title: Learning from prion-derived peptides for designing novel phosphorylation-sensitive peptide probes.
abstract: Novel catalytic peptides highly active in conversion of hydrogen peroxide to superoxide are newly designed and proposed as novel probes for assessing the cellular protein phosphorylation/dephosphorylation events possibly available for future clinical applications. One of model peptide was invented by fusing the copper-binding catalytic peptide and Erk1/2 MAP kinase kinase substrate peptide. In order to demonstrate that this type of probes is phosphorylation-sensitive, preliminary data was obtained with non-phosphorylated and phosphorylated peptides at two phosphorylation sites, namely, threonine and tyrosine residues. As expected, model phosphorylations effectively lowered the catalytic activity of the peptide. This is the first implication that phosphorylation-controllable enzyme mimics could be artificially invented. In addition, the author propose a possible application of this type of peptides as the tools or components for constructing a simplified in vitro signaling system processing the phosphorylation signals into the oxidative signals possibly affecting the fate of the living cells.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Bioengineering, Graduate School and Faculty of Environmental Engineering, The University of Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu 808-0135, Japan. kawanotom@env.kitakyu-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tomonori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawano
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D020929:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015335:Molecular Probes / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000378:metabolism; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011328:Prions / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D013481:Superoxides / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D015335:Molecular Probes; D010455:Peptides; D011328:Prions; C023548:copper-binding protein; D013481:Superoxides; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D020929:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases