Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-226) Also available in print.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-139). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-179). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2005. / [School of Medicine] Department of Genetics. Includes bibliographical references. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-228).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma. / Bibliography: leaves 145-219.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on April 29, 2010). Vita. Thesis advisor: Grace Y. Sun. "May 2008" Includes bibliographical references.

Orientador: Carlos Henrique Inacio Ramos / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T11:17:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cepeda_AnaOlivaTiroli_D.pdf: 3942958 bytes, checksum: 940e4a499333daa56fd9a4fc5899919c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: As proteínas estão envolvidas com as mais diversas funções biológicas. No entanto, para realizar sua função adequadamente, uma proteína deve estar enovelada, ou seja, em sua conformação nativa. Para garantir isso, existe nas células, um elaborado sistema que envolve chaperones moleculares, capaz de auxiliar na prevenção do enovelamento incorreto e da agregação de proteínas Chaperones, de uma maneira geral, são proteínas que ligam e estabilizam polipeptídeos, facilitando seu enovelamento correto sem contribuir com informações conformacionais. O aumento no número de doenças provocadas pelo enovelamento incorreto de proteínas que se depositam nos tecidos na forma de amilóides (também chamadas de doenças conformacionais), tem chamado a atenção para estudos de agregados protéicos, que outrora foram considerados artefatos quando se trabalhava com esse tipo de macromolécula. Nesse sentido, o estudo de chaperones tem ganhado um interesse particular, já que são fortes candidatos ao combate de doenças amiloloidogênicas. Neste trabalho, são apresentados estudos sobre duas famílias de chaperones, a Hsp40 da subfamília A humana e duas sHsps de classe I de cana-de-açúcar, as quais estão envolvidas com o reconhecimento e a apresentação de substratos (proteínas parcialmente desenoveladas) para outras famílias de chaperones responsáveis pelo processo de reenovelamento. Essas duas famílias de chaperones em particular são também conhecidas como 'holdases¿, e são muito diversas, característica necessária para interagir com a grande diversidade de substratos em potencial que existe na célula. As duas sHsps estudadas aqui, as mais expressas em cana-de-açúcar, e a caracterização de suas estruturas e suas eficiências como chaperones, tornou possível a elaboração de uma hipótese sobre o mecanismo de ação dessas proteínas em função do aumento de temperatura. Nesse sentido, é mostrado neste trabalho que sHsps, respondem ao aumento de temperatura passando por expansão conformacional, provavelmente para aumentar a superfície hidrofóbica para a interação com os substratos. O efeito do calor sobre a Hsp40 também foi estudado e os resultados mostraram que essa proteína forma agregados com propriedades amiloidogênicas. Esta é a primeira vez que tais características são descritas para um chaperone de eucarioto. De maneira geral, as implicações dos resultados apresentados aqui podem aumentar o conhecimento geral sobre chaperones e sobre a pesquisa de tratamentos para as doenças conformacionais / Abstract: Proteins are involved with a large variety of biological functions. However, to function properly, proteins must be folded, i.e., they must reach their native conformation. According to that, an elaborated system involving molecular chaperones exists in the cell that helps to prevent the incorrect folding of proteins and also their aggregation. Chaperones, in a general way, are proteins that bind and stabilize polypeptides, facilitating its correct folding without contributing with conformational information. The increasing number of diseases caused by the incorrect folding of proteins that deposit in the form of amyloids (also called conformational diseases) has raised the interest in the study of protein aggregates, which, not long ago, where considered just purification artifacts. In this way, the study of chaperones has gained particular interest because they are potential candidates against amyloidogenic diseases. In this work, we present studies on two families of chaperones, a human Hsp40 from subfamily A and two sugar cane sHsps from class I, which are involved in substrate (partially unfolded proteins) recognition and presentation to other chaperone families that are more active in the protein refolding process. These particular chaperones are also know as 'holdases¿ and they are usually diverse, a characteristic necessary to interact with a large variety of substrate in the cell. The two sHsps studied here are the most expressed in sugar cane and their structure and chaperone efficiency characterization made possible to elaborate a hypothesis on the mechanism of action of these proteins when temperature increases. In that matter, we were able to show that sHsps respond to an increase in temperature by undergoing conformational expansion, likely to increase the hydrophobic area for substrate interaction. The effect of heat on Hsp40 has also been studied and our results showed that this protein form aggregates with amyloidogenic properties. To our knowledge, this is the first time that such characteristics are described for an eukaryotic chaperone. To sum up, we believe that the implications of the results shown here may add to the general knowledge on chaperones and to the search of a treatment for conformational diseases / Doutorado / Bioquimica / Doutor em Biologia Funcional e Molecular

High levels of the amino acid arginine and low levels of the product citrulline in the cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer's patients could mean that there is a decrease in the enzymes that metabolize this amino acid. One such enzyme is neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). In this study, neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), sourced from bovine brain was extracted and concentrated using two methods of precipitation: poly (ethylene glycol) 20 000 (PEG) and ammonium sulphate [(NH₄)₂S0₄). These two techniques gave no increase in yield nor fold purification and hence were abandoned in favour of ion exchange chromatography by DEAE-Sepharose. The enzyme was then successfully purified by anion-exchange and after dialysis produced a 38% yield and three fold purification and yielded the highest specific activity of 2.27 U/mg. Neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) was a heterodimeric protein with a total molecular mass of ± 225 kDa (95 and 130 kDa monomers). The temperature and pH optima of the enzyme were 40⁰C and 6.5, respectively. The kinetic parameters (KM and Vmax) of nNOS were 70 μM and 0.332 μmol.min⁻¹, respectively. Moreover neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) was relatively stable at 40⁰C (t½ = 3 h). It was also confirmed that β-amyloid peptides inhibited nNOS when bound to the enzyme and that nNOS behaved as a catalyst in fibril formation through association-dissociation between enzyme and β-amyloid peptide. It was further shown that Aβ₁₇₋₂₈ inhibited nNOS the most with a Ki of 1.92 μM and also had the highest Stern-Volmer value (Ksv) of 0.11 μM⁻¹ indicating tight binding affinity to nNOS and easier accessibility to fluor molecules during binding. Congo red, turbidity, thioflavin-T assays and transmission electron microscopy were successfully used to detect and visualize the presence of fibrils by studying the process of fibrillogenesis. Computerized molecular modeling successfully studied protein dynamics and conformational changes of nNOS. These results correlated with resonance energy transfer (FRET) results which revealed the distance of tryptophan residues from the arginine bound at enzyme active site. Both the aforementioned techniques revealed that in the natural state of the enzyme with arginine bound at the active site, the tryptophan residues (TRP₆₂₅ and TRP₇₂₁) were positioned at the surface of the enzyme 28 Å away from the active site. When the amyloid peptide (Aβ₁₇₋₂₈) was bound to the active site, these same two amino acids moved 14 Å closer to the active site. A five residue hydrophobic fragment Aβ₁₇₋₂₁ [Leu₁₇ - Val₁₈ - Phe₁₉ - Phe₂₀ - Ala₁] within Aβ₁₇₋₂₈ was shown by computer modeling to be critical to the binding of the peptide to the active site of nNOS.