Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

University of Texas at El Paso

2022

Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology

Exploring The Anticancer Mechanism Of Thienopyrazole Derivative Tpz-1 In Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Jessica Dyanne Hess Dec 2022

Exploring The Anticancer Mechanism Of Thienopyrazole Derivative Tpz-1 In Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Jessica Dyanne Hess

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Anticancer drug discovery is a time and resource-consuming process for which exceedingly reliable and efficient modern approaches are needed. Phenotypic drug screenings can generate highly potent and innovative drug candidates; however, deconvolution of the drugâ??s target often presents significant barriers to drug development. To overcome this hurdle, we have originally combined in vitro and in silico analyses to uncover the molecular mechanism(s) driving the anticancer activity of the uniquely structured small molecule drug candidate, Tpz-1. Our study revealed that Tpz-1 is a multitargeted agent which induces the programmed death of HL-60 acute myeloid leukemia cells primarily through disruption of microtubule …

Go to article

Development Of A Ph-Triggered Cargo Delivery System With Esxa Mutants, Shuchen Chen Aug 2022

Development Of A Ph-Triggered Cargo Delivery System With Esxa Mutants, Shuchen Chen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Tuberculosis (TB) is a communicable disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). It was the leading cause of human death generated by a single infectious agent before the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Mtb has a special mechanism to evade the hostâ??s immune system and utilize macrophages as reservoirs. Latent TB infections have been a threat to public health. Liposome has been widely used for drug delivery. Immunoliposomes are special liposome carriers coated with ligands, such as antigens, targeting certain cells or organs to regulate the uptake of liposome. By constructing the liposome components, or surface modification, cargo release of liposome can be …

Go to article

Eluication Of Lipid Metabolic Pathways In Differentiating Giardia Lamblia Using High Resolution Mass Spectrometry, Cameron Ellis Aug 2022

Eluication Of Lipid Metabolic Pathways In Differentiating Giardia Lamblia Using High Resolution Mass Spectrometry, Cameron Ellis

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Giardia lamblia is an intestinal protozoan found worldwide, including the U.S. This parasite exists in two morphologic stages - a replicative trophozoite and a relatively dormant yet viable cyst. While exposures of cysts to gastric acid during passage through the human stomach induces excystation, factors in the small intestine, where trophozoites colonize trigger encystation or cyst formation. Transformation into cyst stage is essential for Giardia to survive in the environment for months before infecting new hosts. Because of its small genome size (11.7 Mb), metabolic pathways in Giardia are highly reduced. As far as lipid metabolism is concerned, only limited …

Go to article

Characterization Of Esxa/Esxb Heterodimer Membrane Interaction With A Novel Popc/Popg Liposome Model, Salvador Vazquez Vazquez Reyes Aug 2022

Characterization Of Esxa/Esxb Heterodimer Membrane Interaction With A Novel Popc/Popg Liposome Model, Salvador Vazquez Vazquez Reyes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

EsxA and EsxB are co-secreted as a heterodimer and have been shown to play critical roles in phagosome rupture and translocation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis into the cytosol. Current in vitro studies support a model in which the EsxA:EsxB heterodimer is dissociated upon acidification, which might allow EsxA insertion into liposome membranes. While the membrane permeabilizing activity (MPA) of EsxA has been well characterized in liposomes composed of di-oleoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DOPC), the MPA of EsxA:EsxB heterodimer has not been detected with the DOPC liposome. In this study, we established a new in vitro membrane assay to test the MPA of EsxA and …

Go to article

Utilizing Computational Methods To Study The Biomolecules, Wenhan Guo Jun 2022

Utilizing Computational Methods To Study The Biomolecules, Wenhan Guo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

COVID-19 is increasingly affecting human health and global economy. Understanding the fundamental mechanisms of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is highly demanded to develop treatments for COVID-19. SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 share 92.06% identity in their N protein RBDs' sequences, which results in very similar structures. However, the SARS-CoV-2 is more easily to spread. Utilizing multi-scale computational approaches, this work studied the fundamental mechanisms of the nucleocapsid (N) proteins of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, including their stabilities and binding strengths with RNAs at different pH values. Electrostatic potential on the surfaces of N proteins show that both the N proteins …

Go to article

Lipid Rafts, Exosomal Vesicles And Anti-Giardial Therapies, Brian Ivan Grajeda May 2022

Lipid Rafts, Exosomal Vesicles And Anti-Giardial Therapies, Brian Ivan Grajeda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Giardia lamblia, a protozoan parasite, is a major cause of waterborne infection, worldwide. While the trophozoite form of this parasite induces pathological symptoms in the gut, the cyst forms transmit the infection via contaminated water. Since Giardia is a non-invasive parasite, the actual mechanism by which it causes infection remains elusive. We have previously reported that Giardia assembles cholesterol and GM1 glycolipid-enriched lipid rafts (LRs) that participate in encystation and cyst production. To further delineate the role of LRs in pathogenesis, we isolated LRs from Giardia and subjected them to proteomic analysis. Various cellular proteins including the virulent proteins—e.g., giardins, …

