Therefore, we propose that DHAV possesses a distinct type IV IRES element of picornavirus.”
“Alzheimer’s
disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a progressive loss of cognitive function. Evidence indicates that abnormal processing and extracellular deposition of the beta-amyloid42 peptide, the longer form of proteolytic click here derivative of the transmembrane glycoprotein-amyloid precursor protein (APP), is a key step in the pathogenesis of AD. Since it is convenient and economical to obtain such a peptide biologically, in this study, we report for the first time a method to express in E. coli and purify beta-amyloid42 using glutathione-S-transferase (GST) fusion system. beta-Amyloid42 gene was inserted into a vector pGEX-4T-1 to construct a GST-fusion protein. HKI-272 concentration The fusion protein GST-beta-amyloid42, expressed in BL21 (DE3) strain, was purified with GSH-affinity chromatography followed by thrombin cleavage. The digested product was further purified with an additional GSH-affinity and a Benzamidine chromatography step. After cleavage and purification, the beta-amyloid42 moiety showed the expected size of 4.5 kDa on Tricine-SDS-PAGE,
and was further confirmed by Western blot. Moreover, the fibrillar recombinant beta-amyloid42 exhibited great aggregation activity and showed neurotoxicity on neuron cells in vitro. These results suggest that our method will be useful in obtaining a large quantity of recombinant beta-amyloid42 peptide for further physiological and biochemical studies. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Objective: To investigate the protective effect of gliclazide and the role of dynamin-related protein I (Drp-1)-mediated oxidative stress and apoptosis in diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Methods: Diabetic rats developed through intra-peritoneal injection of streptozotocin were randomly assigned to treatment group receiving gliclazide or non-treatment
group without gliclazide treatment. MRIP Rats in control group received intra-peritoneal injection of vehicle and no gliclazide treatment. Eight weeks later, the nerve conduction velocity (NCV) of sciatic nerve was measured and the morphological alterations, the malondialdehyde (MDA) level and superoxide-dismutase (SOD) activity, the expressions of Drp-1, caspase-3, Bax and BcI-2 in sciatic nerve were evaluated. Results: When compared to rats in control group, rats in non-treatment group showed significantly decrease of NCV, obvious demyelinative alteration of sciatic nerve, increased expressions of Drp-1, caspase-3, Bax. BcI-2 and MDA, and decreased SOD activity. Compared to rats in non-treatment group, rats in treatment group showed significantly increase of NCV, less demyelination of sciatic nerve, decreased expressions of Drp-1, caspase-3, Bax and MDA, and increased activity of SOD.