16 documents found, page 1 of 2
Pollen Proteases Play Multiple Roles in Allergic Disorders
Gaspar, Ricardo; Matos, Mafalda Ramos de; Cortes, Luísa; Nunes-Correia, Isabel; Todo-Bom, Ana; Pires, Euclides; Veríssimo, PaulaAllergic diseases are a major health concern worldwide. Pollens are important triggers for allergic rhinitis, conjunctivitis and asthma. Proteases released upon pollen grain hydration appear to play a major role in the typical immunological and inflammatory responses that occur in patients with allergic disorders. In this study, we aimed to identify specific proteolytic activity in a set of pollens with diverse...
Selected cardoon (Cynara cardunculus L.) genotypes suitable for PDO cheeses in ...
Barracosa, Paulo; Rosa, Nuno; Barros, Marlene; Pires, EuclidesCardoon flower extract is a traditional and exclusive rennet used for some PDO cheeses in several Mediterranean regions, due to its extremely high concentration in cardosins. In this preliminary study, six individual cardoon genotypes (1M – 6M) were selected because they revealed a wide and consistent diversity of total and specific cardosin concentrations in flowers. During three growing seasons, the stability...
The Helix aspersa (Brown Garden Snail) allergen repertoire
Martins, Luís; Peltre, Gabriel; Pires, Euclides; Faro, Carlos; Inácio, FilipeCaracterização dos alergénios de 3 espécies de caracol terrestre e sua reactividade cruzada com um ácaro de elevada prevalência ambiental.
Flow Cytometry Evaluation of CD4 T Cell Cytokine Response to rDer p 10 in Mite,...
Martins, Luís; Pires, Euclides; Inácio, FilipeEstudo da resposta celular T CD4 à tropomiosina recombinante de Ácaro em indivíduos pertencentes a diferentes fenótipos em relação a alergia a caracol, ácaro e marisco.
CD4 T-Cell Cytokine Response to Mite Recombinant Tropomyosin in Mite, Snail and...
Martins, Luís; Pires, Euclides; Inácio, FilipeThis work is a preliminary study on immune cell function, evaluating possible tropomyosin-triggering in a snail-mite-shrimp cross-reaction.
Non-native states of cardosin A induced by acetonitrile: Activity modulation vi...
Oliveira, Claudia S.; Sarmento, A. Cristina; Pereira, Anabela; Correia, Isabel; Pessoa, Joao Costa; Esteves, Valdemar I.; Fonseca, Henrique M. A. C.Cardosin A (EC: 3.4.23) is an enzyme containing two polypeptide chains, purified from pistils of Cynara cardunculus L., a cardoon, used for milk clotting in cheese making. It is amemberof the aspartic proteinases (APs), like pepsin and HIV-proteinase that are composed by two symmetric units comprising the active site. Cardosin A is thought to be involved in many cellular events such as in pollen–pistil interact...
Unfolding of cardosin A in organic solvents and detection of intermediaries
Sarmento, Ana Cristina; Oliveira, Cláudia S.; Pereira, Anabela; Esteves, Valdemar I.; Moir, Arthur J.G. Moir; Saraiva, Jorge; Pires, EuclidesIn the present study the relationship between conformational stability and enzymatic activity in the presence of organic solvents (OS) was investigated. We have found that cardosin A, the model protease investigated in this work, inactivates through a biphasic mechanism, which is incipient in aqueous buffer and becomes visible in the presence of hydrophilic OS. In fact, in OS this inactivation originates stable...
Cardosins improve neuronal regeneration after cell disruption: a comparative ex...
Duarte, Ana; Duarte, Emília; Correia, António; Pires, Euclides; Barros, MarleneAbstract The establishment of primary cell cultures is invaluable for studying cell and molecular biological questions. Although primary cell cultures more closely resemble and function like in the native environment, during the culture establishment the cells undergo several changes including the damage sustained during their removal from original tissue. The resultant cells have to rebalance the expression of...
Characterization and expression analysis of the aspartic protease gene family o...
Pimentel, Catarina; Straeten, Dominique Van Der; Pires, Euclides; Faro, Carlos; Rodrigues-Pousada, ClaudinaCardosin A and cardosin B are two aspartic proteases mainly found in the pistils of cardoon Cynara cardunculus L., whose flowers are traditionally used in several Mediterranean countries in the manufacture of ewe's cheese. We have been characterizing cardosins at the biochemical, structural and molecular levels. In this study, we show that the cardoon aspartic proteases are encoded by a multigene family. The ge...
Molecular analysis of the interaction between cardosin A and phospholipase Dα
Simões, Isaura; Mueller, Eva-Christina; Otto, Albrecht; Bur, Daniel; Cheung, Alice Y.; Faro, Carlos; Pires, EuclidesCardosin A is an RGD-containing aspartic proteinase from the stigmatic papillae of Cynara cardunculus L. A putative cardosin A-binding protein has previously been isolated from pollen suggesting its potential involvement in pollen2013pistil interaction [Faro C, Ramalho-Santos M, Vieira M, Mendes A, Simões I, Andrade R, Verissimo P, Lin X, Tang J & Pires E (1999) J Biol Chem274, 28724201328729]. Here we report t...