Filters
total: 103
Search results for: conformational studies
-
Sequence-dependent structural properties of B-DNA: what have we learned in 40 years?
PublicationThe structure of B-DNA, the physiological form of the DNA molecule, has been a central topic in biology, chemistry and physics. Far from uniform and rigid, the double helix was revealed as a flexible and structurally polymorphic molecule. Conformational changes that lead to local and global changes in the helix geometry are mediated by a complex choreography of base and backbone rearrangements affecting the ability of the B-DNA...
-
Towards sugar-derived polyamides as environmentally friendly materials
PublicationAs part of our ongoing study investigating isohexide-based polyamides, we have synthesized isosorbide(bis(propan-1-amine)) (DAPIS) and studied its reactivity in the polymerization towards fully biobased polyamides. Polycondensation of nylon salts with various contributions of DAPIS afforded a family of homo- and copolyamides, which were characterized using complementary spectroscopic techniques. The chemical structure of the materials...
-
The influence of the type of halogen substituent and its position on the molecular conformation, intermolecular interactions and crystal packing for a series of 1-benzoyl-3-(halogenophenyl)thioureas
PublicationBy the reaction of benzoyl chloride, potassium isothiocyanate and the appropriate halogenoaniline, i.e. 2/3/4-(bromo/iodo)aniline, we have obtained five new 1-benzoyl-3-(halogenophenyl)thioureas, namely, 1-benzoyl-3-(2-bromophenyl)- thiourea and 1-benzoyl-3-(3-bromophenyl)thiourea, C14H11BrN2OS, and 1-benzoyl-3-(2-iodophenyl)thiourea, 1-benzoyl-3-(3-iodophenyl)thiourea and 1-benzoyl-3-(4-iodophenyl)thiourea, C14H11IN2OS. Structural...
-
Structural and dynamic insights on the EmrE protein with TPP+ and related substrates through molecular dynamics simulations
PublicationEmrE is a bacterial transporter protein that forms an anti-parallel homodimer with four transmembrane helices in each monomer. EmrE transports positively charged aromatic compounds, such as TPP+ and its derivatives. We performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of EmrE in complex with TPP+, MeTPP+, and MBTPP+ embedded in a membrane. The detailed molecular properties and interactions were analysed for all EmrE-ligand complexes....
-
Interaction of cisplatin and two potential antitumoral platinum(ii) complexes with a model lipid membrane: a combined NMR and MD study
PublicationIn this study, the interaction of cisplatin (1) and two potential antitumoral Pt(II) complexes (2 and 3) with a model DMPC bilayer was investigated by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and MD simulations in order to understand its implication for the different antitumoral properties shown by the three complexes. In particular, 31P, 13C and 2H solid state NMR experiments were performed to obtain information on the phase structure, phase...
-
Vibrational Sum-Frequency Generation Activity of a 2,4-Dinitrophenyl Phospholipid Hybrid Bilayer: Retrieving Orientational Parameters from a DFT Analysis of Experimental Data
PublicationThe vibrational nonlinear activity of films of 2,4-dinitrophenyl phospholipid (DNP) at the solid interface is measured by sum-frequency generation spectroscopy (SFG). Hybrid bilayers are formed by a LangmuirSchaefer approach in which the lipid layer is physisorbed on top of a self-assembled monolayer of dodecanethiol on Pt with the polar heads pointing out from the surface. The SFG response is investigated in two vibrational frequency...
-
Modelling charge transfer processes in C2+ -tetrahydrofuran collision for ion-induced radiation damage in DNA building blocks
PublicationInvestigations of collision-induced processes involving carbon ions and molecules of biological interest in particular DNA building blocks, are crucial to model the effect of radiation on cells in order to improve medical treatments for cancer therapy. Using carbon ions appears to be one of the most efficient ways to increase biological effectiveness to damage cancerous cells by irradiating deep-seated tumors. Therefore, interest...
-
Imunofan—RDKVYR Peptide—Stimulates Skin Cell Proliferation and Promotes Tissue Repair
PublicationRegeneration and wound healing are vital to tissue homeostasis and organism survival. One of the biggest challenges of today’s science and medicine is finding methods and factors to stimulate these processes in the human body. Effective solutions to promote regenerative responses will accelerate advances in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, transplantology, and a number of other clinical specialties. In this study, we...
-
Catalytic Mechanism of Non-Target DNA Cleavage in CRISPR-Cas9 Revealed by Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics
PublicationCRISPR-Cas9 is a cutting-edge genome editing technology, which uses the endonuclease Cas9 to introduce mutations at desired sites of the genome. This revolutionary tool is promising to treat a myriad of human genetic diseases. Nevertheless, the molecular basis of DNA cleavage, which is a fundamental step for genome editing, has not been established. Here, quantum–classical molecular dynamics (MD) and free energy methods are used...
-
Molecular mechanism and energetics of coupling between substrate binding and product release in the F 1 -ATPase catalytic cycle
PublicationF1-ATPase is a motor protein that couples the rotation of its rotary γ subunit with ATP synthesis or hydrolysis. Single-molecule experiments indicate that nucleotide binding and release events occur almost simultaneously during the synthesis cycle, allowing the energy gain due to spontaneous binding of ADP to one catalytic β subunit to be directly harnessed for driving the release of ATP from another rather than being dissipated...
-
Dominant Pathways of Adenosyl Radical-Induced DNA Damage Revealed by QM/MM Metadynamics
PublicationBrominated nucleobases sensitize double stranded DNA to hydrated electrons, one of the dominant genotoxic species produced in hypoxic cancer cells during radiotherapy. Such radiosensitizers can therefore be administered locally to enhance treatment efficiency within the solid tumor while protecting the neighboring tissue. When a solvated electron attaches to 8-bromoadenosine, a potential sensitizer, the dissociation of bromide...
-
PTD4 Peptide Increases Neural Viability in an In Vitro Model of Acute Ischemic Stroke
PublicationIschemic stroke is a disturbance in cerebral blood flow caused by brain tissue ischemia and hypoxia. We optimized a multifactorial in vitro model of acute ischemic stroke using rat primary neural cultures. This model was exploited to investigate the pro-viable activity of cell-penetrating peptides: arginine-rich Tat(49–57)-NH2 (R49KKRRQRRR57-amide) and its less basic analogue, PTD4 (Y47ARAAARQARA57-amide). Our model included glucose...
-
Molecular mechanism of proton-coupled ligand translocation by the bacterial efflux pump EmrE
PublicationThe current surge in bacterial multi-drug resistance (MDR) is one of the largest challenges to public health, threatening to render ineffective many therapies we rely on for treatment of serious infections. Understanding different factors that contribute to MDR is hence crucial from the global “one health” perspective. In this contribution, we focus on the prototypical broad-selectivity proton-coupled antiporter EmrE, one of the...
-
Imunofan - RDKVYR peptide - stimulates skin cell proliferation and promotes tissue repair
PublicationRegeneration and wound healing are vital to tissue homeostasis and organism survival. One of the biggest challenges of today's science and medicine is finding methods and factors to stimulate these processes in the human body. Effective solutions to promote regenerative responses will accelerate advances in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, transplantology, and a number of other clinical...
-
Impact of AlphaFold on structure prediction of protein complexes: The CASP15‐CAPRI experiment
PublicationWe present the results for CAPRI Round 54, the 5th joint CASP-CAPRI protein assembly prediction challenge. The Round offered 37 targets, including 14 homodimers, 3 homo-trimers, 13 heterodimers including 3 antibody–antigen complexes, and 7 large assemblies. On average 70 CASP and CAPRI predictor groups, including more than 20 automatics servers, submitted models for each target. A total of 21 941 models submitted by these groups...
-
Enzymatic cross-linking of β-lactoglobulin in solution and at air–water interface: Structural constraints
PublicationEffective and controlled use of cross-linking enzymes in structure engineering of food systems depends on characterization of the favorable conditions for enzyme-substrate complex and the limiting factors for the desired modification. In this respect, we analyzed the susceptibility of bovine β-lactoglobulin (BLG) to enzymatic cross-linking by Trichoderma reesei tyrosinase (TrTyr) and transglutaminase (TG). Changes in BLG molecular...
-
Analysis of Reconstituted Tripartite Complex Supports Avidity-based Recruitment of Hsp70 by Substrate Bound J-domain Protein
PublicationHsp70 are ubiquitous, versatile molecular chaperones that cyclically interact with substrate protein(s). The initial step requires synergistic interaction of a substrate and a J-domain protein (JDP) cochaperone, via its J-domain, with Hsp70 to stimulate hydrolysis of its bound ATP. This hydrolysis drives conformational changes in Hsp70 that stabilize substrate binding. However, because of the transient nature of substrate and JDP...
-
Mechanism of Binding of Antifungal Antibiotic Amphotericin B to Lipid Membranes: An Insight from Combined Single-Membrane Imaging, Microspectroscopy, and Molecular Dynamics
PublicationAmphotericin B is a lifesaving polyene antibiotic used in the treatment of systemic mycoses. Unfortunately, the pharmacological applicability of this drug is limited because of its severe toxic side effects. At the same time, the lack of a well-defined mechanism of selectivity hampers the efforts to rationally design safer derivatives. As the drug primarily targets the biomembranes of both fungi and humans, new insights into the...
-
Chemical and biological stability of polyene macrolides
PublicationThe polyene macrolide antibiotics have been used in an-tifungal therapy since first o f them were discovered in 1950's. Up to now, four polyene macrolides are being used in medical practice, namely amphotericin B, nystatin, candi-cidin and pimaricin.The antifungal activity and mode of ac-tion of polyene macrolides is determined by their structure, chemical and physical properties.The main fragment of polyene...
-
Physics-Based Coarse-Grained Modeling in Bio- and Nanochemistry
PublicationCoarse-grained approaches, in which groups of atoms are represented by single interaction sites, are very important in biological and materials sciences because they enable us to cover the size- and time-scales by several orders of magnitude larger than those available all-atom simulations, while largely keeping the details of the systems studied. The coarse-grained approaches differ by the scheme of reduction and by the origin...