FOXA1 serves as a crucial pioneer transcription factor during developmental processes and plays a pivotal role as a mitotic bookmarking factor to perpetuate gene expression profiles and maintain cellular identity. During mitosis, the majority of FOXA1 dissociates from specific DNA binding sites and redistributes to non-specific binding sites; however, the regulatory mechanisms governing molecular dynamics and activity of FOXA1 remain elusive. Here, we show that mitotic kinase Aurora B specifies the different DNA binding modes of FOXA1 and guides FOXA1 biomolecular condensation in mitosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe tumor suppressor p53 plays a crucial role in cellular responses to various stresses, regulating key processes such as apoptosis, senescence, and DNA repair. Dysfunctional p53, prevalent in approximately 50 % of human cancers, contributes to tumor development and resistance to treatment. This study employed deep learning-based protein design and structure prediction methods to identify novel high-affinity peptide binders (Pep1 and Pep2) targeting MDM2, with the aim of disrupting its interaction with p53.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolecular dynamics (MD) simulation is a powerful computational tool used in biomolecular studies to investigate the dynamics, energetics, and interactions of a wide range of biological systems at the atomic level. GROMACS is a widely used free and open-source biomolecular MD simulation software recognized for its efficiency, accuracy, and extensive range of simulation options. However, the complexity of setting up, running, and analyzing MD simulations for diverse systems often poses a significant challenge, requiring considerable time, effort, and expertise.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhosphorylation is the most prevalent form of regulation in cells, organizing virtually all cellular functions, including survival, motility, differentiation, proliferation, and metabolism. This regulatory function has been largely conserved from the primitive single-cell to the more complex multicellular organisms. More than a third of proteins in eukaryotes are phosphorylated, and essentially every class of protein undergoes regulation by phosphorylation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbout 30% of malignant tumors include KRAS mutations, which are frequently required for the development and maintenance of malignancies. KRAS is now a top-priority cancer target as a result. After years of research, it is now understood that the oncogenic KRAS-G12C can be targeted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSARS-CoV-2 infection has led to several million deaths worldwide and ravaged the economies of many countries. Hence, developing therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 remains a core priority in the fight against COVID-19. Most of the drugs that have received emergency use authorization for treating SARS-CoV-2 infection exhibit a number of limitations, including side effects and questionable efficacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Resistance to antifungal drugs for treating infections remains a major concern globally despite the range of medications available. Most of these drugs target key proteins essential to the life cycle of the organism. An enzyme essential for fungal cell membrane integrity, lanosterol 14-α demethylase (CYP51), is encoded by the gene in species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe emergence of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019 has generated a devastating global consequence which makes the development of a rapidly deployable, effective and safe vaccine candidate an imminent global health priority. The design of most vaccine candidates has been directed at the induction of antibody responses against the trimeric spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2, a class I fusion protein that aids ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2) receptor binding. A variety of formulations and vaccinology approaches are being pursued for targeting the spike glycoprotein, including simian and human replication-defective adenoviral vaccines, subunit protein vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines and whole-inactivated SARS-CoV-2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccurate mitotic progression relies on the dynamic phosphorylation of multiple substrates by key mitotic kinases. Cyclin-dependent kinase 1 is a master kinase that coordinates mitotic progression and requires its regulatory subunit Cyclin B to ensure full kinase activity and substrate specificity. The function of Cyclin B2, which is a closely related family member of Cyclin B1, remains largely elusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: The SARS-CoV-2 has infected many people globally with the ravaging COVID-19; a disease, which has become challenging for every aspect of modern healthcare. The saliva and oral mucosa are sites of high risk for increased viral loads, and aside from the usual epithelial functions like lining and protection, the oral mucosa is also specialized for crucial functions, such as secretion, mastication, sensory perception, and taste perception. The human ACE2 receptor has been extensively studied for its essential role in the regulation of blood pressure homeostasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpecialized biological processes occur in different regions and organelles of the cell. Additionally, the function of proteins correlate greatly with their interactions and subcellular localization. Understanding the mechanism underlying the specialized functions of cellular structures therefore requires a detailed identification of proteins within spatially defined domains of the cell.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new approach is adopted to treat primary immunodeficiency disorders, such as the severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID; e.g., adenosine deaminase SCID [ADA-SCID] and IL-2 receptor X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency [SCID-X1]).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is currently a global threat to health and economies. Therapeutics and vaccines are in rapid development; however, none of these therapeutics are considered as absolute cure, and the potential to mutate makes it necessary to find therapeutics that target a highly conserved regions of the viral structure.
Results: In this study, we characterized an essential but poorly understood coronavirus accessory X4 protein, a core and stable component of the SARS-CoV family.
Progression of hepatocellular carcinoma involves multiple genetic and epigenetic alterations that promote cancer invasion and metastasis. Our recent study revealed that hyperphosphorylation of ezrin promotes intrahepatic metastasis in vivo and cell migration in vitro. Celastrol is a natural product from traditional Chinese medicine which has been used in treating liver cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe reversible process where a homogenous fluid de-mixes into two distinctively separate liquid phases is referred to as LLPS (Liquid-liquid phase separation). The resulting liquid is made up of one dilute phase and one condensed phase. An increasing number of studies have shown that the liquid-liquid phase separation is an important principle that underlies intracellular organization in biological systems, forming liquid condensates without a membrane envelope, otherwise known as MLOs (membraneless organelles).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The 2019-nCoV which is regarded as a novel coronavirus is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus. It is infectious to humans and is the cause of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak which has elicited an emergency in public health and a call for immediate international concern has been linked to it. The coronavirus main proteinase which is also known as the 3C-like protease (3CLpro) is a very important protein in all coronaviruses for the role it plays in the replication of the virus and the proteolytic processing of the viral polyproteins.
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