PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R He

Publications and source records attributed to R He.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Fluorescence of peptide N-terminal 2-oxoacyl and quinoxaline derivatives.

A peptide reacts with glyoxalic acid resulting in transamination of the N-terminal residue to form a 2-oxoacyl group. This further reacts with o-phenylenediamine, leading to a quinoxaline derivative of the original N-terminal amino acid, which is cleavable in mild acid [Dixon & Fields (1972) Methods Enzymol. 25, 409-419]. The 2-oxoacyl peptides are weakly fluorescent with emission maxima around 410 nm and excitation maxima at about 320 nm, depending on the nature and length of the peptide. Formation of the quinoxaline derivative results in a marked increase of fluorescence, with emission maximum of 363 nm when excited at 303 nm. The fluorescence properties of these derivatives change with the nature and length of the peptides and are affected by the presence of organic solvents, NaCl and denaturants. It is suggested that such fluorescent derivatives could be used as probes for the study of the conformation of the N-terminal region of peptides and proteins.

Energy Transfer↗
PubMed1992

Structure and function of the 5'-flanking sequence of the human cytosolic selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase gene (hgpx1).

Human selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase (hGPx1) (EC 1.11.1.9) is thought to be involved in many critical cellular functions as a result of its role in glutathione-mediated reduction of toxic peroxides, and it is implicated as a mechanism of resistance against oxygen free radicals. Previous studies have demonstrated that the gene encoding hGPx1 (hgpx1) is more highly expressed in multidrug-resistant AdrR MCF-7 human breast cancer cells than in the parental WT MCF-7 cell line. In order to further study the transcriptional regulation of hgpx1, we have cloned the genomic hgpx1 gene and determined its nucleotide sequence. The 2550-base pair (bp) 5'-flanking sequence of hgpx1 contained the terminal 511 bp of the 3' end of a previously reported rhoH12 cDNA (Yeramian, P., Chardin, P., Madaule, P., and Tavitian, A. (1987) Nucleic Acids Res. 15, 1989), a ras-related oncogene. Further downstream from rhoH12, but before the start of transcription of hgpx1, RNase protection analysis revealed a transcribed sequence of at least 270 bp which we have called mid. RNA transcripts homologous to both rhoH12 (1.8 and 1.5 kilobase pairs (kb)) and mid (1.8 kb) are also more highly expressed in AdrR MCF-7 cells than in WT MCF-7 cells. We screened an AdrR MCF-7 cDNA library with the mid sequence and isolated a partial cDNA clone which contains both mid and rhoH12 sequences and is colinear with the genomic sequence which extends from 10 bp 3' to the rhoH12 stop codon to 810 bp 5' to the start of transcription of hgpx1. The start of transcription of hgpx1 in AdrR MCF-7 cells was determined by primer extension analysis. The promoter and 2 kb of the 5'-flanking sequence of hgpx1 was fused to the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene (hGPx1-CAT1). Analysis of deletion constructs of hGPx1-CAT1 revealed three possible cis-acting regulatory regions. The transcriptional regulation of hgpx1 was examined using the hGPx1-CAT hybrid genes and nuclear run-on studies. We found no evidence that increased mRNA transcript formation could account for different levels of hgpx1 RNA either in different breast cancer cell lines or in response to selenium.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1992

High-level expression of staphylococcal nuclease R gene in Escherichia coli.

Staphylococcal nuclease R, an analogue of nuclease A, was overproduced under the transcriptional control of the bacteriophage lambda PRPL promoters regulated by temperature sensitive repressors. The expression level reached 200-300 mg l-1 and showed little host dependence in different strains. The investigations of the recombinant nuclease R have revealed that the amino terminal formyl methionine residue of the nuclease is precisely processed, the protein consists of 155 amino acid residues. The experiment shows that the pBV221-DH5 alpha is a quite suitable vector-host system for high-level expression and precise processing of heterologous genes in Escherichia coli. The comparative studies between the codons used in the staphylococcal nuclease R gene and the optimal codon usage in E. coli indicate that high level expression of heterologous genes in E. coli may not always require a high degree of codon usage bias.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

[Precancerous and cancerous lesions and their gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase expression in 3-methylcholanthrene-induced lung carcinogenesis in rats].

Lung precancerous and cancerous lesions were induced in Wistar rats by one intrabronchial injection of 3-methylcholanthrene (3-MC). The incidences of atypical hyperplasia of bronchiolar epithelium, adenoid hyperplasia or adenomas, and squamous cell carcinoma were 88.2% (15/17), 70.6% (12/17) and 17.7% (3/17) respectively by the 30th day after 3-MC treatment, and 83.3% (15/18), 23.5% (4/17) and 38.9% (7/18) by the 60th day. Positive expression of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) was identified histochemically in all of the above precancerous lesions and carcinomas. GGT might be used as a marker of precancerous and cancerous lesions of the lung.

Adenoma↗
PubMed1990

[Inhibitory effect of micronutrients and BHA on lung cancer induced in rats].

The combined effect of Vit. A and E, selenium, cysteine and BHA on 3MC-induced lung cancer in Wistar rats was investigated. The supplementation of these compounds at their safe doses reduced the incidence of lung cancer from 47.2% to 31.6% (P less than 0.05). The total superoxide dismutase (SOD) and Mn-SOD activities in the lung cancer tissue were much lower than those in the normal tissue (P less than 0.001). It is possible that in the early stage of carcinogenesis, this change occurs only in the limited focus and does not affect the enzyme level as a whole, so SOD assay of peripheral blood can not reflect the carcinogenesis status in the lung.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

New wrinkles on polynucleotide duplexes.

Most fibrous polynucleotides of general sequence exhibit secondary structures that are described adequately by regular helices with a repeated motif of only one nucleotide. Such helices exploit the fact that A:T, T:A, G:C, and C:G pairs are essentially isomorphous and have dyadically-related glycosylic bonds. Polynucleotides with regularly repeated base-sequences sometimes assume secondary structures with larger repeated motifs which reflect these base-sequences. The dinucleotide units of the Z-like forms of poly d(As4T):poly d(As4T), poly d(AC):poly d(GT) and poly d(GC):poly d(GC) are dramatic instances of this phenomenon. The wrinkled B and D forms of poly d(GC):poly d(GC) and poly d(AT):poly d(AT) are just as significant but more subtle examples. It is possible also to trap more exotic secondary structures in which the molecular asymmetric unit is even larger. There is, for example, a tetragonal form of poly d(AT):poly d(AT) which has unit cell dimensions a = b = 1.71nm, c = 7.40nm, gamma = 90 degrees. The c dimension corresponds to the pitch of a molecular helix which accommodates 24 successive nucleotide pairs arranged as a 4(3) helix of hexanucleotide duplexes. The great variety of nucleotide conformations which occur in these large asymmetric units has prompted us to describe them as pleiomeric, a term used in botany to describe whorls having more than the usual number of structures. Pleiomeric DNAs need not contain nucleotide conformations that are very different from one another. On the other hand, DNAs carrying nucleotides of very different conformation must be pleiomeric. This is because 4 nucleotides of different conformation are needed to join patches of secondary structure which are as different as A or B or Z. Differences in nucleotide structures may occur also between chains rather than within chains. In poly d(A):poly d(T), the purine nucleotides all contain C3'-endo furanose rings and the pyrimidine nucleotides C2'-endo rings. Analogous heteronomous structures may exist in DNA-RNA hybrids although these duplexes are also found to have symmetrical A-type conformations.

DNA↗