Thermostability of landscape phage probes

Immunoassays have traditionally relied on antibodies as diagnostic probes. Their use outside of a laboratory, however, may be problematic because antibodies are often unstable in severe environmental conditions. Environmental monitoring requires thermostable probes, such as landscape phage, that carry thousands of foreign peptides on their surfaces, are superior to antibodies, and can operate in non-controlled conditions. While parent wild-type phage are known to be extremely stable in various media at high temperatures, no work has been done to demonstrate the stability of landscape phage probes. We examined the thermostability of a landscape phage probe and a monoclonal antibody specific for -galactosidase in parallel in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) format. They were both stable for greater than six months at room temperature, but at higher temperatures the antibody degraded more rapidly than the phage probe. Phage retained detectable binding ability for more than six weeks at 63 °C, and three days at 76 °C. The activation energy of phage degradation was determined to be 1.34×10⁵ J/mol. These results confirm that phage probes are highly thermostable and can function even after exposure to high temperatures during shipping, storage and operation.     

基于核酸探针的光学传感方法和细胞成像研究

许多疾病的特征在于各种生物分子表现出的异常活性,这些物质通常在细胞内外显示过表达现象,因此对其灵敏靶向识别可以提供诊断和治疗效用。由于基因诊疗和化学传感技术的发展,用于灵敏检测细胞内外生物化学物质的核酸探针突显优势。核酸探针可以在稳定进入细胞的同时,特异性地结合目标物质,通过光学方法检测或通过成像技术标识出来。本文综述了采用光学传感方法和成像技术,基于核酸探针检测生物分子的新进展。根据检测对象进行分类,概括分析了几个代表性体系:核酸序列、蛋白质和酶、化学物质和物理化学条件,并详细阐述其关键设计原理、灵敏度及样品检测等结果,同时指出了各类核酸探针的优缺点。     

Synthesis and characterization of cationic amino functionalized polystyrene latexes

Amino-functionalized latex particles were obtained batchwise by emulsion copolymerization of styrene and vinylbenzylamine hydrochloride (VBAH) in the presence of 2-2-Azobis(2-amidinopropane) HCl (V50). Size monodispersity of the particles was improved by using divinylbenzene (DVB) as a third monomer at a 2% molar ratio. Surface amino group titration was performed spectrometrically with N-succinimidyl 3-(2 pyridyldithio)propionate (SPDP). The yields of functional monomer incorporation were up to 85%.     

Microenvironmental differences amongst micelles of various shapes and structures

Micelles of different amphiphiles adopt different shapes and internal packing arrangements in water, depending on their chemical structures and the conditions of the medium. Two microenvironmental features, namely the polarity and the microviscosity that the aggregate offers to a solubilized molecule, have been monitored using extrinsic fluorescence probes. While the differences between micelles of spherical and rod-like shapes are not always distinct, stacked micelles and peptide micelles offer distinctly lower polarity and higher microviscosity to solubilizates than the others.     

Protein-reactive natural products

Researchers in the post-genome era are confronted with the daunting task of assigning structure and function to tens of thousands of encoded proteins. To realize this goal, new technologies are emerging for the analysis of protein function on a global scale, such as activity-based protein profiling (ABPP), which aims to develop active site-directed chemical probes for enzyme analysis in whole proteomes. For the pursuit of such chemical proteomic technologies, it is helpful to derive inspiration from protein-reactive natural products. Natural products use a remarkably diverse set of mechanisms to covalently modify enzymes from distinct mechanistic classes, thus providing a wellspring of chemical concepts that can be exploited for the design of active-site-directed proteomic probes. Herein, we highlight several examples of protein-reactive natural products and illustrate how their mechanisms of action have influenced and continue to shape the progression of chemical proteomic technologies like ABPP.     

