51 results match your criteria: "Biocomputation and Complex Systems Physics Institute (BiFi)[Affiliation]"

Antimicrobial resistance is responsible for an alarming number of deaths, estimated at 5 million per year. To combat priority pathogens, like , the development of novel therapies is of utmost importance. Understanding the molecular alterations induced by medications is critical for the design of multi-targeting treatments capable of eradicating the infection and mitigating its pathogenicity.

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Objectives: The rise of antibiotic-resistant () poses a significant global health threat, urging the quest for novel antimicrobial solutions. We have discovered that the human hormone l-thyroxine has antibacterial properties. In order to explore its drugability we perform here the characterization of a series of l-thyroxine analogues and describe the structural determinants influencing their antibacterial efficacy.

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Inherited mutations in the gene have been associated with an increased lifetime risk of developing breast cancer (BC). We aim to identify in the study population the prevalence of mutations in the gene in diagnosed BC patients, evaluate the phenotypic characteristics of the tumor and family history, and predict the deleteriousness of the variants of uncertain significance (VUS). A genetic study was performed, from May 2016 to April 2020, in 396 patients diagnosed with BC at the University Hospital Lozano Blesa of Zaragoza, Spain.

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Article Synopsis
  • Understanding protein folding energetics remains a challenge despite advances in techniques such as calorimetry and molecular dynamics simulations.
  • Recent studies illustrate that energy changes associated with protein folding can be calculated accurately using simulations of native and unfolded protein structures.
  • Analysis of different proteins reveals that their folding energetics follows a similar pattern, where native conformations are stabilized by interactions with both solvent and other protein molecules, though they face destabilizing effects due to larger exposed surfaces and conformational strain.
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The antimicrobial resistance of () currently poses a threat to available treatment regimens. Developing antimicrobial drugs targeting new bacterial targets is crucial, and one such class of drugs includes -flavodoxin (-fld) inhibitors that target an essential metabolic pathway in . Our study demonstrated that combining these new drugs with conventional antibiotics used for infection treatment prevented the regrowth observed with drugs used alone.

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Calculation of Protein Folding Thermodynamics Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

J Chem Inf Model

December 2023

Department of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.

Despite advances in artificial intelligence methods, protein folding remains in many ways an enigma to be solved. Accurate computation of protein folding energetics could help drive fields such as protein and drug design and genetic interpretation. However, the challenge of calculating the state functions governing protein folding from first-principles remains unaddressed.

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A look at the face of the molten globule: Structural model of the Helicobacter pylori apoflavodoxin ensemble at acidic pH.

Protein Sci

November 2022

Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.

Molten globule (MG) is the name given to a compact, non-native conformation of proteins that has stimulated the imagination and work in the protein folding field for more than 40 years. The MG has been proposed to play a central role in the folding reaction and in important cell functions, and to be related to the onset of misfolding diseases. Due to its inherent intractability to high-resolution studies, atomistic structural models have not yet been obtained.

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Protposer: The web server that readily proposes protein stabilizing mutations with high PPV.

Comput Struct Biotechnol J

May 2022

Department of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.

Protein stability is a requisite for most biotechnological and medical applications of proteins. As natural proteins tend to suffer from a low conformational stability , great efforts have been devoted toward increasing their stability through rational design and engineering of appropriate mutations. Unfortunately, even the best currently used predictors fail to compute the stability of protein variants with sufficient accuracy and their usefulness as tools to guide the rational stabilisation of proteins is limited.

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Alchemical Design of Pharmacological Chaperones with Higher Affinity for Phenylalanine Hydroxylase.

Int J Mol Sci

April 2022

Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a rare metabolic disease caused by variations in a human gene, PAH, encoding phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH), and the enzyme converting the essential amino acid phenylalanine into tyrosine. Many PKU-causing variations compromise the conformational stability of the encoded enzyme, decreasing or abolishing its catalytic activity, and leading to an elevated concentration of phenylalanine in the blood, which is neurotoxic. Several therapeutic approaches have been developed to treat the more severe manifestations of the disorder, but they are either not entirely effective or difficult to adhere to throughout life.

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PirePred: An Accurate Online Consensus Tool to Interpret Newborn Screening-Related Genetic Variants in Structural Context.

J Mol Diagn

April 2022

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain; Biocomputation and Complex Systems Physics Institute (BIFI), Joint Units BIFI-IQFR (CSIC) and GBs-CSIC, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain; Aragon Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Spain. Electronic address:

PirePred is a genetic interpretation tool used for a variety of medical conditions investigated in newborn screening programs. The PirePred server retrieves, analyzes, and displays in real time genetic and structural data on 58 genes/proteins associated with medical conditions frequently investigated in the newborn. PirePred analyzes the predictions generated by 15 pathogenicity predictors and applies an optimized majority vote algorithm to classify any possible nonsynonymous single-nucleotide variant as pathogenic, benign, or of uncertain significance.

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Design, synthesis and structure-activity evaluation of novel 2-pyridone-based inhibitors of α-synuclein aggregation with potentially improved BBB permeability.

Bioorg Chem

December 2021

Biocomputation and Complex Systems Physics Institute (BIFI)-Joint Units: BIFI-IQFR (CSIC) and GBsC-CSIC, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain; Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias, University of Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; Aragon Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón), 50009 Zaragoza, Spain. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • Research continues on treatments for Parkinson's disease (PD), the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, focusing on drugs that can slow its progression.
  • SynuClean-D, a promising new drug candidate, shows potential in preventing the aggregation of α-synuclein and protecting dopaminergic neurons, but its limited availability and lack of synthetic routes hinder further research.
  • A new efficient synthesis method for SynuClean-D and its derivatives has been developed, allowing for exploration of their effectiveness and blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability, which is crucial for treating PD.
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Antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria constitute a global health concern. is a Gram-negative bacterium that infects about half of the human population and is a major cause of peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. Increasing resistance to triple and quadruple eradication therapies poses great challenges and urges the development of novel, ideally narrow spectrum, antimicrobials targeting .

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Asymmetric synthesis of (1R,5S)-2-methyl-6,7-benzomorphan via Aza-Prins reaction.

Chirality

September 2021

Departamento de Química Orgánica, Instituto de Síntesis Química y Catálisis Homogénea (ISQCH), CSIC - Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.

Article Synopsis
  • The compound (1R,5S)-2-Methyl-6,7-benzomorphan was synthesized starting from (R)-(benzyloxy)(phenyl)acetaldehyde using a series of chemical reactions.
  • The synthesis involved a Bi (OTf) promoted Aza-Prins reaction resulting in an 88/12 mixture of diastereoisomers, with the major one converted to an enantiomerically pure piperidin-4-ol.
  • Finally, the piperidinol underwent an acid-catalyzed intramolecular Friedel-Crafts cyclization, leading to the desired benzomorphan product through a five-step process with a total yield of 25%.
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Unravelling the Complex Denaturant and Thermal-Induced Unfolding Equilibria of Human Phenylalanine Hydroxylase.

Int J Mol Sci

June 2021

Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular y Celular, Biocomputation and Complex Systems Physics Institute (BIFI)-Joint Units: BIFI-IQFR (CSIC) and GBsC-CSIC, University of Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.

Article Synopsis
  • Human phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) is crucial for breaking down L-Phe in the liver; mutations in PAH can lead to phenylketonuria (PKU), causing serious developmental issues.
  • One treatment approach for PKU involves pharmacological chaperones that help stabilize unstable PAH variants, restoring their function.
  • Research on PAH's folding behavior reveals that both full-length and truncated forms of the enzyme show intermediate states during denaturation, signifying that the catalytic domains can become partially unfolded under stress.
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Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common inherited cardiac disease. Variants in MYBPC3, the gene encoding cardiac myosin-binding protein C (cMyBP-C), are the leading cause of HCM. However, the pathogenicity status of hundreds of MYBPC3 variants found in patients remains unknown, as a consequence of our incomplete understanding of the pathomechanisms triggered by HCM-causing variants.

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Article Synopsis
  • Mutations in the POLG gene, responsible for making POLγA, lead to various disorders due to mitochondrial DNA instability.
  • Researchers created a mouse model with a common POLG mutation (A449T) that hinders DNA binding and synthesis, resulting in issues with mitochondrial function.
  • The study reveals that POLγB stabilizes POLγA and prevents its degradation, suggesting that managing POLγA turnover could be a potential strategy for treatment development.
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Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers found that α-synuclein can group together in a specific way without needing a surface to help it, and this grouping can be tied to the development of toxic forms of the protein.
  • * Water plays an important role in how and when these clumps form, affecting the types of protein structures created in different environments inside cells.
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The understanding of the complex conformational landscape of amyloid aggregation and its modulation by relevant physicochemical and cellular factors is a prerequisite for elucidating some of the molecular basis of pathology in amyloid related diseases, and for developing and evaluating effective disease-specific therapeutics to reduce or eliminate the underlying sources of toxicity in these diseases. Interactions of proteins with solvating water have been long considered to be fundamental in mediating their function and folding; however, the relevance of water in the process of protein amyloid aggregation has been largely overlooked. Here, we provide a perspective on the role water plays in triggering primary amyloid nucleation of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) based on recent experimental evidences.

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Insights into immune evasion of human metapneumovirus: novel 180- and 111-nucleotide duplications within viral G gene throughout 2014-2017 seasons in Barcelona, Spain.

J Clin Virol

November 2020

Respiratory Viruses Unit, Microbiology Department, Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Vall d'Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Passeig Vall d'Hebron 119-129, 08035 Barcelona, Spain.

Background: Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is an important aetiologic agent of respiratory tract infection (RTI). This study aimed to describe its genetic diversity and clinical impact in patients attended at a tertiary university hospital in Barcelona from the 2014-2015 to the 2016-2017 seasons, focusing on the emerging duplications in G gene and their structural properties.

Methods: Laboratory-confirmed HMPV were characterised based on partial-coding F and G gene sequences with MEGA.

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Objectives: Only two mutations at the lysine 183 amino acid in the extracellular N-terminal domain of human TSH receptor (hTSHR) have been associated with hypersensitivity to hCG and familial gestational hyperthyroidism.

Design: Describe a new variant of the TSHR gene with hCG hypersensitivity found in two women of the same family diagnosed with gestational hyperthyroidism.

Patients: A 38-year-old woman was seen during the first trimester of her second pregnancy for thyrotoxicosis with increased fT3 and fT4 concentrations and low TSH levels without anti-TSH receptor antibody.

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Flavodoxins as Novel Therapeutic Targets against and Other Gastric Pathogens.

Int J Mol Sci

March 2020

Biocomputation and Complex Systems Physics Institute (BIFI)-Joint Units: BIFI-IQFR (CSIC) and GBsC-CSIC, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain.

Flavodoxins are small soluble electron transfer proteins widely present in bacteria and absent in vertebrates. Flavodoxins participate in different metabolic pathways and, in some bacteria, they have been shown to be essential proteins representing promising therapeutic targets to fight bacterial infections. Using purified flavodoxin and chemical libraries, leads can be identified that block flavodoxin function and act as bactericidal molecules, as it has been demonstrated for (), the most prevalent human gastric pathogen.

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Mutations in the Subunit of Mitochondrial Complex I Are Sufficient to Confer Increased Tumorigenic and Metastatic Potential to Cancer Cells.

Cancers (Basel)

July 2019

Immunity, Cancer & Stem Cells Group, Department Biochemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Campus San Francisco Square, Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón), University of Zaragoza, E-50009 Zaragoza, Spain.

Multiprotein complexes of the mitochondrial electron transport chain form associations to generate supercomplexes. The relationship between tumor cell ability to assemble mitochondrial supercomplexes, tumorigenesis and metastasis has not been studied thoroughly. The mitochondrial and metabolic differences between L929dt cells, which lost matrix attachment and MHC-I expression, and their parental cell line L929, were analyzed.

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() infection is the main cause of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer. eradication rates have fallen due to increasing bacterial resistance to currently used broad-spectrum antimicrobials. We have designed, synthesized, and tested redox variants of nitroethylene- and 7-nitrobenzoxadiazole-based inhibitors of the essential protein flavodoxin.

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Stereoselective synthesis and biological evaluation as inhibitors of hepatitis C virus RNA polymerase of GSK3082 analogues with structural diversity at the 5-position.

Eur J Med Chem

June 2019

Instituto de Síntesis Química y Catálisis Homogénea (ISQCH), CSIC - Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Química Orgánica, Pedro Cerbuna 12, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain. Electronic address:

GSK3082 - a hepatitis C virus RNA polymerase inhibitor - and a series of analogues with structural diversity at the 5-position were prepared from a 2,2,4,5-tetrasubstituted pyrrolidine obtained with a well-defined stereochemistry from the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of the chiral imino ester derived from leucine tert-butyl ester and (R)-2,3-O-isopropylideneglyceraldehyde with methyl acrylate. The chiral 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolane moiety provided by the glyceraldehyde served as a synthetic equivalent for different substituents and functional groups and these transformations usually required mild reaction conditions and simple work-up procedures. The inhibitory activity of the resulting GSK3082 analogues was studied in vitro in a cell-based assay of the subgenomic HCV RNA replication system.

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