Biomedical subjects

Sander B Nabuurs

Publications and source records attributed to Sander B Nabuurs.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Negative constraints underlie the ErbB specificity of epidermal growth factor-like ligands.

Epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like growth factors bind their ErbB receptors in a highly selective manner, but the molecular basis for this specificity is poorly understood. We have previously shown that certain residues in human EGF (Ser(2)-Asp(3)) and TGFalpha (Glu(26)) are not essential for their binding to ErbB1 but prevent binding to ErbB3 and ErbB4. In the present study, we have used a phage display approach to affinity-optimize the C-terminal linear region of EGF-like growth factors for binding to each ErbB receptor and thereby shown that Arg(45) in EGF impairs binding to both ErbB3 and ErbB4. By omitting all these so-called negative constraints from EGF, we designed a ligand designated panerbin that binds ErbB1, ErbB3, and ErbB4 with similarly high affinity as their wild-type ligands. Homology models, based on the known crystal structure of TGFalpha-bound ErbB1, showed that panerbin is able to bind ErbB1, ErbB3, and ErbB4 in a highly similar manner with respect to position and number of interaction sites. Upon in silico introduction of the experimentally known negative constraints into panerbin, we found that Arg(45) induced local charge repulsion and Glu(26) induced steric hindrance in a receptor-specific manner, whereas Ser(2)-Asp(3) impaired binding due to a disordered conformation. Furthermore, radiolabeled panerbin was used to quantify the level of all three receptors on human breast cancer cells in a single radioreceptor assay. It is concluded that the ErbB specificity of EGF-like growth factors primarily results from the presence of a limited number of residues that impair the unintended interaction with other ErbB receptors.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2006

Increased leptin expression in common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) after food intake but not after fasting or feeding to satiation.

Leptin is a key factor in the regulation of food intake and is an important factor in the pathophysiology of obesity. However, more than a decade after the discovery of leptin in mouse, information regarding leptin in any nonmammalian species is still scant. We report the identification of duplicate leptin genes in common carp (Cyprinus carpio). The unique gene structure, the conservation of both cysteines that form leptin's single disulfide bridge, and stable clustering in phylogenetic analyses substantiate the unambiguous orthology of mammalian and carp leptins, despite low amino acid identity. The liver is a major yet not the only site of leptin expression. However, neither 6 d nor 6 wk of fasting nor subsequent refeeding affected hepatic leptin expression, although the carp predictably shifted from carbohydrate to lipid metabolism. Animals that were fed to satiation grew twice as fast as controls; however, they did not show increased leptin expression at the termination of the study. Hepatic leptin expression did, however, display an acute and transient postprandial increase that follows the postprandial plasma glucose peak. In summary, leptin mRNA expression in carp changes acutely after food intake, but involvement of leptin in the long-term regulation of food intake and energy metabolism was not evident from fasting for days or weeks or long-term feeding to satiation. These are the first data on the regulation of leptin expression in any nonmammalian species.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2006

The presence of multiple and differentially regulated interleukin-12p40 genes in bony fishes signifies an expansion of the vertebrate heterodimeric cytokine family.

Interleukin-12 (IL-12) is the founding member of a rapidly growing family of heterodimeric cytokines. It consists of two subunits, designated p35 and p40 that together constitute a disulphide-linked heterodimeric cytokine. IL-12 is well known for its prominent role in both the early innate immune response and the skewing of the ensuing acquired immune response towards Th1. Here, we report the presence of IL-12p35 and three highly distinct IL-12p40 genes in common carp (Cyprinus carpio). The carp is a bony fish species genetically similar to the zebrafish, but its substantially larger body size facilitates immunological studies. A comparison of IL-12p35 genes of mammalian and non-mammalian species reveals the presence of a duplicated exon that is unique to the mammalian lineage. The organisation of the three carp IL-12p40 genes is similar to that of higher vertebrates. Phylogenetic analyses that include the p40-related subunits of other composite cytokines confirm the presence of three genuine IL-12p40 genes in carp and indicate that they are evolutionary ancient and possibly not restricted to bony fishes. The orthology of the different carp p40 subunits to mammalian IL-12p40 is further evident from the conservation of key residues involved in the formation of intra- and interchain disulphide bridges and the tight interlocking topology between p35 and p40. The expression of each of the carp IL-12p40 genes differs profoundly, constitutively as well as in response to in vitro stimulation of carp macrophages. Collectively, the presence of multiple and substantially different IL-12 genes signifies a considerable expansion of the vertebrate heterodimeric cytokine family.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2006

