Functional Structural Biology of Noncollagenous Bone Matrix Proteins

骨是一种复杂的无机-有机复合材料，具有重要的力学和生理意义。尽管是次要成分，但非胶原基质蛋白（NCP）发挥调节作用，并赋予钙化有机基质凝聚力。虽然转基因小鼠模型和细胞培养研究在理解NCP的整体生物活性及其对构建和维持骨骼的贡献方面取得了实质性进展，但其分子结构如何介导矿物质沉积仍然是争论的主题。目前的大部分信息来自计算机预测和人工试管分析。虽然信息量很大，但这种关于蛋白质-矿物质关系的实验和理论研究充其量只是在分子尺度上在人体复杂的生物环境中真正发生的事情的“粗略近似”。因此，有必要在更生理相关的条件下验证这些研究的结果。为了实现这一目标，本提案将利用一个综合的“功能结构生物学”的方法来了解如何分子结构，图案和域定义的NCPs的矿物相的关系。

Bone is a complex inorganic-organic composite with critical mechanical and physiological implications. Despite being minor components, noncollagenous matrix proteins (NCPs) play regulatory roles and impart cohesion to the calcified organic matrix. While transgenic mouse models and cell culture studies have allowed substantial progress in understanding the overall biological activity of NCPs and their contribution to building and maintaining bone, how their molecular structure mediates mineral deposition is still subject of debate. Much of the current information derives from in silico predictions and artificial test tube assays. While extremely informative, such experimental and theoretical studies on protein-mineral relationships are at best “crude approximations” of what really happens at the molecular scale in the complex biological environment of the body. There is therefore a need to validate results from such studies under more physiologically-relevant conditions. Towards this objective, this proposal will exploit an integrative ‘functional structural biology’ approach to understand how molecular structure, motifs and domains define the relationship of NCPs to the mineral phase.