Volumes of activation for dissociation of pentacyanoferrates(II) through pressure and salt effects on reactivity

Summary Dependences of rate constants on pressure (up to 1 kbar) and on added salt concentration (up to 6.0 mol dm^–3 LiNO₃, NaNO₃, NaCl, Na₂SO₄ or KNO₃) have been established for dissociative substitution of pentacyanoferrates(II), [Fe(CN)₅L]^3– with L = 4-cyanopyridine, 4,4-bipyridyl, 4-phenylpyridine and 4-t-butylpyridine. Activation volumes derived directly from pressure effects, and indirectly from salt effects via surface tension dependences and derived surfaces of activation, are reported, compared and discussed.     

Quantitation of cortico-steroids as common adulterants in local drugs by HPLC

Summary A sensitive and specific method for quantitation of the steroids betamethasone, prednisolone and cortisone acetate commonly used as adulterants in locally produced herb extracts and in certain homeopathic drugs is described. Reverse-phase liquid chromatography with UV detection has been used.     

A comparative kinetic and mechanistic study of glutamic acid oxidation by acid permanganate in the absence and presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate

The kinetics and mechanism of glutamic acid (GCO₂H) oxidation by acid permanganate has been carried out in the absence and presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). The surfactant enhances the reaction rate without changing the reaction mechanism. The overall rate expression for the reduction of Mn^VII may be written:

Thin-Layer Chromatographic Separation of Cadaverine and Ornithine,and Spectrophotometric Quantification

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC -     

A 1H NMR study of 1,4-bis(N-hexadecyl-N, N-dimethylammonium)butane dibromide/sodium anthranilate system: spherical to rod-shaped transition

The effect of addition of sodium anthranilate to 5 mM micellar solutions of gemini surfactant 1,4-bis(N-hexadecyl-N,N-dimethylammonium)butane dibromide is investigated by ¹H NMR. The solubilization site of anthranilate anion near the micellar surface is inferred. In the micelles, the An⁻ ions intercalate among the surfactant headgroups producing morphological changes.     

An Easy One-Pot Procedure for the Synthesis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-Sulfonyl Phosphorous Ylides and Sulfonyl Iminophosphoranes

Summary. Reaction of triphenylphosphine and an electron deficient acetylenic ester in the presence of strong N–H acid such as alkyl and aryl sulfamides or acetamide produces phosphorous ylides at room temperature in CH₂Cl₂. The aryl sulfamide phosphoranes undergo a smooth transformation reaction in boiling toluene and produce iminophosphoranes.     

On the estimation of stability parameters from heat-induced conformational transition curves of proteins

A method is suggested to determine valid and authentic values of thermodynamic stability parameters of proteins from their heat-induced conformational transition curves. We show (a) that the estimate of ΔH_m ^van, the enthalpy change on denaturation at T_m, the midpoint of denaturation, is significantly less than ΔH_m ^cal, the value obtained by the calorimetric measurements, if the analysis of the conformational transition curve uses the conventional method which assumes a linear temperature-dependence of the pre- and post-transition baselines; and (b) that there exists an excellent agreement between ΔH_m ^van and ΔH_m ^cal values of proteins, if the analysis of thermal denaturation curves assumes that the temperature-dependence of pre- and post-transition baselines is described by a parabolic function. The latter analysis is supported by our observations that the temperaturedependencies of the absorption and circular dichroism properties of protein groups are indeed nonlinear. It is observed that the estimate of ΔC_p, the constant-pressure heat capacity change is independent of the model used to describe the temperaturedependence of the pre- and post-transition baselines. An important conclusion is that for proteins which exhibit a two-state character, all stability parameters are measured with the same error as that observed with a calorimeter.     

Synthesis of temperature-sensitive micron-sized monodispersed composite polymer particles and its application as a carrier for biomolecules

 Temperature-sensitive micron-sized monodispersed composite polymer particles were prepared by seeded copolymerization of dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate with 1.77 μm-sized monodispersed polystyrene seed particles. The change in surface property at temperature above and below 35 °C was examined by differential scanning calorimetry, trypsin activity and the adsorption/ desorption behaviors of low molecular weight cationic emulsifier as well as biomolecules. Received: 6 August 1997 Accepted: 16 January 1998     

Sequence-dependent conformational energy of DNA derived from molecular dynamics simulations: toward understanding the indirect readout mechanism in protein-DNA recognition

Sequence dependence of DNA conformation plays a crucial role in its recognition by proteins and ligands. To clarify the relationship between sequence and conformation, it is necessary to quantify the conformational energy and specificity of DNA. Here, we make a systematic analysis of dodecamer DNA structures including all the 136 unique tetranucleotide sequences at the center by molecular dynamics simulations. Using a simplified conformational model with six parameters to describe the geometry of adjacent base pairs and harmonic potentials along these coordinates, we estimated the equilibrium conformational parameters and the harmonic potentials of mean force for the central base-pair steps from many trajectories of the simulations. This enabled us to estimate the conformational energy and the specificity for any given DNA sequence and structure. We tested our method by using sequence-structure threading to estimate the conformational energy and the Z-score as a measure of specificity for many B-DNA and A-DNA crystal structures. The average Z-scores were negative for both kinds of structures, indicating that the potential of mean force from the simulation is capable of predicting sequence specificity for the crystal structures and that it may be used to study the sequence specificity of both types of DNA. We also estimated the positional distribution of conformational energy and Z-score within DNA and showed that they are strongly position dependent. This analysis enabled us to identify particular conformations responsible for the specificity. The presented results will provide an insight into the mechanisms of DNA sequence recognition by proteins and ligands.