Traditional biomolecular structure determination by NMR spectroscopy allows for major errors.

One of the major goals of structural genomics projects is to determine the three-dimensional structure of representative members of as many different fold families as possible. Comparative modeling is expected to fill the remaining gaps by providing structural models of homologs of the experimentally determined proteins. However, for such an approach to be successful it is essential that the quality of the experimentally determined structures is adequate. In an attempt to build a homology model for the protein dynein light chain 2A (DLC2A) we found two potential templates, both experimentally determined nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) structures originating from structural genomics efforts. Despite their high sequence identity (96%), the folds of the two structures are markedly different. This urged us to perform in-depth analyses of both structure ensembles and the deposited experimental data, the results of which clearly identify one of the two models as largely incorrect. Next, we analyzed the quality of a large set of recent NMR-derived structure ensembles originating from both structural genomics projects and individual structure determination groups. Unfortunately, a visual inspection of structures exhibiting lower quality scores than DLC2A reveals that the seriously flawed DLC2A structure is not an isolated incident. Overall, our results illustrate that the quality of NMR structures cannot be reliably evaluated using only traditional experimental input data and overall quality indicators as a reference and clearly demonstrate the urgent need for a tight integration of more sophisticated structure validation tools in NMR structure determination projects. In contrast to common methodologies where structures are typically evaluated as a whole, such tools should preferentially operate on a per-residue basis.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2005

ZNF674: a new kruppel-associated box-containing zinc-finger gene involved in nonsyndromic X-linked mental retardation.

Array-based comparative genomic hybridization has proven to be successful in the identification of genetic defects in disorders involving mental retardation. Here, we studied a patient with learning disabilities, retinal dystrophy, and short stature. The family history was suggestive of an X-linked contiguous gene syndrome. Hybridization of full-coverage X-chromosomal bacterial artificial chromosome arrays revealed a deletion of ~1 Mb in Xp11.3, which harbors RP2, SLC9A7, CHST7, and two hypothetical zinc-finger genes, ZNF673 and ZNF674. These genes were analyzed in 28 families with nonsyndromic X-linked mental retardation (XLMR) that show linkage to Xp11.3; the analysis revealed a nonsense mutation, p.E118X, in the coding sequence of ZNF674 in one family. This mutation is predicted to result in a truncated protein containing the Kruppel-associated box domains but lacking the zinc-finger domains, which are crucial for DNA binding. We characterized the complete ZNF674 gene structure and subsequently tested an additional 306 patients with XLMR for mutations by direct sequencing. Two amino acid substitutions, p.T343M and p.P412L, were identified that were not found in unaffected individuals. The proline at position 412 is conserved between species and is predicted by molecular modeling to reduce the DNA-binding properties of ZNF674. The p.T343M transition is probably a polymorphism, because the homologous ZNF674 gene in chimpanzee has a methionine at that position. ZNF674 belongs to a cluster of seven highly related zinc-finger genes in Xp11, two of which (ZNF41 and ZNF81) were implicated previously in XLMR. Identification of ZNF674 as the third XLMR gene in this cluster may indicate a common role for these zinc-finger genes that is crucial to human cognitive functioning.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2005

RECOORD: a recalculated coordinate database of 500+ proteins from the PDB using restraints from the BioMagResBank.

