Insight into the activity of SARS main protease: Molecular dynamics study of dimeric and monomeric form of enzyme.

The phenomenon that SARS coronavirus main protease (SARS M(pro)) dimer is the main functional form has been confirmed by experiment. However, because of the absence of structural information of the monomer, the reasons for this remain unknown. To investigate it, two molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in water for dimer and monomer models have been carried out, using the crystal structure of protomer A of the dimer as the starting structure for the monomer.

Maternal IgG suppresses NMDA-induced spasms in infant rats and inhibits NMDA-mediated neurotoxicity in hippocampal neurons.

Maternal immunoglobulin G (IgG) was derived from Wistar rats that just delivered the new offsprings. We examined the effect of this maternal IgG on infantile spasms induced by N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) in immature rats. Pup animals were treated subcutaneously with 10 mg/kg/day maternal IgG from day 11 to day 15 after birth followed by a single intraperitoneal dose of NMDA (15 mg/kg).