Publications by Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez

Exploring New Nanopore Sensors from the Aerolysin Family

Juan Francisco Bada Juarez, Matteo Dal Peraro, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez

Aerolysin‐like proteins are a family of pore‐forming toxins with potential biotechnological applications as nanopore sensors for biomolecular detection and sequencing. Despite their conserved structural fold, the low sequence identity complicates sequence ...

Wiley2025

Aerolysin Nanopore Structures Revealed at High Resolution in a Lipid Environment

Juan Francisco Bada Juarez, Matteo Dal Peraro, Luciano Andres Abriata, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez, Jana Susanne Anton

Aerolysin is a beta-pore-forming toxin produced by most Aeromonas bacteria, which has attracted large attention in the field of nanopore sensing due to its narrow and charged pore lumen. Structurally similar proteins, belonging to the aerolysin-like family ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2025

The HP1 box of KAP1 organizes HP1α for silencing of endogenous retroviral elements in embryonic stem cells

Rudolf Hovius, Matteo Dal Peraro, Beat Fierz, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez

Repression of endogenous retroviral elements (ERVs) is facilitated by KAP1 (KRAB-associated protein 1)-containing complexes, however the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here, we show that binding of KAP1 to the major component of the heterochromatin ...

Springer Science and Business Media LLC2025

Missense variants in CMS22 patients reveal that PREPL has both enzymatic and nonenzymatic functions

Matteo Dal Peraro, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez, Anastasia Theodoropoulou, Aleksandar Antanasijevic, Edoardo Cavani

Congenital myasthenic syndrome-22 (CMS22, OMIM 616224) is a rare genetic disorder caused by deleterious genetic variation in the prolyl endopeptidase-like (PREPL) gene. Previous reports have described patients with deletions and nonsense variants in PREPL, ...

American Society for Clinical Investigation2024

Structural characterization of Prolyl endopeptidase-like, a mitochondrial protein involved in congenital myasthenic syndrome-22

Matteo Dal Peraro, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez, Anastasia Theodoropoulou, Edoardo Cavani

SPRINGER2023

Using integrative structural biology for the identification of novel aerolysin-like pore forming toxins for nanopore sensing

Juan Francisco Bada Juarez, Matteo Dal Peraro, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez, Fernando Augusto Teixeira Pinto Meireles, Jana Susanne Anton

SPRINGER2023

Structure and dynamics of Toll immunoreceptor activation in the mosquito Aedes aegypti

Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez

Aedes aegypti can act as a vector for viral pathogens but the mechanism of viral resistance and evolving host-pathogen tolerance are poorly understood. Here the authors structurally characterise a duplicated pair of interacting Toll immunoreceptors and the ...

Nature Research2022

Prolyl endopeptidase-like is a (thio)esterase involved in mitochondrial respiratory chain function

Matteo Dal Peraro, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez

Deficiency of the serine hydrolase prolyl endopeptidase-like (PREPL) causes a recessive metabolic disorder characterized by neonatal hypotonia, feeding difficulties, and growth hormone deficiency. The pathophysiology of PREPL deficiency and the physiologic ...

CELL PRESS2021

Palmitoylated acyl protein thioesterase APT2 deforms membranes to extract substrate acyl chains

Françoise Gisou van der Goot Grunberg, Laurence Gouzi Abrami, Patrick Alain Sandoz, Florence Pojer, Matteo Dal Peraro, Sylvia Ho, Martina Audagnotto, Giulia Fonti, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez, Muhammad Umair Anwar, Francisco De Magalhães Sarmento R De Mesquita

Acyl protein thioesterase APT2 interacts with membranes via its charged beta-tongue, becomes palmitoylated by ZDHHC3/7 and deforms the bilayer to extract substrate acyl chains. APT2 deacylation leads to its membrane release and degradation. ...

NATURE RESEARCH2021

The Polyglutamine Expansion at the N-Terminal of Huntingtin Protein Modulates the Dynamic Configuration and Phosphorylation of the C-Terminal HEAT Domain

Ruedi Aebersold, Matteo Dal Peraro, Giorgio Elikem Tamo, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez

The polyQ expansion in huntingtin protein (HTT) is the prime cause of Huntington's disease (HD). The recent cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of HTT-HAP40 complex provided the structural information on its HEAT-repeat domains. Here, we present an ...

CELL PRESS2020

Btk SH2-kinase interface is critical for allosteric kinase activation and its targeting inhibits B-cell neoplasms

Florence Pojer, Matteo Dal Peraro, Oliver Hantschel, Sandrine Madeleine Suzanne Georgeon, Allan Joaquim Lamontanara, Tim Kükenshöner, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez, Daniel Pereira Duarte, Grégory La Sala

Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) is critical for B-cell maturation and activation. Btk loss-of-function mutations cause human X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA). In contrast, Btk signaling sustains growth of several B-cell neoplasms which may be treated with ...

Nature Publishing Group2020

Structural and functional divergence of duplicated mosquito Toll and Spz compared to Drosophila

Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez

AMER ASSOC IMMUNOLOGISTS2020

The Human RNA Helicase DDX21 Presents a Dimerization Interface Necessary for Helicase Activity

Didier Trono, Annamaria Kauzlaric, Matteo Dal Peraro, Suliana Manley, Alice Duperrex, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez, Jenny Sülzle

Members of the DEAD-box helicase family are involved in all fundamental processes of RNA metabolism, and as such, their malfunction is associated with various diseases. Currently, whether and how oligomerization impacts their biochemical and biological fun ...

2020

KAP1 is an antiparallel dimer with a functional asymmetry

Didier Trono, Davide Demurtas, Matteo Dal Peraro, Louise Catherine Bryan, Beat Fierz, Pierre-Yves Joseph Laurent Helleboid, Alexandra Styliani Kalantzi, Giulia Fonti, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez

KAP1 (KRAB domain-associated protein 1) plays a fundamental role in regulating gene expression in mammalian cells by recruiting different transcription factors and altering the chromatin state. In doing so, KAP1 acts both as a platform for macromolecular i ...

Life Science Alliance, LLC2019

Discovery of a Selective Aurora A Kinase Inhibitor by Virtual Screening

Jean-Louis Reymond, Pierre Gönczy, Sachin Kotak, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez

Here we report the discovery of a selective inhibitor of Aurora A, a key regulator of cell division and potential anticancer target. We used the atom category extended ligand overlap score (xLOS), a 3D ligand-based virtual screening method recently develop ...

2016

X-ray structure of a lectin-bound DNA duplex containing an unnatural phenanthrenyl pair

Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez

DNA duplexes containing unnatural base-pair surrogates are attractive biomolecular nanomaterials with potentially beneficial photophysical or electronic properties. Herein we report the first X-ray structure of a duplex containing a phen-pair in the center ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2016

Structural insights on cholesterol endosynthesis: Binding of squalene and 2,3-oxidosqualene to supernatant protein factor

Michele Cascella, Maria Josefina Marcaida Lopez, Christos Lamprakis

We present the crystal structures of the SEC14-like domain of supernatant protein factor (SPF) in complex with squalene and 2,3-oxidosqualene. The structures were resolved at 1.75 angstrom (complex with squalene) and 1.6 angstrom resolution (complex with 2 ...

Elsevier2015