Electron paramagnetic resonance study of amphiphiles partitioning behavior in desiccation-tolerant moss during dehydration

Desiccation tolerance is a crucial characteristic for desert moss surviving in arid regions. Desiccation procedure always induces amphiphiles transferring from the polar cytoplasm into lipid bodies. The behavior of amphiphiles transferring can contribute to the enhancement of desiccation tolerance and the reduction of plasma membrane integrity simultaneously. The effects of amphiphiles partitioning into the lipid phase during water loss has been studied for pollen and seeds using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. However, desiccation-tolerant high plants occur among mosses, several angiosperms and higher plants seeds or pollens. They have different strategies for survival in dehydration and rehydration. A desiccation-tolerant moss Tortula desertorum was used to investigate the behaviors of amphiphilic molecules during drying by spin label technology. There are small amount of amphiphilic probes partitioning into membrane during moss leaves dehydration, comparing with that in higher plants. Cytoplasm viscosity changed from 1.14 into glass state only dehydration less than 60 min. Moss leaves lost plasma membrane integrity slightly, from 0.115 to 0.237, occurred simultaneously with amphiphiles partition. The results showed the more advantages of mosses than higher plants in adapting fast dehydration. We propose that EPR spin label is feasible for studying the amphiphiles partitioning mechanisms in membrane protection and damage for desiccation-tolerant mosses.     

Amperometric Glucose Biosensor Based on Platinum Nanoparticles Combined Aligned Carbon Nanotubes Electrode

A sensitive amperometric glucose biosensor based on platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) combined aligned carbon nanotubes (ACNTs) electrode was investigated. PtNPs which can enhance the electrocatalytic activity of the electrode for electrooxidating hydrogen peroxide by enzymatic reaction were electrocrystallized on 4‐aminobenzene monolayer‐grafted ACNTs electrode by potential‐step method. These PtNPs combined ACNTs' (PtNPs/ACNTs) surfaces were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The highly dispersed PtNPs on ACNTs can be obtained. The enzyme electrode exhibits excellent response performance to glucose with linear range from 1×10^?5–7×10^?3 mol L^?1 and fast response time within 5 s. Furthermore, this glucose biosensor also has good reproducibility. It is demonstrated that the PtNPs/ACNTs electrode with high electrocatalytic activity is a suitable basic electrode for preparing enzyme electrodes.     

Addition of amines to the triple bond in alpha,alpha,alpha-trichloromethylpropargyl mesylate: synthesis of alpha,alpha-dichloromethylenaminones and preparation of 2-phenyl-4-dichloromethylquinolines

[reaction: see text] Addition of amines to the triple bond in alpha,alpha,alpha-trichloromethylpropargyl mesylate to give alpha,alpha-dichloromethylenaminones and its use in the preparation of 2-phenyl-4-dichloromethylquinolines in good yields are reported.     

Solution-phase, triangular ag nanotriangles fabricated by nanosphere lithography

A novel method to produce solution-phase triangular silver nanoparticles is presented. Ag nanoparticles are prepared by nanosphere lithography and are subsequently released into solution. The resulting nanoparticles are asymmetrically functionalized to produce either single isolated nanoparticles or dimer pairs. The structural and optical properties of Ag nanoparticles have been characterized. Mie theory and the Discrete Dipole Approximation method (DDA) have been used to model and interpret the optical properties of the released Ag nanoparticles.     

Affinity Chromatography of Insulin with a Heptapeptide Ligand Selected from Phage Display Library

A heptapeptide phage display library was screened with insulin to find its ligands for affinity chromatography. The peptide was synthesized and coupled to EAH Sepharose 4B (5.4 mol mL^–1 bed). Then, insulin chromatography was carried out with mobile phases of different pH values and by the addition of urea and ethylene glycol. It was found that electrostatic interactions were predominant for the affinity binding, and hydrogen bonding might also contribute somewhat to the affinity. Finally, frontal analysis was performed and the dynamic binding capacity of the affinity column for insulin at 50% breakthrough was estimated at 60.6 mg mL^–1 bed, which was about two times higher than the theoretical binding capacity of the monomeric insulin. The result suggests that insulin was bound in dimer state in a stoichiometric relationship with the coupled peptide, indicating the high binding efficiency of the peptide ligand for insulin.     

