Biomedical subjects

André Lopez

Publications and source records attributed to André Lopez.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Comparative membrane interaction study of viscotoxins A3, A2 and B from mistletoe (Viscum album) and connections with their structures.

Viscotoxins A2 (VA2) and B (VB) are, together with viscotoxin A3 (VA3), among the most abundant viscotoxin isoforms that occur in mistletoe-derived medicines used in anti-cancer therapy. Although these isoforms have a high degree of amino-acid-sequence similarity, they are strikingly different from each other in their in vitro cytotoxic potency towards tumour cells. First, as VA3 is the only viscotoxin whose three-dimensional (3D) structure has been solved to date, we report the NMR determination of the 3D structures of VA2 and VB. Secondly, to account for the in vitro cytotoxicity discrepancy, we carried out a comparative study of the interaction of the three viscotoxins with model membranes. Although the overall 3D structure is highly conserved among the three isoforms, some discrete structural features and associated surface properties readily account for the different affinity and perturbation of model membranes. VA3 and VA2 interact in a similar way, but the weaker hydrophobic character of VA2 is thought to be mainly responsible for the apparent different affinity towards membranes. VB is much less active than the other two viscotoxins and does not insert into model membranes. This could be related to the occurrence of a single residue (Arg25) protruding outside the hydrophobic plane formed by the two amphipathic alpha-helices, through which viscotoxins are supposed to interact with plasma membranes.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2003

Confined diffusion without fences of a g-protein-coupled receptor as revealed by single particle tracking.

Single particle tracking is a powerful tool for probing the organization and dynamics of the plasma membrane constituents. We used this technique to study the micro -opioid receptor belonging to the large family of the G-protein-coupled receptors involved with other partners in a signal transduction pathway. The specific labeling of the receptor coupled to a T7-tag at its N-terminus, stably expressed in fibroblastic cells, was achieved by colloidal gold coupled to a monoclonal anti T7-tag antibody. The lateral movements of the particles were followed by nanovideomicroscopy at 40 ms time resolution during 2 min with a spatial precision of 15 nm. The receptors were found to have either a slow or directed diffusion mode (10%) or a walking confined diffusion mode (90%) composed of a long-term random diffusion and a short-term confined diffusion, and corresponding to a diffusion confined within a domain that itself diffuses. The results indicate that the confinement is due to an effective harmonic potential generated by long-range attraction between the membrane proteins. A simple model for interacting membrane proteins diffusion is proposed that explains the variations with the domain size of the short-term and long-term diffusion coefficients.

Bacteriophage T7↗

PubMed2002

Probing functionalized gold colloids for single particle tracking experiments.

Functionalized submicroscopic particles are currently used to label proteins or lipids at the surface of living cells for single particle tracking experiments. In many cases, it can be of crucial importance for the particle to be anchored to a single molecule. We have addressed this question for the labeling at the plasma membrane of NRK cells of the mu-opioid receptor bearing a T7 epitope at the N-terminus. Using biophysical methods we were able to prepare quasi-monovalent anti-T7 antibody conjugated gold colloids (40 nm diameter) leading to stable and specific binding to the receptor. The rational method, we report here, can be extended to design customized probes for the labeling of various tagged molecules.

Animals↗