated for antimicrobial activity, together with a series of control peptides. Furthermore, a well-known Cecropin-Mellitin alpha helical antimicrobial hybrid (CM18 was optimized by shortening its amino acid sequence while maintaining its activity and a peptide with non-natural amino acids was designed and tested, demonstrating the higher activity achievable with artificial residues.

  1. Protein Structure Prediction by Protein Threading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Ying; Liu, Zhijie; Cai, Liming; Xu, Dong

    The seminal work of Bowie, Lüthy, and Eisenberg (Bowie et al., 1991) on "the inverse protein folding problem" laid the foundation of protein structure prediction by protein threading. By using simple measures for fitness of different amino acid types to local structural environments defined in terms of solvent accessibility and protein secondary structure, the authors derived a simple and yet profoundly novel approach to assessing if a protein sequence fits well with a given protein structural fold. Their follow-up work (Elofsson et al., 1996; Fischer and Eisenberg, 1996; Fischer et al., 1996a,b) and the work by Jones, Taylor, and Thornton (Jones et al., 1992) on protein fold recognition led to the development of a new brand of powerful tools for protein structure prediction, which we now term "protein threading." These computational tools have played a key role in extending the utility of all the experimentally solved structures by X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), providing structural models and functional predictions for many of the proteins encoded in the hundreds of genomes that have been sequenced up to now.

  2. De novo sequencing of two novel peptides homologous to calcitonin-like peptides, from skin secretion of the Chinese Frog, Odorrana schmackeri

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Geisa P.C. Evaristo

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available An MS/MS based analytical strategy was followed to solve the complete sequence of two new peptides from frog (Odorrana schmackeri skin secretion. This involved reduction and alkylation with two different alkylating agents followed by high resolution tandem mass spectrometry. De novo sequencing was achieved by complementary CID and ETD fragmentations of full-length peptides and of selected tryptic fragments. Heavy and light isotope dimethyl labeling assisted with annotation of sequence ion series. The identified primary structures are GCD[I/L]STCATHN[I/L]VNE[I/L]NKFDKSKPSSGGVGPESP-NH2 and SCNLSTCATHNLVNELNKFDKSKPSSGGVGPESF-NH2, i.e. two carboxyamidated 34 residue peptides with an aminoterminal intramolecular ring structure formed by a disulfide bridge between Cys2 and Cys7. Edman degradation analysis of the second peptide positively confirmed the exact sequence, resolving I/L discriminations. Both peptide sequences are novel and share homology with calcitonin, calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP and adrenomedullin from other vertebrates. Detailed sequence analysis as well as the 34 residue length of both O. schmackeri peptides, suggest they do not fully qualify as either calcitonins (32 residues or CGRPs (37 amino acids and may justify their classification in a novel peptide family within the calcitonin gene related peptide superfamily. Smooth muscle contractility assays with synthetic replicas of the S–S linked peptides on rat tail artery, uterus, bladder and ileum did not reveal myotropic activity.

  3. Polymorphism of fibrillar structures depending on the size of assembled Aβ17-42 peptides

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheon, Mookyung; Kang, Mooseok; Chang, Iksoo

    2016-01-01

    The size of assembled Aβ17-42 peptides can determine polymorphism during oligomerization and fibrillization, but the mechanism of this effect is unknown. Starting from separate random monomers, various fibrillar oligomers with distinct structural characteristics were identified using discontinuous molecular dynamics simulations based on a coarse-grained protein model. From the structures observed in the simulations, two characteristic oligomer sizes emerged, trimer and paranuclei, which generated distinct structural patterns during fibrillization. A majority of the simulations for trimers and tetramers formed non-fibrillar oligomers, which primarily progress to off-pathway oligomers. Pentamers and hexamers were significantly converted into U-shape fibrillar structures, meaning that these oligomers, called paranuclei, might be potent on-pathway intermediates in fibril formation. Fibrillar oligomers larger than hexamers generated substantial polymorphism in which hybrid structures were readily formed and homogeneous fibrillar structures appeared infrequently. PMID:27901087

  4. Facilitating RNA structure prediction with microarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kierzek, Elzbieta; Kierzek, Ryszard; Turner, Douglas H; Catrina, Irina E

    2006-01-17

    Determining RNA secondary structure is important for understanding structure-function relationships and identifying potential drug targets. This paper reports the use of microarrays with heptamer 2'-O-methyl oligoribonucleotides to probe the secondary structure of an RNA and thereby improve the prediction of that secondary structure. When experimental constraints from hybridization results are added to a free-energy minimization algorithm, the prediction of the secondary structure of Escherichia coli 5S rRNA improves from 27 to 92% of the known canonical base pairs. Optimization of buffer conditions for hybridization and application of 2'-O-methyl-2-thiouridine to enhance binding and improve discrimination between AU and GU pairs are also described. The results suggest that probing RNA with oligonucleotide microarrays can facilitate determination of secondary structure.

  5. Peptide YY receptors in the brain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Inui, A.; Oya, M.; Okita, M.

    1988-01-01

    Radiolabelled ligand binding studies demonstrated that specific receptors for peptide YY are present in the porcine as well as the canine brains. Peptide YY was bound to brain tissue membranes via high-affinity (dissociation constant, 1.39 X 10(-10)M) and low-affinity (dissociation constant, 3.72 X 10(-8)M) components. The binding sites showed a high specificity for peptide YY and neuropeptide Y, but not for pancreatic polypeptide or structurally unrelated peptides. The specific activity of peptide YY binding was highest in the hippocampus, followed by the pituitary gland, the hypothalamus, and the amygdala of the porcine brain, this pattern being similarly observed in the canine brain. The results suggest that peptide YY and neuropeptide Y may regulate the function of these regions of the brain through interaction with a common receptor site

  6. The making of the minibody: an engineered beta-protein for the display of conformationally constrained peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tramontano, A; Bianchi, E; Venturini, S; Martin, F; Pessi, A; Sollazzo, M

    1994-03-01

    Conformationally constraining selectable peptides onto a suitable scaffold that enables their conformation to be predicted or readily determined by experimental techniques would considerably boost the drug discovery process by reducing the gap between the discovery of a peptide lead and the design of a peptidomimetic with a more desirable pharmacological profile. With this in mind, we designed the minibody, a 61-residue beta-protein aimed at retaining some desirable features of immunoglobulin variable domains, such as tolerance to sequence variability in selected regions of the protein and predictability of the main chain conformation of the same regions, based on the 'canonical structures' model. To test the ability of the minibody scaffold to support functional sites we also designed a metal binding version of the protein by suitably choosing the sequences of its loops. The minibody was produced both by chemical synthesis and expression in E. coli and characterized by size exclusion chromatography, UV CD (circular dichroism) spectroscopy and metal binding activity. All our data supported the model, but a more detailed structural characterization of the molecule was impaired by its low solubility. We were able to overcome this problem both by further mutagenesis of the framework and by addition of a solubilizing motif. The minibody is being used to select constrained human IL-6 peptidic ligands from a library displayed on the surface of the f1 bacteriophage.

  7. Detection of closed influenza virus hemagglutinin fusion peptide structures in membranes by backbone {sup 13}CO-{sup 15}N rotational-echo double-resonance solid-state NMR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ghosh, Ujjayini; Xie Li; Weliky, David P., E-mail: weliky@chemistry.msu.edu [Michigan State University, Department of Chemistry (United States)

    2013-02-15

    The influenza virus fusion peptide is the N-terminal {approx}20 residues of the HA2 subunit of the hemagglutinin protein and this peptide plays a key role in the fusion of the viral and endosomal membranes during initial infection of a cell. The fusion peptide adopts N-helix/turn/C-helix structure in both detergent and membranes with reports of both open and closed interhelical topologies. In the present study, backbone {sup 13}CO-{sup 15}N REDOR solid-state NMR was applied to the membrane-associated fusion peptide to detect the distribution of interhelical distances. The data clearly showed a large fraction of closed and semi-closed topologies and were best-fitted to a mixture of two structures that do not exchange. One of the earlier open structural models may have incorrect G13 dihedral angles derived from TALOS analysis of experimentally correct {sup 13}C shifts.

  8. Antibody structural modeling with prediction of immunoglobulin structure (PIGS)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Marcatili, Paolo; Olimpieri, Pier Paolo; Chailyan, Anna

    2014-01-01

    Antibodies (or immunoglobulins) are crucial for defending organisms from pathogens, but they are also key players in many medical, diagnostic and biotechnological applications. The ability to predict their structure and the specific residues involved in antigen recognition has several useful...... applications in all of these areas. Over the years, we have developed or collaborated in developing a strategy that enables researchers to predict the 3D structure of antibodies with a very satisfactory accuracy. The strategy is completely automated and extremely fast, requiring only a few minutes (∼10 min...... on average) to build a structural model of an antibody. It is based on the concept of canonical structures of antibody loops and on our understanding of the way light and heavy chains pack together....

  9. Structure predictions of two Bauhinia variegata lectins reveal patterns of C-terminal properties in single chain legume lectins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moreira, Gustavo M S G; Conceição, Fabricio R; McBride, Alan J A; Pinto, Luciano da S

    2013-01-01

    Bauhinia variegata lectins (BVL-I and BVL-II) are single chain lectins isolated from the plant Bauhinia variegata. Single chain lectins undergo post-translational processing on its N-terminal and C-terminal regions, which determines their physiological targeting, carbohydrate binding activity and pattern of quaternary association. These two lectins are isoforms, BVL-I being highly glycosylated, and thus far, it has not been possible to determine their structures. The present study used prediction and validation algorithms to elucidate the likely structures of BVL-I and -II. The program Bhageerath-H was chosen from among three different structure prediction programs due to its better overall reliability. In order to predict the C-terminal region cleavage sites, other lectins known to have this modification were analysed and three rules were created: (1) the first amino acid of the excised peptide is small or hydrophobic; (2) the cleavage occurs after an acid, polar, or hydrophobic residue, but not after a basic one; and (3) the cleavage spot is located 5-8 residues after a conserved Leu amino acid. These rules predicted that BVL-I and -II would have fifteen C-terminal residues cleaved, and this was confirmed experimentally by Edman degradation sequencing of BVL-I. Furthermore, the C-terminal analyses predicted that only BVL-II underwent α-helical folding in this region, similar to that seen in SBA and DBL. Conversely, BVL-I and -II contained four conserved regions of a GS-I association, providing evidence of a previously undescribed X4+unusual oligomerisation between the truncated BVL-I and the intact BVL-II. This is the first report on the structural analysis of lectins from Bauhinia spp. and therefore is important for the characterisation C-terminal cleavage and patterns of quaternary association of single chain lectins.

  10. Peptide-Graphene Interactions Enhance the Mechanical Properties of Silk Fibroin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Yuan; Koh, Leng-Duei; Li, Dechang; Ji, Baohua; Zhang, Yingyan; Yeo, Jingjie; Guan, Guijian; Han, Ming-Yong; Zhang, Yong-Wei

    2015-10-07

    Studies reveal that biomolecules can form intriguing molecular structures with fascinating functionalities upon interaction with graphene. Then, interesting questions arise. How does silk fibroin interact with graphene? Does such interaction lead to an enhancement in its mechanical properties? In this study, using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations, we first examine the interaction of graphene with several typical peptide structures of silk fibroin extracted from different domains of silk fibroin, including pure amorphous (P1), pure crystalline (P2), a segment from N-terminal (P3), and a combined amorphous and crystalline segment (P4), aiming to reveal their structural modifications. Our study shows that graphene can have intriguing influences on the structures formed by the peptides with sequences representing different domains of silk fibroin. In general, for protein domains with stable structure and strong intramolecular interaction (e.g., β-sheets), graphene tends to compete with the intramolecular interactions and thus weaken the interchain interaction and reduce the contents of β-sheets. For the silk domains with random or less ordered secondary structures and weak intramolecular interactions, graphene tends to enhance the stability of peptide structures; in particular, it increases the contents of helical structures. Thereafter, tensile simulations were further performed on the representative peptides to investigate how such structure modifications affect their mechanical properties. It was found that the strength and resilience of the peptides are enhanced through their interaction with graphene. The present work reveals interesting insights into the interactions between silk peptides and graphene, and contributes in the efforts to enhance the mechanical properties of silk fibroin.

