2b16: Difference between revisions

[[Image:2b16.gif|left|200px]]<br /><applet load="2b16" size="350" color="white" frame="true" align="right" spinBox="true"  

Systemic deposition of transthyretin (TTR) amyloid fibrils is always observed in familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy, senile systemic amyloidosis and familial amyloidotic cardiomyopathy patients. Destabilization of the molecule leads to a cascade of events which result in fibril formation. The destabilization of a native protein with consequent conformational changes appears to be a common link in several human amyloid diseases. Intensive research has been directed towards finding small molecules that could work as therapeutic agents for the prevention/inhibition of amyloid diseases through stabilization of the native fold of the potentially amyloidogenic protein. This work provides insight into the structural determinants of the highly stabilizing effects of 2,4-dinitrophenol on wild-type TTR. It is also shown that similar interactions are established between this molecule and two highly amyloidogenic TTR variants: TTR L55P and TTR Y78F. In the three crystal complexes, 2,4-dinitrophenol occupies the two hormone-binding sites of the TTR tetramer. As a result of 2,4-dinitrophenol binding, the two dimers in the TTR tetramer become closer, increasing the stability of the protein. The three-dimensional structures now determined allow a comprehensive description of key interactions between transthyretin and 2,4-dinitrophenol, a small compound that holds promise as a template for the design of a therapeutical drug for amyloid diseases.

2B16 is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_protein Single protein] structure of sequence from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_sapiens Homo sapiens] with <scene name='pdbligand=DNF:'>DNF</scene> as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ligand ligand]. Full crystallographic information is available from [http://oca.weizmann.ac.il/oca-bin/ocashort?id=2B16 OCA].  

[[Category: Damas, A M.]]

[[Category: Neto-Silva, R M.]]

[[Category: Pereira, P J.]]

[[Category: Saraiva, M J.]]

''Page seeded by [http://oca.weizmann.ac.il/oca OCA ] on Thu Feb 21 16:33:06 2008''