Decreased plasma C-reactive protein levels in 4 allele carriers.

Objective: Apolipoprotein E () 4 allele is a well-established risk factor in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we assessed the effects of polymorphism on cardiovascular, metabolic, and inflammation-related parameters in population-based cohorts.

Methods: Association of cardiovascular, metabolic, and inflammation-related parameters with the polymorphism in a large Finnish Metabolic Syndrome in Men (METSIM) cohort and Finnish Geriatric Intervention study to prevent cognitive impairment and disability (FINGER) were investigated.

Pericytes Stimulate Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cell Differentiation during CNS Remyelination.

The role of the neurovascular niche in CNS myelin regeneration is incompletely understood. Here, we show that, upon demyelination, CNS-resident pericytes (PCs) proliferate, and parenchymal non-vessel-associated PC-like cells (PLCs) rapidly develop. During remyelination, mature oligodendrocytes were found in close proximity to PCs.

Transcriptomic and Proteomic Profiling Provides Insight into Mesangial Cell Function in IgA Nephropathy.

IgA nephropathy (IgAN), the most common GN worldwide, is characterized by circulating galactose-deficient IgA (gd-IgA) that forms immune complexes. The immune complexes are deposited in the glomerular mesangium, leading to inflammation and loss of renal function, but the complete pathophysiology of the disease is not understood. Using an integrated global transcriptomic and proteomic profiling approach, we investigated the role of the mesangium in the onset and progression of IgAN.

Specific chaperones and regulatory domains in control of amyloid formation.

Many proteins can form amyloid-like fibrils in vitro, but only about 30 amyloids are linked to disease, whereas some proteins form physiological amyloid-like assemblies. This raises questions of how the formation of toxic protein species during amyloidogenesis is prevented or contained in vivo. Intrinsic chaperoning or regulatory factors can control the aggregation in different protein systems, thereby preventing unwanted aggregation and enabling the biological use of amyloidogenic proteins.

The lumazine synthase/riboflavin synthase complex: shapes and functions of a highly variable enzyme system.

The xylene ring of riboflavin (vitamin B2 ) is assembled from two molecules of 3,4-dihydroxy-2-butanone 4-phosphate by a mechanistically complex process that is jointly catalyzed by lumazine synthase and riboflavin synthase. In Bacillaceae, these enzymes form a structurally unique complex comprising an icosahedral shell of 60 lumazine synthase subunits and a core of three riboflavin synthase subunits, whereas many other bacteria have empty lumazine synthase capsids, fungi, Archaea and some eubacteria have pentameric lumazine synthases, and the riboflavin synthases of Archaea are paralogs of lumazine synthase. The structures of the molecular ensembles have been studied in considerable detail by X-ray crystallography, X-ray small-angle scattering and electron microscopy.

Structural study and thermodynamic characterization of inhibitor binding to lumazine synthase from Bacillus anthracis.

The crystal structure of lumazine synthase from Bacillus anthracis was solved by molecular replacement and refined to R(cryst) = 23.7% (R(free) = 28.4%) at a resolution of 3.

Medium- and short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase gene and protein families : Structure-function relationships in short-chain alcohol dehydrogenases.

The structure-function relationships of alcohol dehydrogenases from the large family of short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR) enzymes are described. It seems that while mammals evolved with a medium-chain alcohol dehydrogenase family (MDR), fruit flies utilized an ancestral SDR enzyme. They have modified its function into an efficient alcohol dehydrogenase to aid them in colonizing the emerging ecological niches that appeared around 65 million years ago.

PNA based artificial nucleases displaying catalysis with turnover in the cleavage of a leukemia related RNA model.

Several peptide nucleic acid based artificial nucleases (PNAzymes) are designed to create a bulge in the target RNA, which is a short model of the leukemia related bcr/abl mRNA. The target RNA is cleaved by the PNAzymes with a half-life of down to 11 h (using a 1 : 1 ratio of PNA-conjugate to target) and only upon base-pairing with the substrate. The PNA based systems are also shown to act in a catalytic fashion with turnover of substrate and are thus the first reported peptide nucleic acid based artificial RNA-cleaving enzymes.

Structural analysis of the Sulfolobus solfataricus MCM protein N-terminal domain.

The Mini-Chromosome Maintenance (MCM) proteins are candidates of replicative DNA helicase in eukarya and archaea. Here we report a 2.8 A crystal structure of the N-terminal domain (residues 1-268) of the Sulfolobus solfataricus MCM (Sso MCM) protein.

Reconsideration of an early dogma, saying "there is no evidence for disulfide bonds in proteins from archaea".

Stability and function of a large number of proteins are crucially dependent on the presence of disulfide bonds. Recent genome analysis has pointed out an important role of disulfide bonds for the structural stabilization of intracellular proteins from hyperthermophilic archaea and bacteria. These findings contradict the conventional view that disulfide bonds are rare in those proteins.