  11. BRAIN NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE (BNP: BIOMARKER FOR RISK STRATIFICATION AND FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY PREDICTION IN ISCHEMIC STROKE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    STANESCU Ioana

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Functional outcome after cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events is traditionally predicted using demographic and clinical variables like age, gender, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, diabetes status, smoking habits or pre-existing morbidity. Identification of new variables will improve the risk stratification of specific categories of patients. Numerous blood-based biomarkers associated with increased cardiovascular risk have been identified; some of them even predict cardiovascular events. Investigators have tried to produce prediction models by incorporating traditional risk factors and biomarkers. (1. Widely-available, rapidly processed and less expensive biomarkers could be used in the future to guide management of complex cerebrovascular patients in order to maximize their recovery (2 Recently, studies have demonstrated that biomarkers can predict not only the risk for a specific clinical event, but also the risk of death of vascular cause and the functional outcome after cardiovascular or cerebrovascular events. Early prediction of fatal outcome after stroke may improve therapeutic strategies (such as the use of more aggressive treatments or inclusion of patients in clinical trials and guide decision-making processes in order to maximize patient’s chances for survival and recovery. (3 Long term functional outcome after stroke is one of the most difficult variables to predict. Elevated serum levels of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP are powerful predictor of outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease (heart failure, atrial fibrillation. Potential role of BNP in predicting atrial fibrillation occurrence, cardio-embolic stroke and post-stroke mortality have been proved in many studies. However, data concerning the potential role of BNP in predicting short term and long term functional outcomes after stroke remain controversial.

  12. PSPP: a protein structure prediction pipeline for computing clusters.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael S Lee

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available Protein structures are critical for understanding the mechanisms of biological systems and, subsequently, for drug and vaccine design. Unfortunately, protein sequence data exceed structural data by a factor of more than 200 to 1. This gap can be partially filled by using computational protein structure prediction. While structure prediction Web servers are a notable option, they often restrict the number of sequence queries and/or provide a limited set of prediction methodologies. Therefore, we present a standalone protein structure prediction software package suitable for high-throughput structural genomic applications that performs all three classes of prediction methodologies: comparative modeling, fold recognition, and ab initio. This software can be deployed on a user's own high-performance computing cluster.The pipeline consists of a Perl core that integrates more than 20 individual software packages and databases, most of which are freely available from other research laboratories. The query protein sequences are first divided into domains either by domain boundary recognition or Bayesian statistics. The structures of the individual domains are then predicted using template-based modeling or ab initio modeling. The predicted models are scored with a statistical potential and an all-atom force field. The top-scoring ab initio models are annotated by structural comparison against the Structural Classification of Proteins (SCOP fold database. Furthermore, secondary structure, solvent accessibility, transmembrane helices, and structural disorder are predicted. The results are generated in text, tab-delimited, and hypertext markup language (HTML formats. So far, the pipeline has been used to study viral and bacterial proteomes.The standalone pipeline that we introduce here, unlike protein structure prediction Web servers, allows users to devote their own computing assets to process a potentially unlimited number of queries as well as perform

  13. Peptide Integrated Optics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Handelman, Amir; Lapshina, Nadezda; Apter, Boris; Rosenman, Gil

    2018-02-01

    Bio-nanophotonics is a wide field in which advanced optical materials, biomedicine, fundamental optics, and nanotechnology are combined and result in the development of biomedical optical chips. Silk fibers or synthetic bioabsorbable polymers are the main light-guiding components. In this work, an advanced concept of integrated bio-optics is proposed, which is based on bioinspired peptide optical materials exhibiting wide optical transparency, nonlinear and electrooptical properties, and effective passive and active waveguiding. Developed new technology combining bottom-up controlled deposition of peptide planar wafers of a large area and top-down focus ion beam lithography provides direct fabrication of peptide optical integrated circuits. Finding a deep modification of peptide optical properties by reconformation of biological secondary structure from native phase to β-sheet architecture is followed by the appearance of visible fluorescence and unexpected transition from a native passive optical waveguiding to an active one. Original biocompatibility, switchable regimes of waveguiding, and multifunctional nonlinear optical properties make these new peptide planar optical materials attractive for application in emerging technology of lab-on-biochips, combining biomedical photonic and electronic circuits toward medical diagnosis, light-activated therapy, and health monitoring. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  14. Sub-nanometer-resolution imaging of peptide nanotubes in water using frequency modulation atomic force microscopy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sugihara, Tomoki; Hayashi, Itsuho; Onishi, Hiroshi [Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501 (Japan); Kimura, Kenjiro, E-mail: kimura@gold.kobe-u.ac.jp [Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501 (Japan); Tamura, Atsuo [Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501 (Japan)

    2013-06-20

    Highlights: ► Peptide nanotubes were aligned on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite surface. ► We visualized sub-nanometer-scale structure on peptide nanotube surface in water. ► We observed hydration structure at a peptide nanotube/water interface. - Abstract: Peptide nanotubes are self-assembled fibrous materials composed of cyclic polypeptides. Recently, various aspects of peptide nanotubes have been studied, in particular the utility of different methods for making peptide nanotubes with diverse designed functions. In order to investigate the relationship between formation, function and stability, it is essential to analyze the precise structure of peptide nanotubes. Atomic-scale surface imaging in liquids was recently achieved using frequency modulation atomic force microscopy with improved force sensing. Here we provide a precise surface structural analysis of peptide nanotubes in water without crystallizing them obtained by imaging the nanotubes at the sub-nanometer scale in water. In addition, the local hydration structure around the peptide nanotubes was observed at the nanotube/water interface.

  15. Structure-activity-based design of a synthetic malaria peptide eliciting sporozoite inhibitory antibodies in a virosomal formulation.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Okitsu, S.L.; Kienzl, U.; Moehle, K.; Silvie, O.; Peduzzi, E.; Mueller, M.S.; Sauerwein, R.W.; Matile, H.; Zurbriggen, R.; Mazier, D.; Robinson, J.A.; Pluschke, G.

    2007-01-01

    The circumsporozoite protein (CSP) of Plasmodium falciparum is a leading candidate antigen for inclusion in a malaria subunit vaccine. We describe here the design of a conformationally constrained synthetic peptide, designated UK-39, which has structural and antigenic similarity to the NPNA-repeat

  16. Identification of MHC class I H-2 Kb/Db-restricted immunogenic peptides derived from retinal proteins

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Mingjun; Bai, Fang; Pries, Mette

    2006-01-01

    PURPOSE: To identify H-2 Kb/Db-binding immunogenic peptides derived from retinal proteins. METHODS: Computer-based prediction was used to identify potentially H-2 Kb/Db-binding peptides derived from the interphotoreceptor retinol-binding protein (IRBP), soluble retinal antigen (S...... on day 21 after immunization with IRBP or IRBP and the immunogenic peptides. RESULTS: All the 21 predicted peptides were found to upregulate expression of H-2 Kb/Db on RMA-S cells. Five peptides, the two IRBP-derived peptides IRBP89-96 and IRBP(101-108), and the three PEDF-derived peptides, PEDF389....... The immunogenic peptides alone did not induce inflammation in the eyes, but they could enhance severity of uveitis induced by IRBP. CONCLUSIONS: Five of 21 H-2 Kb/Db-binding retinal protein-derived peptides were found to be immunogenic, suggesting that these peptides could function as autoantigenic epitopes...

  17. RNAstructure: software for RNA secondary structure prediction and analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reuter, Jessica S; Mathews, David H

    2010-03-15

    To understand an RNA sequence's mechanism of action, the structure must be known. Furthermore, target RNA structure is an important consideration in the design of small interfering RNAs and antisense DNA oligonucleotides. RNA secondary structure prediction, using thermodynamics, can be used to develop hypotheses about the structure of an RNA sequence. RNAstructure is a software package for RNA secondary structure prediction and analysis. It uses thermodynamics and utilizes the most recent set of nearest neighbor parameters from the Turner group. It includes methods for secondary structure prediction (using several algorithms), prediction of base pair probabilities, bimolecular structure prediction, and prediction of a structure common to two sequences. This contribution describes new extensions to the package, including a library of C++ classes for incorporation into other programs, a user-friendly graphical user interface written in JAVA, and new Unix-style text interfaces. The original graphical user interface for Microsoft Windows is still maintained. The extensions to RNAstructure serve to make RNA secondary structure prediction user-friendly. The package is available for download from the Mathews lab homepage at http://rna.urmc.rochester.edu/RNAstructure.html.

  18. Jumping Hurdles: Peptides Able To Overcome Biological Barriers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sánchez-Navarro, Macarena; Teixidó, Meritxell; Giralt, Ernest

    2017-08-15

    The cell membrane, the gastrointestinal tract, and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) are good examples of biological barriers that define and protect cells and organs. They impose different levels of restriction, but they also share common features. For instance, they all display a high lipophilic character. For this reason, hydrophilic compounds, like peptides, proteins, or nucleic acids have long been considered as unable to bypass them. However, the discovery of cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) opened a vast field of research. Nowadays, CPPs, homing peptides, and blood-brain barrier peptide shuttles (BBB-shuttles) are good examples of peptides able to target and to cross various biological barriers. CPPs are a group of peptides able to interact with the plasma membrane and enter the cell. They display some common characteristics like positively charged residues, mainly arginines, and amphipathicity. In this field, our group has been focused on the development of proline rich CPPs and in the analysis of the importance of secondary amphipathicity in the internalization process. Proline has a privileged structure being the only amino acid with a secondary amine and a cyclic side chain. These features constrain its structure and hamper the formation of H-bonds. Taking advantage of this privileged structure, three different families of proline-rich peptides have been developed, namely, a proline-rich dendrimer, the sweet arrow peptide (SAP), and a group of foldamers based on γ-peptides. The structure and the mechanism of internalization of all of them has been evaluated and analyzed. BBB-shuttles are peptides able to cross the BBB and to carry with them compounds that cannot reach the brain parenchyma unaided. These peptides take advantage of the natural transport mechanisms present at the BBB, which are divided in active and passive transport mechanisms. On the one hand, we have developed BBB-shuttles that cross the BBB by a passive transport mechanism, like

  19. Further studies on the structural requirements for mast cell degranulating (MCD) peptide-mediated histamine release.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buku, A; Price, J A

    2001-12-01

    Mast cell degranulating (MCD) peptide was modified in its two disulfide bridges and in the two arginine residues in order to measure the ability of these analogs to induce histamine release from mast cells in vitro. Analogs prepared were [Ala(3,15)]MCD, [Ala(5,19)]MCD, [Orn(16)]MCD, and [Orn(7,16)]MCD. Their histamine-releasing activity was determined spectrofluorometrically with peritoneal mast cells. The monocyclic analogs in which the cysteine residues were replaced pairwise with alanine residues showed three-to ten-fold diminished histamine-releasing activity respectively, compared with the parent MCD peptide. Substantial increases in activity were observed where arginine residues were replaced by ornithines. The ornithine-mono substituted analog showed an almost six-fold increase and the ornithine-doubly substituted analog three-fold increase in histamine-releasing activity compared with the parent MCD peptide. The structural changes associated with these activities were followed by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. Changes in the shape and ellipticity of the CD spectra reflected a role for the disulfide bonds and the two arginine residues in the overall conformation and biological activity of the molecule.

  20. Antibody structural modeling with prediction of immunoglobulin structure (PIGS)

    KAUST Repository

    Marcatili, Paolo

    2014-11-06

    © 2014 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. Antibodies (or immunoglobulins) are crucial for defending organisms from pathogens, but they are also key players in many medical, diagnostic and biotechnological applications. The ability to predict their structure and the specific residues involved in antigen recognition has several useful applications in all of these areas. Over the years, we have developed or collaborated in developing a strategy that enables researchers to predict the 3D structure of antibodies with a very satisfactory accuracy. The strategy is completely automated and extremely fast, requiring only a few minutes (~10 min on average) to build a structural model of an antibody. It is based on the concept of canonical structures of antibody loops and on our understanding of the way light and heavy chains pack together.

