Functional Binding Surface of a β‐Hairpin VEGF Receptor Targeting Peptide Determined by NMR Spectroscopy in Living Cells

In this study, the functional interaction of HPLW peptide with VEGFR2 (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 2) was determined by using fast ¹⁵N‐edited NMR spectroscopic experiments. To this aim, ¹⁵N uniformly labelled HPLW has been added to Porcine Aortic Endothelial Cells. The acquisition of isotope‐edited NMR spectroscopic experiments, including ¹⁵N relaxation measurements, allowed a precise characterization of the in‐cell HPLW epitope recognized by VEGFR2.     

Ratiometric Detection of microRNA Using Hybridization Chain Reaction and Fluorogenic Silver Nanoclusters

miRNA (miR)-155 is a potential biomarker for breast cancers. We aimed at developing a nanosensor for miR-155 detection by integrating hybridization chain reaction (HCR) and silver nanoclusters (AgNCs). HCR serves as an enzyme-free and isothermal amplification method, whereas AgNCs provide a built-in fluorogenic detection probe that could simplify the downstream analysis. The two components were integrated by adding a nucleation sequence of AgNCs to the hairpin of HCR. The working principle was based on the influence of microenvironment towards the hosted AgNCs, whereby unfolding of hairpin upon HCR has manipulated the distance between the hosted AgNCs and cytosine-rich toehold region of hairpin. As such, the dominant emission of AgNCs changed from red to yellow in the absence and presence of miR-155, enabling a ratiometric measurement of miR with high sensitivity. The limit of detection (LOD) of our HCR-AgNCs nanosensor is 1.13 fM in buffered solution. We have also tested the assay in diluted serum samples, with comparable LOD of 1.58 fM obtained. This shows the great promise of our HCR-AgNCs nanosensor for clinical application.     

Syntheses,crystal structures and properties of Cd(II) and Ag(I) complexes based on 2-p-methylphenyl-5-(2-pyridyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole

Abstract

Complexes of [CdL₂(NO₃)₂]·1.5H₂O and [Ag₂(μ-L)₂(NO₃)₂] were synthesized by the reactions of 2-p-methylphenyl-5-(2-pyridyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole (L) with Cd(NO₃)₂·4H₂O and AgNO₃, respectively. Their structures were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The photophysical property and thermal stability were characterized by FT???IR, UV???Vis absorption, fluorescence, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Both complexes belong to the triclinic system with space group p???1. The central metal of [CdL₂(NO₃)₂]·1.5H₂O has a distorted octahedral geometry [CdN₄O₂], while two central Ag(I) atoms of [Ag₂(μ-L)₂(NO₃)₂] exhibit distorted tetrahedral geometries [AgN₃O].     

基于科赫曲线分形结构太赫兹带通滤波器

太赫兹滤波器是太赫兹通信、太赫兹成像和太赫兹检测等太赫兹应用系统中不可或缺的功能器件。按照不同的分类方式,滤波器有不同的种类,常见的按照选频功能可分为高通滤波器、低通滤波器、带阻滤波器和带通滤波器。为了实现在太赫兹波段的滤波效果,世界各地的研究人员利用不同的结构、材料和控制方式实现了功能各异的太赫兹滤波器,但是考虑到设计的器件要应用到太赫兹系统中,成本低廉、结构简单、性能优越的太赫兹滤波器一直是研究人员的追求。分形概念自提出以来在很多研究领域都有了快速发展,但是在太赫兹波段的应用还不是很常见,特别是应用于太赫兹功能器件的设计。引入分形中科赫曲线的概念设计并制备了一种新型的太赫兹带通滤波器,该滤波器是在金属薄膜上刻蚀出科赫曲线分形结构,当太赫兹波垂直入射到该滤波器时候实现了在太赫兹波段的窄带滤波。在滤波器的设计过程中,追求理论与实验相结合,首先在电磁仿真软件中建立科赫曲线分形结构滤波器模型进行计算,探究分形结构应用于太赫兹波段进行滤波的可行性,在进行多次计算之后得到优化后的尺寸和结构,然后根据优化后的尺寸加工出科赫曲线分形结构太赫兹滤波器样品,并且将样品放在太赫兹时域光谱系统中进行实验测量,得到实验数据后与仿真结果进行比较。在仿真中利用了时域有限差分法模拟科赫曲线分形结构太赫兹带通滤波器的传输特性,优化后的仿真结果表明:滤波器的谐振频率为0.715 THz,透射系数能够达到0.92,-3 dB带宽为21.9 GHz,将仿真得到的散射参数进行S参数反演得到了太赫兹滤波器样品的电磁参数,这在理论上分析了太赫兹波在谐振点处产生透射增强的原因。利用飞秒激光微加工系统制备了尺寸优化后的科赫曲线分形结构太赫兹带通滤波器样品,然后使用太赫兹时域光谱系统对样品的传输特性进行测试,对实验得到的时域数据进行快速傅里叶变换之后得到频域数据,再把频域数据进行归一化处理后与之前的电磁仿真结果进行对比,发现实验测得的结果与电磁软件仿真得到的结果较为吻合。     

