Enarios would be possible. However, having found the G722A exchange in several other mammalian species controlling pregnancy by progesterone including wallaby, armadillo and bat [33?5], the “receptor first” model would be the more likely. In this case, the 1.3-fold increase in progesterone affinity that we observed introducing G722A in the human PR would have been sufficient for positive selection of the mutation, followed by an opportunistic usage of the new ligand spectrum by horses and elephants, which resulted in a complete switch in hormone usage in the latter.Interestingly, while the ligand specificity of horse and elephant evolved in parallel, the source of DHP synthesis differs for both species. In both African and Asian elephants DHP is directly synthesized in the corpora lutea of the ovaries by an unknown mechanism [5]. In horses, DHP is generated by 5-alpha reduction of progesterone in the placenta [27,28]. The two different ways of taking advantage of the altered receptor specificity additionally supports the “receptor first” theory. Whether 5-alpha-reduced progestins play a role also in other mammalians carrying the Ala722 phenotype remains to be investigated.Supporting InformationFigure S1 Comparison of human, horse and elephant PR LBD with sequenced PR LBD from related mammalian species. (PDF) Table S1 Output of the Selecton server analysis.(PDF)AcknowledgmentsWe thank Joerns Fickel from the Institute of Zoo and Wildlife MedChemExpress TLK199 Research (IZW) in Berlin for kindly providing the DNA samples of Przewalski’s horse, rhino, manatee, hyrax and Asian elephant and Thomas Hildebrandt (IZW) for the elephant vagina tissue sample.Author ContributionsConceived and designed the experiments: MW AKS HHDM RK SU. Performed the experiments: MW AKS. Analyzed the data: MW AKS RK HHDM. Wrote the paper: MW AKS SU HHDM.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection in humans results in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) in 20?0 of patients with 10 mortality [1]. Passive antibody therapy has been successfully used to treat patients infected with Fasudil HCl cost SARS-CoV [2?], and to confer protection against lethal challenge in experimental animals [5]. Reemergence of SARS in humans remains a credible health threat because of the animal 24195657 reservoirs [6?]. As of now, there is no effective treatment for SARS. However, since virus titer peaks 10 days post-infection [1,10], post-exposure treatment that is effective against a broad spectrum of viral variants remains a viable option. Many of the reported HmAbs against SARS-CoV fail to neutralize all of the clinical isolates [11?3]. Therefore, there is a need for a clinically usable therapy against SARS-CoV infection. The Spike (S) glycoprotein plays an essential role in receptor binding and membrane fusion critical for the virus entry, and contains epitopes that elicit neutralizing Abs [14?7]. The SARSCoV S protein consists of two functional domains, S1 (amino acids 12?80) and S2 (amino acids 681?255) [18]. The receptor binding domain (RBD) (amino acids 318?10) contained within the S1 domain is required for binding to ACE-2 receptor on thecell surface and is thought to contain the majority of neutralizing epitopes [14,19,20]. Co-crystallization of the RBD and human ACE-2 identified the receptor binding motif (RBM) (amino acids 424?94) in direct contact with ACE2 [18]. The S2 domain contains the fusion peptide followed by two conserved heptad repeats (i.e. HR1 and HR2), which upon cleavage by ca.Enarios would be possible. However, having found the G722A exchange in several other mammalian species controlling pregnancy by progesterone including wallaby, armadillo and bat [33?5], the “receptor first” model would be the more likely. In this case, the 1.3-fold increase in progesterone affinity that we observed introducing G722A in the human PR would have been sufficient for positive selection of the mutation, followed by an opportunistic usage of the new ligand spectrum by horses and elephants, which resulted in a complete switch in hormone usage in the latter.Interestingly, while the ligand specificity of horse and elephant evolved in parallel, the source of DHP synthesis differs for both species. In both African and Asian elephants DHP is directly synthesized in the corpora lutea of the ovaries by an unknown mechanism [5]. In horses, DHP is generated by 5-alpha reduction of progesterone in the placenta [27,28]. The two different ways of taking advantage of the altered receptor specificity additionally supports the “receptor first” theory. Whether 5-alpha-reduced progestins play a role also in other mammalians carrying the Ala722 phenotype remains to be investigated.Supporting InformationFigure S1 Comparison of human, horse and elephant PR LBD with sequenced PR LBD from related mammalian species. (PDF) Table S1 Output of the Selecton server analysis.(PDF)AcknowledgmentsWe thank Joerns Fickel from the Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin for kindly providing the DNA samples of Przewalski’s horse, rhino, manatee, hyrax and Asian elephant and Thomas Hildebrandt (IZW) for the elephant vagina tissue sample.Author ContributionsConceived and designed the experiments: MW AKS HHDM RK SU. Performed the experiments: MW AKS. Analyzed the data: MW AKS RK HHDM. Wrote the paper: MW AKS SU HHDM.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection in humans results in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) in 20?0 of patients with 10 mortality [1]. Passive antibody therapy has been successfully used to treat patients infected with SARS-CoV [2?], and to confer protection against lethal challenge in experimental animals [5]. Reemergence of SARS in humans remains a credible health threat because of the animal 24195657 reservoirs [6?]. As of now, there is no effective treatment for SARS. However, since virus titer peaks 10 days post-infection [1,10], post-exposure treatment that is effective against a broad spectrum of viral variants remains a viable option. Many of the reported HmAbs against SARS-CoV fail to neutralize all of the clinical isolates [11?3]. Therefore, there is a need for a clinically usable therapy against SARS-CoV infection. The Spike (S) glycoprotein plays an essential role in receptor binding and membrane fusion critical for the virus entry, and contains epitopes that elicit neutralizing Abs [14?7]. The SARSCoV S protein consists of two functional domains, S1 (amino acids 12?80) and S2 (amino acids 681?255) [18]. The receptor binding domain (RBD) (amino acids 318?10) contained within the S1 domain is required for binding to ACE-2 receptor on thecell surface and is thought to contain the majority of neutralizing epitopes [14,19,20]. Co-crystallization of the RBD and human ACE-2 identified the receptor binding motif (RBM) (amino acids 424?94) in direct contact with ACE2 [18]. The S2 domain contains the fusion peptide followed by two conserved heptad repeats (i.e. HR1 and HR2), which upon cleavage by ca.
