Protein quality control requires careful regulation of intracellular proteolysis. For DegP, a periplasmic protease, substrates promote assembly of inactive hexamers into proteolytically active cages with 12, 18, 24, or 30 subunits. Here, we show that sensitive activation and cage assembly require covalent linkage of distinct substrate sequences that affect degradation (degrons). One degron bind...

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) terminates nerve-impulse transmission at cholinergic synapses by rapid hydrolysis of the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. Substrate traffic in AChE involves at least two binding sites, the catalytic and peripheral anionic sites, which have been suggested to be allosterically related and involved in substrate inhibition. Here, we present the crystal structures of Torp...

The behavior of HIV-1 protease in aqueous NaCl and KCl solutions is investigated by kinetic measurements and molecular dynamics simulations. Experiments show cation-specific effects on the enzymatic activity. The initial velocity of peptide substrate hydrolysis increases with salt concentration more dramatically in potassium than in sodium chloride solutions. Furthermore, significantly higher c...

Drug development is a key point in the research of new therapeutic treatments for increasing maximum drug loading and prolonged drug effect. Encapsulation of drugs into multivesicular liposomes (DepoFoam) is a nanotechnology that allow deliver of the active constituent at a sufficient concentration during the entire treatment period. This guarantees the reduction of drug administration frequenc...

One of the primary considerations in immunoassay design is optimizing the concentration of capture antibody in order to achieve maximal antigen binding and, subsequently, improved sensitivity and limit of detection. Many immunoassay technologies involve immobilization of the antibody to solid surfaces. Antibodies are large molecules in which the position and accessibility of the antigen-binding...

1,31,4-@-~-Glucan 4-glucanohydrolases (EC 3.2.1.73) from Bacillus subtilis and barley (Hordeum vulgare) with identical substrate specificities but unrelated primary structures have been probed with (R,S)epoxyalkyl (-propyl, -butyl, -pentyl) 8-cellobiosides and with optically pure (3s)and (3R)-3,4-cellobiosides as active site-directed inhibitors. The optimal aglycon length for inactivation diff...

The interaction between the solute and the solsent molecules play a crucial role in understanding the various molecular processes involved in chemistry and biochemistry, so in this work the potential energy of active site of azurin have been calculated in solvent by the Monte Carlo simulation. In this paper we present quantitative results of Monte Carlo calculations of potential energies of ...