Near-Ultraviolet Circular Dichroism and Two-Dimensional Spectroscopy of Polypeptides

A fully quantitative theory of the relationship between protein conformation and optical spectroscopy would facilitate deeper insights into biophysical and simulation studies of protein dynamics and folding. In contrast to intense bands in the far-ultraviolet, near-UV bands are much weaker and have been challenging to compute theoretically. We report some advances in the accuracy of calculations in the near-UV, which were realised through the consideration of the vibrational structure of the electronic transitions of aromatic side chains.     

Dynamic Interactions in Synthetic Receptors: A Guest Exchange Saturation Transfer Study

The accumulated knowledge regarding molecular architectures is based on established, reliable, and accessible analytical tools that provide robust structural and functional information on assemblies. However, both the dynamicity and low population of noncovalently interacting moieties within studied molecular systems limit the efficiency and accuracy of traditional methods. Herein, the use of a saturation transfer-based NMR approach to study the dynamic binding characteristics of an anion to a series of synthetic receptors derived from bambusuril macrocycles is demonstrated. The exchange rates of BF₄⁻ are mediated by the side chains on the receptor (100 s⁻¹<k_ex<5000 s⁻¹), which play a critical role in receptor-anion binding dynamics. The signal amplification obtained with this approach allows for the identification of different types of intermolecular interactions between the receptor and the anion, something that could not have been detected by techniques hitherto used to study molecular assemblies. These findings, which are supported by a computational molecular dynamic study, demonstrate the uniqueness and added value of this NMR method.     

Reactions of quinones with some amino alcohols,thiols and a UV-Vis study

Abstract

In the present study, the reactions of 2,3-dichloro-1,4-naphthoquinone (DCNQ) with amino-1,2-propanediol and some thiols were investigated. Novel N-, N,S-, and S,O- substituted derivatives were obtained and the structures of all compounds were characterized by spectroscopic methods (FT-IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³ Baker, R. A.; Tatum, J. H.; Nemec, S. Antimicrobial Activity of Naphthoquinones from Fusaria. Mycopathologia 1990, 111, 9–15. DOI: 10.1007/BF02277294.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]C NMR, Mass spectroscopy) and microanalysis. The absorption behaviors of novel compounds were also investigated with UV-Vis spectroscopy in different solvents, such as ethanol, tetrahydrofuran and chloroform.     

Fluorescence properties of riboflavin-functionalized mesoporous silica SBA-15 and riboflavin solutions in presence of different metal and organic cations

Riboflavin was covalently linked to mesoporous SBA-15 silica surface via grafting technique. Then fluorescence properties of the system obtained were analyzed in the presence of several metal and organic cations. Both quenching and strengthening of fluorescence as well as significant changes in the maximum fluorescence wavelength were observed. The results were compared with absorption and fluorescence data obtained for riboflavin water solutions.     

Thermally induced solid-state transformation of cimetidine. A multi-spectroscopic/chemometrics determination of the kinetics of the process and structural elucidation of one of the products as a stable N3-enamino tautomer

Exposure of cimetidine (CIM) to dry heat (160–180 °C) afforded, upon cooling, a glassy solid containing new and hitherto unknown products. The kinetics of this process was studied by a second order chemometrics-assisted multi-spectroscopic approach. Proton and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), as well as ultraviolet and infrared spectroscopic data were jointly used, whereas multivariate curve resolution with alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) was employed as the chemometrics method to extract process information. It was established that drug degradation follows a first order kinetics.