金纳米粒子在氨基表面上的组装-pH值的影响

用原子力显微镜（AFM）和表面增强喇曼光谱（SERS）研究了pH值对金纳米粒子在Au／巯基苯胺自组装膜表面上组装效果的影响．AFM结果表明，金纳米粒子在表面上的覆盖度随pH值表现出规律性的变化，巯基苯胺自组装膜的SERS强度随pH值的变化也有类似的趋势．在磁性环境下，氨基未质子化，金粒子难以组装上，而在酸性条件下，氨基质子化带正电，金粒子与基底容易结合．我们认为金纳米粒子和氨基之间的作用属于静电力，pH值同时影响膜表面氨基的质子化程度和金纳米粒子表面的带电量．     

钙调素膜在不同pH值溶液中的循环伏安行为

自组装膜;钙调素膜在不同pH值溶液中的循环伏安行为     

偶氮苯衍生物自组装膜的表征及组装动力学

报导了4-正辛基-4′-（3－巯基丙氧基）偶氮苯（简称C8AzoC3）自组装膜（Self-AssembledMonolnyersSAMs）的表征及其自组装成膜动力学，接触角滴定、原子力显微镜（AFM）及电化学的实验结果表明，C8AzoC3分子在金表面自组装形成致密有序的流水性单分子膜，并且在电极上没有明显的电化学响应．通过控制组装时间，考察了偶氮苯自组装形成单分子膜的动力学过程，从接触角和电化学数据得到组装过程的速率常数kad为（1.2±0.2）×103mol-1·dm3·s－1；依据不同组装时间形成的自组装膜的特征循环伏安行为，提出了C8AzoC3分子在金表面自组装过程的动态模型．     

Study on Electrochemical Behavior of Controllable Interface Alkanethiols Selfassembled Monolayers and Au Nanoparticles Modified Gold Electrode

在裸金电极上自组装不同比例的4,4’-二甲基联苯硫醇(MTP)和硫辛酸(TA)混合液,形成自组装膜( MTP+ TA/Au SAMs),再修饰纳米金,制得纳米金混合巯基修饰金电极(AuNPs/MTP+ TA/Au).研究了纳米金混合巯基修饰金电极的电化学行为和阻抗行为,结果表明电极表面pH值的改变对电极表面的电子转移有重要影响.对葡萄糖传感器的制备条件、测定条件、抗干扰能力等进行了讨论,结果表明修饰电极的微结构和微环境有必要进一步研究.     

硫醇自组装膜对金电极上吡咯电化学聚合的影响

用电化学聚合法在多种烷基硫醇自组装膜修饰金电极上制备了聚吡咯.通过计时安培法、循环伏安法和交流阻抗技术研究了自组装膜的烷基链长和端基功能团对吡咯聚合过程和性质的影响.当自组装膜较完美时,聚吡咯沉积在自组装膜表面;而当自组装膜有一定缺陷时,吡咯在针孔处成核,然后继续生长并完全覆盖在自组装膜表面.研究结果表明,烷基硫醇的链越短,吡咯聚合越容易;疏水的烷基硫醇自组装膜有利于聚吡咯在电极表面的生长.     

硅基底金纳米粒子微阵列电极的制备及其电化学性质的研究— 多孔硅电致发光 生物传感器研究的前期探索

用Frens法制备了不同粒径的金纳米粒子,并用透射电镜、紫外可见分光光度法进行了表征。用自组装技术得到了金膜电极表面的金纳米粒子二维阵列电极,用扫描电镜、电化学等方法对该微阵列电极进行了表征。结果表明,当金电极表面被自组装膜完全覆盖后,电化学反应不再发生,而将金纳米粒子组装到膜上以膈,才得到电化学信号。我们认为,金纳米粒子在这里对电荷的跨膜转移有很强的促进作用。对于该过程的研究,用助于理解电荷的转移机制,对进一步理解电荷隧穿过程有一定的指导意义。     

硒杂环化合物(4,5-苯并苤硒脑)在金表面上的自组装

为了寻求新的自组装单分子膜体系,构建新的功能膜,研究了具备平面型的大环共轭硒杂环化合物-- 4,5-苯并苤硒脑(苯并[c]硒二唑,简称苤硒脑)在金表面的自组装单分子膜.通过X射线光电子能谱(XPS)和电化学手段对其进行表征.XPS研究结果表明,自组装形成单分子膜后,苤硒脑分子中Se3d结合能从57.4 eV下降到57.1 eV;表明硒杂环化合物是通过金硒键固定在金表面上的;电化学循环伏安法实验表明,金电极表面上自组装该有机硒后, Fe(CN)63-/4-的氧化还原峰几乎完全消失;以四硼酸钠为底液,测得该化合物自组装在金表面上时,其还原电位在-0.66 V,与在溶液中用裸金电极测得的还原峰电位基本一致.     

