The Protein Man's Blog | A Discussion of Protein Research

With more than one million cases in 208 countries and territories around the world, the scientific and medical communities are on a race against time to find a viable prevention and treatment plan for the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and its associated disease, COVID-19, which has already claimed tens of thousands of lives to date. This challenge has led them to focus on how the virus breaks into human cells.

How Does the Coronavirus Infect Target Cells?

Protease and phosphatase inhibitor cocktails are essential to most cell lysis and protein extraction procedures. The inhibitors protect protein samples from degradation and preserve their phosphorylation state.

A reliable LDH cytotoxicity assay detects cell toxicity, cell death, cell viability, and cell proliferation. It is also ideal for the application of cell-free supernatants from cells in culture (adherent or suspension).

Proteomes can be made up of more 15,000-20,000 different protein species that differ greatly in properties such as molecular mass, charge, abundance, hydrophobicity and other characteristics. Extraction of proteome for analysis is therefore a daunting task that requires careful attention to details. Sample preparation for proteome analysis requires solubilization of proteins. The choice of optimal method for solubilization of protein mixture is critical since sample preparation affects the outcome of analysis. Usually the steps involved are homogenization, solubilization and stabilization when proteome sample is prepared from cells or tissues.