State-of-the-art methods based on CNS and CYANA were used to recalculate the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) solution structures of 500+ proteins for which coordinates and NMR restraints are available from the Protein Data Bank. Curated restraints were obtained from the BioMagResBank FRED database. Although the original NMR structures were determined by various methods, they all were recalculated by CNS and CYANA and refined subsequently by restrained molecular dynamics (CNS) in a hydrated environment. We present an extensive analysis of the results, in terms of various quality indicators generated by PROCHECK and WHAT_CHECK. On average, the quality indicators for packing and Ramachandran appearance moved one standard deviation closer to the mean of the reference database. The structural quality of the recalculated structures is discussed in relation to various parameters, including number of restraints per residue, NOE completeness and positional root mean square deviation (RMSD). Correlations between pairs of these quality indicators were generally low; for example, there is a weak correlation between the number of restraints per residue and the Ramachandran appearance according to WHAT_CHECK (r = 0.31). The set of recalculated coordinates constitutes a unified database of protein structures in which potential user- and software-dependent biases have been kept as small as possible. The database can be used by the structural biology community for further development of calculation protocols, validation tools, structure-based statistical approaches and modeling. The RECOORD database of recalculated structures is publicly available from http://www.ebi.ac.uk/msd/recoord.

Databases, Protein↗

PubMed2005

Definition of a new information-based per-residue quality parameter.

For biomolecular NMR structures typically only a poor correspondence is observed between statistics derived from the experimental input data and structural quality indicators obtained from the structure ensembles. Here, we investigate the relationship between the amount of available NMR data and structure quality. By generating datasets with a predetermined information content and evaluating the quality of the resulting structure ensembles we show that there is, in contrast to previous findings, a linear relation between the information contained in experimental data and structural quality. From this relation, a new quality parameter is derived that provides direct insight, on a per-residue basis, into the extent to which structural quality is governed by the experimental input data.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Solution structure of the second PDZ domain of the neuronal adaptor X11alpha and its interaction with the C-terminal peptide of the human copper chaperone for superoxide dismutase.

Protection against reactive oxygen species is provided by the copper containing enzyme superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1). The copper chaperone CCS is responsible for copper insertion into apo-SOD1. This role is impaired by an interaction between the second PDZ domain (PDZ2alpha) of the neuronal adaptor protein X11alpha and the third domain of CCS (McLoughlin et al. (2001) J. Biol. Chem., 276, 9303-9307). The solution structure of the PDZ2alpha domain has been determined and the interaction with peptides derived from CCS has been explored. PDZ2alpha binds to the last four amino acids of the CCS protein (PAHL) with a dissociation constant of 91 +/- 2 microM. Peptide variants have been used to map the interaction areas on PDZ2alpha for each amino acid, showing an important role for the C-terminal leucine, in line with canonical PDZ-peptide interactions.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗

PubMed2004

Making optimal use of empirical energy functions: force-field parameterization in crystal space.

Today's energy functions are not able yet to distinguish reliably between correct and almost correct protein models. Improving these near-native models is currently a major bottle-neck in homology modeling or experimental structure determination at low resolution. Increasingly accurate energy functions are required to complete the "last mile of the protein folding problem," for example during a molecular dynamics simulation. We present a new approach to reach this goal. For 50 high resolution X-ray structures, the complete unit cell was reconstructed, including disordered water molecules, counter ions, and hydrogen atoms. Simulations were then run at the pH at which the crystal was solved, while force-field parameters were iteratively adjusted so that the damage done to the structures was minimal. Starting with initial parameters from the AMBER force field, the optimization procedure converged at a new force field called YAMBER (Yet Another Model Building and Energy Refinement force field), which is shown to do significantly less damage to X-ray structures, often move homology models in the right direction, and occasionally make them look like experimental structures. Application of YAMBER during the CASP5 structure prediction experiment yielded a model for target 176 that was ranked first among 150 submissions. Due to its compatibility with the well-established AMBER format, YAMBER can be used by almost any molecular dynamics program. The parameters are freely available from www.yasara.org/yamber.