Efficient synthesis of complex glycopeptides based on unprotected oligosaccharides

N-Glycopeptides containing 1 to 4 trisaccharide chains, with the carbohydrates vicinal to each other in the multivalent glycopeptides, were efficiently synthesized by using the glycosylated Fmoc-asparagine as a key building block. While the couplings of amino acids with glycopeptides could be achieved in the homogeneous solutions in N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) to give excellent yields, all products were conveniently isolated from the reaction mixtures through a precipitation method by using the free carbohydrate chains as phase tags. Commercially available pentafluorophenyl (Pfp) esters of amino acids were employed for the glycopeptide elongation. Longer glycopeptides were constructed by means of a highly convergent synthetic design that is based on the coupling of glycopeptide/peptide fragments. Hydrogen bond interactions between free oligosaccharides were proposed to explain the exceptionally high efficiency of the couplings between two glycosylated building blocks.     

Affinity enrichment of plasma membrane for proteomics analysis

Proteomics analysis of plasma membranes from cells exposed to different extracellular environments is potentially a powerful approach for the identification of membrane-associated proteins responding to these environments. Preparation of high concentration plasma membrane fractions with low contamination from cellular organelles is essential for such studies. Here, we describe an affinity enrichment method, which combines cell surface biotinylation with affinity enrichment by immobilized streptavidin beads, for the isolation of plasma membranes. This method results in a 400-fold enrichment of plasma membrane relative to endoplasmic reticulum, a major contaminant in standard plasma membrane preparations, and dramatically reduces contamination from other cellular organelles. The biotinylation reaction did not interfere with ligand-dependent activation of receptor tyrosine kinases or G-protein coupled receptors, suggesting cell-surface signal transduction machinery remains functional. Membrane fractions prepared by this method should provide excellent starting materials for membrane proteomics analysis such as studies of dynamic trafficking and regulation of signaling molecules or identification of disease-specific membrane markers.     

硫酸颜色反应用于荧光法测定利血平研究

提出了硫酸颜色反应用于利血平的荧光分析新方法。利用血平与浓硫酸反应，生成强荧光物质，所得产物的荧光强度与利血平的浓度在０－０．６μｇ／ｍＬ范围内有良好的线性关系。检测限为０．２ｎｇ／ｍＬ。本法可直接用于尿液中利血平的定量分析，回收率为８２．５％－８４．２％。     

Determination of medecamycin by adsorptive stripping voltammetry with an activated electrode

The adsorptive and electrochemical behaviors of medecamycin were investigated on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) pretreated by anodic oxidation at +1.8 V for 5 min in 0.025 mol l^–1 NH₃-NH₄Cl (pH 8.6) solution. An adsorptive stripping voltammetric method for the determination of medecamycin at the pretreated glassy carbon electrode has been developed. Medecamycin was accumulated in NH₃-NH₄Cl buffer (pH 9.0) at a potential of –0.7 V (vs. saturated calomel electrode (SCE)) for a certain time, and then determined by second-order differential anodic stripping voltammetry. The second-order differential anodic stripping peak current at +0.72 V was proportional to the concentration of medecamycin in the range 2.0 g ml^–1 to 50.0 g ml^–1. The detection limit (three times the signal-to-noise) was 1.0 g ml^–1 and the relative standard deviation of the results was 3.28% for eight successive determinations of 10.0 g ml^–1 medecamycin. This method has been applied to the direct determination of medecamycin in commercial tablets and spiked urine samples with satisfactory results.