Angiotensin I‐converting enzyme inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities of peptides prepared from tuna cooking juice and spleen proteases

Tuna cooking juice is a by‐product from the tuna canning industry. In this study, tuna cooking juice was hydrolysed by proteases extracted from the spleen. Tuna cooking juice showed the highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities after hydrolysis for 270 and 180 min, respectively. The hydrolysate was further fractionated by ultrafiltration. The permeate exhibited highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities when passed through 1 and 5 kDa cut‐off membranes, respectively. Gel filtration chromatography was used to determine the MW of bioactive peptides that exhibited highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities. Those peptides that exhibited highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities were the MW range of 238–829 Da and 1355–1880 Da, respectively. These results suggest that the tuna cooking juice and the spleen protease extract are a potential source of bioactive peptides that can be utilised as bioactive ingredients in functional food and nutraceuticals.     

生姜主要病虫害及其防治技术分析

生姜的根状茎为使用部分,其中包含姜油酮、姜油醇、姜油酚、蛋白质、粗脂肪、糖,并且钙、铁的含量也较为丰富,是人们日常生活当中不可或缺的调味品,还能够加工成为姜片、糖姜片和盐姜片等诸多食品,其在医药方面的应用也较为广泛,备受人们的推崇与喜爱。我国在生姜栽培方面的历史较为悠久,技术也较为成熟,每年生姜出口贸易都能为我国带来非常可观的经济效益。     

Identification of Host Cellular Protein Substrates of SARS-COV-2 Main Protease

The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) being associated with severe pneumonia. Like with other viruses, the interaction of SARS-CoV-2 with host cell proteins is necessary for successful replication, and cleavage of cellular targets by the viral protease also may contribute to the pathogenesis, but knowledge about the human proteins that are processed by the main protease (3CLpro) of SARS-CoV-2 is still limited. We tested the prediction potentials of two different in silico methods for the identification of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro cleavage sites in human proteins. Short stretches of homologous host-pathogen protein sequences (SSHHPS) that are present in SARS-CoV-2 polyprotein and human proteins were identified using BLAST analysis, and the NetCorona 1.0 webserver was used to successfully predict cleavage sites, although this method was primarily developed for SARS-CoV. Human C-terminal-binding protein 1 (CTBP1) was found to be cleaved in vitro by SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro, the existence of the cleavage site was proved experimentally by using a His₆-MBP-mEYFP recombinant substrate containing the predicted target sequence. Our results highlight both potentials and limitations of the tested algorithms. The identification of candidate host substrates of 3CLpro may help better develop an understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind the replication and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2.     

利用马铃薯淀粉下脚液生产饮料工艺的研究

本实验尝试从马铃薯中提取蛋白质等成份，并适当添加姜汁，制成一种新型饮料，对饮料生产的工艺条件作了详细探讨，成功地解决了马铃薯褐变及沉淀等问题，确定了最佳配方及工艺。     

Facile optical resolution of amino acid esters via hydrolysis by an industrial enzyme in organic solvents

Racemic amino acid esters were optically resolved via hydrolysis in organic solvents by the catalysis of an industrial alkaline protease, “Alcalase”. The products which were composed mainly of L-amino acids were insoluble and easily separated by filtration. The activity of the enzyme and enantiomeric excess of the products were significantly dependent on the nature of solvent and the water content in the reaction media. Generally, high values of enantiomeric excess were obtained at low water contents. Many natural and unnatural amino acids were resolved by this method.     

Further characterisation of protease inhibitors from pigeon pea (cajanus cajan (l) millsp) seeds

Cajanus trypsin inhibitor (CTI) and Cajanus trypsin-chymotrypsin inhibitor (CTCI) previously purified from cv TAT-10 were further characterised. The modification of the inhibitors revealed the presence of lysine at the trypsin reactive site in both CTI and CTCI. Modification of tyrosine at the reactive site of CTCI did not abolish chymotrypsin inhibition suggesting the presence of leucine or phenylalanine as reported in other chymotrypsin inhibitors. CTCI did not contain tryptophan. Dissociation constants for the inhibitors with bovine trypsin were in the region of 0.69 nmol (CTCI) and 0.029 nmol (CTI). Although the protease inhibitors lost their inhibitory activity on exposure to 2-mercaptoethanol they remained attached to the enzyme. The inhibitors were not very effective against the protease from Helicoverpa armigera which is a serious field pest of Cajanus. Dissociation constants for the inhibitors with the larval enzyme were in the region of 100 nmol.     

Comparison among feature extraction methods for HIV-1 protease cleavage site prediction

Recently, several works have approached the HIV-1 protease specificity problem by applying a number of methods from the field of machine learning. However, it is still difficult for researchers to choose the best method due to the lack of an effective comparison. For the first time we have made an extensive study on methods for feature extraction for the problem of HIV-1 protease. We show that a fusion of classifiers trained in different feature spaces permits to obtain a drastically error reduction with respect to the performance of the state-of-the-art.     

生姜田杂草防除试验

将33%二甲戊乐灵EC、24%乙氧氟草醚EC和20%二甲戊·乙氧氟草醚EC用作生姜田播后苗前土壤处理,结果表明,生姜田除草20%二甲戊·乙氧氟草醚EC2400～2850ml/hm2(制剂含量)防治效果最佳,优于33%二甲戊乐灵EC和24%乙氧氟草醚EC,在推荐剂量下,对生姜安全,且有显著增产效果。     

Hydrolysis of human horny cells by alkaline protease: Morphological observation of the process

The interaction of highly purified alkaline protease fromBacillus sp. KSM-K16 with the horny cells of human skin contained in skin grime was directly visualized by electron microscopy. It became clear that the protease first penetrates the horny cells and then adsorbs, mainly onto the internal structure of the cells at the initial stage of hydrolysis, and directly hydrolyzes the keratin filaments, though the marginal band surrounding them retains its original shape. Then, hydrolysate produced from the keratin filaments flows out of the cell, and early in the hydrolysis process keratin filaments decrease and then disappear, leaving a marginal band, i.e., the cell turns to a hollow state. As a result, the remaining marginal band loses support from inside the cell, thus promoting cleavage and dispersion. Until this stage in the protease reaction, the remarkable liberation of hydrolysis products as water-soluble protein does not occur.