Computer Simulation↗

PubMed2004

DRESS: a database of REfined solution NMR structures.

Several studies have shown that biomolecular NMR structures are often of lower quality when compared to crystal structures, and consequently they are often excluded from structural analyses. We present a publicly available database of re-refined NMR structures, exhibiting significantly improved quality. This database (available at http://www.cmbi.kun.nl/dress/) presents a uniformly refined and validated set of structural models that improves the value of these NMR structures as input for experimental and theoretical studies in many fields of research.

Databases, Protein↗

PubMed2004

A closed binding pocket and global destabilization modify the binding properties of an alternatively spliced form of the second PDZ domain of PTP-BL.

PTP-BL is a large phosphatase that is implicated in cellular processes as diverse as cytokinesis, actin-cytoskeletal rearrangement, and apoptosis. Five PDZ domains mediate its cellular role by binding to the C termini of target proteins, forming multiprotein complexes. The second PDZ domain (PDZ2) binds to the C termini of the tumor suppressor protein APC and the LIM domain-containing protein RIL; however, in one splice variant, PDZ2as, a 5 residue insertion abrogates this binding. The insert causes distinct structural and dynamical changes in the alternatively spliced PDZ2: enlarging the L1 loop between beta2 and beta3, both lengthening and changing the orientation of the alpha2 helix, giving the base of the binding pocket less flexibility to accommodate ligands, and destabilizing the entire domain. These changes render the binding pocket incapable of binding C termini, possibly having implications in the functional role of PTP-BL.

Adenomatous Polyposis Coli Protein↗

PubMed2003

Quantitative evaluation of experimental NMR restraints.

Nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) data are an indispensable source of structural information in biomolecular structure determination by NMR spectroscopy. The number and type of experimental restraints used in the structure calculation and the RMS deviation of the restraints are usually reported. We present a new method for quantifying the information contained in the experimental NMR restraints. The method is based on a description of the structure in distance space and concepts derived from information theory. It allows for an objective description of the amount of available experimental information, which we show to be related to the positional uncertainty of the NMR ensemble. The measure of information presented is not affected by redundancy in the experimental restraints. Using various examples, we show that the method successfully identifies the crucial restraints in a structure determination: those restraints that are both important and unique. Finally, we demonstrate that the method can detect a wider range of redundancy in experimental datasets when compared to currently available methods. Because our method describes the quantitative evaluation of experimental NMR restraints, we propose the acronym QUEEN.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2003

Homology modeling.

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Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2003

The precision of NMR structure ensembles revisited.

Biomolecular structures provide the basis for many studies in research areas such as structure-based drug design and homology modeling. In order to use molecular coordinates it is important that they are reliable in terms of accurate description of the experimental data and in terms of the overall and local geometry. Besides these primary quality criteria an indication is needed for the uncertainty in the atomic coordinates that may arise from the dynamic behavior of the considered molecules as well as from experimental- and computational procedures. In contrast to the crystallographic B-factor, a good measure for the uncertainty in NMR-derived atomic coordinates is still not available. It has become clear in recent years that the widely used atomic Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD), which is a measure for the precision of the data, overestimates the accuracy of NMR structure ensembles and therefore is a problematic measure for the uncertainty in the atomic coordinates. In this study we report a method that yields a more realistic estimate of the uncertainty in the atomic coordinates by maximizing the RMSD of an ensemble of structures, while maintaining the accordance with the experimentally derived data. The results indicate that the RMSD of most NMR structure ensembles can be significantly increased compromising neither geometric quality nor NMR data. This maximized RMSD therefore seems a better estimate of the true uncertainty in the atomic coordinates.

Crystallography, X-Ray↗