  1. Interactions of photoactive DNAs with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase: Identification of peptides in the DNA binding domain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Farrar, Y.J.K.; Evans, R.K.; Beach, C.M.; Coleman, M.S.

    1991-01-01

    Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (terminal transferase) was specifically modified in the DNA binding site by a photoactive DNA substrate (hetero-40-mer duplex containing eight 5-azido-dUMP residues at one 3' end). Under optimal photolabeling conditions, 27-40% of the DNA was covalently cross-linked to terminal transferase. The specificity of the DNA and protein interaction was demonstrated by protection of photolabeling at the DNA binding domain with natural DNA substrates. In order to recover high yields of modified peptides from limited amounts of starting material, protein modified with 32 P-labeled photoactive DNA and digested with trypsin was extracted 4 times with phenol followed by gel filtration chromatography. All peptides not cross-linked to DNA were extracted into the phenol phase while the photolyzed DNA and the covalently cross-linked peptides remained in the aqueous phase. The 32 P-containing peptide-DNA fraction was subjected to amino acid sequence analysis. Two sequences, Asp 221 -Lys 231 (peptide B8) and Cys 234 -Lys 249 (peptide B10), present in similar yield, were identified. Structure predictions placed the two peptides in an α-helical array of 39 angstrom which would accommodate a DNA helix span of 11 nucleotides. These peptides share sequence similarity with a region in DNA polymerase β that has been implicated in the binding of DNA template

  2. Novel phosphine-peptide hybrids as selective catalysts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nygaard, David

    (His(Trt), Gln, Gln(Trt), Cys(tBu), Thr(OtBu), azido- Dab, Asp(OtBu), Arg(Pmc))) yielding a range of novel modified peptides. Peptides containing one secondary amine were phosphinylated and captured as either phosphine-boranes or oxides. Both borane and oxide protection of phosphine-peptide hybrids...... was discovered and the compounds were structurally elucidated via NMR and mass spectroscopy. Two of these compounds were incorporated into peptides. An existing method of obtaining peptides containing secondary amines in the peptide backbone have been expanded for incorporation of functional amino acids as well...... palladium chloride dimer did not yield an observable phosphine-palladium complex. A peptide containing two secondary amine sites was synthesized, phosphinylated and complexed to respectively palladium and copper. The palladium complex was utilized successfully as a palladium catalyst in a model Sonogashira...

  3. Usefulness of Serial N-terminal Pro-B-type Natriuretic Peptide Measurements to Predict Cardiac Death in Acute and Chronic Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Children

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boer, S.L. den; Rizopoulos, D.; Sarvaas, G.J.; Backx, A.P.; Harkel, A.D. Ten; Iperen, G.G. van; Rammeloo, L.A.; Tanke, R.B.; Boersma, E.; Helbing, W.A.; Dalinghaus, M.

    2016-01-01

    N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is an important predictor of outcome in adults with heart failure. In children with heart failure secondary to dilated cardiomyopathy (DC) markers that reliably predict disease progression and outcome during follow-up are scarce. We investigated

  4. Discordance between in silico & in vitro analyses of ACE inhibitory & antioxidative peptides from mixed milk tryptic whey protein hydrolysate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chatterjee, Alok; Kanawjia, S K; Khetra, Yogesh; Saini, Prerna

    2015-09-01

    ACE inhibitory and antioxidative peptides identified by LCMS/MS, from mixed milk (Bubalus bubalis and Bos taurus) tryptic whey protein hydrolysate, were compared with the in silico predictions. α la and ß lg sequences, both from Bubalus bubalis and Bos taurus, were used for in silico study. SWISS-PROT and BIOPEP protein libraries were accessed for prediction of peptide generation. Study observed gaps in the prediction versus actual results, which remain unaddressed in the literature. Many peptides obtained in vitro, were not reflected in in silico predictions. Differences in identified peptides in separate libraries were observed too. In in silico prediction, peptides with known biological activities were also not reflected. Predictions, towards generation of bioactive peptides, based upon in silico release of proteins and amino acid sequences from different sources and thereupon validation in relation to actual results has often been reported in research literature. Given that computer aided simulation for prediction purposes is an effective research direction, regular updating of protein libraries and an effectual integration, for more precise results, is critical. The gaps addressed between these two techniques of research, have not found any address in literature. Inclusion of more flexibility with the variables, within the tools being used for prediction, and a hierarchy based database with search options for various peptides, will further enhance the scope and strength of research.

  5. Cleaving Double-Stranded DNA with Peptide Nucleic Acids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    1997-01-01

    Peptide nucleic acids and analogues of peptide nucleic acids are used to form duplex, triplex, and other structures with nucleic acids and to modify nucleic acids. The peptide nucleic acids and analogues thereof also are used to modulate protein activity through, for example, transcription arrest......, transcription initiation, and site specific cleavage of nucleic acids....

  6. Structural analysis of peptides capable of binding to more than one Ia antigen

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sette, A; Buus, S; Colon, S

    1989-01-01

    The Ia binding regions were analyzed for three unrelated peptide Ag (sperm whale myoglobin 106-118, influenza hemagglutinin 130-142, and lambda repressor protein 12-26) for which binding to more than one Ia molecule has previously been demonstrated. By determining the binding profile of three...... separate series of truncated synthetic peptides, it was found that in all three cases the different Ia reactivities mapped to largely overlapping regions of the peptides; although, for two of the peptides, the regions involved in binding the different Ia specificities were distinct. Moreover, subtle...... differences were found to dramatically influence some, but not other, Ia reactivities. Using a large panel of synthetic peptides it was found that a significant correlation exists between the capacity of peptides to interact with different alleles of the same molecule (i.e., IAd and IAk), but no correlation...

  7. What peptides these deltorphins be.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lazarus, L H; Bryant, S D; Cooper, P S; Salvadori, S

    1999-02-01

    The deltorphins are a class of highly selective delta-opioid heptapeptides from the skin of the Amazonian frogs Phyllomedusa sauvagei and P. bicolor. The first of these fascinating peptides came to light in 1987 by cloning of the cDNA of from frog skins, while the other members of this family were identified either by cDNA or isolation of the peptides. The distinctive feature of deltorphins is the presence of a naturally occurring D-enantiomer at the second position in their common N-terminal sequence, Tyr-D-Xaa-Phe, comparable to dermorphin, which is the prototype of a group of mu-selective opioids from the same source. The D-amino acid and the anionic residues, either Glu or Asp, as well as their unique amino acid compositions are responsible for the remarkable biostability, high delta-receptor affinity, bioactivity and peptide conformation. This review summarizes a decade of research from many laboratories that defined which residues and substituents in the deltorphins interact with the delta-receptor and characterized pharmacological and physiological activities in vitro and in vivo. It begins with a historical description of the topic and presents general schema for the synthesis of peptide analogues of deltorphins A, B and C as a means to document the methods employed in producing a myriad of analogues. Structure activity studies of the peptides and their pharmacological activities in vitro are detailed in abundantly tabulated data. A brief compendium of the current level of knowledge of the delta-receptor assists the reader to appreciate the rationale for the design of these analogues. Discussion of the conformation of these peptides addresses how structure leads to further hypotheses regarding ligand receptor interaction. The review ends with a broad discussion of the potential applications of these peptides in clinical and therapeutic settings.

  8. Lipid-peptide-polymer conjugates and nanoparticles thereof

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Ting; Dong, He; Shu, Jessica

    2015-06-02

    The present invention provides a conjugate having a peptide with from about 10 to about 100 amino acids, wherein the peptide adopts a helical structure. The conjugate also includes a first polymer covalently linked to the peptide, and a hydrophobic moiety covalently linked to the N-terminus of the peptide, wherein the hydrophobic moiety comprises a second polymer or a lipid moiety. The present invention also provides helix bundles form by self-assembling the conjugates, and particles formed by self-assembling the helix bundles. Methods of preparing the helix bundles and particles are also provided.

  9. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC fingerprints and primary structure identification of corn peptides by HPLC-diode array detection and HPLC-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chi Wang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Corn peptides (CPs are reported to have many biological functions, such as facilitating alcohol metabolism, antioxidation, antitumor, antihypertension, and hepatoprotection. To develop a method for quality control, the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC system was applied. Twenty-eight common peaks were found in all the CPs of corn samples from Enshi, China, based on which, a fingerprinting chromatogram was established for use in quality control in future research. Subsequently, the major chemical constituents of these common peaks were identified respectively using the HPLC-diode-array detection electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (DAD-ESI-MS/MS system, and 48 peptide fractions were determined ultimately. This was the first time for the majority of these peptides to be reported, and many of them contained amino acids of glutamine (Q, L and A, which might play an important role in the exhibition of the bioactivities of CPs. Many peptides had a similar primary structure to the peptides which had been proven to be bioactive such as facilitating alcohol metabolism, scavenging free radicals, and inhibiting lipid peroxidation. This systematical analysis of the primary structure of CPs facilitated subsequent studies on the relationship between the structures and functions, and could accelerate holistic research on CPs.

  10. Peptide-membrane Interactions by Spin-labeling EPR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smirnova, Tatyana I.; Smirnov, Alex I.

    2016-01-01

    Site-directed spin labeling (SDSL) in combination with Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is a well-established method that has recently grown in popularity as an experimental technique, with multiple applications in protein and peptide science. The growth is driven by development of labeling strategies, as well as by considerable technical advances in the field, that are paralleled by an increased availability of EPR instrumentation. While the method requires an introduction of a paramagnetic probe at a well-defined position in a peptide sequence, it has been shown to be minimally destructive to the peptide structure and energetics of the peptide-membrane interactions. In this chapter, we describe basic approaches for using SDSL EPR spectroscopy to study interactions between small peptides and biological membranes or membrane mimetic systems. We focus on experimental approaches to quantify peptide-membrane binding, topology of bound peptides, and characterize peptide aggregation. Sample preparation protocols including spin-labeling methods and preparation of membrane mimetic systems are also described. PMID:26477253

  11. Designing of peptides with desired half-life in intestine-like environment

    KAUST Repository

    Sharma, Arun; Singla, Deepak; Rashid, Mamoon; Raghava, Gajendra Pal Singh

    2014-01-01

    hindered mainly because of their high susceptibility towards proteases degradation. We have developed an in silico method to predict the half-life of peptides in intestine-like environment and to design better peptides having optimized physicochemical

  12. Primary and secondary structure dependence of peptide flexibility assessed by fluorescence-based measurement of end-to-end collision rates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Fang; Hudgins, Robert R; Nau, Werner M

    2004-12-22

    The intrachain fluorescence quenching of the fluorophore 2,3-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]oct-2-ene (DBO) is measured in short peptide fragments, namely the two strands and the turn of the N-terminal beta-hairpin of ubiquitin. The investigated peptides adopt a random-coil conformation in aqueous solution according to CD and NMR experiments. The combination of quenchers with different quenching efficiencies, namely tryptophan and tyrosine, allows the extrapolation of the rate constants for end-to-end collision rates as well as the dissociation of the end-to-end encounter complex. The measured activation energies for fluorescence quenching demonstrate that the end-to-end collision process in peptides is partially controlled by internal friction within the backbone, while measurements in solvents of different viscosities (H2O, D2O, and 7.0 M guanidinium chloride) suggest that solvent friction is an additional important factor in determining the collision rate. The extrapolated end-to-end collision rates, which are only slightly larger than the experimental rates for the DBO/Trp probe/quencher system, provide a measure of the conformational flexibility of the peptide backbone. The chain flexibility is found to be strongly dependent on the type of secondary structure that the peptides represent. The collision rates for peptides derived from the beta-strand motifs (ca. 1 x 10(7) s(-1)) are ca. 4 times slower than that derived from the beta-turn. The results provide further support for the hypothesis that chain flexibility is an important factor in the preorganization of protein fragments during protein folding. Mutations to the beta-turn peptide show that subtle sequence changes strongly affect the flexibility of peptides as well. The protonation and charge status of the peptides, however, are shown to have no significant effect on the flexibility of the investigated peptides. The meaning and definition of end-to-end collision rates in the context of protein folding are critically

  13. Crystal Structure of the Dithiol Oxidase DsbA Enzyme from Proteus Mirabilis Bound Non-covalently to an Active Site Peptide Ligand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurth, Fabian; Duprez, Wilko; Premkumar, Lakshmanane; Schembri, Mark A.; Fairlie, David P.; Martin, Jennifer L.