Go to article

Developing And Applying Computational Algorithms To Reveal Health-Related Biomolecular Interactions, Yixin Xie May 2022

Developing And Applying Computational Algorithms To Reveal Health-Related Biomolecular Interactions, Yixin Xie

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Computational biology is an interdisciplinary area that applies computational approaches in biological big data, including protein amino acid sequences, genetic sequences, etc., which is widely used to analyze protein-protein interactions, make predictions in drug discovery, develop vaccines, etc. Popular methods include mathematical modeling, molecular dynamics simulations, data science mythology, etc. With the help of computational algorithms and applications, drug development is much faster than traditional processes, as it reduces risks early on in a drug discovery process and helps researchers select target candidates that have the highest potential for success. In my doctoral research, I applied multi-scale computational approaches to …

Go to article

Regulation Of C-C Chemokine Receptor 7 (Ccr7) Ligand-Mediated Internalization And Chemotaxis By G Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase Family 4 (Grk-4, 5, 6) In Human Pediatric T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-All), Eduardo Elias Chaib May 2022

Regulation Of C-C Chemokine Receptor 7 (Ccr7) Ligand-Mediated Internalization And Chemotaxis By G Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase Family 4 (Grk-4, 5, 6) In Human Pediatric T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-All), Eduardo Elias Chaib

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background and Significance: The Hispanic population is disproportionally affected by T-ALL (T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia) when compared to other races in the US. C-C Chemokine Receptor 7 (CCR7) in T-ALL is used during disease progression, and may lead to migration of cancerous cells into the Central Nervous System (CNS) of patients. Goals and Objectives: This project aims to find relevant rates and risk factors for T-ALL for the Hispanic population in the US/Mexico border region. The other aim is to assess the effect of the G protein-coupled Receptor Kinase 4 (GRK-4) family proteins on migration and receptor internalization through CCR7 …

Go to article

Nanotechnology-Based Approaches To Mitigate Environmental Pollutants -- Induced Neurological Disorders, Jyoti Ahlawat May 2022

Nanotechnology-Based Approaches To Mitigate Environmental Pollutants -- Induced Neurological Disorders, Jyoti Ahlawat

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimerâ??s Disease (AD) and Huntingtonâ??s Disease (HD) have no cure despite intensive research efforts geared towards therapeutics development. In the USA, patients with PD and AD alone cost the nation ~ $200 billion annually in patient care and lost productivity. Therefore, there remains an urgent and unmet need to develop novel drugs and drug carriers with the potential to slow down, halt and ideally reverse the course of neurodegenerative disorders. The dissertation focuses on developing approaches towards targeting PD using multifactorial mechanisms including the targeting of protein aggregation and oxidative stress. This is …

Go to article

Small Heat Shock Protein 27 And Its Role In Human Disease, Bianka Andrea Holguin May 2022

Small Heat Shock Protein 27 And Its Role In Human Disease, Bianka Andrea Holguin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Small heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) is a ubiquitously expressed molecular chaperone with roles in many physiological processes. As an ATP-independent molecular chaperone, Hsp27 protects substrates from irreversible aggregation and holds them in a folding competent state for later recycling into the proteome. Hsp27 proteins form dimers that are assembled into large oligomeric complexes. Phosphorylation of Hsp27 dissembles the oligomers into chaperone active dimers. Several missense mutations of Hsp27 are causative for the neurodegenerative disorders Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease 2F and distal Hereditary Motor Neuropathy IIB. Here I show that the oligomerization and chaperoning ability of Hsp27 are altered by the Hsp27 …

Go to article

The Electrostatic Features Of Dengue Virus Capsid Assembly, Alan Eduardo Lopez Hernandez May 2022

The Electrostatic Features Of Dengue Virus Capsid Assembly, Alan Eduardo Lopez Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Dengue virus causes serious diseases and considerable deaths each year all around the globe. Dengue virus undergoes assembly in a capsid, matures and becomes viral. Revealing mechanisms of the viral capsid protein may lead to the discovery of novel drugs that prevent this assembly to happen and stop the virus from spreading. Here I present a computational work which is focused on the stability and assembly of the dengue viral capsid. The E and M proteins conform a heterotetramer, which consists of two copies of E and M proteins. The heterotetramers form a highly ordered capsid. In the electrostatic analysis …

Go to article

Structural And Biochemical Studies On Disease Associated Proteins: Heat Shock Protein 60 And Hiv Capsid, Alejandro Rodriguez Apr 2022

Structural And Biochemical Studies On Disease Associated Proteins: Heat Shock Protein 60 And Hiv Capsid, Alejandro Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Structural studies on proteins provide valuable knowledge, from information about their fundamental nature, to laying a foundation for rational drug design. Here, we study two proteins, a human mitochondrial chaperonin heat shock protein 60 (Hsp60) and the main structural HIV-1 protein capsid (CA). We focus on the structural nature of both proteins to try to understand their role in disease and elucidate the mechanism of potential drug treatments. Hsp60 is a chaperonin found in human mitochondria that is responsible for assisting client proteins reach their native, functional, state. The mechanism by which it catalyzes protein folding, however, has not been …

Go to article