Cloning, expression and characterization (functional and structural) of the isolated domains of Amblyomin-X

• Grant number: 11/50493-8
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2011
• End date: January 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Chemistry of Macromolecules
• Principal Investigator: Isabel de Fátima Correia Batista
• Grantee: Isabel de Fátima Correia Batista
• Host Institution: Instituto Butantan. Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The proteases exert important holes in physiological and pathological systems, and the action of the inhibitors is one of the most efficient forms for the modulation. The Amblyomin-X (Amblyomma cajennense inhibitor of Factor Xa) is a recombinant protein, which initially was expressed with a histidine-tag. It presents molecular mass of approximately 14 kDa, exerts similarity with Kunitz type domains, is able to inhibit the Factor Xa and causes apoptose in tumor cells. Due to its characteristics, the molecule was submited to a patent process (PI 0406057-1). The Amblyomin-X is a tow-domain protein, which acts on the hemostasis (Batista et. al., 2010) and on cell proliferation (Chudzinski-Tavassi et al., 2010), and because of these facts it can be considered a multifunctional molecule. The challenger of this project is to elucidate the mechanism of action and to reach this the aim of this project is to clone, express, purify and functionally and structurally characterize the isolated domains to contribute to the elucidation of these domains. (AU)