Artifical Proteins-keratin

Biology

Artificial proteins and their use in medicine and industry

Artificial proteins are proteins that are not natural, like its name says. They can function as replacements of natural proteins found in bacterial cells. There are many types of artificial proteins, but I will focus on keratin. Keratin refers to a family of fibrous structural proteins.

Keratin is an extremely strong protein which is a major component in skin, hair, nails, hooves, horns, and teeth. The amino acids which combine to form keratin have several unique properties, and depending on the levels of the amino acids, keratin can be inflexible and hard, like hooves, or soft, as is the case with skin. Most of the keratin that people interact with is actually dead; hair, skin, and nails are all formed from dead cells which the body sheds as new cells push up from underneath. If the dead cells are kept in good condition, they will serve as an insulating layer to protect the delicate new keratin below them.

Keratin is difficult to dissolve, because it contains cysteine disulfide, which means that it is able to form disulfide bridges. These disulfide bridges create a helix shape that is extremely strong, as sulfur atoms bond to each other from across the helix, creating a fibrous matrix which is not readily soluble. Depending on how much cysteine disulfide keratin contains, the bond can be extremely strong to make hard cells like those found in hooves, or it can be softer to make flexible keratin like hair and skin. Because of the high levels of sulfur in keratin, when it is burned it produces a distinct sulfurous odor which people found with a bad smell.

The usefulness of keratin depends on their supermolecular aggregation. These depend on the properties of the individual polypeptide strands, which depend in turn on their amino acid composition and sequence.

The treatment of keratin is one example that has it positive and negative effects. Keratin is a protein found naturally in your hair. It can fill in gaps in the hair cuticle that are cracked, dry, or damaged. It is mixed with varying levels of formaldehyde(in some cases it have many of this that is bad because it is also known as carcinogen), and applied to the hair, and then sealed in with the heat of a flat iron. The formaldehyde helps hold the keratin molecules together, which straightens your hair and keeps it that way. A suspected carcinogen, formaldehyde is a colorless chemical compound with an irritating odor. Exposure to formaldehyde has been led to health problems, including general malaise, runny nose, sore throat, headache, itching, and irritated eyes. Exactly how much formaldehyde is used in these products depends on the brand and blend. In general, anything less than 2% formaldehyde won't be as effective. The more formaldehyde, the stronger the treatment, but the worse the odor or smell. The keratin-based treatments last about two months and the process of doing like 90 minutes. The treatment is very expensive, you would have to spend around 300 dollars.

The silk fibroins produced by insects and spiders are often classified as keratins. Silk found in insect pupae, and in spider webs and egg casings, also has twisted sheets incorporated into fibers wound into larger supermolecular aggregates. The structure of the spinnerets on spiders’ tails, and the contributions of their interior glands, provide remarkable control of fast extrusion. Spider silk is typically about 1 to 2 micrometres (µm) thick, compared with about 60 µm for human hair, and more for some mammals. Silk from the hornet cocoon contains doublets about 10 µm across, with cores and coating, and may be arranged in up to 10 layers; also in plaques of variable shape. Adult hornets also use silk as a glue, as do spiders.

In conclusion keratin is an extreme strong protein found mainly in our hair. It has its positive side that

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