Template-free, polymerase-free DNA polymerization

A combination of a DNA ligase and a restriction endonuclease provides a DNA polymerase activity, which might suggest a novel strategy for polymer synthesis.     

Two Novel Antifungal Saponins from Tibetan Herbal Medicine Clematis tangutica

Antifungal assay-guided isolation of the ethanol extract of the aerial parts of Clematis tangutica yielded two novel triterpene saponins. Their structures were determined to be 3-O-α-L-arabinopyranosyl hederagenin 28-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl ester (1) and 3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-α-L-arabinopyranosyl hederagenin 28-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl ester (2) on the basis of spectral data and chemical reactions.     

New types of metal squarato-phosphonates: condensation of aminodiphosphonate with squaric acid under hydrothermal conditions

The syntheses and crystal structures of the first copper(I) phosphonate, Cu2(H3L)(bipy)(2).2H2O 1 (H5L = C4HO3N(CH2PO3H2)2), which is also the first example of metal phosphonates formed by a type of organic reaction, and a novel luminescent Mn(II) squarate diphosphonate, {Mn[NH(CH2PO3H)2](H2O)2}2{Mn(C4O4)(H2O)4}.(C4H2O4) 2, have been reported. The structure of 1 features a layer architecture in which the Cu(I) centers are three coordinated, and the newly formed ligand acts as a bidentate metal linker. Compound 2 is composed of 1D chains of Mn[NH(CH2PO3H)2](H2O)2, 1D chains of {Mn(C4O4)(H2O)4}, as well as the neutral squaric acid molecules. These three types of building units are interconnected via hydrogen bonding.     

Microfluidic adhesion analysis of single glioma cells for evaluating the effect of drugs

Cancer metastasis is one of the most serious problems for tumor therapy, which is closely related to cell adhesion and deadhesion process. Better comprehension of cell adhesion ability will benefit drug research. Here, a biomimetic microfluidic enzyme digestion method was proposed to gently measure the influence of drugs on cell-matrix adhesion ability at the single cell level.The method can selectively digest the extracellular matrix(ECM) that linked to a single cell, and the trypsin concentration around the cell is relatively uniform and constant, thus the measured cell adhesion strength should be precise. Commercially available anti-cancer agents including 5-fluorouracil(5-FU), actinomycin D(Act D), temozolomide(TMZ) and allicin were evaluated, and the data showed only TMZ and allicin can inhibit cell adhesion significantly under our experiment conditions. The influence of TMZ became more and more obvious as the increase of duration and the effect became prominent only after 6 h adhesion process, which could provide a quick evaluation of whether the drugs are effective to cancer cell(compared with Calcein-AM/PI cell viability test). The adhesion strength of U87 cells decreased when the concentration of TMZ increased, and the effect of TMZ can be effectively inhibited by adding lactic acid to culture medium, which indicated acidic tumor microenvironment could promote drug resistance of tumor cells. Different from conventional evaluation methods which focus on the drugs' influence on cellular viability or metabolism, this work provides a new perspective to study the effect of drugs, which is helpful to enrich the drug evaluation system.     

甲基丙烯酸三苯墓甲酯和甲基丙烯酸酯类的共聚物在溶液中的螺旋诱导和解旋作用

甲基丙烯酸三苯墓甲酯和甲基丙烯酸酯类的共聚物在溶液中的螺旋诱导和解旋作用陈传福，刘卫宏，陈永明，任长玉，习复（中国科学院化学研究所北京１０００８０）关键词甲基丙烯酸三苯基甲酯，甲基丙烯酸甲酯，光学活性，螺旋诱导，解旋在手性阴离子复合引发剂存在下，甲基...     

Functionalized nanoparticles for liquid atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization peptide analysis

Nanoparticles for the extraction of peptides and subsequent analysis using atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (APMALDI) have been evaluated. The atmospheric pressure source allows for particles to be directly introduced in the liquid matrix, minimizing sample loss and analysis time. Described in this work are two sample preparation procedures for liquid APMALDI analysis: a C18 functionalized silica nanoparticle for hydrophobic extractions, and an aptamer functionalized magnetite core nanoparticle for rapid, affinity extractions. The C18 particles provide a non-selective support for rapid profiling applications, while the aptamer particles are directed towards reducing the complexity in biological samples. The aptamer functionalized particles provide a more selective analyte-nanoparticle interaction whereby the tertiary structure of the analyte becomes more critical to the extraction. In both cases, the liquid APMALDI matrix provides a support for ionization, and acts as the releasing agent for the analyte-particle interaction. Additionally, analyte enrichment was possible due to the large surface-to-volume ratio of the particles. The experiments conducted with functionalized nanoparticles, in an atmospheric pressure liquid matrix, present a basis for further methodologies and utilities of silica nanoparticles to be developed.     

Criteria for Geometric and Algebraic Transience for Discrete-Time Markov Chains

Journal of Theoretical Probability - We present new criteria for geometric and algebraic transience for discrete-time transient Markov chains on general state spaces, based on the moment of the...