端基结构对超支化聚合物静电吸附自组装行为的影响

研究了3种具有相同骨架结构、不同端基的超支化聚合物与线型聚阳离子(PDAC)的静电吸附自组装.结果表明,超支化聚合物的组装过程与线型弱酸聚合物相似,都受溶液pH值与无机盐浓度的影响,但影响程度随端基结构不同而变化.此外,对以超支化聚合物为最外层的不同自组装膜的表面形貌及接触角进行了表征,其表面形貌及亲水性随端基结构的不同而不同.     

界面可控硫醇SAMs纳米金修饰金电极的电化学行为研究

在裸金电极上自组装不同比例的4,4’-二甲基联苯硫醇(MTP)和硫辛酸(TA)混合液,形成自组装膜(MTP+TA/Au SAMs),再修饰纳米金,制得纳米金混合巯基修饰金电极(AuNPs/MTP+TA/Au)。研究了纳米金混合巯基修饰金电极的电化学行为和阻抗行为,结果表明电极表面pH值的改变对电极表面的电子转移有重要影响。对葡萄糖传感器的制备条件、测定条件、抗干扰能力等进行了讨论,结果表明修饰电极的微结构和微环境有必要进一步研究。     

L-半胱氨酸自组装膜修饰金电极的电化学特性

采用电化学石英晶体微天平（EQCM）和循环伏安法（CV）研究了L-半胱氨酸在金电极表面形成自组装膜的机理及其电化学性质.结果表明, L-半胱氨酸分子在金电极表面有特性吸附，而且在等电点pH附近因静电引力和氢键作用形成分子对，从而自组装形成双层膜.该膜电极在0.2 mol•L－1的醋酸缓冲溶液中，于－0.2～0.5 V(vs SCE)间CV扫描出现了一对稳定的氧化还原峰，并对抗坏血酸的氧化有良好的催化作用.     

Impedance Characterization of Adsorption Process of Calmodulin on Au Substrate and its Combination with Ca~(2+)

Recently, the adsorption behavior of protein on solid substrate has attracted much attention for the reason that adsorption on a substrate is the first key step for other further electrochemical investigation1. Meanwhile the free adsorption could provide a relative well-ordered structure, with which some fundamental study could be carried out conveniently2. As we know, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) method has become one of the powerful techniques to detect the change of i…     

Binding studies of nNOS-active amphibian peptides and Ca2+ calmodulin, using negative ion electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry

Amphibian peptides which inhibit the formation of nitric oxide by neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) do so by binding to the protein cofactor, Ca2+calmodulin (Ca2+CaM). Complex formation between active peptides and Ca2+CaM has been demonstrated by negative ion electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry using an aqueous ammonium acetate buffer system. In all cases studied, the assemblies are formed with a 1:1:4 calmodulin/peptide/Ca2+ stoichiometry. In contrast, the complex involving the 20-residue binding domain of the plasma Ca2+ pump C20W (LRRGQILWFRGLNRIQTQIK-OH) with CaM has been shown by previous two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2D NMR) studies to involve complexation of the C-terminal end of CaM. Under identical conditions to those used for the amphibian peptide study, the ESI complex between C20W and CaM shows specific 1:1:2 stoichiometry. Since complex formation with the studied amphibian peptides requires Ca2+CaM to contain its full complement of four Ca2+ ions, this indicates that the amphibian peptides require both ends of the CaM to effect complex formation. Charge-state analysis and an H/D exchange experiment (with caerin 1.8) suggest that complexation involves Ca2+CaM undergoing a conformational change to a more compact structure.     

