[Psychological, neurological and cell-mediated mechanisms by mindfulness-based therapy].

In this review, we present clinical studies on mindfulness-based therapy (MBT) with a focus on mediating mechanisms for its health promoting effects. These constitute awareness, self-compassion, regulation of dysfunctional patterns of thoughts and emotions, neural network and cellular processes. Among cellular processes are inflammation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and telomere shortening, which all contribute to the molecular pathophysiology of several of today's lifestyle diseases. Finally, we address applications, where strong evidence exists for the clinical impact of MBT.

Extensive post-translational processing of potato tuber storage proteins and vacuolar targeting.

Potato tuber storage proteins were obtained from vacuoles isolated from field-grown starch potato tubers cv. Kuras. Vacuole sap proteins fractionated by gel filtration were studied by mass spectrometric analyses of trypsin and chymotrypsin digestions. The tuber vacuole appears to be a typical protein storage vacuole absent of proteolytic and glycolytic enzymes. The major soluble storage proteins included 28 Kunitz protease inhibitors, nine protease inhibitors 1, eight protease inhibitors 2, two carboxypeptidase inhibitors, eight patatins and five lipoxygenases (lox), which all showed cultivar-specific sequence variations. These proteins, except for lox, have typical endoplasmic reticulum (ER) signal peptides and putative vacuolar sorting determinants of either the sequence or structure specific type or the C-terminal type, or both. Unexpectedly, sap protein variants imported via the ER showed multiple molecular forms because of extensive and unspecific proteolytic cleavage of exposed N- and C-terminal propeptides and surface loops, in spite of the abundance of protease inhibitors. Some propeptides are potential novel vacuolar targeting peptides. In the insoluble vacuole fraction two variants of phytepsin (aspartate protease) were identified. These are most probably the processing enzymes of potato tuber vacuolar proteins. Database Proteome data have been submitted to the PRIDE database under accession number 17707.

Cloning and characterization of purple acid phosphatase phytases from wheat, barley, maize, and rice.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) possess significant phytase activity in the mature grains. Maize (Zea mays) and rice (Oryza sativa) possess little or virtually no preformed phytase activity in the mature grain and depend fully on de novo synthesis during germination. Here, it is demonstrated that wheat, barley, maize, and rice all possess purple acid phosphatase (PAP) genes that, expressed in Pichia pastoris, give fully functional phytases (PAPhys) with very similar enzyme kinetics. Preformed wheat PAPhy was localized to the protein crystalloid of the aleurone vacuole. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that PAPhys possess four conserved domains unique to the PAPhys. In barley and wheat, the PAPhy genes can be grouped as PAPhy_a or PAPhy_b isogenes (barley, HvPAPhy_a, HvPAPhy_b1, and HvPAPhy_b2; wheat, TaPAPhy_a1, TaPAPhy_a2, TaPAPhy_b1, and TaPAPhy_b2). In rice and maize, only the b type (OsPAPhy_b and ZmPAPhy_b, respectively) were identified. HvPAPhy_a and HvPAPhy_b1/b2 share 86% and TaPAPhya1/a2 and TaPAPhyb1/b2 share up to 90% (TaPAPhy_a2 and TaPAPhy_b2) identical amino acid sequences. despite of this, PAPhy_a and PAPhy_b isogenes are differentially expressed during grain development and germination. In wheat, it was demonstrated that a and b isogene expression is driven by different promoters (approximately 31% identity). TaPAPhy_a/b promoter reporter gene expression in transgenic grains and peptide mapping of TaPAPhy purified from wheat bran and germinating grains confirmed that the PAPhy_a isogene set present in wheat/barley but not in rice/maize is the origin of high phytase activity in mature grains.

Covalent structures of potato tuber lipases (patatins) and implications for vacuolar import.

Proteome data of potato (Solanum tuberosum) tuber juice and of purified potato tuber vacuoles indicated that mature patatins may perhaps lack a C-terminal propeptide. We have confirmed this by complete mass spectrometric sequencing of a number of patatin variants as well as their N-linked complex-type glycans from the starch-rich cultivar Kuras. For this cultivar full-length patatin cDNAs have also been sequenced, as the patatin locus is highly polymorphous. It is well known that patatins are located in the vacuoles of potato tubers. Furthermore, the complex glycan structures show that the path is via the Golgi apparatus. However, the vacuolar targeting signal has never been identified for this storage and defense protein, which amounts to 25-40% of tuber protein. We propose that a six-residue C-terminal propeptide, -ANKASY-COO(-) comprises this signal. The crystallographic structure of a recombinant patatin (Rydel, T. J., Williams, J. M., Krieger, E., Moshiri, F., Stallings, W. C., Brown, S. M., Pershing, J. C., Prucell, J. P., and Alibhai, M. F. (2003) Biochemistry 42, 6696-6708), which included this propeptide thus, for the first time, shows the structure of a putative ligand of the vacuolar sorting receptor and processing enzyme responsible for patatin import.

