The authors thank the Papa Andina Initiative of the International Potato Center (CIP), the ALTAGRO project and Consejo Nacional de Sciencia, Tecnologia, e Innovacion Tecnologica (CONCYTEC), Peru, for its financial support.

Profilins are panallergenic proteins of clinical relevance. We compared three groups of three-dimensional structures from six vegetable profilins. The first group was composed of crystal structures obtained by X-ray diffraction. The second and the third group structures were obtained by homology modeling; the selection criteria of the templates for these were based on the best resolution structure and the highest sequence identity, respectively. All of the structures underwent a 200 ns molecular dynamics simulation. The best template for the second group was Art v 4 and for the third group was the crystal structure corresponding to each profilin, except for Zea m 12. After molecular dynamics simulation, root-mean-square deviation, root-mean-square fluctuation, and radii of gyration values were similar in all groups, except for Amb a 8 (second group) and Zea m 12 (third group). All struct...

The aggregation of proteins in the brain is one of the main features of neurodegenerative diseases. In Alzheimer’s disease, the abnormal aggregation of A?-42 is due to intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The latter is due to variations in the environment, such as temperature, salt concentration, and pH. We evaluated the effect of protonation/deprotonation of residues that are part of trimeric and pentameric oligomers at pH 5, pH 6, and pH 7. Molecular dynamics simulation at 200 ns in the canonical ensemble was implemented. The results have revealed that histidine, glutamic acid, and aspartic acid residues showed a protonation/deprotonation effect in oligomers. The root mean square deviation analysis was used to analyze the structural stability at different pHs. We found an increase in hydrophobicity in the side chains of the trimer, while in the pentamer, the structural instability of a c...