    2014-01-01

    The disulfide bond forming DsbA enzymes and their DsbB interaction partners are attractive targets for development of antivirulence drugs because both are essential for virulence factor assembly in Gram-negative pathogens. Here we characterize PmDsbA from Proteus mirabilis, a bacterial pathogen increasingly associated with multidrug resistance. PmDsbA exhibits the characteristic properties of a DsbA, including an oxidizing potential, destabilizing disulfide, acidic active site cysteine, and dithiol oxidase catalytic activity. We evaluated a peptide, PWATCDS, derived from the partner protein DsbB and showed by thermal shift and isothermal titration calorimetry that it binds to PmDsbA. The crystal structures of PmDsbA, and the active site variant PmDsbAC30S were determined to high resolution. Analysis of these structures allows categorization of PmDsbA into the DsbA class exemplified by the archetypal Escherichia coli DsbA enzyme. We also present a crystal structure of PmDsbAC30S in complex with the peptide PWATCDS. The structure shows that the peptide binds non-covalently to the active site CXXC motif, the cis-Pro loop, and the hydrophobic groove adjacent to the active site of the enzyme. This high-resolution structural data provides a critical advance for future structure-based design of non-covalent peptidomimetic inhibitors. Such inhibitors would represent an entirely new antibacterial class that work by switching off the DSB virulence assembly machinery. PMID:24831013

  14. Catalytic water co-existing with a product peptide in the active site of HIV-1 protease revealed by X-ray structure analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prashar, Vishal; Bihani, Subhash; Das, Amit; Ferrer, Jean-Luc; Hosur, Madhusoodan

    2009-11-17

    It is known that HIV-1 protease is an important target for design of antiviral compounds in the treatment of Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). In this context, understanding the catalytic mechanism of the enzyme is of crucial importance as transition state structure directs inhibitor design. Most mechanistic proposals invoke nucleophilic attack on the scissile peptide bond by a water molecule. But such a water molecule coexisting with any ligand in the active site has not been found so far in the crystal structures. We report here the first observation of the coexistence in the active site, of a water molecule WAT1, along with the carboxyl terminal product (Q product) peptide. The product peptide has been generated in situ through cleavage of the full-length substrate. The N-terminal product (P product) has diffused out and is replaced by a set of water molecules while the Q product is still held in the active site through hydrogen bonds. The position of WAT1, which hydrogen bonds to both the catalytic aspartates, is different from when there is no substrate bound in the active site. We propose WAT1 to be the position from where catalytic water attacks the scissile peptide bond. Comparison of structures of HIV-1 protease complexed with the same oligopeptide substrate, but at pH 2.0 and at pH 7.0 shows interesting changes in the conformation and hydrogen bonding interactions from the catalytic aspartates. The structure is suggestive of the repositioning, during substrate binding, of the catalytic water for activation and subsequent nucleophilic attack. The structure could be a snap shot of the enzyme active site primed for the next round of catalysis. This structure further suggests that to achieve the goal of designing inhibitors mimicking the transition-state, the hydrogen-bonding pattern between WAT1 and the enzyme should be replicated.

  15. Novel Concepts of MS-Cleavable Cross-linkers for Improved Peptide Structure Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hage, Christoph; Falvo, Francesco; Schäfer, Mathias; Sinz, Andrea

    2017-10-01

    The chemical cross-linking/mass spectrometry (MS) approach is gaining increasing importance as an alternative method for studying protein conformation and for deciphering protein interaction networks. This study is part of our ongoing efforts to develop innovative cross-linking principles for a facile and efficient assignment of cross-linked products. We evaluate two homobifunctional, amine-reactive, and MS-cleavable cross-linkers regarding their potential for automated analysis of cross-linked products. We introduce the bromine phenylurea (BrPU) linker that possesses a unique structure yielding a distinctive fragmentation pattern on collisional activation. Moreover, BrPU delivers the characteristic bromine isotope pattern and mass defect for all cross-linker-decorated fragments. We compare the fragmentation behavior of the BrPU linker with that of our previously described MS-cleavable TEMPO-Bz linker (which consists of a 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxy moiety connected to a benzyl group) that was developed to perform free-radical-initiated peptide sequencing. Comparative collisional activation experiments (collision-induced dissociation and higher-energy collision-induced dissociation) with both cross-linkers were conducted in negative electrospray ionization mode with an Orbitrap Fusion mass spectrometer using five model peptides. As hypothesized in a previous study, the presence of a cross-linked N-terminal aspartic acid residue seems to be the prerequisite for the loss of an intact peptide from the cross-linked products. As the BrPU linker combines a characteristic mass shift with an isotope signature, it presents a more favorable combination for automated assignment of cross-linked products compared with the TEMPO-Bz linker. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

  16. Disulfide-stabilized Helical Hairpin Structure and Activity of a Novel Antifungal Peptide EcAMP1 from Seeds of Barnyard Grass (Echinochloa crus-galli)*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nolde, Svetlana B.; Vassilevski, Alexander A.; Rogozhin, Eugene A.; Barinov, Nikolay A.; Balashova, Tamara A.; Samsonova, Olga V.; Baranov, Yuri V.; Feofanov, Alexey V.; Egorov, Tsezi A.; Arseniev, Alexander S.; Grishin, Eugene V.

    2011-01-01

    This study presents purification, activity characterization, and 1H NMR study of the novel antifungal peptide EcAMP1 from kernels of barnyard grass Echinochloa crus-galli. The peptide adopts a disulfide-stabilized α-helical hairpin structure in aqueous solution and thus represents a novel fold among naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides. Micromolar concentrations of EcAMP1 were shown to inhibit growth of several fungal phytopathogens. Confocal microscopy revealed intensive EcAMP1 binding to the surface of fungal conidia followed by internalization and accumulation in the cytoplasm without disturbance of membrane integrity. Close spatial structure similarity between EcAMP1, the trypsin inhibitor VhTI from seeds of Veronica hederifolia, and some scorpion and cone snail toxins suggests natural elaboration of different functions on a common fold. PMID:21561864

  17. Disulfide-stabilized helical hairpin structure and activity of a novel antifungal peptide EcAMP1 from seeds of barnyard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nolde, Svetlana B; Vassilevski, Alexander A; Rogozhin, Eugene A; Barinov, Nikolay A; Balashova, Tamara A; Samsonova, Olga V; Baranov, Yuri V; Feofanov, Alexey V; Egorov, Tsezi A; Arseniev, Alexander S; Grishin, Eugene V

    2011-07-15

    This study presents purification, activity characterization, and (1)H NMR study of the novel antifungal peptide EcAMP1 from kernels of barnyard grass Echinochloa crus-galli. The peptide adopts a disulfide-stabilized α-helical hairpin structure in aqueous solution and thus represents a novel fold among naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides. Micromolar concentrations of EcAMP1 were shown to inhibit growth of several fungal phytopathogens. Confocal microscopy revealed intensive EcAMP1 binding to the surface of fungal conidia followed by internalization and accumulation in the cytoplasm without disturbance of membrane integrity. Close spatial structure similarity between EcAMP1, the trypsin inhibitor VhTI from seeds of Veronica hederifolia, and some scorpion and cone snail toxins suggests natural elaboration of different functions on a common fold.

  18. Structure of a C-terminal AHNAK peptide in a 1:2:2 complex with S100A10 and an acetylated N-terminal peptide of annexin A2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ozorowski, Gabriel; Milton, Saskia; Luecke, Hartmut

    2013-01-01

    Structure of a 20-amino-acid peptide of AHNAK bound asymmetrically to the AnxA2–S100A10A heterotetramer (1:2:2 symmetry) provides insights into the atomic level interactions that govern this membrane-repair scaffolding complex. AHNAK, a large 629 kDa protein, has been implicated in membrane repair, and the annexin A2–S100A10 heterotetramer [(p11) 2 (AnxA2) 2 )] has high affinity for several regions of its 1002-amino-acid C-terminal domain. (p11) 2 (AnxA2) 2 is often localized near the plasma membrane, and this C2-symmetric platform is proposed to be involved in the bridging of membrane vesicles and trafficking of proteins to the plasma membrane. All three proteins co-localize at the intracellular face of the plasma membrane in a Ca 2+ -dependent manner. The binding of AHNAK to (p11) 2 (AnxA2) 2 has been studied previously, and a minimal binding motif has been mapped to a 20-amino-acid peptide corresponding to residues 5654–5673 of the AHNAK C-terminal domain. Here, the 2.5 Å resolution crystal structure of this 20-amino-acid peptide of AHNAK bound to the AnxA2–S100A10 heterotetramer (1:2:2 symmetry) is presented, which confirms the asymmetric arrangement first described by Rezvanpour and coworkers and explains why the binding motif has high affinity for (p11) 2 (AnxA2) 2 . Binding of AHNAK to the surface of (p11) 2 (AnxA2) 2 is governed by several hydrophobic interactions between side chains of AHNAK and pockets on S100A10. The pockets are large enough to accommodate a variety of hydrophobic side chains, allowing the consensus sequence to be more general. Additionally, the various hydrogen bonds formed between the AHNAK peptide and (p11) 2 (AnxA2) 2 most often involve backbone atoms of AHNAK; as a result, the side chains, particularly those that point away from S100A10/AnxA2 towards the solvent, are largely interchangeable. While the structure-based consensus sequence allows interactions with various stretches of the AHNAK C-terminal domain, comparison

  19. Identification of ageing-associated naturally occurring peptides in human urine

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nkuipou-Kenfack, Esther; Bhat, Akshay; Klein, Julie; Jankowski, Vera; Mullen, William; Vlahou, Antonia; Dakna, Mohammed; Koeck, Thomas; Schanstra, Joost P.; Zürbig, Petra; Rudolph, Karl L.; Schumacher, Björn; Pich, Andreas; Mischak, Harald

    2015-01-01

    To assess normal and pathological peptidomic changes that may lead to an improved understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying ageing, urinary peptidomes of 1227 healthy and 10333 diseased individuals between 20 and 86 years of age were investigated. The diseases thereby comprised diabetes mellitus, renal and cardiovascular diseases. Using age as a continuous variable, 116 peptides were identified that significantly (p age in the healthy cohort. The same approach was applied to the diseased cohort. Upon comparison of the peptide patterns of the two cohorts 112 common age-correlated peptides were identified. These 112 peptides predominantly originated from collagen, uromodulin and fibrinogen. While most fibrillar and basement membrane collagen fragments showed a decreased age-related excretion, uromodulin, beta-2-microglobulin and fibrinogen fragments showed an increase. Peptide-based in silico protease analysis was performed and 32 proteases, including matrix metalloproteinases and cathepsins, were predicted to be involved in ageing. Identified peptides, predicted proteases and patient information were combined in a systems biology pathway analysis to identify molecular pathways associated with normal and/or pathological ageing. While perturbations in collagen homeostasis, trafficking of toll-like receptors and endosomal pathways were commonly identified, degradation of insulin-like growth factor-binding proteins was uniquely identified in pathological ageing. PMID:26431327

  20. Structure, synthesis, and activity of dermaseptin b, a novel vertebrate defensive peptide from frog skin: relationship with adenoregulin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mor, A; Amiche, M; Nicolas, P

    1994-05-31

    A novel antimicrobial peptide, designated dermaseptin b, was isolated from the skin of the arboreal frog Phyllomedusa bicolor. This 27-residue peptide amide is basic, containing 3 lysine residues that punctuate an alternating hydrophobic and hydrophilic sequence. In helix-inducing solvent, dermaseptin b adopts an amphipathic alpha-helical conformation that most closely resembles class L amphipathic helixes, with all lysine residues on the polar face of the helix. The peptide exhibits growth inhibition activity in vitro against a broad spectrum of pathogenic microorganisms including yeast and bacteria as well as various filamentous fungi that are responsible for severe opportunistic infections accompanying acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and the use of immunosuppressive agents. Maximized pairwise sequence alignment of dermaseptin b and dermaseptin s, a 34-residue antimicrobial peptide previously isolated from Phyllomedusa sauvagii, reveals 81% amino acid identity. No other significant similarity was found between dermaseptin b and any prokaryotic or eukaryotic protein, but similarity was found with adenoregulin (38% amino acid postional identity), a 33-residue peptide that enhances binding of agonists to the A1 adenosine receptor. The synthetic replicates of dermaseptin b and adenoregulin displayed similar but nonidentical spectra of antimicrobial activity, and both peptides were devoid of lytic effect on mammalian cells. Accordingly, the observation that adenoregulin enhances binding of agonists to the adenosine receptor may in fact be a consequence of its ability to alter the structure of biological membranes and to produce signal transduction via interactions with the lipid bilayer, bypassing cell surface receptor interactions.