Molecular properties and activities of tuber proteins from starch potato cv. Kuras.

Potato starch production leaves behind a huge amount of juice. This juice is rich in protein, which might be exploited for food, biotechnological, and pharmaceutical applications. In northern Europe cv. Kuras is dominant for industrial starch production, and juice protein of freshly harvested mature tubers was fractionated by Superdex 200 gel filtration. The fractions were subjected to selected activity assays (patatin, peroxidase, glyoxalases I and II, alpha-mannosidase, inhibition of trypsin, Fusarium protease, and alcalase) and protein subunit size determination by SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry. Proteins present in SDS-PAGE bands were identified by tryptic peptide mass fingerprinting. Protein complexes such as ribosomes and proteasomes eluted with the void volume of the gel filtration. Large proteins were enzymes of starch synthesis dominated by starch phosphorylase L-1 (ca. 4% of total protein). Five identified dimeric patatin variants (25%) coeluted with four monomeric lipoxygenase variants (10%) at 97 kDa. Protease inhibitor I variants (4%) at 46 kDa (hexamer) inhibited alcalase. Fourteen Kunitz protease inhibitor variants (30%) at 19 kDa inhibited trypsin and Fusarium protease. Carboxypeptidase inhibitor variants (5%) and defensins (5%) coeluted with phenolics. The native sizes and molecular properties were determined for 43 different potato tuber proteins, several for the first time.

Patatins, Kunitz protease inhibitors and other major proteins in tuber of potato cv. Kuras.

The major potato tuber proteins of the Kuras cultivar, which is the dominant cultivar used in Northern Europe for industrial starch production, were analysed using 1D and 2D gel electrophoresis. The electrophoretic patterns varied significantly depending on the method of preparation and the potato variant (Solanum tuberosum). Proteins were characterized using MS and scored against potato protein databases, derived from both 'Kuras only' and 'all potato' expressed sequence tags (EST) and full-length cDNAs. Despite the existence of approximately 180 000 ESTs, the currently available potato sequence data showed a severe under-representation of genes or long transcripts encoding proteins > 50 kDa (3.5% of all) compared with the complete proteome of Arabidopsis thaliana (33% of all). We found that patatin and Kunitz protease inhibitor (KPI) variants are extraordinarily dominant in Kuras tuber and, most significantly, that their amino acid sequences are specific to Kuras. Other proteins identified include annexin, glyoxalase I, enolase and two lipoxygenases, the sequences of which are highly conserved among potato variants. Known S. tuberosum patatins cluster into three clades all represented in Kuras. S. tuberosum KPIs cluster into more diverse clades of which five were found in Kuras tuber, including a novel clade, KPI K, found to date only in Kuras. Furthermore, protein abundance was contrasted with the levels of corresponding gene transcripts found in our previous EST and LongSAGE studies of Kuras tuber.

The effects of conformational constraints and steric bulk in the amino acid moiety of philanthotoxins on AMPAR antagonism.

Philanthotoxin-343 (PhTX-343), a synthetic analogue of wasp toxin PhTX-433, is a noncompetitive antagonist at ionotropic receptors (e.g., AChR or iGluR). To determine possible effects of variations of the amino acid side chain, a library consisting of seventeen PhTX-343 analogues was prepared. Thus, tyrosine was replaced by either apolar, conformationally constrained, or bulky amino acids, whereas the acyl unit and the polyamine moiety were kept unchanged. Analogues with tertiary amide groups were prepared for the first time. Pentafluorophenyl esters were employed for amide bond formation, establishing general protocols for philanthotoxin solution- and solid-phase synthesis (39-90% and 42-54% overall yields, respectively). The analogues were tested for their ability to antagonize kainate-induced currents of 2-amino-3-(3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazoyl)propanoic acid receptors (AMPAR) expressed in Xenopus oocytes from rat brain mRNA. This showed that steric bulk in the amino acid moiety is well tolerated and suggests that binding to AMPAR does not involve the alpha-NHCO group as a donor in hydrogen bonding.