Female mate choice is fundamental to sexual selection, and determining molecular underpinnings of female preference variation is important for understanding mating character evolution. Previously it was shown that whole-brain expression of a synaptic plasticity marker, neuroserpin, positively correlates with mating bias in the female choice poeciliid, Xiphophorus nigrensis, when exposed to cons...

Ns (neuroserpin) is a member of the serpin (serine protease inhibitor) gene family that is primarily expressed within the central nervous system. Its principal target protease is tPA (tissue plasminogen activator), which is thought to contribute to synaptic plasticity and to be secreted in a stimulus-dependent manner. In the present study, we demonstrate in primary neuronal cultures that Ns co-...

Neuroserpin (NS) is an inhibitory protein belonging to the serpin family and involved in several pathologies, including the dementia Familial Encephalopathy with Neuroserpin Inclusion Bodies (FENIB), a genetic neurodegenerative disease caused by accumulation of NS polymers. Our Molecular Dynamics simulations revealed the formation of a persistent salt bridge between Glu289 on strand s2C and Arg...

a,-Antitrypsin functions as a 'mousetrap ' to inhibit its target proteinase, neutrophil elastase. The common severe Z deficiency variant ( G ~ u ~ ~ ' + Lys) destabilizes the mousetrap to allow a sequential protein-protein interaction between the reactive-centre loop of one molecule and psheet A of another. These loop-sheet polymers accumulate within hepatocytes to form inclusion bodies that ar...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the potential neuroprotective effect of neuroserpin (NSP) on acute retinal ischemic/reperfusion-induced (IR) injury. An IR injury model was established by elevating intraocular pressure (IOP) for 60 minutes in wild type and tPA-deficient (tPA-/-) mice. Prior to IR injury, 1 μL of 20 μmol/L NSP or an equal volume of bovine serum albumin (BSA) w...