OBJECTIVE The relationship of the structural and functional heterogeneity of HDL particles to protection of LDL against oxidative stress is indeterminate. METHODS AND RESULTS HDL subfractions of defined physicochemical properties were isolated by density gradient ultracentrifugation from normolipidemic human serum (n=8), and their capacity to protect LDL from oxidation was evaluated. Under mi...

Three new proteins which inhibit protein synthesis in rabbit reticulocyte lysates were isolated from an extract of sponge gourd (Luffa cylindrica) seeds by chromatography on a AF-Blue Toyopearl column followed by FPLC with a Mono S column. These three protein-synthesis inhibitory proteins (PSIs) have molecular masses of 19 kDa, 15 kDa, and 9 kDa, and were designated 19K-PSI, 15K-PSI, and 9K-PSI...

N-Acetylmannosamine (ManNAc) is the first committed intermediate in sialic acid metabolism. Thus, the mechanisms that control intracellular ManNAc levels are important regulators of sialic acid production. In prokaryotic organisms, UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) 2-epimerase and GlcNAc-6-P 2-epimerase are two enzymes capable of generating ManNAc from UDP-GlcNAc and GlcNAc-6-P, respectively. We...

A soluble nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDP kinase) was purified and characterized in epimastigote forms of Trypanosoma cruzi. The enzyme was purified by affinity chromatography on Blue-agarose and Q-Sepharose columns and by FPLC on a Superose 12 column. A membrane-associated NDP kinase was identified which accounts for 30% of total enzymatic activity. Western blot analysis of the soluble NDP ...

The urea-induced denaturation of dimeric Erythrina indica lectin (EIL) has been studied at pH 7.2 under equilibrium and kinetic conditions in the temperature range of 40-55 degrees C. The structure of EIL is largely unaffected in this temperature range in absence of denaturant, and also in 8 M urea after incubation for 24 h at ambient temperature. The equilibrium denaturation of EIL exhibits a ...

Phanerochaete chrysosporium is a white rot fungus which secretes a family of lignin-degrading enzymes under nutrient limitation. PSBL-1 is a mutant of this organism that generates the ligninolytic system under nonlimiting conditions during primary metabolism. Lignin peroxidase, manganese peroxidase, and glyoxal oxidase activities for PSBL-1 under nonlimiting conditions were 4- to 10-fold higher...

We propose an ant-based algorithm to improve the alternate routing scheme for dynamic Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) in all-optical wavelength-divisionmultiplexing (WDM) networks. In our algorithm, we adopt a novel twin routing table structure that comprises both a P-route table for connection setup and a pheromone table for ants’ foraging. The P-route table contains P alternate routes...

A protease with a molecular mass of 30 kDa and the N-terminal sequence of GLQTNAPWGLARSS, was isolated from fresh fruiting bodies of the wild edible mushroom Termitomyces albuminosus. The purification protocol included ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, Q-Sepharose, SP-Sepharose and FPLC-gel filtration on Superdex 75. The protein was unadsorbed on DEAE-cellulose and Q-Sepharose, but...

The proton-translocating, membrane ATPases of oral streptococci have been implicated in cytoplasmic pH regulation, acidurance, and cariogenicity. Membranes were isolated from Streptococcus mutans GS-5 and Streptococcus sanguis NCTC 10904 following salt-induced lysis of cells treated with lysozyme and mutanolysin. The ATPase activities of these membranes were 1.8 and 1.1 units per mg membrane pr...

Plant-based expression systems provide an alternative biomanufacturing platform for recombinant proteins (Matoba et al., 2011). In particular, plant virus-based vectors can overexpress proteins within days in the leaf tissue of Nicotiana benthamiana (N. benthamiana). To overcome the issues of genetic instability and limited infectivity of recombinant viruses, Agrobacterium-mediated delivery of ...