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Identifying The Relevance Of C-Reactive Protein Conformers And The Advancement Of A Membrane Curvature Binding Assay, Carrie Leine Moon
Identifying The Relevance Of C-Reactive Protein Conformers And The Advancement Of A Membrane Curvature Binding Assay, Carrie Leine Moon
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Lipid membranes play a vital role in cell signaling processes. Membrane shape and lipid content affect interactions between cellular membranes and proteins. This research focuses on characterizing those interactions and their impact by using various biochemical and biophysical assays. These assays were applied to C-reactive protein (CRP), an immune system protein that interacts with lipid membranes and has at least two forms with different properties. Native, pentameric CRP (pCRP) is found in blood serum and is commonly used as a marker for inflammation. The modified form of CRP (mCRP) binds to the protein C1q, which activates the complement immune response. …