Antimicrobial skin peptides and proteins

Human skin is permanently exposed to microorganisms, but rarely infected. One reason for this natural resistance might be the existence of a ‘chemical barrier’ consisting in constitutively and inducibly produced antimicrobial peptides and proteins (AMPs). Many of these AMPs can be induced in vitro by proinflammatory cytokines or bacteria. Apart from being expressed in vivo in inflammatory lesions, some AMPs are also focally expressed in skin in the absence of inflammation. This suggests that non-inflammatory stimuli of endogenous and/or exogenous origin can also stimulate AMP synthesis without inflammation. Such mediators might be ideal ‘immune stimulants’ to induce only the innate antimicrobial skin effector molecules without causing inflammation. Received 9 August 2005; received after revision 21 October 2005; accepted 16 November 2005     

Natural sweet macromolecules: how sweet proteins work

A few proteins, discovered mainly in tropical fruits, have a distinct sweet taste. These proteins have played an important role towards a molecular understanding of the mechanisms of taste. Owing to the huge difference in size, between most sweeteners and sweet proteins, it was believed that they must interact with a different receptor from that of small molecular weight sweeteners. Recent modelling studies have shown that the single sweet taste receptor has multiple active sites and that the mechanism of interaction of sweet proteins is intrinsically different from that of small sweeteners. Small molecular weight sweeteners occupy small receptor cavities inside two subdomains of the receptor, whereas sweet proteins can interact with the sweet receptor according to a mechanism called the ‘wedge model’ in which they bind to a large external cavity. This review describes these mechanisms and outlines a history of sweet proteins. Received 11 February 2006; received after revision 31 March 2006; accepted 11 May 2006     

用多距离特征识别三维物体的表面形状

本文讨论一种识别物体的方法。三维空间中的物体表面可以由部分球面、柱面和平面来近似,并且这些面是能够被识别的。处理方法是通过分割图象成为区域(Region)且并行处理这些区域来实现。文内叙述一种技术。这种技术应用具有激光扫描器的摄象机系统获取图象。测量三维物体相应表面点的座标。然后用相应区域中的三点决定一个参考平面,进而计算区域中的特征点到参考平面的距离。这些多距离特征可被用来识别相应区域中的物体表面是球面、柱面还是平面。这些面的方向,可用具有两个斜角的表面法线方向来描述。这种技术在自动装配线上和工业监视检验中是很有用的。可用其找出另件在三维空间中的位置和方向,计算检验另件表面形状外形尺寸等等。     

Identification of protein superfamily from structurebased sequence motif

The structure-based sequence motif of the distant proteins in evolution, protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTP) Ⅰ and Ⅱ superfamilies, as an example, has been defined by the structural comparison, structure-based sequence alignment and analyses on substitution patterns of residues in common sequence conserved regions. And the phosphatases Ⅰ and Ⅱ can be correctly identified together by the structure-based PTP sequence motif from SWISS-PROT and TrEBML databases. The results show that the correct rates of identification are over 98%. This is the first time to identify PTP Ⅰ and Ⅱ together by this motif.     

Construction of multivalent DNA vaccines forMycobacterium tuberculosis and its immunogenicity

The coding regions of Ag85B MPT-64, and ESAT-6 secreted proteins were cloned initially into the eukaryotic expression vector pJW4303, then transformed to E. coli Top 10 strain for plasmid DNA extraction and further analysis. Plasmids containing the right insertion were sequenced to confirm their identity. COS7 cells were transfected with a mixture containing serially diluted plasmid DNA encoding three secreted proteins and Lipofectin (Gibco). The supernatants and pellets prepared from various cell lines were run on SDS-PAGE gel and the expression of these proteins in COS7 cells were demonstrated by immunoblot using polyclonal or monoclonal antiserum of M.TBH37Rv. 21 days after first vaccination of C57BL-6 mice by all three recombinant eukaryotic expressing vectors, antibody titer for Ag85B reached 1∶3200. 21 days after second vaccination, the antibody titer reached 1∶102400. The highest antibody levels induced by multivalent vaccines after the second injection were equal to or even greater than the highest antibody levels of single DNA vaccine reported in literature after third injections. Antibody titer of MPT-64 was 1∶50 after the first injection and it reached 1∶200 after the second injection. No antigen-specific antibody against ESAT-6 was detected in sera harvested from immunized mice 21 days after both injections. Antigen-specific IFN-g level of Ag85B was 110 pg/mL while no antigen-specific IFN- g level of ESAT-6 and MPT-64 was detected even after third injections. To our knowledge, it is the first time that studies of polyvalent recombinant DNA vaccines against TB were carried out in C57BL-6 mice. Our results indicated that multiple DNA vaccines could be used to enhance protective responses against M.TB.     

Regulation of BMP4 on the proliferation and differentiation in SVZa neural stem cells

The neural stem cells in the anterior subventricular zone (SVZa) mainly generate the progenitors that will differentiate into neurons, and along a highly circumscribed migratory access Rostral migratory stream (RMS), they migrate to the olfactory bulbs (OB). To understand the effects of BMPs on SVZa neural stem cells, in this study BMP4 at various concentrations was used to induce SVZa neural stem cells, and the living cell labeling using BMP4 promotor conjugated with red fluorescence protein showed the expression of BMP4 dynamically. The results demonstrated that low BMP4 doses (1-5 ng/mL) promoted while high doses (10-100 ng/mL) inhibited the proliferation of SVZa neural stem cells, and BMP4 promotedneuron differentiation in the early stage (1-3 d), howeverm, it inhibited the neuron commitment after 4 d. Noggin, the antagonist of BMP4, blocked the physiological effects of BMP4. In OB, BMP4 is mainly to accelerate the progenitors to withdraw from the cell cycle and trigger the differentiation, and in RMS, it promotes the proliferation of committed progenitors and not differentiation, further in SVZa, BMP4 enhances astrocyte commitment.     

海洋生物黏附蛋白研究进展

海洋附着生物粘合蛋白的研究对于生物粘合剂的开发及海洋防污行业均具有重要的意义。综述了对贻贝足丝蛋白,藤壶胶蛋白以及管栖毛虫管胶蛋白的研究进展。3种不同生物的黏附蛋白具有某些相似性,同时又各有其结构特点,对其蛋白质结构,功能及粘合机制的研究既具有重要的学术意义也具有广阔的应用前景。     

gp150蛋白对盘基网柄菌发育阶段膜蛋白的影响

用生化抽提细胞质膜蛋白和SDS-梯度聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳等方法比较gp150突变AK127细胞和野生型KAx-3细胞质膜蛋白的结果显示，各发育时期的AK127细胞和KAx-3细胞在含量方面比较恒定的质膜蛋白组分是68 kD，60 kD，54 kD，50 kD，37 kD，34 kD和31 kD条带，它们并不因为AK127细胞缺失gp150分子而有所改变.发育12 h后，蛋白含量变化最为明显的是45 kD，25 kD，20 kD和17 kD蛋白，由于同时期突变细胞的这些蛋白条带含量没什么变化，推测这些条带的变化与gp150分子有密切关系；同时野生型细胞还增加了两条10~12 kD蛋白条带，这些蛋白可能与gp150分子一样在发育中有表达的时间性和空间性，且与细胞信号传递有密切关系.