Magnetotactic bacteria are a diverse group of microorganisms with the ability to use geomagnetic fields for direction sensing. This unique feat is accomplished with the help of magnetosomes, nanometer-sized magnetic crystals surrounded by a lipid bilayer membrane and organized into chains via a dedicated cytoskeleton within the cell. Because of the special properties of these magnetic crystals,...

Amyloid- β aggregates play a causative role in Alzheimer's disease. These aggregates are a product of the physical environment provided by the basic neuronal membrane, composed of a lipid bilayer. The intrinsic properties of the lipid bilayer allow amyloid- β peptides to nucleate and form well-ordered cross- β sheets within the membrane. Here, we correlate the aggregation of the hydrophobic fra...

objective: several vaccines against hiv have been investigated but none has been approved as an effective hiv vaccine. an approach that could induce stronger immune response against the pathogen is utilizing a multi-epitopic vaccine. this strategy was used in the design of several vaccines and resulted in improved immune responses. materials and methods: in this study a multi-epitopic fusion p...

In this review, lipid A, from its discovery to recent findings, is presented as a drug target and therapeutic molecule. First, the biosynthetic pathway for lipid A, the Raetz pathway, serves as a good drug target for antibiotic development. Several assay methods used to screen for inhibitors of lipid A synthesis will be presented, and some of the promising lead compounds will be described. Seco...

It is now thirty years since Singer and Nicolson unveiled their fluid mosaic model for the membrane. The model incorporates the ideas that the basic structure of the membrane is a fluid lipid bilayer, that intrinsic membrane proteins ‘float’ in this ‘sea’ of lipid, and that extrinsic membrane proteins are located on both surfaces of the membrane. The model still provides a very useful summary o...

The stimulation of both THP-1 and U937 human-derived cells by Salmonella lipid A preparations from various strains, as assessed by TNF-alpha induction and NF-kappaB activation, was found to be very low (almost inactive) compared with Escherichia coli lipid A, but all of the lipid As exerted strong activity on mouse cells and on Limulus gelation activity. Experiments using chemically synthesized...

Human plasma apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) and apolipoprotein C-I (apoC-I) were investigated by time-resolved fluorescence decay and depolarization. The tryptophyl fluorescence of apoAI undergoes a double-exponential decay with lifetimes of 1.07 and 3.43 ns which remain unchangcd over the range of apoA-I concentration studied. The time-resolved fluorescence of both native and denatured forms of a...

We determined the physiological variability of total cholesterol, high- (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, and apolipoproteins A-I and B in fasting blood samples from patients referred to the Johns Hopkins Lipid Referral Clinic. Samples were taken on each of three occasions during baseline evaluation visits before the patients were treated. The median physiologi...

objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of good glycemic control on serum lipids levels and lipid peroxidation, and to find out the relationship between the level of malondialdehyde and hba1c in type 2 diabetes. materials and methods: fifty type 2 diabetic patients aged 40-60 years with the history of diabetes for more than 10 years were studied. glycemic control was stable ...