Gary E. Means
Associate Professor
Phone: 614-292-0377
Fax: 614-292-6773
email: means.1@osu.edu
Webpage: None
Research Interests:
My colleagues and I are interested in relationships of protein structure
to biological activity, the mechanisms of enzymes and other biologically
active proteins in the development of procedures, particularly chemical
modification procedures, for studying such problems.
We are currently investigating the effects of certain nitrosating agents
on proteins. Several vasodilatory drugs and the potent mutagen, nitrous
acids, are include among the agents that we are studying. We are characterizing
the chemical and physical effects of those substances on proteins and
attempting to determine how they might be used to identify amino acid
residues required for the biological activities of certain enzymes and
other proteins. As the hypotensive effects of many, and perhaps all,
nitorvasodilatory drugs are accompanied by a rapid nitrosation of proteins,
we are trying to determine how or whether those chemical events may
be related to the pharmacological effects of those drugs.
Selected publications from the last 5 years:
G.E. Means, H. Zhang, and M. Le (1999) "The Chemistry of Protein
Functional Groups", in Protein: A Comprehensive Treatise, Vol.
11, (G. Allen, ed.), JAI Press, London, pp 23-59.
H. Zhang, M. Le, and G.E. Means (1998) "A Kinetic Approach to
Characterize the Electrostatic Environments of Thiol Groups in Proteins." Bioorganic
Chem. 26, 356-364.
M. Le and G.E., Means (1998) "NAD+/NADH recycling by coimrnobilized
lactate dehydrogenase and glutamate dehydrogenase." Enzyme and
Microbial Technol. 23, 49-57.
G.E. Means and R.E. Feeney (1998) "Chemical Modifications ofProteins:
A Review." J. Food Biochemistry 22, 399-426.
M. Le, H. Zhang and G.E. Means (1997) "The Decomposition of S-Nitrosated
Dithiols: A Model for Vicinal Nitrosothiols in Enzymes." Bioorg.
Med. Chem. Letters 7, 1393-1398.
M.S. Studebaker, H. Zhang and G. E. Means (1996) "5-Nitrosothio-2-nitrobenzoate:
A Reagent for the Nitrosation of Thiol Groups in Proteins." Analyt.
Biochem. 237, 193-197 (1996).
Hao Zhang and G. E. Means (1996) "S-Nitrosation of Serum Albumin:
Spectrophotometric Determination of its Nitrosation by Simple S-Nitrosothiols." Analyt.
Biochem. 237,141-144 (1996).
