Skip to main content

Some NLM-NCBI services and products are experiencing heavy traffic, which may affect performance and availability. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience. For assistance, please contact our Help Desk at info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1985 Feb;82(4):1050–1053. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.4.1050

Parathymosin alpha: a peptide from rat tissues with structural homology to prothymosin alpha.

A A Haritos, S B Salvin, R Blacher, S Stein, B L Horecker
PMCID: PMC397191  PMID: 3856246

Abstract

A peptide, parathymosin alpha, containing approximately equal to 105 amino acid residues, has been isolated from rat thymus, and the sequence of the first 30 residues at the NH2 terminus has been determined. In this region, it shows 43% structural identity with thymosin alpha 1 and prothymosin alpha. The common sequences do not include residues 2-9, which accounts for the poor reactivity of parathymosin alpha with an antibody directed against this epitope in thymosin alpha 1. Parathymosin alpha appears to modulate the action of prothymosin alpha in protecting sensitive strains of mice against opportunistic infection with Candida albicans.

Full text

PDF
1050

Images in this article

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Caldarella J., Goodall G. J., Felix A. M., Heimer E. P., Salvin S. B., Horecker B. L. Thymosin alpha 11: a peptide related to thymosin alpha 1 isolated from calf thymosin fraction 5. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Dec;80(24):7424–7427. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.24.7424. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Erickson-Viitanen S., Ruggieri S., Natalini P., Horecker B. L. Thymosin beta 10, a new analog of thymosin beta 4 in mammalian tissues. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1983 Sep;225(2):407–413. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(83)90047-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Goldstein A. L., Low T. L., McAdoo M., McClure J., Thurman G. B., Rossio J., Lai C. Y., Chang D., Wang S. S., Harvey C. Thymosin alpha1: isolation and sequence analysis of an immunologically active thymic polypeptide. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Feb;74(2):725–729. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.2.725. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Haritos A. A., Blacher R., Stein S., Caldarella J., Horecker B. L. Primary structure of rat thymus prothymosin alpha. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Jan;82(2):343–346. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.2.343. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Haritos A. A., Tsolas O., Horecker B. L. Distribution of prothymosin alpha in rat tissues. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Mar;81(5):1391–1393. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.5.1391. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Low T. L., Thurman G. B., McAdoo M., McClure J., Rossio J. L., Naylor P. H., Goldstein A. L. The chemistry and biology of thymosin. I. Isolation, characterization, and biological activities of thymosin alpha1 and polypeptide beta1 from calf thymus. J Biol Chem. 1979 Feb 10;254(3):981–986. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. McClure J. E., Lameris N., Wara D. W., Goldstein A. L. Immunochemical studies on thymosin: radioimmunoassay of thymosin alpha 1. J Immunol. 1982 Jan;128(1):368–375. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Pontremoli S., Melloni E., Salamino F., Sparatore B., Michetti M., Horecker B. L. Cytosolic Ca2+-dependent neutral proteinases from rabbit liver: activation of the proenzymes by Ca2+ and substrate. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Jan;81(1):53–56. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.1.53. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Salvin S. B., Neta R. Resistance and susceptibility to infection in inbred murine strains. I. Variations in the response to thymic hormones in mice infected with Candida albicans. Cell Immunol. 1983 Jan;75(1):160–172. doi: 10.1016/0008-8749(83)90315-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES