This practical guide offers concise coverage of the scientific and pharmaceutical aspects of protein delivery from controlled release microparticulate systems-emphasizing protein stability during encapsulation and release.

Electron transfer is the simplest of chemical reactions in that it does not normally involve the breaking and making of bonds. It is also of fundamental importance in biology, especially in the electron transport of chains of respiration and photosynthesis, but also in a wide range of other reactions not directly involved in energy coupling.

In the past decade, since the first edition was published, the study of cereal protein chemistry has grown and changed. New separation techniques have been introduced while the application of achievements of molecular biology and genetic engineering of proteins has progressed dramatically. This new edition includes these advances and updates the chemistry of cereal proteins for all specialists working in theory and practice of cereal grain production and processing.

Transcriptional regulation controls the basic processes of life. Its complex, dynamic, and hierarchical networks control the momentary availability of messenger RNAs for protein synthesis. Transcriptional regulation is key to cell division, development, tissue differen- ation, and cancer as discussed in Chapters 1 and 2. We have witnessed rapid, major developments at the intersection of computational biology, experimental technology, and statistics. A decade ago, researches were struggling with notoriously challenging predictions of isolated binding sites from low-throughput experiments. Now we can accurately predict cis-regulatory modules, conserved cl- ters of binding sites (Chapters 13 and 15), partly based on high-throughput ch- matin immunoprecipitation experiments in which tens of millions of DNA segments are sequenced by massively parallel, next-generation sequencers (ChIP-seq, Chapters 9, 10, and 11). These spectacular developments have allowed for the genome-wide mappings of tens of thousands of transcription factor binding sites in yeast, bacteria, mammals, insects, worms, and plants. Please also note the no less spectacular failures in many laboratories around the world.

During the last two decades, there has been an explosion of research pertaining to the molecular mechanisms that allow for organisms to detect different stimuli that is an essential feature for their survival. Among these mechanisms, living beings need to be able to respond to different temperatures as well as chemical and physical stimuli. Thermally activated ion channels were proposed to be present in sensory neurons in the 1980s, but it was not until 1997 that a heat- and capsaicin- activated ion channel, TRPV1, was cloned and its function described in detail. This groundbreaking discovery led to the identification and characterization of several more proteins of the family of Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) ion channels. Intensive research has provided us with the atomic structures of some of these proteins, as well as understanding of their physiological roles, both in normal and pathological conditions. With chapters contributed by renowned experts in the field, Neurobiology of TRP Channels contains a state- of- the- art overview of our knowledge of TRP channels, ranging from structure to their functions in organismal physiology. Features: * Contains chapters on the roles of several TRP ion channels with a diversity of physiological functions, providing a complete picture of the widespread importance of these proteins. * Presents an overview of the structure of TRP channels, including the roles of these proteins in different physiological processes. * Discusses the roles of TRP channels in pathophysiological processes, further highlighting their importance. * Features several full color illustrations to allow the reader better comprehension of TRP channels. A volume in the Frontiers in Neuroscience series

This book presents a comprehensive overview of important immune molecules and their structure-function relationships. The immune system is highly complex, consisting of a network of molecules, cells, tissues and organs, and the immune reaction is involved in various physiological as well as pathological processes, including development, self-tolerance, infection, immunity, and cancer. Numerous molecules participate in immune recognition, inhibition and activation, and these important immune molecules can be roughly divided into cell surface receptors, intracellular receptors and intracellular signaling molecules. The study of how these immune molecules function at molecular level has laid the foundation for understanding the immune system. The book provides researchers and students with the latest research advances concerning the structural biology of key immune molecules/pathways, and offers immunologists essential insights into how these immune molecules function.

Acute Phase Proteins covers all major aspects of acute phase proteins (APP) starting with molecular mechanisms regulating their synthesis and ending with their functional significance. The book features 36 chapters addressing such topics as acute phase response and the APP; major APP and their structure and functions; regulation of APP synthesis, the cytokines and hormones implicated in these processes, and molecular mechanisms involved; signal transduction of cytokines in hepatocytes and posttranscriptional processes; and quantitative and qualitative evaluation of APP in clinical practice. The book will be an important reference for immunologists, molecular biologists, cellular biologists, biochemists, and clinical chemists.

Provides up-to-date information on all aspects of basic and applied research on quinoproteins and quinonoid co-factors such as pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) - exploring the scope, direction and potential value of investigations in this multidisciplinary field.

This final volume in the series focuses on malfunctions of the ubiquitin-proteasome system and their role in human disease.
The editors and authors represent unmatched expertise, comprising virtually all the top scientists in the field, including the pioneers of protein degradation research.
From the contents:
* Ubiquitin and cancer
* Ubiquitin and liver cancer
* Muscle atrophy
* Aggresomes and human disease
* Parkin and neurodegeneration
* Chronic neurodegenerative diseases
* Parkinson's disease
* Ubiquitin and viruses
* Druggability of the ubiquitin-proteasome system
Required reading for molecular and cell biologists, as well as physiologists with an interest in the topic.

This volume highlights recent progress on the fundamental chemistry and mechanistic understanding of metallocofactors, with an emphasis on the major development in these areas from the perspective of bioinorganic chemistry. Metallocofactors are essential for all forms of life and include a variety of metals, such as iron, molybdenum, vanadium, and nickel. Structurally fascinating metallocofactors featuring these metals are present in many bacteria and mediate remarkable metabolic redox chemistry with small molecule substrates, including N2, CO, H2, and CO2. Current interest in understanding how these metallocofactors function at the atomic level is enormous, especially in the context of sustainably feeding and fueling our planet; if we can understand how these cofactors work, then there is the possibility to design synthetic catalysts that function similarly.

This text presents the application of current nutritional knowledge by physicians and dietitians and incorporates emerging fields of science and important discoveries. It contains seven major sections. Section 1: Basic Processes at the Cellular Levels, Section 2: Arginine Metabolism and Functions, Section 3: Arginine Status in Cells Related to Organ Damage and Disease, Section 4: Arginine Status and Use in Healthy Individuals, Section 5: Arginine and Diseases of the Gastrointestinal Tract, Section 6: Therapeutic uses of Arginine: Diabetes, Obesity and Cardiovascular Diseases and Section 7: Therapeutic Uses of Arginine: Cancer, Wound Healing and Infectious Disease. Written by authors of international and national standing, leaders in the field and trendsetters, Arginine in Clinical Nutrition is essential reading for nutritionists and dietitians, public health scientists, doctors, epidemiologists, health care professionals of various disciplines, policy makers and marketing and economic strategists.

Fills a gap between the existing studies of proteins, which tend to be highly technical and geared toward the practicing protein chemist, and biochemistry textbooks, which focus on general principles. Scientists cover a dozen topics by presenting fundamental principles, an overview, and the practica

Membrane proteins play key roles in numerous cellular processes, in particular mediating cell-to-cell communication and signaling events that lead to a multitude of biological effects. Membrane proteins have also been implicated in many critical diseases such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes and cancer. In Membrane Protein Structure Predictions Methods: Methods and Protocols, expert researcher in the field detail the advances in both experimental and computational approaches of the structure, dynamics and interactions of membrane proteins dividing the volume into two sections. The first section details the procedures used for measurements of structure and dynamics of membrane proteins. While the second section contains a survey of the computational methods that have played a critical role in membrane protein structure prediction as well as in providing atomic level insight into the mechanism of the dynamics of membrane receptors. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology (TM) series format, the chapters include the kind of detailed description and implementation advice that is crucial for getting optimal results in the laboratory. Thorough and intuitive, Membrane Protein Structure Predicitons: Methods and Protocols seeks to aid scientists in the further study of membrane protein structure and function.