Crystal structure of the archaeal heat shock regulator from Pyrococcus furiosus: a molecular chimera representing eukaryal and bacterial features.

We report here the crystal structure of a protein from Pyrococcus furiosus (Phr) that represents the first characterized heat shock transcription factor in archaea. Phr specifically represses the expression of heat shock genes at physiological temperature in vitro and in vivo but is released from the promoters upon heat shock response. Structure analysis revealed a stable homodimer, each subunit consisting of an N-terminal winged helix DNA-binding domain (wH-DBD) and a C-terminal antiparallel coiled coil helical domain.

Protein disulfides and protein disulfide oxidoreductases in hyperthermophiles.

Disulfide bonds are required for the stability and function of a large number of proteins. Recently, the results from genome analysis have suggested an important role for disulfide bonds concerning the structural stabilization of intracellular proteins from hyperthermophilic Archaea and Bacteria, contrary to the conventional view that structural disulfide bonds are rare in proteins from Archaea. A specific protein, known as protein disulfide oxidoreductase (PDO) is recognized as a potential key player in intracellular disulfide-shuffling in hyperthermophiles.

DAX-1 expression is regulated during mammary epithelial cell differentiation.

In recent studies, we have found that DAX-1 (dosage-sensitive sex reversal/adrenal hypoplasia congenita critical region on the X chromosome) is expressed in the mouse mammary epithelial cell line HC11. In this study, we focused on the regulation of DAX-1 expression and subcellular localization throughout mouse mammary epithelial cell differentiation and its hormonal regulation in the mouse mammary gland. Proliferating HC11 cells grown in epidermal growth factor (EGF)-containing medium, expressed very low levels of DAX-1 as detected by Western blotting and quantitative real-time PCR, whereas, upon EGF withdrawal and induction of differentiation, DAX-1 expression increased.

False positives in MALDI-TOF detection of ERbeta in mitochondria.

Recently, Yang et al. reported that estrogen receptor beta (ERbeta) is a mitochondrial protein rather than a nuclear receptor. Because this claim would lead to a significant change in our understanding of estrogen signaling, we have attempted to reproduce the MALDI-TOF data of Yang et al.

Effects on Cell Proliferation, Activator Protein-1 and Genotoxicity by Fecal Water from Patients with Colorectal Adenomas.

Background: The free water phase of feces (fecal water) may mediate the effects of diet on colon carcinogenesis. We examined the effects of fecal water from adenoma patients and controls on three parameters in colonocytes believed to be relevant to tumorigenesis, i.e.

Structure of bacterial 3beta/17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase at 1.2 A resolution: a model for multiple steroid recognition.

The enzyme 3beta/17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3beta/17beta-HSD) is a steroid-inducible component of the Gram-negative bacterium Comamonas testosteroni. It catalyzes the reversible reduction/dehydrogenation of the oxo/beta-hydroxy groups at positions 3 and 17 of steroid compounds, including hormones and isobile acids. Crystallographic analysis at 1.

Regulation of glucocorticoid receptor activity by 14--3-3-dependent intracellular relocalization of the corepressor RIP140.

Proteins belonging to the 14--3-3 family interact with various regulatory proteins involved in cellular signaling, cell cycle regulation, or apoptosis. 14--3-3 proteins have been suggested to act by regulating the cytoplasmic/nuclear localization of their target proteins or by acting as molecular scaffolds or chaperones. We have previously shown that overexpression of 14--3-3 enhances the transcriptional activity of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which is a member of the nuclear receptor family.

Quality of life in relation to comorbidity among diabetic patients followed for three years in Swedish primary health care.

The aim of this study was to follow health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in diabetic subjects over a three-year period in relation to their medical situation. Forty-eight subjects 42-81 years of age in 1992 were identified as those responding to the HRQOL questionnaire on both occasions from a larger study of 341 diabetic patients in 1992 and 413 in 1995 in Stockholm County. Age- and sex-matched controls were taken from randomly collected samples of the general Swedish population.

Proteins from hyperthermophiles: stability and enzymatic catalysis close to the boiling point of water.

It has become clear since about a decade ago, that the biosphere contains a variety of microorganisms that can live and grow in extreme environments. Hyperthermophilic microorganisms, present among Archaea and Bacteria, proliferate at temperatures of around 80-100 degrees C. The majority of the genera known to date are of marine origin, however, some of them have been found in continental hot springs and solfataric fields.

Crystal structure of glutamate dehydrogenase from the hyperthermophilic eubacterium Thermotoga maritima at 3.0 A resolution.

The extremely thermostable glutamate dehydrogenase from the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima has been crystallized and the three-dimensional structure has been determined by X-ray diffraction methods. Crystals up to a maximum size of 1.2 mm have been grown in 3% polyethylene glycol, 120 mM ammonium acetate and 50 mM bis-tris propane (pH 6.