Glycation of Liver Cystatin: Implication on its Structure and Function.

The increased level of reducing sugars and their derivatives in a diabetic condition has been the main cause of protein related complications. The changes in native state of proteins upon glycation induce loss in the function and structure of proteins. This further leads to cell damage and accumulation of immune system inducing AGE formation. Here in the present study cystatin was purified from liver (BLC) through affinity chromatography and was incubated with glucose, fructose and ribose. Changes were observed in the intensity of Trp absorption at 280 nm as well as AGE's specific fluorescence at 435 nm upon excitation at 370 nm to monitor the formation of BLC-sugar adducts. Protein intrinsic fluorescence showed marked conformational changes when BLC was incubated with D-ribose, glucose and fructose. Glycation with D-ribose induces BLC to misfold rapidly into an intermediate state retaining a low percentage of α-helical content compared to fructose and glucose as revealed by far-UV CD data. Furthermore, a caseinolytic assay of papain in presence of glycated liver cystatin showed decreased activity in the protein induced by these reducing sugars. Ribose had more effect on the structure as well as the function of liver cystatin followed by fructose and least for glucose. Absorption spectroscopy shows change in BLC and formation of AGE's. These results shows that liver cystatin-cathepsin imbalance is compromised in diabetic state which may lead to improper balance of proteinases leading to cirrhosis or liver damage.

Bilirubin binding with liver cystatin induced structural and functional changes.

Cysteine proteinases and their inhibitors play a significant role in the proteolytic environment of the cells. Inhibitors of cysteine proteinases regulate the activity of these enzymes helping in checking the degdration activity of cathepsins. The bilirubin secreated by liver cells can bind to cystatin present in the liver resulting in its functional inactivation, which may further lead to the increase in cathepsins level causing liver cirrhosis. In case of some pathophysiological conditions excess bilirubin gets accumulated e.g. in presence of Fasciola hepatica (liver fluke) in mammals and humans, leading to liver cirrhosis and possibly jaundice or normal blockade of bile duct causing increased level of bilirubin in blood. Protease-cystatin imbalance causes disease progression. In the present study, Bilirubin (BR) and liver cystatin interaction was studied to explore the cystatin inactivation and structural alteration. The binding interaction was studied by UV-absorption, FT-IR and fluorescence spectroscopy. The quenching of protein fluorescence confirmed the binding of BR with buffalo liver cystatin (BLC). Stern-Volmer analysis of BR-BLC system indicates the presence of static component in the quenching mechanism and the number of binding sites to be close to 1. The fluorescence data proved that the fluorescence quenching of liver cystatin by BR was the result of BR-cystatin complex formation. FTIR analysis of BR-Cystatin complex revealed change in the secondary structure due to perturbation in the microenvironment further confirmed by the decreased caseinolytic activity of BLC against papain. Fluorescence measurements also revealed quenching of fluorescence and shift in peak at different time intervals and at varying pH values. Photo-illumination of BR-cystatin complex causes change in the surrounding environment of liver cystatin as indicated by red-shift. The binding constant for BR-BLC complex was found to be 9.279 × 10(4) M(-1). The cystatin binding with bilirubin has a significant biophysical and pathophysiological significance, hence our effort to study the same.

In vitro reconstitution of interactions in the CARD9 signalosome.

The caspase-associated recruitment domain (CARD)­containing protein 9 (CARD9) signalosome is composed of CARD9, B­cell CLL/lymphoma 10 (BCL10) and mucosa­associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma translocation protein 1 (MALT1). The CARD9 signalosome has been reported to exert critical functions in the immunoreceptor tyrosine­based activation motif­coupled receptor­mediated activation of myeloid cells, through nuclear factor­κB pathways during innate immunity processes. During CARD9 signalosome assembly, BCL10 has been revealed to function as an adaptor protein and to interact with CARD9 via CARD­CARD interactions; BCL10 also interacts with MALT1 via its C­terminal Ser/Thr­rich region and the first immunoglobulin domain of MALT1. The CARD9 signalosome is implicated in critical biological processes; however, its structural and biochemical characteristics have yet to be elucidated. In the present study, CARD9 and BCL10 CARDs were successfully purified and characterized, and their biochemical properties were investigated. In addition, CARD9­BCL10 complexes were reconstituted in vitro under low salt and pH conditions. Furthermore, based on structural modeling data, a scheme was proposed to describe the interactions between CARD9 and BCL10. This provides a further understanding of the mechanism of how the CARD9 signalosome may be assembled.

Synthesis, molecular docking and biological evaluation of new steroidal 4H-pyrans.

A series of new steroidal 4H-pyrans (4-6) have been synthesized from steroidal α, ß-unsaturated ketones (1-3). The products (4-6) were characterized by IR, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR, MS and analytical data. The interaction studies of compounds (4-6) with DNA were carried out by employing gel electrophoresis, UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. The gel electrophoresis pattern revealed that compounds (4-6) bind to DNA and also demonstrated that the compound 6 alone or in presence of Cu (II) causes the nicking of supercoiled pBR322. The compounds 4 and 5 bind to DNA preferentially through electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions with Kb values found to be 5.3×10(3) and 3.7×10(3) M(-1), respectively, indicating the higher binding affinity of compound 4 towards DNA. The docking study suggested the intercalation of compounds in between the nucleotide base pairs. The cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of the newly synthesized compounds were checked by MTT and comet assay, respectively during which compound 6 showed potential behaviour.