Stones from cancerous and benign gallbladders are different: A proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy study.

Aim: Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is frequently associated with gallstones (GS). At the same time, however, a very small number of patients with GS develop GBC. Cholesterol and metal salts are the common constituents of all GS.

Design and construction of an open multistranded beta-sheet polypeptide stabilized by a disulfide bridge.

The design and characterization of an open eight-stranded beta-sheet in a synthetic, 2-fold symmetric 70-residue peptide is described. The design strategy involves the generation of a 35-residue four-stranded beta-sheet peptide in which successive hairpins are nucleated by appropriately positioned (D)Pro-Xxx sequences. Oxidative dimerization using a single Cys residue positioned at the center of the C-terminal strand results in a disulfide-bridged eight-stranded structure.