  1. Structural and functional characterization of human apolipoprotein E 72-166 peptides in both aqueous and lipid environments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chou Chi-Yuan

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Backgrounds There are three apolipoprotein E (apoE isoforms involved in human lipid homeostasis. In the present study, truncated apoE2-, apoE3- and apoE4-(72-166 peptides that are tailored to lack domain interactions are expressed and elucidated the structural and functional consequences. Methods & Results Circular dichroism analyses indicated that their secondary structure is still well organized. Analytical ultracentrifugation analyses demonstrated that apoE-(72-166 produces more complicated species in PBS. All three isoforms were significantly dissociated in the presence of dihexanoylphosphatidylcholine. Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine turbidity clearance assay showed that apoE4-(72-166 maintains the highest lipid-binding capacity. Finally, only apoE4-(72-166 still maintained significant LDL receptor binding ability. Conclusions Overall, apoE4-(72-166 peptides displayed a higher lipid-binding and comparable receptor-binding ability as to full-length apoE. These findings provide the explanation of diverged functionality of truncated apoE isoforms.

  2. A comprehensive comparison of comparative RNA structure prediction approaches

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gardner, P. P.; Giegerich, R.

    2004-01-01

    -finding and multiple-sequence-alignment algorithms. Results Here we evaluate a number of RNA folding algorithms using reliable RNA data-sets and compare their relative performance. Conclusions We conclude that comparative data can enhance structure prediction but structure-prediction-algorithms vary widely in terms......Background An increasing number of researchers have released novel RNA structure analysis and prediction algorithms for comparative approaches to structure prediction. Yet, independent benchmarking of these algorithms is rarely performed as is now common practice for protein-folding, gene...

  3. Quantitative PET Imaging with Novel HER3 Targeted Peptides Selected by Phage Display to Predict Androgen Independent Prostate Cancer Progression

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-08-01

    Independent Prostate Cancer Progression PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Benjamin Larimer, PhD CONTRACTING ORGANIZATION: Massachusetts General Hospital Boston...3. DATES COVERED 1 Aug 2016 – 31 July 2017 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Cancer Progression 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER Quantitative PET Imaging with Novel HER3...Targeted Peptides Selected by Phage Display to Predict Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer Progression 5b. GRANT NUMBER W81XWH-16-1-0447 5c

  4. Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of peptidoglycan monomers and structurally related peptides and adamantyltripeptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krstanović, Marina; Frkanec, Ruza; Vranesić, Branka; Ljevaković, Durdica; Sporec, Vesna; Tomasić, Jelka

    2002-06-25

    The reversed-phase HPLC method using UV detection was developed for the determination of (a) immunostimulating peptidoglycan monomers represented by the basic structure GlcNAc-MurNAc-L-Ala-D-isoGln-meso-DAP(omegaNH(2))-D-Ala-D-Ala (PGM) and two more lipophilic derivatives, Boc-Tyr-PGM and (Ada-1-yl)-CH(2)-CO-PGM, (b) two diastereomeric immunostimulating adamantyltripeptides L- and D-(adamant-2-yl)-Gly-L-Ala-D-isoGln and (c) peptides obtained by the enzyme hydrolyses of peptidoglycans and related peptides. The enzymes used, N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanine amidase and an L,D-aminopeptidase are present in mammalian sera and are involved in the metabolism of peptidoglycans and related peptides. Appropriate solvent systems were chosen with regard to structure and lipophilicity of each compound. As well, different gradient systems within the same solvent system had to be applied in order to achieve satisfactory separation and retention time. HPLC separation was developed with the aim to use this method for the study of the stability of the tested compounds, the purity during preparation and isolation and for following the enzyme hydrolyses.

  5. Nucleic acid secondary structure prediction and display.

    OpenAIRE

    Stüber, K

    1986-01-01

    A set of programs has been developed for the prediction and display of nucleic acid secondary structures. Information from experimental data can be used to restrict or enforce secondary structural elements. The predictions can be displayed either on normal line printers or on graphic devices like plotters or graphic terminals.

  6. Induction of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1 envelope specific cell-mediated immunity by a non-homologous synthetic peptide.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ammar Achour

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available Cell mediated immunity, including efficient CTL response, is required to prevent HIV-1 from cell-to-cell transmission. In previous investigations, we have shown that B1 peptide derived by Fourier transformation of HIV-1 primary structures and sharing no sequence homology with the parent proteins was able to generate antiserum which recognizes envelope and Tat proteins. Here we have investigated cellular immune response towards a novel non-homologous peptide, referred to as cA1 peptide.The 20 amino acid sequence of cA1 peptide was predicted using the notion of peptide hydropathic properties; the peptide is encoded by the complementary anti-sense DNA strand to the sense strand of previously described non-homologous A1 peptide. In this report we demonstrate that the cA1 peptide can be a target for major histocompatibility complex (MHC class I-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes in HIV-1-infected or envelope-immunized individuals. The cA1 peptide is recognized in association with different MHC class I allotypes and could prime in vitro CTLs, derived from gp160-immunized individuals capable to recognize virus variants.For the first time a theoretically designed immunogen involved in broad-based cell-immune memory activation is described. Our findings may thus contribute to the advance in vaccine research by describing a novel strategy to develop a synthetic AIDS vaccine.

  7. Predicting the Retention Behavior of Specific O-Linked Glycopeptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badgett, Majors J; Boyes, Barry; Orlando, Ron

    2017-09-01

    O -Linked glycosylation is a common post-translational modification that can alter the overall structure, polarity, and function of proteins. Reverse-phase (RP) chromatography is the most common chromatographic approach to analyze O -glycosylated peptides and their unmodified counterparts, even though this approach often does not provide adequate separation of these two species. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) can be a solution to this problem, as the polar glycan interacts with the polar stationary phase and potentially offers the ability to resolve the peptide from its modified form(s). In this paper, HILIC is used to separate peptides with O - N -acetylgalactosamine ( O -GalNAc), O - N -acetylglucosamine ( O -GlcNAc), and O -fucose additions from their native forms, and coefficients representing the extent of hydrophilicity were derived using linear regression analysis as a means to predict the retention times of peptides with these modifications.

  8. New Potent Membrane-Targeting Antibacterial Peptides from Viral Capsid Proteins

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dias, Susana A.; Freire, João M.; Pérez-Peinado, Clara; Domingues, Marco M.; Gaspar, Diana; Vale, Nuno; Gomes, Paula; Andreu, David; Henriques, Sónia T.; Castanho, Miguel A. R. B.; Veiga, Ana S.

    2017-01-01

    The increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria urges the development of new antibacterial agents. With a broad spectrum activity, antimicrobial peptides have been considered potential antibacterial drug leads. Using bioinformatic tools we have previously shown that viral structural proteins are a rich source for new bioactive peptide sequences, namely antimicrobial and cell-penetrating peptides. Here, we test the efficacy and mechanism of action of the most promising peptides among those previously identified against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Two cell-penetrating peptides, vCPP 0769 and vCPP 2319, have high antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, being thus multifunctional. The antibacterial mechanism of action of the two most active viral protein-derived peptides, vAMP 059 and vCPP 2319, was studied in detail. Both peptides act on both Gram-positive S. aureus and Gram-negative P. aeruginosa, with bacterial cell death occurring within minutes. Also, these peptides cause bacterial membrane permeabilization and damage of the bacterial envelope of P. aeruginosa cells. Overall, the results show that structural viral proteins are an abundant source for membrane-active peptides sequences with strong antibacterial properties. PMID:28522994

  9. Improved methods for predicting peptide binding affinity to MHC class II molecules

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Kamilla Kjærgaard; Andreatta, Massimo; Marcatili, Paolo

    2018-01-01

    Major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) molecules are expressed on the surface of professional antigen presenting cells where they display peptides to T helper cells, which orchestrate the onset and outcome of many host immune responses. Understanding which peptides will be presented b...... are publicly available at www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCII-2.3 and www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCIIpan-3.2. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved....

  10. Vaccatides: Antifungal Glutamine-Rich Hevein-Like Peptides from Vaccaria hispanica

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ka H. Wong

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Hevein and hevein-like peptides are disulfide-constrained chitin-binding cysteine-rich peptides. They are divided into three subfamilies, 6C-, 8C-, and 10C-hevein-like peptides, based on the number of cysteine residues. In addition, hevein-like peptides can exist in two forms, short and long. The long C-terminal form found in hevein and 10C-hevein-like peptides contain a C-terminal protein cargo. In contrast, the short form without a protein cargo is found in all three subfamilies. Here, we report the discovery and characterization of two novel glutamine-rich and protein cargo-free 8C-hevein-like peptides, vaccatides vH1 and vH2, from Vaccaria hispanica of the Caryophyllaceae family. Proteomic analyses showed that the vaccatides are 40–41 amino acids in length and contain a chitin-binding domain. NMR determination revealed that vaccatide vH2 displays a highly compact structure with a N-terminal cystine knot and an addition C-terminal disulfide bond. Stability studies showed that this compact structure renders vaccatide vH2 resistant to thermal, chemical and proteolytic degradation. The chitin-binding vH2 was shown to inhibit the mycelium growth of four phyto-pathogenic fungal strains with IC50 values in the micromolar range. Our findings show that vaccatides represent a new family of 8C-hevein-like peptides, which are protein cargo-free and glutamine-rich, characteristics that differentiate them from the prototypic hevein and the 10C-hevein-like peptides. In summary, this study enriches the existing library of hevein-like peptides and provides insight into their molecular diversity in sequence, structure and biosynthesis. Additionally, their highly disulfide-constrained structure could be used as a scaffold for developing metabolically and orally active peptidyl therapeutics.

  11. Predicting the composition of red wine blends using an array of multicomponent Peptide-based sensors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghanem, Eman; Hopfer, Helene; Navarro, Andrea; Ritzer, Maxwell S; Mahmood, Lina; Fredell, Morgan; Cubley, Ashley; Bolen, Jessica; Fattah, Rabia; Teasdale, Katherine; Lieu, Linh; Chua, Tedmund; Marini, Federico; Heymann, Hildegarde; Anslyn, Eric V

    2015-05-20

    Differential sensing using synthetic receptors as mimics of the mammalian senses of taste and smell is a powerful approach for the analysis of complex mixtures. Herein, we report on the effectiveness of a cross-reactive, supramolecular, peptide-based sensing array in differentiating and predicting the composition of red wine blends. Fifteen blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, in addition to the mono varietals, were used in this investigation. Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) showed a clear differentiation of blends based on tannin concentration and composition where certain mono varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon seemed to contribute less to the overall characteristics of the blend. Partial Least Squares (PLS) Regression and cross validation were used to build a predictive model for the responses of the receptors to eleven binary blends and the three mono varietals. The optimized model was later used to predict the percentage of each mono varietal in an independent test set composted of four tri-blends with a 15% average error. A partial least square regression model using the mouth-feel and taste descriptive sensory attributes of the wine blends revealed a strong correlation of the receptors to perceived astringency, which is indicative of selective binding to polyphenols in wine.

