First Cryo-EM strutures of hourglass-shaped ACE monomer (IMAGE)

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First Cryo-EM strutures of hourglass-shaped ACE monomer

Caption

Figure 1, Cryo-EM structures of the hourglass-shaped ACE monomer (one protein copy; left) and dimer (two interacting protein copies; middle). A flexible loop (yellow; protein centre) acts as a hub for communication between different areas of the protein. Dimerization is like a ‘kiss of death’ since it triggers conformational changes in the protein core that likely inactivate it. These novel insights into the structure of ACE light the way to better drugs against heart disease.

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© Lizelle Lubbe

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