Structure, self-assembly properties and mechanism of action of antimicrobial peptides, amyloid peptides and silk proteins

我们的研究重点是确定几种具有生物医学意义的多肽和蛋白质的结构、自组装特性和作用机制。我们将重点关注抗生素耐药性和依赖于肽/蛋白质结构和组装的神经退行性疾病。我们还将研究天然丝和合成丝的生产，以帮助开发生物材料，特别是用于组织再生的植入物和支架。这些系统将通过新型固态核磁共振方法和其他几种生物物理技术获得的补充信息的组合来研究。****耐多药细菌的急剧增加导致了寻找新的治疗方法的巨大努力。因此，设计具有新型作用模式的新型抗生素是对抗微生物感染的必要条件，抗菌肽是有希望的候选者。合成的两性肽的结构和膜相互作用将被研究。更具体地说，我们将研究赖氨酸取代肽和精氨酸取代肽的结构、膜拓扑结构和寡聚化。****比较天然与合成抗菌肽的作用方式是非常有趣的。我们将研究天然抗菌肽thanatin与模拟真核和原核细胞的脂质膜的相互作用。由于thanatin在体内诱导细菌的凝集，因此将跟踪不同组成的单层脂质囊泡的聚集，以及肽的二级结构及其膜相互作用。*****淀粉样变性是指一系列退行性疾病，包括阿尔茨海默病和帕金森病，这些疾病表现为淀粉样蛋白沉积在组织上，这是由于蛋白质异常自组装和沉积成淀粉样原纤维的不溶性聚集体造成的。我们建议研究溶液中与膜相关的两种淀粉样肽的结构和自组装特性，即与帕金森病有关的a-突触核蛋白片段和与不同淀粉样病有关的转甲状腺素片段。****蜘蛛丝是指一系列由纤维蛋白制成的生物材料，这些纤维蛋白以分层的方式自组装，产生各种具有特殊机械性能的纤维，并具有很好的应用前景，如组织工程中的缝线、韧带和肌腱。我们将研究重组丝蛋白在溶液中的结构、热稳定性和聚集动力学。形成蛛网捕获螺旋的鞭毛状丝的纤维也将被研究。我们还将确定丝绸蛋白在溶液和纳米晶体中的c端结构域的结构

Our research program focuses on the determination of the structure, self-assembly properties and mechanism of action of several peptides and proteins of biomedical interest. We will focus on antibiotic resistance and neurodegenerative diseases that rely on the structure and assembly of peptides/proteins. We will also study the natural and synthetic production of silk to help in developing biomaterials, especially implants and scaffolds for tissue regeneration. These systems will be investigated by a combination of novel solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance approaches and complementary information will be obtained by several other biophysical techniques.****The dramatic increase in multi-drug-resistant bacteria has led to considerable efforts to find new therapeutic approaches. The design of new antibiotics with novel modes of action is therefore mandatory to fight against microbial infections and antimicrobial peptides are promising candidates. The structure and membrane interactions of synthetic amphipathic peptides will be investigated. More specifically, we will investigate the structure, membrane topology and oligomerization of both lysine-substituted and arginine-substituted peptides.****Comparing the mode of action of natural vs. synthetic antimicrobial peptides is of great interest. We will investigate the interaction of a natural antimicrobial peptide, thanatin, with lipid membranes that model eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. Since thanatin induces the agglutination of bacteria in vivo, the aggregation of unilamellar lipid vesicles of different compositions will be followed, as well as the secondary structure of the peptide and its membrane interactions.*****Amyloidosis refers to a family of degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, which demonstrate amyloid protein deposits on tissues resulting from the abnormal self-assembly and deposition of proteins into insoluble aggregates known as amyloid fibrils. We propose to investigate the structure and self-assembly properties of two amyloid peptides in solution and associated with membranes, namely a fragment of the protein a-synuclein involved in Parkinson's disease and a fragment of the protein transthyretin involved in different amyloidoses.****Spider silk refers to a range of biological materials made of fibrous proteins that self-assemble in a hierarchical manner to produce various fibers with exceptional mechanical properties and promising applications such as stitches, ligaments and tendons from tissue engineering. We will investigate the structure, thermal stability and aggregation kinetics of recombinant silk proteins in solution. Fibers of flagelliform silk, which forms the capture spiral of orb webs, will also be investigated. We will also determine the structure of the C-terminal domain of silk proteins both in solution and as nanocrystals.***