Comparison of negative and positive ion electrospray ionization mass spectra of calmodulin and its complex with trifluoperazine

The protein calmodulin (apoCaM) undergoes a conformational change when it binds calcium. This structure of the protein (Ca4CaM) is a dumbbell-shaped molecule that undergoes a further profound conformational change on binding of the antipsychotic drug trifluoperazine (TFP). Experimental conditions were developed to prepare samples of apoCaM, Ca4CaM and Ca4CaM/TFP that were substantially free of sodium. The effects of the conformational changes of calmodulin on the charge-state distributions observed in positive ion and negative ion electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectra were examined. Conversion of apoCaM into Ca4CaM was concomitant with a change in the negative ion ESI mass spectrum whereby the 16- ion was the most abundant ion observed for the apo form and the 8- ion was the most abundant for the complex. In contrast, in the positive ion ESI mass spectra of apoCaM and Ca4CaM, the most abundant species in each case was the 8+ ion. When a complex of Ca4CaMwith TFP was prepared, the most abundant species was the 5+ ion. This is consistent with a conformational change of Ca4CaM that rendered some basic sites inaccessible to ionization in the ESI process. Using the same Ca4CaM/TFP mixture, no complex with TFP was observed in negative ion ESI mass spectra. These observations are discussed in the context of the structural changes that are known to occur in calmodulin, and suggestions are made to explain the apparently conflicting data. The results reported here reflect on the validity of using differences in charge-state distributions observed in ESI mass spectra to assess conformational changes in proteins.     

Binding of calcium and other metal ions to the EF-hand loops of calmodulin studied by quantum chemical calculations and molecular dynamics simulations

Calcium ion binding by the four EF-hand motifs of the protein calmodulin (CaM) is a central event in Ca2+-based cellular signaling. To understand molecular details of this complex process, isolated Ca2+-binding loops can be studied, by use of both experiments and calculations. In this work, we explore the metal specificity of the four Ca2+-binding loops of CaM using density functional theory (DFT) quantum chemical calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. We study CaM complexes with the physiologically important ions of calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) and also with two other ions, strontium (Sr2+) and lanthanum (La3+). The former is of interest in the area of radioactive waste bioremediation, whereas the latter is often used as a probe of Ca2+-binding sites. We obtain intrinsic metal ion-loop binding energies as well as their components: vacuum, charge-transfer, solvation, entropy, and deformation terms. A detailed analysis of the results reveals that the total binding energy depends on a delicate balance among these energy components. They, in turn, are determined by the cation's charge and size as well as the amino acid composition and flexibility of the loops and the identity of the metal-chelating residues.     

The stimulatory effect of heavy metal cations on proliferation of aortic smooth muscle cells

Heavy metal cations Cd2+, Pb2+, and Hg2+ were added to substitute for Ca2+ in culture media to study their effect on the relationship between CaM and the proliferation of cultured rabbit aortic smooth muscle cells (ASMC). It was found that all the heavy metal cations studied stimulated the proliferation of ASMC in varying degrees, increased the CaM content in cells at late G1 stage and decreased the activity of cAMP PDE. These results suggest that the adverse effect of heavy metals may be related to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and hypertensive disease.     

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry studies of noncovalent myosin VI complexes reveal a new specific calmodulin binding site

Among the myosin superfamily, myosin VI differs from all others by a reverse directionality and a particular motility. Little structural information is available for myosin VI. It is known that it binds one calmodulin (CaM) by means of a single "IQ motif" and that myosin VI contains a specific insert located at the junction between the motor domain (MD) and the lever arm, likely to play a critical role for the unusual motility previously observed. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (MS) was used to determine the CaM and Ca2+ stoichiometries in several myosin VI constructs. In particular, the experimental conditions required for the observation of multiprotein/Ca2+ noncovalent assemblies are detailed for two truncated MD constructs (less than 20 kDa) and for three full MD constructs (more than 90 KDa). The specificity of the detected stoichiometries is discussed for each construct and the resolving power of Time of Flight mass spectrometry is stressed, in particular for the detection of metal ions binding to high molecular weight complexes. MS reveals a new CaM binding site for myosin VI and highlights a different behavior for the five myosin VI constructs versus Ca2+ binding. In addition to these stoichiometry based experiments, gas-phase dissociation analyses on intact complexes are described. They reveal that Ca2+ transfer between protein partners occurs during the dissociation process for one construct with a full MD. Charge-transfer and dissociation behavior has allowed to draw structural assumptions for the interaction of the MD with the CaM N-terminal lobe.     

