Looking after each other in a crisis-Lessons from Novichok and the parallels with Covid-19.

Background: In March 2018, three patients were admitted to the Emergency Department of a District General Hospital. Originally suspected of having suffered an opiate overdose, it became clear that they were the victims of anti-cholinesterase poisoning-the Soviet era poison Novichok. Twenty-five days later, two further patients were admitted with the same symptoms.

Swallowing rehabilitation following spinal injury: A case series.

Swallowing difficulties (dysphagia) are well recognized after spinal injury. There are no published rehabilitation efficacy studies to date. This study explored viability and outcomes of swallowing rehabilitation programs for four patients with persisting dysphagia.

Distinct neuronal populations in the basolateral and central amygdala are activated with acute pain, conditioned fear, and fear-conditioned analgesia.

Fear-conditioned analgesia (FCA) is modulated by brain areas involved in the descending inhibitory pain pathway such as the basolateral (BLA) and central amygdala (CEA). The BLA contains Ca/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) and parvalbumin (PV) neurons. CEA neurons are primarily inhibitory (GABAergic) that comprise enkephalin (ENK) interneurons and corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) - neurons that project to the periaqueductal grey.

Functional and structural studies on different forms of the adenylate cyclase toxin of Bordetella pertussis.

A comparison was made of the cytotoxic activity and secondary structural features of four recombinant forms of adenylate cyclase toxin (CyaA). These forms were fully functional CyaA, CyaA lacking adenylate cyclase enzymatic activity (CyaA*), and non-acylated forms of these toxins, proCyaA and proCyaA*. At a toxin concentration>1 microg/ml, CyaA* was as cytotoxic towards J774.

The influence of protein solubilisation, conformation and size on the burst release from poly(lactide-co-glycolide) microspheres.

Encapsulation of proteins in poly(lactide-co-glycolide) microspheres via emulsion is known to cause insoluble protein aggregates. Following protein emulsification and encapsulation in PLGA microspheres, we used circular dichroism to show that the recoverable soluble protein fraction also suffers subtle conformational changes. For a panel of proteins selected on the basis of molecular size and structural class, conformational stability measured by chemical denaturation was not indicative of stability during emulsion-encapsulation.

How to study proteins by circular dichroism.

Circular dichroism (CD) is being increasingly recognised as a valuable technique for examining the structure of proteins in solution. However, the value of many studies using CD is compromised either by inappropriate experimental design or by lack of attention to key aspects of instrument calibration or sample characterisation. In this article, we summarise the basis of the CD approach and its application to the study of proteins, and then present clear guidelines on how reliable data can be obtained and analysed.

Induced alpha-helix structure in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor transactivation domain modulates protein-protein interactions.

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is an intracellular receptor protein that regulates gene transcription in response to both man-made and natural ligands. A modular transactivaton domain (TAD) has been mapped to the 304 C-terminal amino acids and consists of acidic, Q-rich, and P/S/T-rich subdomains. We have used steady-state intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopy to investigate the conformation of the acidic Q-rich region.

Direct interaction of beta-dystroglycan with F-actin.

Dystroglycans are essential transmembrane adhesion receptors for laminin. Alpha-dystroglycan is a highly glycosylated extracellular protein that interacts with laminin in the extracellular matrix and the transmembrane region of beta-dystroglycan. Beta-dystroglycan, via its cytoplasmic tail, interacts with dystrophin and utrophin and also with the actin cytoskeleton.

SCP1 encodes an actin-bundling protein in yeast.

The association of F-actin (filamentous actin) with a large number of binding proteins is essential for cellular function. Actin-binding proteins control the dynamics of actin filaments, nucleate new filaments and facilitate formation of higher-order structures such as actin bundles. The yeast gene SCP1 encodes a small protein with significant homology to mammalian SM22/transgelin.