No abstract

Protein aggregation has attracted substantial interest because of its role in causing many serious illnesses, such as neurodegenerative diseases and type II diabetes. Recent studies have shown that protein aggregation can be prevented by forming metal ion complexes with a target protein, which affects their conformation in solution and their physical properties, such as aggregation. Thus, understanding the interactions between aggregating molecules and bioactive metal ions such as Cu2+ is beneficial for new drug discovery. Pramlintide, a synthetic peptide drug, and its natural counterpart rat amylin are known to be resistant to aggregation because of the presence of proline residues, which are usually β-sheet “breakers” within their amino acid sequence. Here, we investigate the Cu2+ coordination properties of pramlintide and rat amylin using nuclear magnetic resonance, circular dichroism, electron paramagnetic resonance, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, potentiometry, and mass spectrometry. We test the influence of Cu2+ on the aggregation properties of these amylin analogues with thioflavin T assays. We find that both peptides form stable complexes with Cu2+ with similar affinities at a 1:1 ratio. The N-termini of both peptides are involved in Cu2+ binding; His18 imidazole is an equally attractive binding site in the case of pramlintide. Our results show that Cu2+ ions influence the aggregation of pramlintide, but not that of rat amylin.

Neurodegenerative diseases are a serious and widespread global public health burden amongst aging populations. The total estimated worldwide global cost of dementia was US$818 billion in 2015 and has been projected to rise to 2 trillion US$ by 2030. While advances have been made to understand different neurodegenerative disease mechanisms, effective therapeutic strategies do not generally exist. Several drugs have been proposed in the last two decades for the treatment of different types of neurodegenerative diseases, with little therapeutic benefit, and often with severe adverse and side effects. Thus, the search for novel drugs with higher efficacy and fewer drawbacks is an ongoing challenge in the treatment of neurodegenerative disease. Several natural compounds including polysaccharides have demonstrated neuroprotective and even therapeutic effects. Natural polysaccharides are widely distributed in plants, animals, algae, bacterial and fungal species, and have received considerable attention for their wide-ranging bioactivity, including their antioxidant, anti-neuroinflammatory, anticholinesterase and anti-amyloidogenic effects. In this review, we summarize different mechanisms involved in neurodegenerative diseases and the neuroprotective effects of natural polysaccharides, highlighting their potential role in the prevention and therapy of neurodegenerative disease.

Metformin has been used for decades in millions of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. In this time, correlations between metformin use and the occurrence of other disorders have been noted, as well as unpredictable metformin side effects. Diabetes is a significant cancer risk factor, but unexpectedly, metformin-treated diabetic patients have lower cancer incidence. Here, we show that metformin forms stable complexes with copper (II) ions. Both copper(I)/metformin and copper(II)/metformin complexes form adducts with glutathione, the main intracellular antioxidative peptide, found at high levels in cancer cells. Metformin reduces cell number and viability in SW1222 and K562 cells, as well as in K562-200 multidrug-resistant cells. Notably, the antiproliferative effect of metformin is enhanced in the presence of copper ions.

Although nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a potent analytical tool for identification, quantification, and structural elucidation, it suffers from inherently low sensitivity limitations. This chapter focuses on recently reported methods that enable quick acquisition of NMR spectra, as well as new methods of faster, efficient, and informative two-dimensional (2D) NMR methods. Fast and efficient data acquisition has risen in response to an increasing need to investigate chemical and biological processes in real time. Several new techniques have been successfully introduced. One example of this is band-selective optimized-flip-angle shorttransient (SOFAST) NMR, which has opened the door to studying the kinetics of biological processes such as the phosphorylation of proteins. The fast recording of NMR spectra allows researchers to investigate time sensitive molecules that have limited stability under experimental conditions. The increasing awareness that molecular structures are dynamic, rather than static, has pushed some researchers to find alternatives to standard, time-consuming methods of 15 N relaxation observables acquisition.Keywords: NMR, 2D NMR, ultrafast data processing, SOFAST, relaxation 15 N, 29 Si, 30 Al, 31 P to 235 U). As the resonating frequency is unique for each type of nuclei, one can envision an NMR for each nucleus as a separate spectroscopy such as 1 H NMR spectroscopy, 13 C NMR spectroscopy, 235 U NMR spectroscopy (Figure 1), etc. More importantly, NMR has the ability to evaluate information about the environment of each atom and their neighbor's nuclei (both through space and through bond), allowing researchers to differentiate the unique magnetic environments of the same nuclei in different positions of a single molecule. Thus, NMR spectroscopy is extensively used for the identification and in the structural elucidation in a wide Nuclear Magnetic Resonance 2 range of applications in gas [2,3], liquid [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], and solid-state samples [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Nowadays, NMR spectroscopy is one of the most important analytical tools that has been used in several fields. These fields include structural biology [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], organic chemistry [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52], polymer characterization [40,46,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64], inorganic chemistry [65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75], and physics [76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83].Despite its significant advantages, NMR suffers from some limitations, of which the relatively low sensitivity seems to be the most severe. An NMR sample can be treated as a collection of many nuclear spins of magnetically active nuclei that act as small bar magnets. These nuclear spins have two possible orientations with different energy levels that adapt when placed within the strong magnetic field. The number of nuclear spins occupying each energy level is determined by the Boltzmann distribution equation: N ...

Amyloid proteins are linked to the pathogenesis of several diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, but at the same time a range of functional amyloids are physiologically important in humans. Although the disease pathogenies have been associated with protein aggregation, the mechanisms and factors that lead to protein aggregation are not completely understood. Paradoxically, unique characteristics of amyloids provide new opportunities for engineering innovative materials with biomedical applications. In this review, we discuss not only outstanding advances in biomedical applications of amyloid peptides, but also the mechanism of amyloid aggregation, factors affecting the process, and core sequences driving the aggregation. We aim with this review to provide a useful manual for those who engineer amyloids for innovative medicine solutions.

No abstract

Vanadium is a hard, silver-grey transition metal found in at least 60 minerals and fossil fuel deposits. Its oxide and other vanadium salts are toxic to humans, but the toxic effects depend on the vanadium form, dose, exposure duration, and route of intoxication. Vanadium is used by some life forms as an active center in enzymes, such as the vanadium bromoperoxidase of ocean algae and nitrogenases of bacteria. The structure and biochemistry of vanadate resemble those of phosphate, hence vanadate can be regarded as a phosphate competitor in a variety of biochemical enzymes such as kinases and phosphatases. In this review, we describe the biochemical pathways regulated by vanadium compounds and their potential therapeutic benefits for a range of disorders including type 2 diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and microbial pathology.