Probing site-specific calmodulin calcium and lanthanide affinity by grafting

Ca2+ binding is essential for the biological functions of calmodulin (CaM) as a trigger/sensor protein to regulate many biological processes in the Ca2+ -signaling cascade. A challenge in understanding the mechanism of Ca2+ signaling is to obtain site-specific information about the Ca2+ binding properties of individual Ca2+ -binding sites of EF-hand proteins, especially for CaM. In this paper, we report the first estimation of the intrinsic Ca2+ affinities of the four EF-hand loops of calmoduin (I-IV) by individually grafting into the domain 1 of CD2. Taking advantage of the Trp residues in the host protein, we first determined metal-binding affinities for Tb3+, Ca2+, and La3+ for all four grafted EF-loops using Tb3+ aromatic resonance energy transfer. EF-loop I exhibits the strongest binding affinity for Ca2+, La3+, and Tb3+, while EF-loop IV has the weakest metal-binding affinity. EF-loops I-IV of CaM have dissociation constants for Ca2+ of 34, 245, 185, and 814 microM, respectively, with the order I > III approximately equal to II > IV. These findings support a charge-ligand-balanced model in which both the number of negatively charged ligand residues and the balanced electrostatic dentate-dentate repulsion by the adjacent charged residues are two major determinants for the relative Ca2+ -binding affinities of EF-loops in CaM. Our grafting method provides a new strategy to obtain site-specific Ca2+ binding properties and a better estimation of the cooperativity and conformational change contributions of coupled EF-hand proteins.     

The Different Fluorescent Response of Quin 2 to the Binding of Ca^2＋ and La^3＋ and its Application

The fluorescence spectra of Quin 2, (2-[(2-bis-[carboxymethyl] amino-5-methylphenoxy)methyl]-6-methoxy-8-bis [carboxymethyl] aminoquiniline), a Ca^2 probe, were investigated upon incubation with Ca^2 or La^3 . The results showed that binding of La^3 to Quin 2 resulted in different fluorescent spectrum from that of Ca^2 . Based on this observation, a fluorescent method was developed for simultaneously determination of the dissociation rates of Ca^2 and La^3 from a Ca-La- calmodulin complex (Ca2La2CaM).     

Sampling unfolding intermediates in calmodulin by single-molecule spectroscopy

We used single-pair fluorescence resonance energy transfer (spFRET) measurements to characterize denatured and partially denatured states of the multidomain calcium signaling protein calmodulin (CaM) in both its apo and Ca(2+)-bound forms. The results demonstrate the existence of an unfolding intermediate. A CaM mutant (CaM-T34C-T110C) was doubly labeled with fluorescent probes AlexaFlour 488 and Texas Red at opposing globular domains. Single-molecule distributions of the distance between fluorophores were obtained by spFRET at varying levels of the denaturant urea. Multiple conformational states of CaM were observed, and the amplitude of each conformation was dependent on urea concentration, with the amplitude of an extended conformation increasing upon denaturation. The distributions at intermediate urea concentrations could not be adequately described as a combination of native and denatured conformations, showing that CaM does not denature via a two-state process and demonstrating that at least one intermediate is present. The intermediate conformations formed upon addition of urea were different for Ca(2+)-CaM and apoCaM. An increase in the amplitude of a compact conformation in CaM was observed for apoCaM but not for Ca(2+)-CAM upon the addition of urea. The changes in the single-molecule distributions of CaM upon denaturation can be described by either a range of intermediate structures or by the presence of a single unfolding intermediate that grows in amplitude upon denaturation. A model for stepwise unfolding of CaM is suggested in which the domains of CaM unfold sequentially.     

A new curcumin derivative, HBC, interferes with the cell cycle progression of colon cancer cells via antagonization of the Ca2+/calmodulin function

HBC (4-[3,5-Bis-[2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-phenyl)-ethyl]-4,5-dihydro-pyrazol-1-yl]-benzoic acid) is a recently developed curcumin derivative which exhibits potent inhibitory activities against the proliferation of several tumor cell lines. In the present study, we identified Ca2+/calmodulin (Ca2+/CaM) as a direct target protein of HBC using phage display biopanning. Ca2+/CaM-expressing phages specifically bound to the immobilized HBC, and the binding was Ca2+ dependent. Moreover, flexible docking modeling demonstrated that HBC is compatible with the binding cavity for a known inhibitor, W7, in the C-terminal hydrophobic pocket of Ca2+/CaM. In biological systems, HBC induced prolonged phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and activated p21(WAF1) expression, resulting in the induction of G0/G1 cell cycle arrest in HCT15 colon cancer cells. These results suggest that HBC inhibits the cell cycle progression of colon cancer cells via antagonizing of Ca2+/CaM functions.