  12. Predicting the Composition of Red Wine Blends Using an Array of Multicomponent Peptide-Based Sensors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eman Ghanem

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Differential sensing using synthetic receptors as mimics of the mammalian senses of taste and smell is a powerful approach for the analysis of complex mixtures. Herein, we report on the effectiveness of a cross-reactive, supramolecular, peptide-based sensing array in differentiating and predicting the composition of red wine blends. Fifteen blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, in addition to the mono varietals, were used in this investigation. Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA showed a clear differentiation of blends based on tannin concentration and composition where certain mono varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon seemed to contribute less to the overall characteristics of the blend. Partial Least Squares (PLS Regression and cross validation were used to build a predictive model for the responses of the receptors to eleven binary blends and the three mono varietals. The optimized model was later used to predict the percentage of each mono varietal in an independent test set composted of four tri-blends with a 15% average error. A partial least square regression model using the mouth-feel and taste descriptive sensory attributes of the wine blends revealed a strong correlation of the receptors to perceived astringency, which is indicative of selective binding to polyphenols in wine.

  13. Structure of HLA-A*0301 in complex with a peptide of proteolipid protein: insights into the role of HLA-A alleles in susceptibility to multiple sclerosis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McMahon, Róisín M.; Friis, Lone; Siebold, Christian; Friese, Manuel A.; Fugger, Lars; Jones, E. Yvonne

    2011-01-01

    The structure of the human major histocompatability (MHC) class I molecule HLA-A*0301 (HLA-A3) in complex with a nonameric peptide (KLIETYFSK) has been determined by X-ray crystallography to 2.7 Å resolution. The structure of the human major histocompatability (MHC) class I molecule HLA-A*0301 (HLA-A3) in complex with a nonameric peptide (KLIETYFSK) has been determined by X-ray crystallography to 2.7 Å resolution. HLA-A3 is a predisposing allele for multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. The KLIETYFSK peptide is a naturally processed epitope of proteolipid protein, a myelin protein and candidate target for immune-mediated myelin destruction in MS. Comparison of the structure of HLA-A3 with that of HLA-A2, an MHC class I molecule which is protective against MS, indicates that both MHC class I molecules present very similar faces for T-cell receptor recognition whilst differing in the specificity of their peptide-binding grooves. These characteristics may underlie the opposing (predisposing versus protective) associations that they exhibit both in humans and in mouse models of MS-like disease. Furthermore, subtle alterations within the peptide-binding groove of HLA-A3 and other A3-like MHC class I molecules, members of the so-called A3 superfamily, may be sufficient to alter their presentation of autoantigen peptides such as KLIETYFSK. This in turn may modulate their contribution to the associated risk of autoimmune disease

  14. Potent peptidic fusion inhibitors of influenza virus

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kadam, Rameshwar U.; Juraszek, Jarek; Brandenburg, Boerries; Buyck, Christophe; Schepens, Wim B. G.; Kesteleyn, Bart; Stoops, Bart; Vreeken, Rob J.; Vermond, Jan; Goutier, Wouter; Tang, Chan; Vogels, Ronald; Friesen, Robert H. E.; Goudsmit, Jaap; van Dongen, Maria J. P.; Wilson, Ian A.

    2017-09-28

    Influenza therapeutics with new targets and mechanisms of action are urgently needed to combat potential pandemics, emerging viruses, and constantly mutating strains in circulation. We report here on the design and structural characterization of potent peptidic inhibitors of influenza hemagglutinin. The peptide design was based on complementarity-determining region loops of human broadly neutralizing antibodies against the hemagglutinin (FI6v3 and CR9114). The optimized peptides exhibit nanomolar affinity and neutralization against influenza A group 1 viruses, including the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and avian H5N1 strains. The peptide inhibitors bind to the highly conserved stem epitope and block the low pH–induced conformational rearrangements associated with membrane fusion. These peptidic compounds and their advantageous biological properties should accelerate the development of new small molecule– and peptide-based therapeutics against influenza virus.

  15. Marine Peptides and Their Anti-Infective Activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hee Kyoung Kang

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Marine bioresources are a valuable source of bioactive compounds with industrial and nutraceutical potential. Numerous clinical trials evaluating novel chemotherapeutic agents derived from marine sources have revealed novel mechanisms of action. Recently, marine-derived bioactive peptides have attracted attention owing to their numerous beneficial effects. Moreover, several studies have reported that marine peptides exhibit various anti-infective activities, such as antimicrobial, antifungal, antimalarial, antiprotozoal, anti-tuberculosis, and antiviral activities. In the last several decades, studies of marine plants, animals, and microbes have revealed tremendous number of structurally diverse and bioactive secondary metabolites. However, the treatments available for many infectious diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, and viruses are limited. Thus, the identification of novel antimicrobial peptides should be continued, and all possible strategies should be explored. In this review, we will present the structures and anti-infective activity of peptides isolated from marine sources (sponges, algae, bacteria, fungi and fish from 2006 to the present.

  16. Viral IRES prediction system - a web server for prediction of the IRES secondary structure in silico.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun-Jie Hong

    Full Text Available The internal ribosomal entry site (IRES functions as cap-independent translation initiation sites in eukaryotic cells. IRES elements have been applied as useful tools for bi-cistronic expression vectors. Current RNA structure prediction programs are unable to predict precisely the potential IRES element. We have designed a viral IRES prediction system (VIPS to perform the IRES secondary structure prediction. In order to obtain better results for the IRES prediction, the VIPS can evaluate and predict for all four different groups of IRESs with a higher accuracy. RNA secondary structure prediction, comparison, and pseudoknot prediction programs were implemented to form the three-stage procedure for the VIPS. The backbone of VIPS includes: the RNAL fold program, aimed to predict local RNA secondary structures by minimum free energy method; the RNA Align program, intended to compare predicted structures; and pknotsRG program, used to calculate the pseudoknot structure. VIPS was evaluated by using UTR database, IRES database and Virus database, and the accuracy rate of VIPS was assessed as 98.53%, 90.80%, 82.36% and 80.41% for IRES groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. This advance useful search approach for IRES structures will facilitate IRES related studies. The VIPS on-line website service is available at http://140.135.61.250/vips/.

  17. Descriptors for antimicrobial peptides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jenssen, Håvard

    2011-01-01

    of these are currently being used in quantitative structure--activity relationship (QSAR) studies for AMP optimization. Additionally, some key commercial computational tools are discussed, and both successful and less successful studies are referenced, illustrating some of the challenges facing AMP scientists. Through...... examples of different peptide QSAR studies, this review highlights some of the missing links and illuminates some of the questions that would be interesting to challenge in a more systematic fashion. Expert opinion: Computer-aided peptide QSAR using molecular descriptors may provide the necessary edge...

  18. Statistical Characterization of the Charge State and Residue Dependence of Low-Energy CID Peptide Dissociation Patterns

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huang, Yingying; Triscari, Joseph M.; Tseng, George C.; Pasa-Tolic, Ljiljana; Lipton, Mary S.; Smith, Richard D.; Wysocki, Vicki H.

    2005-01-01

    Data mining was performed on 28 330 unique peptide tandem mass spectra for which sequences were assigned with high confidence. By dividing the spectra into different sets based on structural features and charge states of the corresponding peptides, chemical interactions involved in promoting specific cleavage patterns in gas-phase peptides were characterized. Pairwise fragmentation maps describing cleavages at all Xxx-Zzz residue combinations for b and y ions reveal that the difference in basicity between Arg and Lys results in different dissociation patterns for singly charged Arg- and Lys-ending tryptic peptides. While one dominant protonation form (proton localized) exists for Arg-ending peptides, a heterogeneous population of different protonated forms or more facile interconversion of protonated forms (proton partially mobile) exists for Lys-ending peptides. Cleavage C-terminal to acidic residues dominates spectra from peptides that have a localized proton and cleavage N-terminal to Pro dominates those that have a mobile or partially mobile proton. When Pro is absent from peptides that have a mobile or partially mobile proton, cleavage at each peptide bond becomes much more prominent. Whether the above patterns can be found in b ions, y ions, or both depends on the location of the proton holder(s). Enhanced cleavages C-terminal to branched aliphatic residues (Ile, Val, Leu) are observed in both b and y ions from peptides that have a mobile proton, as well as in y ions from peptides that have a partially mobile proton; enhanced cleavages N-terminal to these residues are observed in b ions from peptides that have a partially mobile proton. Statistical tools have been designed to visualize the fragmentation maps and measure the similarity between them. The pairwise cleavage patterns observed expand our knowledge of peptide gas-phase fragmentation behaviors and should be useful in algorithm development that employs improved models to predict fragment ion

  19. Computational predictions of zinc oxide hollow structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuoc, Vu Ngoc; Huan, Tran Doan; Thao, Nguyen Thi

    2018-03-01

    Nanoporous materials are emerging as potential candidates for a wide range of technological applications in environment, electronic, and optoelectronics, to name just a few. Within this active research area, experimental works are predominant while theoretical/computational prediction and study of these materials face some intrinsic challenges, one of them is how to predict porous structures. We propose a computationally and technically feasible approach for predicting zinc oxide structures with hollows at the nano scale. The designed zinc oxide hollow structures are studied with computations using the density functional tight binding and conventional density functional theory methods, revealing a variety of promising mechanical and electronic properties, which can potentially find future realistic applications.

  20. Amphiphilic cationic peptides mediate cell adhesion to plastic surfaces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rideout, D C; Lambert, M; Kendall, D A; Moe, G R; Osterman, D G; Tao, H P; Weinstein, I B; Kaiser, E T

    1985-09-01

    Four amphiphilic peptides, each with net charges of +2 or more at neutrality and molecular weights under 4 kilodaltons, were found to mediate the adhesion of normal rat kidney fibroblasts to polystyrene surfaces. Two of these peptides, a model for calcitonin (peptide 1, MCT) and melittin (peptide 2, MEL), form amphiphilic alpha-helical structures at aqueous/nonpolar interfaces. The other two, a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone model (peptide 3, LHM) and a platelet factor model (peptide 4, MPF) form beta-strand structures in amphiphilic environments. Although it contains only 10 residues, LHM mediated adhesion to surfaces coated with solutions containing as little as 10 pmoles/ml of peptide. All four of these peptides were capable of forming monolayers at air-buffer interfaces with collapse pressures greater than 20 dynes/cm. None of these four peptides contains the tetrapeptide sequence Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser, which has been associated with fibronectin-mediated cell adhesion. Ten polypeptides that also lacked the sequence Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser but were nonamphiphilic and/or had net charges less than +2 at neutrality were all incapable of mediating cell adhesion (Pierschbacher and Ruoslahti, 1984). The morphologies of NRK cells spread on polystyrene coated with peptide LHM resemble the morphologies on fibronectin-coated surfaces, whereas cells spread on surfaces coated with MCT or MEL exhibit strikingly different morphologies. The adhesiveness of MCT, MEL, LHM, and MPF implies that many amphiphilic cationic peptides could prove useful as well defined adhesive substrata for cell culture and for studies of the mechanism of cell adhesion.

