Biophysical and electrochemical studies of protein-nucleic acid interactions

This review is devoted to biophysical and electrochemical methods used for studying protein-nucleic acid (NA) interactions. The importance of NA structure and protein-NA recognition for essential cellular processes, such as replication or transcription, is discussed to provide background for description of a range of biophysical chemistry methods that are applied to study a wide scope of protein-DNA and protein-RNA complexes. These techniques employ different detection principles with specific advantages and limitations and are often combined as mutually complementary approaches to provide a complete description of the interactions. Electrochemical methods have proven to be of great utility in such studies because they provide sensitive measurements and can be combined with other approaches that facilitate the protein-NA interactions. Recent applications of electrochemical methods in studies of protein-NA interactions are discussed in detail

MicroRNA expression profile in murine central nervous system development

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression in a post-transcriptional sequence-specific manner. In order to better understand the possible roles of miRNAs in central nervous system (CNS) development, we examined the expression profile of 104 miRNAs during murine brain development. We obtained brain samples from animals at embryonic days (E) E15, E17, and postnatal days (P) P1 and P7. Total RNA was isolated from tissue and used to obtain mature miRNAs by reverse transcription. Our results indicate that there is a group of 12 miRNAs that show a distinct expression profile, with the highest expression during embryonic stages and decreasing significantly during development. This profile suggests key roles in processes occurring during early CNS development.35333133

Using RNA interference for purinoceptor knockdown in vivo

RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) induced by small double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). The method allows silencing of genes of interest by translation inhibition or by mRNA degradation. In this chapter, we provide a brief overview of the mechanisms involved in each step of gene silencing. A nonviral infusion of short siRNA into ventricular system of rats was used to study purinoceptor in the rat brain20417786CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPNão temNão temNão te