Lactoferrin is an iron-binding glycoprotein belonging to the transferrin family. It acts as a defense in host animals against microbes and viruses, since it has a broad spectrum of antimicrobial and antiviral activities. Lactoferrin has been shown to regulate the growth and differentiation of many types of cells. The results of recent studies indicate that lactoferrin is a potent regulator of dermal fibroblasts, and promotes cutaneous wound healing. The collagen gel contraction, a model of wound contraction during wound healing process, and migration of human fibroblasts were enhanced by lactoferrin. LRP-1 (LDL Receptor related Protein-1) acts as a signaling receptor for lactoferrin that mediate fibroblast response to lactoferrin by activating ERK/MAPK signaling pathway. In addition, lactoferrin promotes biosynthesis of extracellular matrix (ECM) component such as type-I collagen and hyaluronan. Hyaluronan is a major component of ECM in connective tissue and promotes wound healing. The promoting effect of lactoferrin on hyaluronan production was accompanied by promotion of HAS2 (hyaluronan synthase 2) expression. These observations suggest that lactoferrin promotes the wound healing by providing an ECM that promotes fibroblast migration. Lactoferrin is also known for its anti-inflammatory and immune modulating properties. According to recent in vivo study, lactoferrin promotes wound repair by promoting the early inflammatory phase of wound healing. Based on this, recombinant human lactoferrin was subsequently tested clinically in a Phase II trial in patients with diabetic ulcers and was found to be effective. Lactoferrin should be further evaluated in patients with diabetic and other types of ulcers.

This book discusses the European Union's approach to governance reform in its development assistance relationships with various groups of developing countries. A group of expert authors outline the general features of the position on governance taken by the EU, which is currently the major multilateral donor of development assistance, and discuss the implementation of EU policies in a set of cases: the group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), Southeastern Europe, Central Asia, the Euro-Mediterranean, Latin America and fragile states. The contributions to the book argue that the EU's position on governance reform, particularly since the adoption of the European Consensus on Development in 2005, has had distinctly neoliberal overtones. The EU's governance-related strategies have been instrumental to deepening market-based reform in aid-receiving countries. Policies on state-building adopted by the EU reflect mainly the interests of and ideas embraced by the EU and its member states. To an important extent, the rhetoric accompanying EU policies does not match with the political and social dynamics inherent in governance structures on the ground in many of its aid-recipient partner countries. This book was published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.

Volume II features a variety of animal and human prion diseases, including the newly-identified atypical forms of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and scrapie in animals, and variably protease-sensitive prionopathy in humans, prions in the environment, Tau pathology in human prion disease, transmission of the disease by blood transfusion, mammalian and non-mammalian models, conventional and advanced diagnoses, prion-specific antibodies, as well as decontamination of prions and development of therapeutics of prion diseases, such as the application of immunomodulation. This volume provides up-to-date knowledge about the etiology, pathogenesis, classification, histopathological, and clinical aspects of the highly publicized animal and human prion diseases.

The chemistry of the five principal plant hormone groups is discussed in detail in this volume. Contributing authors review history and occurrence of each hormone group, methods of isolation and detection, biosynthesis and metabolism, and structural determination. Through these analyses, the authors clarify the role of endogenous plant growth regulators in the life cycle of higher plants. The text is supplemented with over 350 figures and structures of various plant hormones.

This book is a collection of critical reviews of the use of high-performance liquid chromatography in a very specialized area of research. It describes in detail modern methodology to separate nucleic acids, enzymes and a wide variety of biologically active proteins such as renin.

