Effects of two novel amino acid substitutions on the penicillin binding properties of the PBP5 C‑terminal from Enterococcus faecium.

The low‑affinity penicillin‑binding protein (PBP)5 is responsible for resistance to β‑lactam antibiotics in Enterococcus faecium. (E. faecium).

Lack of association of common polymorphisms in MUC1 gene with H. pylori infection and non-cardia gastric cancer risk in a Chinese population.

Several lines of evidence support the notion that MUC1 is often aberrantly expressed in gastric cancer, and it is a ligand for Helicobacter pylori. Genetic variation in MUC1 gene may confer susceptibility to H. pylori infection and gastric cancer.

[Molecular identification of raw materials from lian qiao bai du wan].

Lian Qiao Bai Du Wan was used to study the identification of Chinese patent medicine by molecular marker technique. DNA was extracted through modified CTAB method. The psbA-trnH and rbcL sequences were gradient amplified, and PCR products were ligated with the pEASY-T5 vector and then transformed into Trans1-T1 cells, respectively.

[Application of molecular pharmacognosy in research of Mongolian medicine].

Molecular pharmacognosy has developed as a new borderline discipline. Using the method and technology of molecular pharmacognosy, a wide range of challenging problems were resolved, such as the identification of Mongolian medicinal raw materials, etiology of endangerment and protection of endangered Mongolian medicinal plants and animals, biosynthesis and bioregulation of active components in Mongolian medicinal plants, and characteristics and the molecular bases of Dao-di Herbs. So molecular pharmacognosy will provide the new methods and insights for modernization of Mongolian medicine.

Angiotensin-I-converting enzyme inhibitory peptides: Chemical feature based pharmacophore generation.

A validated 3D pharmacophore model was generated for a series of ACE inhibitory peptides, which consisted of five features (two hydrophobic functions, two hydrogen bond acceptors, and a negative ionizable function). The built model was able to correctly predict the activity of known ACE inhibitors. The model was then used as query to search 3D databases of peptides.

Computer-aided drug design for AMP-activated protein kinase activators.

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is an important therapeutic target for the potential treatment of metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Recently, various classes of compounds that activate AMPK by direct or indirect interactions have been reported. The importance of computer-aided drug design approaches in the search for potent activators of AMPK is now established, including structure-based design, ligand-based design, fragment-based design, as well as structural analysis.

Interactions of hemoglobin in live red blood cells measured by the electrophoresis release test.

To elucidate the protein-protein interactions of hemoglobin (Hb) variants A and A(2), HbA was first shown to bind with HbA(2) in live red blood cells (RBCs) by diagonal electrophoresis and then the interaction between HbA and HbA(2) outside the RBC was shown by cross electrophoresis. The starch-agarose gel electrophoresis of hemolysate, RBCs, freeze-thawed RBCs and the supernatant of freeze-thawed RBCs showed that the interaction between HbA and HbA(2) was affected by membrane integrity. To identify the proteins involved in the interaction, protein components located between HbA and HbA(2) in RBCs (RBC HbA-HbA(2)) and hemolysate (hemolysate HbA-HbA(2)) were isolated from the starch-agarose gel and separated by 5-12% SDS-PAGE.

RBC electrophoresis with discontinuous power supply - a newly established hemoglobin release test.

In this paper, we aimed to introduce a newly established red blood cells (RBCs) electrophoresis method hemoglobin release test (HRT) and tried to determine its significance. Human blood samples from beta-thalassemia patients and healthy controls were analyzed with HRT, which was carried out on starch-agarose mixed gel. First, the whole blood samples were electrophoresed for 2 h, then paused for 15 min and ran for 15 min by turns.

[Polymorphism of vitamin D receptor gene Fok I in Mongolian population of China].

Objective: To investigate the polymorphism distribution of vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene Fok I in Mongolian population of China.

Methods: Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method was used to analyze three genotypes FF, Ff and ff in the start codon of VDR gene (Fok I) in unrelated normal healthy Mongolian individuals of China.

Results: In the population, we obtained the allelic frequencies of 57% and 43% for (F) and (f) allele and the percentage of genotypes FF, Ff and ff to be 31%, 52%, and 17% respectively.