  1. Structure prediction and binding sites analysis of curcin protein of Jatropha curcas using computational approaches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srivastava, Mugdha; Gupta, Shishir K; Abhilash, P C; Singh, Nandita

    2012-07-01

    Ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs) are defense proteins in a number of higher-plant species that are directly targeted toward herbivores. Jatropha curcas is one of the biodiesel plants having RIPs. The Jatropha seed meal, after extraction of oil, is rich in curcin, a highly toxic RIP similar to ricin, which makes it unsuitable for animal feed. Although the toxicity of curcin is well documented in the literature, the detailed toxic properties and the 3D structure of curcin has not been determined by X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy or any in silico techniques to date. In this pursuit, the structure of curcin was modeled by a composite approach of 3D structure prediction using threading and ab initio modeling. Assessment of model quality was assessed by methods which include Ramachandran plot analysis and Qmean score estimation. Further, we applied the protein-ligand docking approach to identify the r-RNA binding residue of curcin. The present work provides the first structural insight into the binding mode of r-RNA adenine to the curcin protein and forms the basis for designing future inhibitors of curcin. Cloning of a future peptide inhibitor within J. curcas can produce non-toxic varieties of J. curcas, which would make the seed-cake suitable as animal feed without curcin detoxification.

  2. Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehrzad Sadredinamin

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs are extensive group of molecules that produced by variety tissues of invertebrate, plants, and animal species which play an important role in their immunity response. AMPs have different classifications such as; biosynthetic machines, biological sources, biological functions, molecular properties, covalent bonding patterns, three dimensional structures, and molecular targets.These molecules have multidimensional properties including antimicrobial activity, antiviral activity, antifungal activity, anti-parasite activity, biofilm control, antitumor activity, mitogens activity and linking innate to adaptive immunity that making them promising agents for therapeutic drugs. In spite of this advantage of AMPs, their clinical developments have some limitation for commercial development. But some of AMPs are under clinical trials for the therapeutic purpose such as diabetic foot ulcers, different bacterial infections and tissue damage. In this review, we emphasized on the source, structure, multidimensional properties, limitation and therapeutic applications of various antimicrobial peptides.

  3. Production of recombinant disulfide-rich venom peptides for structural and functional analysis via expression in the periplasm of E. coli.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julie K Klint

    Full Text Available Disulfide-rich peptides are the dominant component of most animal venoms. These peptides have received much attention as leads for the development of novel therapeutic agents and bioinsecticides because they target a wide range of neuronal receptors and ion channels with a high degree of potency and selectivity. In addition, their rigid disulfide framework makes them particularly well suited for addressing the crucial issue of in vivo stability. Structural and functional characterization of these peptides necessitates the development of a robust, reliable expression system that maintains their native disulfide framework. The bacterium Escherichia coli has long been used for economical production of recombinant proteins. However, the expression of functional disulfide-rich proteins in the reducing environment of the E. coli cytoplasm presents a significant challenge. Thus, we present here an optimised protocol for the expression of disulfide-rich venom peptides in the periplasm of E. coli, which is where the endogenous machinery for production of disulfide-bonds is located. The parameters that have been investigated include choice of media, induction conditions, lysis methods, methods of fusion protein and peptide purification, and sample preparation for NMR studies. After each section a recommendation is made for conditions to use. We demonstrate the use of this method for the production of venom peptides ranging in size from 2 to 8 kDa and containing 2-6 disulfide bonds.

  4. Effects prediction guidelines for structures subjected to ground motion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1975-07-01

    Part of the planning for an underground nuclear explosion (UNE) is determining the effects of expected ground motion on exposed structures. Because of the many types of structures and the wide variation in ground motion intensity typically encountered, no single prediction method is both adequate and feasible for a complete evaluation. Furthermore, the nature and variability of ground motion and structure damage prescribe effects predictions that are made probabilistically. Initially, prediction for a UNE involves a preliminary assessment of damage to establish overall project feasibility. Subsequent efforts require more detailed damage evaluations, based on structure inventories and analyses of specific structures, so that safety problems can be identified and safety and remedial measures can be recommended. To cover this broad range of effects prediction needs for a typical UNE project, three distinct but interrelated methods have been developed and are described. First, the fundamental practical and theoretical aspects of predicting the effects of dynamic ground motion on structures are summarized. Next, experimentally derived and theoretically determined observations of the behavior of typical structures subjected to ground motion are presented. Then, based on these fundamental considerations and on the observed behavior of structures, the formulation of the three effects prediction procedures is described, along with guidelines regarding their applicability. Example damage predictions for hypothetical UNEs demonstrate these procedures. To aid in identifying the vibration properties of complex structures, one chapter discusses alternatives in vibration testing, instrumentation, and data analysis. Finally, operational guidelines regarding data acquisition procedures, safety criteria, and remedial measures involved in conducting structure effects evaluations are discussed. (U.S.)

  5. Self-assembling peptide hydrogels immobilized on silicon surfaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Franchi, Stefano; Battocchio, Chiara; Galluzzi, Martina; Navisse, Emanuele; Zamuner, Annj; Dettin, Monica; Iucci, Giovanna

    2016-01-01

    The hydrogels of self-assembling ionic complementary peptides have collected in the scientific community increasing consensus as mimetics of the extracellular matrix that can offer 3D supports for cell growth or be vehicles for the delivery of stem cells or drugs. Such scaffolds have also been proposed as bone substitutes for small defects as they promote beneficial effects on human osteoblasts. In this context, our research deals with the introduction of a layer of self-assembling peptides on a silicon surface by covalent anchoring and subsequent physisorption. In this work, we present a spectroscopic investigation of the proposed bioactive scaffolds, carried out by surface-sensitive spectroscopic techniques such as XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and RAIRS (Reflection Absorption Infrared Spectroscopy) and by state-of-the-art synchrotron radiation methodologies such as angle dependent NEXAFS (Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure). XPS studies confirmed the change in the surface composition in agreement with the proposed enrichments, and led to assess the self-assembling peptide chemical stability. NEXAFS spectra, collected in angular dependent mode at the N K-edge, allowed to investigate the self-assembling behavior of the macromolecules, as well as to determine their molecular orientation on the substrate. Furthermore, Infrared Spectroscopy measurements demonstrated that the peptide maintains its secondary structure (β-sheet anti-parallel) after deposition on the silicon surface. The complementary information acquired by means of XPS, NEXAFS and RAIRS lead to hypothesize a “layer-by-layer” arrangement of the immobilized peptides, giving rise to an ordered 3D nanostructure. - Highlights: • A self-assembling peptide (SAP) was covalently immobilized of on a flat silicon surface. • A physisorbed SAP layer was grown on top of the covalently immobilized peptide layer. • Molecular order and orientation of the peptide overlayer on the flat silicon

  6. Self-assembling peptide hydrogels immobilized on silicon surfaces

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Franchi, Stefano; Battocchio, Chiara; Galluzzi, Martina; Navisse, Emanuele [Department of Sciences, University “Roma Tre”, Via della Vasca Navale 79, Roma, 00146 (Italy); Zamuner, Annj; Dettin, Monica [Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padua, Via Marzolo, 9, Padua, 35131 (Italy); Iucci, Giovanna, E-mail: giovanna.iucci@uniroma3.it [Department of Sciences, University “Roma Tre”, Via della Vasca Navale 79, Roma, 00146 (Italy)

    2016-12-01

    The hydrogels of self-assembling ionic complementary peptides have collected in the scientific community increasing consensus as mimetics of the extracellular matrix that can offer 3D supports for cell growth or be vehicles for the delivery of stem cells or drugs. Such scaffolds have also been proposed as bone substitutes for small defects as they promote beneficial effects on human osteoblasts. In this context, our research deals with the introduction of a layer of self-assembling peptides on a silicon surface by covalent anchoring and subsequent physisorption. In this work, we present a spectroscopic investigation of the proposed bioactive scaffolds, carried out by surface-sensitive spectroscopic techniques such as XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and RAIRS (Reflection Absorption Infrared Spectroscopy) and by state-of-the-art synchrotron radiation methodologies such as angle dependent NEXAFS (Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure). XPS studies confirmed the change in the surface composition in agreement with the proposed enrichments, and led to assess the self-assembling peptide chemical stability. NEXAFS spectra, collected in angular dependent mode at the N K-edge, allowed to investigate the self-assembling behavior of the macromolecules, as well as to determine their molecular orientation on the substrate. Furthermore, Infrared Spectroscopy measurements demonstrated that the peptide maintains its secondary structure (β-sheet anti-parallel) after deposition on the silicon surface. The complementary information acquired by means of XPS, NEXAFS and RAIRS lead to hypothesize a “layer-by-layer” arrangement of the immobilized peptides, giving rise to an ordered 3D nanostructure. - Highlights: • A self-assembling peptide (SAP) was covalently immobilized of on a flat silicon surface. • A physisorbed SAP layer was grown on top of the covalently immobilized peptide layer. • Molecular order and orientation of the peptide overlayer on the flat silicon

  7. Photodissociative Cross-Linking of Non-covalent Peptide-Peptide Ion Complexes in the Gas Phase

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, Huong T. H.; Andrikopoulos, Prokopis C.; Rulíšek, Lubomír; Shaffer, Christopher J.; Tureček, František

    2018-05-01

    We report a gas-phase UV photodissociation study investigating non-covalent interactions between neutral hydrophobic pentapeptides and peptide ions incorporating a diazirine-tagged photoleucine residue. Phenylalanine (Phe) and proline (Pro) were chosen as the conformation-affecting residues that were incorporated into a small library of neutral pentapeptides. Gas-phase ion-molecule complexes of these peptides with photo-labeled pentapeptides were subjected to photodissociation. Selective photocleavage of the diazirine ring at 355 nm formed short-lived carbene intermediates that underwent cross-linking by insertion into H-X bonds of the target peptide. The cross-link positions were established from collision-induced dissociation tandem mass spectra (CID-MS3) providing sequence information on the covalent adducts. Effects of the amino acid residue (Pro or Phe) and its position in the target peptide sequence were evaluated. For proline-containing peptides, interactions resulting in covalent cross-links in these complexes became more prominent as proline was moved towards the C-terminus of the target peptide sequence. The photocross-linking yields of phenylalanine-containing peptides depended on the position of both phenylalanine and photoleucine. Density functional theory calculations were used to assign structures of low-energy conformers of the (GLPMG + GLL*LK + H)+ complex. Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics trajectory calculations were used to capture the thermal motion in the complexes within 100 ps and determine close contacts between the incipient carbene and the H-X bonds in the target peptide. This provided atomic-level resolution of potential cross-links that aided spectra interpretation and was in agreement with experimental data. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

  8. Self-Assembling Peptide Surfactants A6K and A6D Adopt a-Helical Structures Useful for Membrane Protein Stabilization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Furen Zhuang

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Elucidation of membrane protein structures have been greatly hampered by difficulties in producing adequately large quantities of the functional protein and stabilizing them. A6D and A6K are promising solutions to the problem and have recently been used for the rapid production of membrane-bound G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs. We propose that despite their short lengths, these peptides can adopt α-helical structures through interactions with micelles formed by the peptides themselves. These α-helices are then able to stabilize α-helical motifs which many membrane proteins contain. We also show that A6D and A6K can form β-sheets and appear as weak hydrogels at sufficiently high concentrations. Furthermore, A6D and A6K together in sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS can form expected β-sheet structures via a surprising α-helical intermediate.

  9. δ-Peptides from RuAAC-Derived 1,5-Disubstituted Triazole Units

    KAUST Repository

    Johansson, Johan R.

