THERMAL STABILITY OF SYNTHETIC PEPTIDES MIMICKING THE SEQUENCE OF THE REGION CONTAINING THE SKIP RESIDUES IN SQUID MYOSIN ROD

Myosin is the major protein in skeletal muscles including those of fish and shellfish. The characteristics of this protein are closely related to the biological function and the quality and physical properties of musclefood. In the myosin rod (the coiled-coil region of myosin), several amino acid residues, known as skip residues, seem to destabilize the ordered structure (heptad repeat). These residues might be responsible for reducing thermal stability. Attempts were thus made to examine the role of these residues in the rod of squid myosin, based on the thermodynamic properties of synthetic peptides which have been designed to mimic the partial sequence of myosin heavy chain from the squid Todarodes pacificus mantle muscle. Five peptides, namely, with the sequence of Trp1343 -Ala1372  having the skip residue Glu1357 at the center (Peptide WT), without the skip residue (Peptide Δ), with the replacements of the skip residue (Glu) by Ile, Gln and Pro (Peptides E/I, E/Q, and E/P, respectively) to modify the helix forming propensity, were synthesized. The results obtained showed that the stability of the peptides as measured by circular dichroism spectrometry was in the order of Peptide Δ > Peptide WT > Peptide E/Q > Peptide E/P > Peptide E/I. It is suggested that the presence of the skip residues dexterously tunes the stability or flexibility of the coiled-coil structure, thus possibly regulating thick filament formation and further gel formation ability of myosin

Impact of Coronary Plaque Composition on Cardiac Troponin Elevation After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Stable Angina Pectoris : A Computed Tomography Analysis

ObjectivesThe authors used multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) to study the relation between culprit plaque characteristics and cardiac troponin T (cTnT) elevation after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).BackgroundPercutaneous coronary intervention is often complicated by post-procedural myocardial necrosis manifested by elevated cardiac biomarkers.MethodsStable angina patients (n = 107) with normal pre-PCI cTnT levels underwent 64-slice MDCT before PCI to evaluate plaque characteristics of culprit lesions. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to presence (group I, n = 36) or absence (group II, n = 71) of post-PCI cTnT elevation ≥3 times the upper limit of normal (0.010 ng/ml) at 24 h after PCI.ResultsComputed tomography attenuation values were significantly lower in group I than in group II (43.0 [26.5 to 75.7] HU vs. 94.0 [65.0 to 109.0] HU, p 1.05; odds ratio: 4.54; 95% confidence interval: 1.36 to 15.9; p = 0.014) and spotty calcification (odds ratio: 4.27; 95% confidence interval: 1.30 to 14.8; p = 0.016) were statistically significant independent predictors for cTnT elevation. For prediction of cTnT elevation, the presence of all 3 variables (CT attenuation value 1.05, and spotty calcification) showed a high positive predictive value of 94%, and their absence showed a high negative predictive value of 90%.ConclusionsMDCT may be useful in detecting which lesions are at high risk for myocardial necrosis after PCI

Introduction for Fisheries and Aquatic Biology

Chapter I. Aquatic Environment. Ken FURUYA and Ichiro YASUDA : chapter_1.pdfChapter II. Biology and Ecology of Aqua-Shere. Toyoji KANEKO, Katsumi TSUKAMOTO, Atsushi TSUDA, Yuzuru SUZUKI and Katsufumi SATOH : chapter_2.pdfChapter III. Aquatic Resource and Production. Ichiro AOKI, Kazuo OGAWA, Taku YAMAKAWA and Tomoyoshi YOSHINAGA : chapter_3.pdfChapter IV. Chemistry of Aquatic Organism and Their Utilization. Hiroki ABE, Shugo WATABE, Yoshihiro OCHIAI, Shigeru OKADA, Naoko YOSHIKAWA, Yoshiharu KINOSHITA, Gen KANEKO and Shigeki MATSUNAGA : chapter_4.pdfChapter V. Relation between Aqua-Shere and Human Life. Hisashi KUROKURA, Hirohide MATSUSHIMA, Shingo KUROHAGI, Haruko YAMASHITA, Akinori HINO, Kazumasa IKUTA, Satoquo SEINO, Masahiko ARIJI, Ken FURUYA, Junichiro OKAMOTO and Nobuyuki YAGI : chapter_5.pdfPart of "Introduction for Fisheries and Aquatic Biology

Rare Diagnosis of a Multilobular Pulmonary Mass

CASE PRESENTATION: A 57-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for an abnormal chest shadow found during routine chest radiography. She had no respiratory symptoms. Her medical history included dyslipidemia, and her surgical history included conization for cervical cancer at age 38 years. She was a social drinker and ex-smoker of approximately 10 cigarettes per day (from ages 20 to 30 years); she denied recreational drug use

Neuronal Leucine-Rich Repeat Protein 4 Functions in Hippocampus-Dependent Long-Lasting Memory

Neuronal leucine-rich repeat proteins (NLRRs) are type I transmembrane proteins and expressed in neuronal tissues, but their function remains unknown. Here, we describe the identification and characterization of a new member of the NLRR family, NLRR4, and its potential role in long-lasting memory. We generated NLRR4-deficient (NLRR4(−/−)) mice and found that they showed impaired memory retention. In hippocampus-dependent learning tasks, NLRR4(−/−) mice were able to learn and maintain the memories for one day but unable to retain the memories for four days after learning. In contrast, in a hippocampus-independent task, NLRR4(−/−) mice were able to retain the memory normally for at least seven days. These results suggest that NLRR4 plays a key role in hippocampus-dependent long-lasting memory