Membrane protein integrase (MPIase), an endogenous glycolipid in Escherichia coli (E. coli) membranes, is essential for membrane protein insertion in E. coli. We have examined Sec-independent membrane protein insertion mechanisms facilitated by MPIas...
During the biogenesis of the mitochondrial inner membrane, most nuclear-encoded inner membrane proteins are laterally released into the membrane by the TIM23 and the TIM22 machinery during their import into mitochondria. A subset of nuclear-encoded m...
To elucidate the redundancy in the components for the targeting of membrane proteins to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and/or their insertion into the ER membrane under physiological conditions, we previously analyzed different human cells by label-f...
Recent experiments in function mechanism study reported that a pH low-insertion peptide (pHLIP) can insert into a zwitterionic palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylcholine (POPC) lipid bilayer at acidic pH while binding to the bilayer surface at basic pH. How...
The translocation (T)-domain plays a key role in the action of diphtheria toxin and is responsible for transferring the catalytic domain across the endosomal membrane into the cytosol in response to acidification. Deciphering the molecular mechanism...
The possible carrier role of Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs) for small regulatory noncoding RNAs (sRNAs) has recently been demonstrated. Nevertheless, to perform their function, these sRNAs usually need a protein cofactor called Hfq. In this work we s...
Helix-membrane interactions are key to membrane deformation and play significant biological roles. However, systematic studies on the mechanisms behind these interactions are limited. This study uses a continuum membrane model to investigate how shal...
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), as a key component of the immune defense systems of organisms, are a promising solution to the serious threat of drug-resistant bacteria to public health. As one of the most representative and extensively studied AMPs,...
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a global health concern affecting millions worldwide. One of the critical challenges in CKD is the accumulation of uremic toxins such as p-cresol sulfate (pCS) and indoxyl sulfate (IS), which contribute to systemic dam...
The minor coat protein G3p of bacteriophage M13 is the key component for the host interaction of this virus and binds to Escherichia coli at the tip of the F pili. As we show here, during the biosynthesis of G3p as a preprotein, the signal sequence i...
The insertion of proteins into membranes is crucial for understanding their function in many biological processes. In this work, we present UNILIPID, a universal implicit lipid-protein description as a methodology for dealing with implicit membranes....
Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are short peptides that can translocate and transport cargoes into the intracellular milieu by crossing biological membranes. The mode of interaction and internalization of cell-penetrating peptides has long been cont...
The effect of asymmetric membranes containing lipopolysaccharides (LPS) on the outer membrane protein F (OmpF) reconstitution, channel orientation, and antibiotic permeation across the outer membrane was investigated. After forming an asymmetric plan...
Nanoporous membranes are of increasing interest for many applications, such as molecular filters, biosensors, nanofluidic logic and energy conversion devices. To meet high-quality standards, e.g., in molecular separation processes, membranes with wel...
The shape and composition of a membrane directly regulate the localization, activity, and signaling properties of membrane associated proteins. Proteins that both sense and generate membrane curvature, e.g., through amphiphilic insertion motifs, pote...
Pex11, an abundant peroxisomal membrane protein (PMP), is required for division of peroxisomes and is robustly imported to peroxisomal membranes. We present a comprehensive analysis of how the Pichia pastoris Pex11 is recognized and chaperoned by Pex...
The present study investigates the use of aluminum foam to enhance pure water production using a Vacuum Membrane Distillation (VMD) desalination unit. Numerical simulations were conducted for a conventional VMD and three VMD configurations with diffe...
Membrane-interacting proteins are polyphilic polymers that engage in dynamic protein–protein and protein–lipid interactions while undergoing changes in conformation, orientation and binding interfaces. Predicting the sites of interactions between suc...
To facilitate intracellular growth and replication, the virulent human malaria parasite P. falciparum remodels its host erythrocyte by exporting many proteins into the host cell cytosol. Along with a few other exported proteins, the parasite CLAG3 pr...
Peptide Lv is a small endogenous secretory peptide that is proangiogenic through hyperpolarizing vascular endothelial cells (ECs) by enhancing the current densities of KCa3.1 channels. However, it is unclear how peptide Lv enhances these currents. On...
After synthesis of transmembrane proteins (TMPs), they are transferred and inserted into plasma membranes to play biological functions. Crucially, orientation of TMPs in membranes determines whether they have biological activities. In cellular enviro...
Rhamnolipids (RLs) are potential biocontrol agents for crop culture protection. Their mode of action has been proposed as dual, combining plant protection activation and antifungal activities. The present work focuses on the interaction of natural RL...
Protein kinase C delta (PKC-δ) is an important signaling molecule in human cells that has both proapoptotic as well as antiapoptotic functions. These conflicting activities can be modulated by two classes of ligands, phorbol esters and bryostat...
CLIC1 is a Chloride Intracellular Ion Channel protein that exists either in a soluble state in the cytoplasm or as a membrane bound protein. Members of the CLIC family are largely soluble proteins that possess the intriguing property of spontaneous i...