    2014-02-14

    Non-natural peptides with structures and functions similar to natural peptides have emerged lately in biomedical as well as nanotechnological contexts. They are interesting for pharmaceutical applications since they can adopt structures with new targeting potentials and because they are generally not prone to degradation by proteases. We report here a new set of peptidomimetics derived from δ-peptides, consisting of n units of a 1,5-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazole amino acid (5Tzl). The monomer was prepared using ruthenium-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (RuAAC) chemistry using [RuCl2Cp]x as the catalyst, allowing for simpler purification and resulting in excellent yields. This achiral monomer was used to prepare peptide oligomers that are water soluble independent of peptide chain length. Conformational analysis and structural investigations of the oligomers were performed by 2D NOESY NMR experiments, and by quantum chemical calculations using the ωB97X-D functional. These data indicate that several conformations may co-exist with slight energetic differences. Together with their increased hydrophilicity, this feature of homo-5Tzl may prove essential for mimicking natural peptides composed of α-amino acids, where the various secondary structures are achieved by side chain effects and not by the rigidity of the peptide backbone. The improved synthetic method allows for facile variation of the 5Tzl amino acid side chains, further increasing the versatility of these compounds. A new set of non-natural peptides composed of 1,5-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazole amino acids is presented. These peptides benefit from: a) modular synthesis of the monomers, allowing variation of the side chains; b) increased solubility of the oligomers in water, irrespective of peptide length; c) flexibility of the backbone allowing these foldamers to adopt several conformations. Copyright © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  10. Polymeric peptide pigments with sequence-encoded properties

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lampel, Ayala; McPhee, Scott A.; Park, Hang-Ah; Scott, Gary G.; Humagain, Sunita; Hekstra, Doeke R.; Yoo, Barney; Frederix, Pim W. J. M.; Li, Tai-De; Abzalimov, Rinat R.; Greenbaum, Steven G.; Tuttle, Tell; Hu, Chunhua; Bettinger, Christopher J.; Ulijn, Rein V.

    2017-06-08

    Melanins are a family of heterogeneous polymeric pigments that provide ultraviolet (UV) light protection, structural support, coloration, and free radical scavenging. Formed by oxidative oligomerization of catecholic small molecules, the physical properties of melanins are influenced by covalent and noncovalent disorder. We report the use of tyrosine-containing tripeptides as tunable precursors for polymeric pigments. In these structures, phenols are presented in a (supra-)molecular context dictated by the positions of the amino acids in the peptide sequence. Oxidative polymerization can be tuned in a sequence-dependent manner, resulting in peptide sequence–encoded properties such as UV absorbance, morphology, coloration, and electrochemical properties over a considerable range. Short peptides have low barriers to application and can be easily scaled, suggesting near-term applications in cosmetics and biomedicine.

  11. Self-assembly of fibronectin mimetic peptide-amphiphile nanofibers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rexeisen, Emilie Lynn

    umbilical vein endothelial cells and alpha5beta1 integrins immobilized on an AFM tip preferred binding to a fibronectin mimetic peptide that contained both hydrophilic and hydrophobic residues in the linker and a medium length spacer. Most cells require a three-dimensional scaffold in order to thrive. To incorporate the fibronectin mimetic peptide into a three-dimensional structure, a single hydrocarbon tail was attached to form a peptideamphiphile. Single-tailed peptide-amphiphiles have been shown to form nanofibers in solution and gel after screening of the electrostatic charges in the headgroup. These gels show promise as scaffolds for tissue engineering. A fibronectin mimetic peptide-amphiphile containing a linker with alternating hydrophobic and hydrophilic residues was designed to form nanofibers in solution. The critical micelle concentration of the peptide-amphiphile was determined to be 38 muM, and all subsequent experiments were performed above this concentration. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy indicated that the peptide headgroup of the peptide-amphiphile forms an alpha+beta secondary structure; whereas, the free peptide forms a random secondary structure. Cryogenic-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) and small angle neutron scattering showed that the peptide-amphiphile self-assembled into nanofibers. The cryo-TEM images showed single nanofibers with a diameter of 10 nm and lengths on the order of microns. Images of higher peptideamphiphile concentrations showed evidence of bundling between individual nanofibers, which could give rise to gelation behavior at higher concentrations. The peptide-amphiphile formed a gel at concentrations above 6 mM. A 10 mM sample was analyzed with oscillating plate rheometry and was found to have an elastic modulus within the range of living tissue, showing potential as a possible scaffold for tissue engineering.

  12. Self-assembling peptide semiconductors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tao, Kai; Makam, Pandeeswar; Aizen, Ruth; Gazit, Ehud

    2017-01-01

    Semiconductors are central to the modern electronics and optics industries. Conventional semiconductive materials bear inherent limitations, especially in emerging fields such as interfacing with biological systems and bottom-up fabrication. A promising candidate for bioinspired and durable nanoscale semiconductors is the family of self-assembled nanostructures comprising short peptides. The highly ordered and directional intermolecular π-π interactions and hydrogen-bonding network allow the formation of quantum confined structures within the peptide self-assemblies, thus decreasing the band gaps of the superstructures into semiconductor regions. As a result of the diverse architectures and ease of modification of peptide self-assemblies, their semiconductivity can be readily tuned, doped, and functionalized. Therefore, this family of electroactive supramolecular materials may bridge the gap between the inorganic semiconductor world and biological systems. PMID:29146781

  13. Solvation of a Small Metal-Binding Peptide in Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shim, Youngseon; Jung, Younjoon [Seoul National Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Hyung J. [Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh (United States)

    2012-11-15

    Structural properties of a small hexapeptide molecule modeled after metal-binding siderochrome immersed in a room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) are studied via molecular dynamics simulations. We consider two different RTILs, each of which is made up of the same cationic species, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium (BMI{sup +}), but different anions, hexafluorophosphate (PF{sub 6}{sup -}) and chloride (Cl{sup -}). We investigate how anionic properties such as hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity or hydrogen bonding capability affect the stabilization of the peptide in RTILs. To examine the effect of peptide-RTIL electrostatic interactions on solvation, we also consider a hypothetical solvent BMI{sup 0}Cl{sup 0}, a non-ionic counter-part of BMI{sup +}Cl{sup -}. For reference, we investigate solvation structures in common polar solvents, water and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). Comparison of BMI{sup +}Cl{sup -} and BMI{sup 0}Cl{sup 0} shows that electrostatic interactions of the peptide and RTIL play a significant role in the conformational fluctuation of the peptide. For example, strong electrostatic interactions between the two favor an extended conformation of the peptide by reducing its structural fluctuations. The hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of RTIL anions also exerts a notable influence; specifically, structural fluctuations of the peptide become reduced in more hydrophilic BMI{sup +}Cl{sup -}, compared with those in more hydrophobic BMI{sup +}PF{sub 6}{sup -}. This is ascribed to the good hydrogen-bond accepting power of chloride anions, which enables them to bind strongly to hydroxyl groups of the peptide and to stabilize its structure. Transport properties of the peptide are examined briefly. Translations of the peptide significantly slow down in highly viscous RTILs.

  14. Mutation-based structural modification and dynamics study of amyloid beta peptide (1–42: An in-silico-based analysis to cognize the mechanism of aggregation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pritam Kumar Panda

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Alzheimer's disease is the prevalent cause of premature senility, a progressive mental disorder due to degeneration in brain and deposition of amyloid β peptide (1–42, a misfolded protein in the form of aggregation that prevails for a prolonged time and obstructs every aspect of life. One of the primary hallmarks of the neuropathological disease is the accretion of amyloid β peptide in the brain that leads to Alzheimer's disease, but the mechanism is still a mystery. Several investigations have shown that mutations at specific positions have a significant impact in stability of the peptide as predicted from aggregation profiles. Here in our study, we have analyzed the mutations by substituting residues at position A22G, E22G, E22K, E22Q, D23N, L34V and molecular dynamics have been performed to check the deviation in stability and conformation of the peptide. The results validated that the mutations at specific positions lead to instability and the proline substitution at E22P and L34P stalled the aggregation of the peptide. Keywords: Amyloid β peptide, Alzheimer's disease, Aggregation, Mutational analysis, NAMD, UCSF Chimera, Discovery Studio Visualizer

  15. Recurrent Neural Network Model for Constructive Peptide Design.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Müller, Alex T; Hiss, Jan A; Schneider, Gisbert

    2018-02-26

    We present a generative long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network (RNN) for combinatorial de novo peptide design. RNN models capture patterns in sequential data and generate new data instances from the learned context. Amino acid sequences represent a suitable input for these machine-learning models. Generative models trained on peptide sequences could therefore facilitate the design of bespoke peptide libraries. We trained RNNs with LSTM units on pattern recognition of helical antimicrobial peptides and used the resulting model for de novo sequence generation. Of these sequences, 82% were predicted to be active antimicrobial peptides compared to 65% of randomly sampled sequences with the same amino acid distribution as the training set. The generated sequences also lie closer to the training data than manually designed amphipathic helices. The results of this study showcase the ability of LSTM RNNs to construct new amino acid sequences within the applicability domain of the model and motivate their prospective application to peptide and protein design without the need for the exhaustive enumeration of sequence libraries.

  16. Stochastic Extreme Load Predictions for Marine Structures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Jørgen Juncher

    1999-01-01

    Development of rational design criteria for marine structures requires reliable estimates for the maximum wave-induced loads the structure may encounter during its operational lifetime. The paper discusses various methods for extreme value predictions taking into account the non-linearity of the ......Development of rational design criteria for marine structures requires reliable estimates for the maximum wave-induced loads the structure may encounter during its operational lifetime. The paper discusses various methods for extreme value predictions taking into account the non......-linearity of the waves and the response. As example the wave-induced bending moment in the ship hull girder is considered....

  17. Synthesis of Mikto-Arm Star Peptide Conjugates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koo, Jin Mo; Su, Hao; Lin, Yi-An; Cui, Honggang

    2018-01-01

    Mikto-arm star peptide conjugates are an emerging class of self-assembling peptide-based structural units that contain three or more auxiliary segments of different chemical compositions and/or functionalities. This group of molecules exhibit interesting self-assembly behavior in solution due to their chemically asymmetric topology. Here we describe the detailed procedure for synthesis of an ABC Mikto-arm star peptide conjugate in which two immiscible entities (a saturated hydrocarbon and a hydrophobic and lipophobic fluorocarbon) are conjugated onto a short β-sheet forming peptide sequence, GNNQQNY, derived from the Sup35 prion, through a lysine junction. Automated and manual Fmoc-solid phase synthesis techniques are used to synthesize the Mikto-arm star peptide conjugates, followed by HPLC purification. We envision that this set of protocols can afford a versatile platform to synthesize a new class of peptidic building units for diverse applications.

  18. Ranalexin. A novel antimicrobial peptide from bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) skin, structurally related to the bacterial antibiotic, polymyxin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, D P; Durell, S; Maloy, W L; Zasloff, M

    1994-04-08

    Antimicrobial peptides comprise a diverse class of molecules used in host defense by plants, insects, and animals. In this study we have isolated a novel antimicrobial peptide from the skin of the bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana. This 20 amino acid peptide, which we have termed Ranalexin, has the amino acid sequence: NH2-Phe-Leu-Gly-Gly-Leu-Ile-Lys-Ile-Val-Pro-Ala-Met-Ile-Cys-Ala-Val-Thr- Lys-Lys - Cys-COOH, and it contains a single intramolecular disulfide bond which forms a heptapeptide ring within the molecule. Structurally, Ranalexin resembles the bacterial antibiotic, polymyxin, which contains a similar heptapeptide ring. We have also cloned the cDNA for Ranalexin from a metamorphic R. catesbeiana tadpole cDNA library. Based on the cDNA sequence, it appears that Ranalexin is initially synthesized as a propeptide with a putative signal sequence and an acidic amino acid-rich region at its amino-terminal end. Interestingly, the putative signal sequence of the Ranalexin cDNA is strikingly similar to the signal sequence of opioid peptide precursors isolated from the skin of the South American frogs Phyllomedusa sauvagei and Phyllomedusa bicolor. Northern blot analysis and in situ hybridization experiments demonstrated that Ranalexin mRNA is first expressed in R. catesbeiana skin at metamorphosis and continues to be expressed into adulthood.

  19. Aggregation properties of a short peptide that mediates amyloid fibril ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Short peptides have been identified from amyloidogenic proteins that form amyloid fibrils in isolation. The ... proteins. These peptide fibrils have the conformational features of β-structure that .... water and immediately deposited on freshly cleaved surface of mica .... with the peptide via electrostatic interactions. NaCl would.

  20. Prediction, production and characterization of post-translationally modified antimicrobial peptides

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Heel, Auke Johan

    2016-01-01

    Pathogenic bacteria are rapidly becoming resistant to the currently used antibiotics therefore we need novel antibiotics, preferably with new mechanisms of action. One potential source are the so called antimicrobial peptides that are produced by many different organisms. To gain access to these