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- All Subjects: Anti-aging
- All Subjects: Intrinsically Disordered Protein
- Creators: Garg, Vikas
Description
Increasing prices of pharmaceutical grade prescription drugs have caused hospitals, insurance companies, and patients to search for alternative methods of treating illness. The pharmaceutical industry must find ways of lowering the costs associated with prescription drugs to avoid further scrutiny, increased regulation, and staggering profits. The use of RFID technology will increase transparency of information flow within the supply chain and reduce costs associated with recalls, counterfeits, and expired products. The failure to reduce costs in pharmaceuticals and decreased profits have introduced natural supplements into the market. Without the need for FDA regulation and clinical trials, the pharmaceutical industry has developed supplements with the potential benefits of increasing lifespan. The organic molecule, resveratrol, and its ability to mimic the effects of caloric restriction increasing lifespan in smaller organisms has translated to its use in humans. With the future of increased lifespan and youthful aging, the study of sirtuin activating compounds (STACS) and telomere lengthening will become the future of anti-aging cosmetics.
ContributorsOrtega, Victor (Author) / Printezis, Antonios (Thesis director) / Garg, Vikas (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
RNA granules are assemblies of RNA and proteins inside cells that serve multiple roles and functions. Some of the functions they serve in include a variety of organelles such as germ cell P granules, stress granules, and neuronal granules with diverse functions. Intrinsically disordered domains are abundant in the proteins responsible for RNA granules, and they have been attributed to the formation and degradation of RNA granules through a liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) process. LLPS is typically a reversible process where a homogenous fluid de- mixes into two distinct liquid phases. Here, 47 RNA granule proteins with such disordered regions have been surveyed. These proteins have been simulated using coarse-grained molecular simulations to determine size dependence on temperature change. Upper critical solution temperature (UCST) and lower critical solution temperature (LCST) are phase behaviors that can be calculated using the data gathered for scaling and phase behaviors of these proteins. We discovered that less charged amino acid contents are present in RNA granules in comparison to general disordered sequences. This is in line with the observation that charged amino acids are less preferred for the sequence to phase separate at physiological-relevant temperatures. More interestingly, there seems to be an even mix of sequences contributing to both UCST, LCST, and no phase behaviors and the average temperature dependent behaviors of all these proteins have a relatively weak temperature dependence within the temperature range 300 and 325K. The average suggest that these proteins might collectively contribute to RNA granules in a way that adapts to small temperature fluctuations.
ContributorsFrench, Nolan James (Author) / Zheng, Wenwei (Thesis director) / Garg, Vikas (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05