This book gives an introduction to molecular biophysics. It starts from material properties at equilibrium related to polymers, dielectrics and membranes. Electronic spectra are developed for the understanding of elementary dynamic processes in photosynthesis including proton transfer and dynamics of molecular motors. Since the molecular structures of functional groups of bio-systems were resolved, it has become feasible to develop a theory based on the quantum theory and statistical physics with emphasis on the specifics of the high complexity of bio-systems. This introduction to molecular aspects of the field focuses on solvable models. Elementary biological processes provide as special challenge the presence of partial disorder in the structure which does not destroy the basic reproducibility of the processes. Apparently the elementary molecular processes are organized in a way to optimize the efficiency. Learning from nature by means exploring the relation between structure and function may even help to build better artificial solar cells. The reader is exposed to basic concepts in modern biophysics, such as entropic forces, phase separation, potential of mean force, electron and proton transfer, heterogeneous reactions, coherent and incoherent energy transfer as well as molecular motors. Basic knowledge in classical and Quantum mechanics, electrostatics and statistical physics is desirable. Simplified models are presented which can be solved in limited cases analytically from the guiding lines to generate the basis for a fundamental understanding of the more complex biophysical systems. Chapters close with challenging problems whose solutions are provided at the end of the book to complete the pedagogical treatment in the book. To the second edition several new chapters were added. The medium polarization is treated self-consistently using basic elements of polaron theory and more advanced nonlinear Schroedinger equations to describe the dynamics of solvation. Ion transport through a membrane was extended by the discussion of cooperative effects. Intramolecular transitions are now discussed in the new edition in much more detail, including also radiationless transitions. Very recent developments in spectroscopy are included, especially two-dimensional and hole-burning spectroscopy. The discussion of charge transfer processes was extended by including recent results of hole transfer in DNA in connection with the super-exchange mechanism. The chapter on molecular motors was rewritten to include the most recent developments of new models. The book is a useful text for students and researchers wanting to go through the mathematical derivations in the theories presented. This book attracts a group of applied mathematically oriented students and scholars to the exciting field of molecular biophysics.

It is increasingly clear that signal transduction is a highly organized and integrated process. Divided into two convenient sections, Signal Transduction Protocols, Third Edition focuses on experimental approaches to better understand the complexity of signal transduction. Introductory chapters provide perspective on several of the challenges involved in signal transduction research and offer guidance on selecting the best approaches to various types of questions. The individual chapters provide detailed experimental protocols covering various topics, from the effects of ligand binding on receptor conformation and effector coupling, to moving inside the cell in order to capture the spatial and temporal characteristics of signaling events. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology (TM) series format, chapters contain introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and notes on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and accessible, Signal Transduction Protocols serves as an ideal guide to scientists of all backgrounds and is a valuable resource for future progress in the field of signal transduction research.

Squamous cell cancers of the head and neck (SCCHN), also known as head and neck cancers (HNC) encompass malignancies of the oral cavity, larynx, nasopharynx and pharynx, and are diagnosed in over 500,000 patients worldwide each year, accounting for 5% of all malignancies. It is estimated that approximately 50,000 patients develop head and neck cancer annually in the United States, of whom approximately 50% succumb to this cancer. For most cases of SCCHN, treatment is multimodal, often combining surgery or irradiation with chemotherapy; even successfully treated patients frequently experience durable and severe side effects. Improving cure rates and reducing chronic morbidity are urgent clinical needs for head and neck cancer. However, in contrast to cancer types such as breast or prostate that have been much studied and have well-defined biology, until recently, relatively few researchers investigated the molecular basis of HNC, making it difficult to design targeted treatments with better efficacy and less debilitating side effects. This volume will provide an overview of the factors contributing to disease pathogenesis, including the recognition of discrete molecular subtypes with distinct etiology, prognosis, and treatment response. This volume will familiarize the reader with the critical signaling pathways and oncogenic drivers for HNC. It will outline the differences between HPV-positive and HPV-negative disease, and how these differences affect treatment choice and outcome. The book will emphasize developments in the past five years, including the growing understanding of the genomic and epigenomic features of the disease based on analysis of next generation sequencing (NGS) data, and timely topics such as the analysis of HNC stem cell populations, non-coding mRNAs, and inflammatory response. It will address exciting new therapeutic approaches such as the use of immunotherapies to treat HNC patients. Overall, the book will provide the reader with current understanding of the biology and treatment of the disease, and describe timely questions that will guide future research aimed at controlling and curing this disease.