Background/Objectives: BRI is a synthetic arylamide polymer designed to mimic the electrostatic and amphiphilic features of defensin-type antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), although its molecular organization and activity have not been experimentally val...
The human genome encodes about 285 proteins that contain at least one annotated pleckstrin homology (PH) domain. As the first phosphoinositide binding module domain to be discovered, the PH domain recruits diverse protein architectures to cellular me...
The antiapoptotic protein Bcl-xL is a major regulator of cell death and survival, but many aspects of its functions remain elusive. It is mostly localized in the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) owing to its C-terminal hydrophobic α-helix. In...
Protein import into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the first step in the biogenesis of around 10,000 different soluble and membrane proteins in humans. It involves the co- or post-translational targeting of precursor polypeptides to the ER, and th...
The pH-triggered membrane insertion of the diphtheria toxin translocation domain (T domain) results in transferring the catalytic domain into the cytosol, which is relevant to potential biomedical applications as a cargo-delivery system. Protonation...
Cellular entry of diphtheria toxin is a multistage process involving receptor targeting, endocytosis, and translocation of the catalytic domain across the endosomal membrane into the cytosol. The latter is ensured by the translocation (T) domain of t...
The mitochondrial proteome contains proteins from two different genetic systems. Proteins are either synthesized in the cytosol and imported into the different compartments of the organelle or directly produced in the mitochondrial matrix. To ensure...
Viroporins are small, α-helical, hydrophobic virus encoded proteins, engineered to form homo-oligomeric hydrophilic pores in the host membrane. Viroporins participate in multiple steps of the viral life cycle, from entry to budding. As any other memb...
Crystal structures of membrane proteins are highly desired for their use in the mechanistic understanding of their functions and the designing of new drugs. However, obtaining the membrane protein structures is difficult. One way to overcome this cha...
Membrane permeability is a desired property in drug design, but there have been difficulties in quantifying the direct drug partitioning into native membranes. Platensimycin (PL) is a new promising antibiotic whose biosynthetic production is costly....
Here, we review recent molecular modelling and simulation studies of the Sec translocon, the primary component/channel of protein translocation into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and bacterial periplasm, respectively. Our focus is placed on the euka...
Current cytokine-based natural killer (NK) cell priming techniques have exhibited limitations such as the deactivation of biological signaling molecules and subsequent insufficient maturation of the cell population during mass cultivation processes....
Among different therapeutic strategies proposed in the case of bone volume deficit, guided bone regeneration (GBR) is a consolidated surgical procedure. The objective of this study is to retrospectively evaluate the behavior of two bone grafts with d...
A liposome vesicle is an ideal carrier for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) serving as the water channel that allows for the fast transport of water molecules, thus enhancing membrane permeability. However, a low quantity of CNTs inserted into the liposome ve...
The cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) penetratin (PEN) has garnered attention for its potential to enter tumor cells. However, its translocation mechanism and lack of selectivity remain debated. This study investigated PEN’s insertion into healthy...
The most important aspect of synthetic lipid membrane architectures is their ability to study functional membrane-active peptides and membrane proteins in an environment close to nature. Here, we report on the generation and performance of a biomime...
Interaction between bacterial toxins and cellular surface receptors is an important component of the host-pathogen interaction. Anthrax toxin protective antigen (PA) binds to the cell surface receptor, enters the cell through receptor-mediated endocy...
Inelastic (dissipative) effects of different natures in lipid bilayer membranes can lead to hysteresis phenomena. Early, it was shown that lipid bilayer membranes, under the action of a periodic sinusoidal voltage, demonstrate pinched-hysteresis loop...
While 3D printing is increasingly used in most fields of engineering, its utilization for microfluidics has thus far been limited. To demonstrate future applications of 3D printing for microfluidic structures, we investigate the fluidic characteristi...
We investigated the insertion of eddy promoters into a parallel-plate gas–liquid polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane contactor to effectively enhance carbon dioxide absorption through aqueous amine solutions (monoethanolamide—MEA). In this study,...
Two geometric shape turbulence promoters (circular and square of same areas) of different array patterns using three-dimensional (3D) printing technology were designed for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) modules in the present study. The...
The decline in absorption flux across membrane modules is attributed to the increase in concentration polarization resistance in flat-plate membrane contactors for CO2 absorption using monoethanolamine (MEA) as the absorbent. Researchers have discove...
A novel design of an air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) module was proposed to enhance the permeate flux improvement for the desalination of pure water productivity. The modeling equations for predicting permeate flux in the AGMD module by insertin...
The CO2 absorption by Monoethanolamine (MEA) solutions as chemical absorption was conducted in the membrane gas absorption module with inserting 3D mini-channel turbulence promoters of the present work. A mathematical modeling of CO2 absorption flux...
Graphene oxide (GO) and its composite membranes have exhibited great potential for application in water purification and desalination. This article reports that a novel graphene oxide membrane (GOM) of ~5 µm thickness was fabricated onto a nylo...
Three widths of manufacturing S-ribs carbon-fiber filaments acting as turbulence promoters were implemented into the flow channel of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) modules to augment the permeate flux improvement in the present study. At...
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