The effect of the environment on the guanine redox potential is studied by means of a theoretical-computational approach. Our data, in agreement with previous experimental findings, clearly show that the presence of consecutive guanine bases in both single- and double-stranded DNA oligomers lowers their reduction potential. Such an effect is even more marked when a G-rich quadruplex is considered, where the oxidized form of guanine is particularly stabilized. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first computational study reporting on a quantitative estimate of the dependence of the guanine redox potential on sequence and conformational effects in complex DNA molecules, ranging from single-stranded DNA to G-quadruplex.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9289878 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c02391 | DOI Listing |
Viruses
January 2025
School of Life Sciences, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
Bombyx mori bidensovirus (BmBDV), a significant pathogen in the sericulture industry, holds a unique taxonomic position due to its distinct segmented single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) genome and the presence of a self-encoding DNA polymerase. However, the functions of viral non-structural proteins, such as NS2, remain unknown. This protein is hypothesized to play a role in viral replication and pathogenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolecules
January 2025
Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Pavia, Via Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
Spontaneous cleavage reactions normally occur in vivo on amino acid peptide backbones, leading to fragmentation products that can have different physiological roles and toxicity, particularly when the substrate of the hydrolytic processes are neuronal peptides and proteins highly related to neurodegeneration. We report a hydrolytic study performed with the HPLC-MS technique at different temperatures (4 °C and 37 °C) on peptide fragments of different neuronal proteins (amyloid-β, tau, and α-synuclein) in physiological conditions in the presence of Cu and Zn ions, two metal ions found at millimolar concentrations in amyloid plaques. The coordination of these metal ions with these peptides significantly protects their backbones toward hydrolytic degradation, preserving the entire sequences over two weeks in solution, while the free peptides in the same buffer are fully fragmented after the same or even shorter incubation period.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Mol Sci
January 2025
School of Life Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Extrachromosomal circular DNAs (eccDNAs) has been found to be widespread and functional in various organisms. However, comparative analyses of pre- and post-infection of virus are rarely known. Herein, we investigated the changes in expression patterns of eccDNA following infection with cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus (BmCPV) and explore the role of eccDNA in viral infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Mol Sci
January 2025
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, 34752 Istanbul, Türkiye.
Gene II Protein (Gp2/P2) is a nicking enzyme of the M13 bacteriophage that plays a role in the DNA replication of the viral genome. P2 recognizes a specific sequence at the f1 replication origin and nicks one of the strands and starts replication. This study was conducted to address the limitations of previous experiments, improve methodologies, and precisely determine the biochemical activity conditions of the P2 enzyme in vitro.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Mol Sci
January 2025
Department of Biosciences, School of Science & Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NF, UK.
The immune system and neuroinflammation are now well established in the aetiology of neurodegeneration. Previous studies of transcriptomic and gene association studies have highlighted the potential of the 2'-5' oligoadenylate synthetase 1 (OAS1) to play a role in Alzheimer's disease. OAS1 is a viral response gene, interferon-induced, dsRNA activated enzyme, which binds RNase L to degrade dsRNA, and has been associated with COVID-19 response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!