A Chemical Chaperone That Prevents Insulin Fibrillation

Insulin, a peptide hormone, is susceptible to amyloid formation upon exposure to aberrant physiological conditions, result-ing in a loss of its bioactivity. For mitigating insulin aggregation, we report a molecule called PAD-S, which completely inhibit-ed insulin fibril formation, and preserved insulin in its soluble form. Circular Dichroism spectroscopy showed that PAD-S was able to maintain the native structure of insulin, thus acting as a chemical chaperone. Seeded aggregation kinetics suggest that PAD-S inhibited primary nucleation events during aggregation. This is consistent with molecular docking results which suggest that PAD-S binds strongly to native insulin monomers/dimers. Through a competitive binding experiment with ‘LVEALYL’ peptide, we conclude that PAD-S likely binds to the amyloid prone B11-B17 residues of insulin thereby prevent-ing its aggregation. PAD-S was also effective in disaggregating preformed insulin fibrils to non-toxic species. PAD-S treated insulin was functional as indicated by its ability to phosphorylate Akt. PAD-S was also highly effective in preventing the ag-gregation of insulin biosimilars. The low cellular cytotoxicity of PAD-S, and amelioration of aggregation-induced toxicity by PAD-S treated insulin further highlights its potential as an effective chemical chaperone.

An inhibitor-interaction intermediate of HIV-1 protease, revealed by Isothermal Titration Calorimetry and NMR spectroscopy

Some of drug-resistant mutants of HIV-1 protease (PR), such as a clinically-relevant drug- resistant PR mutant (Flap+(I54V)) containing L10I, G48V, I54V and V82A mutations, produce significant changes in the balance between entropy and enthalpy of the drug-PR interactions, compared to the wild-type (WT) PR. Here, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the entropy-enthalpy compensation effects, we compared nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), fluorescence spectroscopy and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) data of a WT PR with Flap+(I54V)and related mutants: (1) Flap+(I54V); (2) Flap+(I54A)which evolves from Flap+(I54V)in the continued presence of inhibitor yet does not exhibit entropy-enthalpy compensation; and (3) Flap+(I54), a control mutant that contains only L10I, G48V and V82A mutations. Our data indicate that WT and Flap+(I54A)show enthalpy-driven inhibitor-interaction, while Flap+(I54)and Flap+(I54V)exhibit entropy-driven inhibitor interaction. Interestingly, Flap+(I54A)exhibited significantly slower heat flow in the competitive ITC experiment with a strong binder, darunavir, and a weak binder, acetyl-pepstatin, but did not exhibit such slow heat flow in the direct inhibitor-titration experiments. NMR confirmed replacement of the weak binder by the strong binder in a competitive manner. This difference in the heat flow of the competitive binding experiment compared to the direct experiment can only be explained by assuming an inhibitor-bound intermediate pathway. A similar, but attenuated, tendency for slow heat flow was also detected in the competitive experiment with WT. Overall, our data suggests that an inhibitor-bound intermediate affects the entropy-enthalpy compensation of inhibitor-PR interaction.

Potential Properties of Plant Sprout Extracts on Amyloidβ

The aim of this study is to examine the amyloidβ(Aβ) inhibition mechanism of plant sprouts’ aqueous extracts (PSAE). In this study, we screened the effects of five plant sprouts’ extracts on Aβ(1–42) structure modification using gel electrophoresis. In PSAE, no band of Aβmonomer was recognized in Japanese butterbur. Similarly, the Aβmonomer band became light in buckwheat, red cabbage, broccoli, and brussels. The neuroprotective effects of PSAE were evaluated by measuring levels of Aβin mixtures (Aβ and PSAE) with AβELISA assay. The treatment with PSAE decreased Aβlevels. The results indicated that the levels of red cabbage, Japanese butterbur, and broccoli were 9.6, 28.0, and 44.0%, respectively. The lowest value was observed with buckwheat. Furthermore, we carried out a Congo Red (CR) and Aβbinding experiment of PSAE to confirm the modification mechanism of PSAE. The correlation coefficient for the absorption spectrum peak of CR was found to be bigger than 0.8 (r=0.882) which proved that the Aβlevels could be attributed to the peak of CR. In conclusion, we demonstrated that treatment with PSAE effectively decreases Aβconcentration. Thus, the mechanism that decreased the Aβlevels may be modification by PSAE.

Preparation and Recognized Characteristic of Histamine Molecularly Imprinted Polymers

HA MIP was prepared in acetonitrile-ethylene glycol mixed solvent ( 20:1，v/v), HA was used as the template, methacrylic acid (MAA) as the functional monomer, azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as the initiator and ethylene glycol dimethaerylate (EGDMA) as the cross-linker. The UV spectrophotometry was used to demonstrate the interaction between HA and MAA. The adsorption characteristics of MIP to HA have been studied by equilibrium binding experiment and Scatchard analysis. The data obtained show that MIP reached equilibrium within 6 h. It is found that within the studied concentration range one HA molecule is entrapped by two MAA molecules The Scatchard chart shows the apparent maximum binding capacity (Bmax) and the dissociation contents (KD) of MIP are 170.5 μmol/g and 0.18 mmol/L, respctively. The MIP synthesized by this method have better binding ability to histamine and can be applied on the separation and detection of histamine.

Imprinted β-Cyclodextrin Polymer for Recognition of Naringin

The objective of this study was to find out a kind of MIP which was suitable for recognizing NG in aqueous medium. A non-covalent NG-β-CD imprinted polymer was prepared by using β-cyclodextrine (β-CD) as a functional monomer, naringin (NG) as a template molecule and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI) as cross linker. The binding property and selectivity were evaluated by the equilibrium binding experiment, its imprinting factors α is 1.39.

Synthesis, DNA-binding and antiproliferative activity of N-(Nitrogen heterocyclic) norcantharidin acylamide acid

Two novel norcantharidin acylamide acids (HL1=N-pyrimidine norcantharidin acylamide acid, C12H13N3O4; HL2=N-pyridine norcantharidin acylamide acid, C13H14N2O4) were synthesized by a reaction of norcantharidin(NCTD) with 2-aminopyrimidine and 2-aminopyridine, respectively. Their structures were characterized by elemental analysis, IR, UV and 1 H NMR. Fluorescence titration and viscosity measurements indicated that HL1, HL2 and HL3 (HL3=N-phenyl norcantharidin acylamide acid, C14H15NO4) can bind calf thymus DNA via partial intercalation. The liner Stern-Volmer quenching constant Ksv values for HL1, HL2 and HL3 were 2.05 × 104 L mol−1, 1.15 × 104 L mol−1 and 8.30×103 L mol−1, respectively. Two compounds containing heterocycle of HL1 and HL2 have been found to cleave pBR322 plasmid DNA at physiological pH and temperature. The test of antiproliferation activity showed that the compounds had moderate to strong antiproliferative ability against the tested cell lines except of HL3 against the SMMC7721 cell line. The results indicated that the heterocycle attached to the norcantharidin was favorable to antiproliferative activity. This result was consistent with the DNA binding experiment.