Development of a systems analysis approach for resolving the structure of biodegrading soil systems

An experimental and mathematical method is developed for the microbial systems analysis of polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-degrading mixed cultures in PAH-contaminated “town gas” soil systems. Frequency response is the primary experimental and data analysis tool used to probe the structure of these complicated systems. The objective is to provide a fundamental protocol for evaluating the performance of specific mixed microbial cultures on specific soil systems by elucidating the salient system variables and their interactions. Two well-described reactor systems, a constant volume stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and a plug flow differential volume reactor, are used in order to remove performance effects that are related to reactor type as opposed to system structure. These two reactor systems are well-defined systems that can be described mathematically and represent the two extremes of one potentially important system variable, macroscopic mass transfer. The experimental and mathematical structure of the protocol is described, experimental data is presented, and data analysis is demonstrated for the stripping, sorption, and biodegradation of napththalene.     

SNAP-tag蛋白标签技术与荧光分析法在蛋白原位分析中的联合应用

为将生物体内微观的蛋白行为可视化并以宏观信号呈现出来对蛋白进行实时、动态分析，借助SNAP-tag蛋白标签技术与有机小分子荧光染料，构建了一系列用于活细胞内实时监测目标蛋白的免洗荧光探针。标签蛋白SNAP-tag能够特异性识别探针中的苄基鸟嘌呤，从而使目标蛋白共价连接上荧光团（萘酰亚胺），携带上荧光信使。此外，由于萘酰亚胺从水环境中被牵引至SNAP-tag蛋白的疏水空腔，其荧光信号呈现出2~13倍的增强。通过SNAP-tag标签蛋白与目标蛋白的融合，该荧光探针实现了对活细胞内线粒体蛋白CoX8A及核内蛋白H2B特异性识别，在免洗条件下完成了对目标蛋白的实时追踪及原位分析。     

Fluorescence probes based on 9‐acridyl derivatives of aromatic amines for monitoring free‐radical polymerization

The series of 9‐acridyl derivatives of aromatic amines have been investigated as fluorescent probes for monitoring the progress of free‐radical polymerization. This study on the changes in the fluorescence intensity and spectroscopic shift of specific compounds was carried out during thermally initiated polymerization of methyl methacrylate and photoinitiated polymerization of 2‐ethyl‐2‐(hydroxymethyl)‐1,3‐propanediol triacrylate‐1‐methyl‐2‐pyrrolidonone mixture. The purpose of this investigation was to find a relationship between the changes in the shape and intensity of fluorescent probes and the degree of monomer conversion into a polymer. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 3481–3488, 2002     

pH-sensitive modulation of the second hydration sphere in lanthanide(III) tetraamide-DOTA complexes: a novel approach to smart MR contrast media

The lanthanide(III) complexes of three tetraamide DOTA bearing pyridyl, phenolic and hydroxypyridyl substituents have been studied by NMR, luminescence and cyclic voltammetry. The relaxivity profiles of the gadolinium complexes of the pyridyl and phenolic ligands were flat and essentially the same between pH 2 and 8. The hydroxypyridyl ligand, however, exhibited two regions of enhanced relaxivity. The small relaxivity enhancement (25 %) at lower pH (pH 2-4) has been attributed to an increase in the prototropic exchange of the coordinated water molecule while the slightly larger enhancement (84 %) at higher pH (pH 6-9) reflects deprotonation of the ligand amide protons. Deprotonation of the amides results in the formation of an intramolecular acid-base pair interaction with the phenolic protons and this, in turn, causes a highly organized second hydration sphere to come into effect, thereby increasing the relaxivity. The water relaxivity of the Gd(3+)-hydroxypyridyl complex is further enhanced upon binding to serum albumin.     

Synthesis and anticholinesterase activity of some new fluorogenic analogues of organophosphorus nerve agents

Eighteen new fluorogenic analogues of organophosphorus nerve agents were synthesised and characterised. They included analogues of tabun, sarin, cyclosarin, soman, VX, and Russian VX, with the 7-oxy-4-methylcoumarin or 7-oxy-4-(trifluoromethyl)coumarin leaving group. These analogues inhibited acetylcholinesterase (AChE) effectively in vitro and therefore have potential as tools for the identification of novel organophosphatases in biological systems. Analogues of VX and Russian VX with the 7-amino-4-methylcoumarin group, although poor AChE inhibitors, may have utility for screening enzyme libraries for phosphoramidases capable of cleaving P-N bonds.