6 results on '"Quintas, Alexandre"'
Search Results
2. Insights into the molecular mechanism of protein native-like aggregation upon methylglyoxal glycation
- Author
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Oliveira, Luís M. A., Gomes, Ricardo A., Yang, Dennis, Família, Carlos, Lages, Ana, Coelho, Ana V., Murphy, Regina M., and Quintas, Alexandre
- Subjects
Glycation ,Methylglyoxal ,Cytochrome c ,Native-like aggregation ,Conformational diseases - Abstract
“NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Proteins and Proteomics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Proteins and Proteomics. Volume 1834, Issue 6, June 2013, Pages 1010–1022, DOI 10.1016/j.bbapap.2012.12.001" "Protein glycation induces structural and stability changes that impair protein function, and is associated with several human neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy. Recently we have shown that methylglyoxal induces and stabilizes the formation of small native-like aggregates in the amyloidogenic protein insulin and the same was previously shown for α-synuclein. However, the fundamental biophysical mechanism underlying such methylglyoxal-induced protein aggregation is not yet fully understood. In this study, we used the model protein cytochrome c to characterize the specific glycation targets and to investigate the glycation effects on protein structure, stability and aggregation. Methylglyoxal was found modify cytochrome c in a single residue and to induce the formation of cytochrome c native-like aggregates. Additionally, it is shown that methylglyoxal glycation of cytochrome c also results in the formation of a partially unfolded species. Interestingly, the formation of this partially unfolded species is not implicated in the aggregation process, a clear difference from amyloid fibril mechanisms that involve partially or totally unfolded intermediates. Equilibrium-unfolding experiments using guanidinium hydrochloride shows that glycation strongly reduces cytochrome c conformational stability. This reduction is balanced by aggregation that increases conformational stability. The data collected from analytical and spectroscopic techniques along with kinetic analysis based on least-squares parameter fitting and statistical model discrimination permitted the proposal of a comprehensive thermodynamic and kinetic model for native-like aggregation of methylglyoxal glycated cytochrome c."
- Published
- 2013
3. Insights into the molecular mechanism of protein native-like aggregation upon glycation
- Author
-
Oliveira, Luis M.A., Gomes, Ricardo A., Yang, Dennis, Dennison, Sarah Rachel, Família, Carlos, Lages, Ana, Coelho, Ana V., Murphy, Regina M., Phoenix, David Andrew, Quintas, Alexandre, Oliveira, Luis M.A., Gomes, Ricardo A., Yang, Dennis, Dennison, Sarah Rachel, Família, Carlos, Lages, Ana, Coelho, Ana V., Murphy, Regina M., Phoenix, David Andrew, and Quintas, Alexandre
- Abstract
Several human neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy, have long been associated with, structural and functional changes in disease related proteins leading to aggregation into amyloid fibrils. Such changes can be triggered by post-translational modifications. Methylglyoxal modifications have been shown to induce the formation of small and stable native-like aggregates in the case of the amyloidogenic proteins insulin and α-synuclein. However, the fundamental biophysical mechanism underlying such methylglyoxal-induced protein aggregation is not yet fully understood. In this work cytochrome c (Cyt c) was used as a model protein for the characterization of specific glycation targets and to study their impact on protein structure, stability, and ability to form native-like aggregates. Our results show that methylglyoxal covalently modifies Cyt c at a single residue and induces early conformational changes that lead to the formation of native-like aggregates. Furthermore, partially unfolded species are formed, but do not seem to be implicated in the aggregation process. This shows a clear difference from the amyloid fibril mechanisms which involve partially or totally unfolded intermediates. Equilibrium-unfolding experiments show that glycation strongly decreases Cyt c conformational stability, which is balanced with an increase of conformational stability upon aggregation. Data collected from analytical and spectroscopic techniques, along with kinetic analysis based on least-squares parameter fitting and statistical model discrimination are used to help to understand the driving force underlying glycation-induced native-like aggregation, and enable the proposal of a comprehensive thermodynamic and kinetic model for native-like aggregation of methylglyoxal glycated Cyt c.
- Published
- 2013
4. Determination of phytocannabinoids in cannabis samples by ultrasound-assisted solid-liquid extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector analysis.
- Author
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Correia B, Ahmad SM, and Quintas A
- Subjects
- Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid methods, Dronabinol analysis, Plant Extracts chemistry, Cannabinol analysis, Cannabis chemistry, Cannabidiol analysis
- Abstract
The characterisation of cannabis plants, especially the determination of specific phytocannabinoids, has gained enormous importance in the last decade, mainly due to the recent changes in cannabis control in several countries or states. This is particularly relevant for the forensic, medical or recreative industry to have a rapid, inexpensive, and reliable methodology to identify and quantify phytocannabinoids. Furthermore, spiking cannabis products with Δ
8 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is a contemporary trend that demands improving or replacing current methods to include this cannabinoid. The current study presents an ultrasound-assisted solid-liquid extraction followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) methodology to identify and quantify Δ9 -THC, Δ8 -THC, cannabidiol, cannabinol, Δ9 -tetrahydrocannabinolic acid and cannabidiolic acid in cannabis products. The herbal samples were extracted with ethanol:acetonitrile (50:50, v:v) by ultrasonication using only 50 mg of sample. The plant oils were diluted in ethanol. The optimised procedure allowed ≈100% extraction efficiency of the target cannabinoids. The validation assays showed that the method is linear (R2 > 0.997), selective, sensitive, precise and accurate, with suitable limits of detection (0.125-0.250 µg mL-1 ) and quantification( 0.500 µg mL-1 ). The method was successfully applied to cannabis samples, demonstrating its suitability for routine analyses. This contribution follows the current demand for fast and straightforward analysis services of this plant and its derivatives, using small amounts of sample. The present study compares very favourably against other works, particularly in regards to the extraction efficiency, speed of the overall procedure, method sensitivity, and ability to monitor Δ8 -THC spiked samples using a novel solvent mixture., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
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5. Circular dichroism of anthocyanidin 3-glucoside self-aggregates.
- Author
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Gavara R, Petrov V, Quintas A, and Pina F
- Subjects
- Circular Dichroism, Dimerization, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Anthocyanins chemistry, Glucosides chemistry
- Abstract
Self-association constants for the flavylium cations of the six most common anthocyanidin 3-glucosides were determined by circular dichroism (CD) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. Along with previous (1)H NMR results, all measurements were consistent with a monomer-dimer model. The CD spectra of the anthocyanidin 3-glucosides were similar to the analogues 3,5-diglucosides. All dimers of the anthocyanidin 3-glucosides exhibited left-handed CD signals, with petunidin-3-glucoside and myrtillin having the most intense signals. In addition, the magnitude of the molar ellipticity, [θ], was generally higher for the 3-glucosides than for the 3,5-diglucosides. For all six anthocyanins studied, the CD absorption spectra of their dimers showed evidence of the splitting of the monomer absorption into lower (J aggregates) and higher (H aggregates) energy bands. The angle and the distance between the dipolar moments of the two monomers comprising the dimer were obtained from the lower energy absorption band. While the angle was more or less similar in all six dimers, the separation distance between the monomer dipole moments differed dramatically. The intensity of the CD signal displayed a linear dependence with the inverse square of the dipole moment distances., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. Unveiling heme proteins conformational stability through a UV absorbance ratio method.
- Author
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Oliveira LM, Cordeiro C, Freire AP, Ascenso C, and Quintas A
- Subjects
- Protein Conformation, Protein Denaturation, Protein Folding, Hemeproteins chemistry, Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet methods
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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