This is the first book to collect and summarize in one publication the efforts to use kinases or phosphatases for drug development against parasite infections.
The editors and contributors comprise the Who is Who in the field, and they are comprehensive in covering every aspect of the topic, from basic research findings to translational approaches in drug development
The result will be welcomed by everyone in academia and industry participating in the global effort to finally combat the major diseases caused by eukaryotic parasites. This is volume one of a two-volume treatise, the second being exclusively dedicated to efforts to combat malaria using the same approach.

This detailed book explores the technical breakthroughs with biophysical and cell biological approaches that have advanced the study of molecular mechanisms underlying the generation and transduction of the hedgehog (HH) signal, indicating the important role of sterols in this pathway. Within its pages, the volume examines techniques involving several key protein components in this pathway, including HH, the signaling ligand; Dispatched, a HH secretion regulator; Patched, the receptor of HH; Smoothened, the signal transducer used to transduce the HH signal across the plasma membrane; and GLI, the transcription factor to turn on HH target genes. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters feature introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step readily reproducible laboratory protocols, as well as tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Hedgehog Signaling: Methods and Protocols provides researchers in clinical and basic science with a fresh and reliable reference for analyzing HH signal transduction through cell biological, biochemical, and biophysical approaches.

How and why certain proteins misfold and how this misfolding is linked to many disease processes has become a well-documented topic of study. Protein Misfolding and Cellular Stress in Disease and Aging: Concepts and Protocols moves beyond the basics to emphasize the molecular effects of protein misfolding at a cellular level, to delineate the impacts and cellular reactions that play a role in pathogenetic mechanisms, and to pinpoint possible manipulations and treatment strategies that can counteract, modify, or delay the consequences of misfolding. The volume begins with several concepts and approaches developed in the recent past including a connection to the research field of aging, where protein misfolding diseases have been equated to premature aging processes, and the book's coverage continues with detailed descriptions of protocols for relevant experimental approaches. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology (TM) series format, protocols chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and cutting-edge, Protein Misfolding and Cellular Stress in Disease and Aging: Concepts and Protocols aims to aid researchers in the field, as well as medical professionals and molecular biologists, in shaping and performing research related to this intriguing and vital subject.

Although less common than -amino acids, non- -amino acids-where the amino group is not on the carbon immediately adjacent to the carboxyl group but is attached to another carbon in the chain (for example, the , , carbon)-are components of biologically important molecules, are significant in the pharmaceutical industry, and are useful starting materials for many areas of organic chemistry. Since the publication of the first edition of this book nearly 20 years ago, synthetic work devoted to the preparation of non- -amino acids has expanded greatly. Methods of Non- -Amino Acid Synthesis, Second Edition has been extensively rewritten and reorganized, providing an up-to-date review of strategies and methods for non- -amino acid synthesis, particularly those amino acids that are key synthetic intermediates or important compounds in their own right. It focuses on acyclic amino acids of C3-C10, but also aminoalkanoic carboxylic acids, aminoalkenoic acids, and aminoalkynoic acids. The new edition contains many updated references and has a greater emphasis on the biological importance of non- -amino acids. In addition to an array of synthetic methods, the book offers discussions on why non- -amino acids are important. The book covers synthetic methods that rely on substituent refunctionalization, the conversion of cyclic precursors to acyclic amino acids, conjugate addition reactions, and enolate anion reactions and condensation reactions that lead to non- -amino acids. It also examines reactions and strategies that lead to good diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity during synthesis. A chapter devoted to biologically important amino acids includes separate sections on GABA, GABOB, carnitine, DAVA, statine, and other significant amino acids as well as a new section on peptides and proteins that contain non- -amino acids. The final chapter addresses aminocyclic and heterocyclic amino acids.