Human ASPN blocking peptide

After irradiating the acetylcholine receptor complex with the title neurotoxin derivative, the labeled delta-subunit was separated by preparative SDS-PAGE, reduced-carboxymethylated and cleaved with LysC endoproteinase. One of the radioactive peptides isolated by HPLC was further purified by electrophoresis in a tricin gel. Edman degradation of the radioactive fractions yielded the sequence of the delta-subunit fragment starting from Phe148. The AspN-cleavage of the radioactive peptide from the LysC digest gave on HPLC a radioactive peak which eluted similarly to peptide 33-44 generated by LysC/AspN-cleavage of I-125-neurotoxin II. In model experiments, irradiation of the photoactivable derivative was found to produce a heterogeneous mixture of reaction products. Unusually low initial and repetitive yields were observed for neurotoxin II and its fragments containing the photolabeled and radiolabeled residues. These results might explain why the neurotoxin sequence was not detected on Edman degradation of the cross-linked products available at a low picomole level.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common late-onset degenerative joint disease., It is characterized by progressive degradation of articular cartilage. We investigated the association between OA occurrence and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) gene involved in the breakdown of extra cellular matrix proteins. The study included 100 male OA patients and 197 healthy men from the north area of China. Eight MMP-3 SNPs were genotyped. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to assess the association. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify SNPs that correlated with OA susceptibility. We found that rs639752 (dominant, OR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.03-4.01, P = 0.038; over-dominant, OR = 2.00, 95% CI: 1.03-3.88, P = 0.037); rs520540 (dominant, OR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.03-4.01, P = 0.038; over-dominant, OR = 2.00, 95% CI: 1.03-3.88, P = 0.037); rs602128 (dominant, OR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.03-4.01, P = 0.038; over-dominant, OR = 2.01, 95% CI: 1.03-3.89, P = 0.037); and rs679620 (dominant, OR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.03-4.01, P = 0.038; over-dominant, OR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.05-3.96, P = 0.033) were associated with the increased risk of OA. Our results suggest that these SNPs may contribute to OA development, and could serve as molecular markers of OA susceptibility.