Determination of enzyme kinetic parameters of cyclic CMP-specific phosphodiesterase by quantitative fast atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry

The determination of cytidine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate-specific phosphodiesterase activity by means of fast-atom bombardment (FAB) mass Spectrometry with mass-analysed ion kinetic energy (MIKE) spectrum scanning is described. Initial efforts to determine the activity of the enzyme by this method were unsuccessful owing to the obfuscation of sample-related peaks by peaks emanating from the incubation buffer and cation adducts; dilution of buffer and a desalting procedure overcame these difficulties. In the resulting positive-ion FAB mass spectra, characteristic peaks of the enzyme substrate and product could be readily identified and the protonated molecular ions selected for MIKE scanning. By spiking enzyme incubates with known amounts of substrate and product, and measuring peak heights in the MIKE spectra of both spiked and unspiked samples, the substrate/product ratio at the end of a series of phosphodiesterase incubations was determined. From the data obtained, the K_m and V_max of the phosphodiesterase were calculated as 6.08 mM and 11 μmol min^?1 mg^?1, respectively, showing good agreement with the analogous values of 8.06 mM and 5.8 μmol^?1 min^?1 mg^?1 obtained by radioactive assay.     

A study of the new perovskite solid solution series SrFexRu1−xO3−y by ruthenium-99 and iron-57 Mössbauer spectroscopy

The magnetic and structural properties of the solid solution SrFe_xRu_1?xO_3?y (0 ? x ? 0.5) have been studied using ⁵⁷Fe and ⁹⁹Ru Mössbauer spectroscopy and other techniques. These phases, which are here reported for the first time, have a distorted perovskite structure. The iron substitutes exclusively as Fe³⁺ and thereby causes oxygen deficiency, but has little effect on the magnetic behaviour of the Ru⁴⁺ until x > 0.2, whereupon the metallic band system begins to revert to a localized electron structure. The properties of a sample with x = 0.3 are complex and intermediate in character. For x > 0.3 the oxygen deficiency is reduced by substantial oxidation to Ru⁵⁺ until at x = 0.5 the system corresponds to Sr₂Fe³⁺Ru⁵⁺O₆.     

The anilinium chloride adduct of 4‐bromo‐N‐phenylbenzene­sulfonamide

The title compound anilinium chloride–4‐bromo‐N‐phenyl­benzene­sulfonamide (1/1), C₆H₈N⁺·Cl⁻·C₁₂H₁₀BrNO₂S, displays a hydrogen‐bonded ladder motif with four independent N—H⋯Cl bonds in which both the NH group of the sulfonamide molecule and the NH₃ group of the anilinium ion [N⋯Cl = 3.135 (3)–3.196 (2) Å and N—H⋯Cl = 151–167°] are involved. This hydrogen‐bonded chain contains two independent R₄²(8) rings and each chloride ion acts as an acceptor of four hydrogen bonds.     

Cob(I)alamin-Catalyzed Skeletal Migrations Observed during the Reduction of 4β-(tert-Butyl)-1α-(1-methylvinyl)cyclohexanecarbaldehyde

The cob(I) alamin (1(I)) -catalyzed² transformation of the aldehyde 2 has been studied (cf. Table 1). Kinetic examinations showed a rapid isomerization of 2 to 3 (cf. Fig. 1 and 2). From the transformations in glacial AcOH, the two cyclopropanols 5 and 7 were isolated as main products (cf. Tables 1–3 and Fig. 1 and 2). Using large amounts of 1(I) , the aldehyde 4 was very slowly transformed. Accepting the intermediate formation of 6 interconnected Co-complexes, i. e. A , B , C , D , E and F (cf. Scheme), the generation of all the products observed can be explained.     

Synthesis of novel 4-amino-1,4-benzodiazepine-2,5-diones for anticonvulsant testing

A series of novel 4-amino-1,4-benzodiazepine-2,5-diones was synthesized via two pathways. The first method involved reductive alkylation of unsymmetrical hydrazines with glyoxylic acid, followed by Fisher esterification. The resulting N-aminoglycinate ethyl ester was subsequently o-nitrobenzoylated, reduced, and thermally cyclized to obtain 4-dialkylaminobenzodiazepinones. In the second method methylhydrazine was acetylated at N_α then benzoylated at N_β to give 1,2-diacylhydrazines. Alkylation with ethyl bromoacetate and reduction of the nitro group, followed by thermal cyclization yielded 4-acetamidobenzodiazepinones. All title compounds were evaluated in mice in MES seizure and sc Met seizure threshold tests for anticonvulsant activity, and in the rotorod test for neurotoxicity. Activity and toxicity were both minimal.     

Penicillin biosynthesis: Retention of configuration at c-3 of valine during its incorporation into the arnstein tripeptide

[3-³H]-valine was efficiently synthesised from sodium α-ketoisovalerate. With a β-lactam negative mutant of C. acremonium, l-[1-¹⁴C-3-³H]-valine and dl-[1-¹⁴C-3-³H]-valine were independently incorporated into the Arnstein tripeptide dimer, i.e. Bis-δ-(l-α-aminodipyl)-l-cystinyl-bis-d-valine, with full retention of trieium at C-3 of the d-valine residue. This result strongly suggested retention of configuration at C-3 of valine when the tripeptide was biosynthesised, and further limited the number of possible mechanisms for the biosynthesis of penicillins.     

Flow-injection technique for the determination of low levels of phosphorus in natural waters

An inexpensive flow-injection instrument for determining low concentrations of dissolved reactive phosphorus in natural waters is reported. The unique feature is the use of an inexpensive detector consisting of a flow cell and a simple photometer that incorporates a super-bright light-emitting diode as the source and a photodiode as the detector. The tin(II) chloride-molybdate method was optimized using a modified simplex optimization method. Silicate interference up to 5 mg Si l^?1 was removed by addition of 0.10% (w/v) tartaric acid. Using the tartaric acid-modified optimized reagents, a detection limit of 0.6 μg P l^?1 was achieved. The method was linear over the range 0–100 μg P l^?1 with an excellent precision (r.s.d. 2.9% at 2.0 and 0.5% at 50 μg P l^?1). An in-line pre-concentration anion-exchange column was used to obtain an even lower detection limit of 0.1 μg P l^?1 and applied to the analysis of real samples.     

High Pressure Synthesis of Cycloadduct of Fullerene C60 with 2H-Pyran-2-one∗∗

Under high pressure conditions, fullerene C₆₀ smoothly reacts with 2H-pyran-2-one to give a [4+2] cycloadduct, which can be reduced to an alcohol derivative.

     

Duality algorithms for nonconvex variational principles

This paper describes, and analyzes, a method of successive approximations for finding critical points of a function which can be written as the difference of two convex functions. The method is based on using a non-convex duality theory. At each iteration one solves a convex, optimization problem. This alternates between the primal and the dual variables. Under very general structural conditions on the problem, we prove that the resulting sequence is a descent sequence, which converges to a critical point of the problem. To illustrate the method, it is applied to some weighted eigenvalue problems, to a problem from astrophysics, and to some semilinear elliptic equations.