Publications by authors named "V K Akparov"

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive and debilitating neurodegenerative disorder associated with motor and non-motor complaints. Dysregulation of neurotrophic factors and related signaling cascades have been reported to be common events in PD which is accompanied by dopaminergic (DA) neuron demise. However, the restoration of neurotrophic factors has several limitations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There are largely unknown associations between changes in pain behavior responses during persistent peripheral inflammation and spinal cell alteration such as apoptosis. Some evidence suggests that microglia and microglia related mediators play notable roles in induction and maintenance of central nervous system pathologies and inflammatory pain. By considering those relationships and microglia related nootrophic factors, such as the Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) in CNS, we attempted to assess the relationship between microglia dependent BDNF and its precursor with pain behavior through spinal cell apoptosis as well as the effect of Noopept on this relationship.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The carboxypeptidase T (CPT) from Thermoactinomyces vulgaris has an active site structure and 3D organization similar to pancreatic carboxypeptidases A and B (CPA and CPB), but differs in broader substrate specificity. The crystal structures of CPT complexes with the transition state analogs N-sulfamoyl-L-leucine and N-sulfamoyl-L-glutamate (SLeu and SGlu) were determined and compared with previously determined structures of CPT complexes with N-sulfamoyl-L-arginine and N-sulfamoyl-L-phenylalanine (SArg and SPhe). The conformations of residues Tyr255 and Glu270, the distances between these residues and the corresponding ligand groups, and the Zn-S gap between the zinc ion and the sulfur atom in the ligand's sulfamoyl group that simulates a distance between the zinc ion and the tetrahedral sp3-hybridized carbon atom of the converted peptide bond, vary depending on the nature of the side chain in the substrate's C-terminus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF