Polystyrene nanoplastics affect the human ubiquitin structure and ubiquitination in cells: a high-resolution study.

Humans are estimated to consume several grams per week of nanoplastics (NPs) through exposure to a variety of contamination sources. Nonetheless, the effects of these polymeric particles on living systems are still mostly unknown. Here, by means of CD, NMR and TEM analyses, we describe at an atomic resolution the interaction of ubiquitin with polystyrene NPs (PS-NPs), showing how a hard protein corona is formed.

Urokinase receptor derived peptides as potent inhibitors of the formyl peptide receptor type 1-triggered cell migration.

The receptor for the urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPAR) is a widely recognized master regulator of cell migration. We and others have previously documented that the uPAR(84-95) sequence, interacts with the formyl peptide receptors (FPR)s, henceforth inducing cell migration of several cell lines, including leukocytes, and the synthetic shorter peptide (Ser-Arg-Ser-Arg-Tyr, SRSRY) retains chemotactic activity in vitro and in vivo. Recently, we have developed the head-to-tail cyclic analog [SRSRY], a new potent and stable inhibitor of monocyte trafficking.