A Combined Immunofluorescence and Fluorescent Viability Cocktail Staining Procedure for Rapid Microscopic Detection and Enumeration of Live Legionella pneumophila

Journal of Fluorescence - This report describes a combined immunofluorescence and fluorescence viability stain applied as one staining solution for rapid detection of live Legionella...     

Novel dinitroxide mediating agent for stable free‐radical polymerization

A novel dinitroxide mediating agent that was suitable for stable free‐radical polymerization was synthesized and used in the block copolymerization of styrene and t‐butyl styrene. Quantitative yields of a novel dinitroxide based on 1,6‐hexamethylene diisocyanate and 4‐hydroxy‐2,2,6,6‐tetramethyl‐1‐piperidinyloxy were obtained. Various experimental parameters, including the nitroxide‐to‐initiator molar ratio, were examined, and it was determined that the polymerization was most controlled under conditions similar to those of conventional 2,2,6,6‐tetramethyl‐1‐piperidinyloxy‐mediated stable free‐radical polymerization. Moreover, the dinitroxide mediator proved to be a viable route for the facile two‐step synthesis of triblock copolymers of styrene and t‐butyl styrene. However, the dinitroxide mediation process resulted in a higher than expected level of nitroxide decomposition, which resulted in polymers possessing a terminal alkoxyamine and an adjacent hydroxylamine rather than a preferred internal bisalkoxyamine. This decomposition resulted in the formation of diblock copolymer species during the triblock copolymer synthesis. Gel permeation chromatography was used to monitor the chain‐end decomposition kinetics, and the determined observed rate constant (5.89 × 10^?5 s^?1) for decomposition agreed well with previous studies for other dinitroxide mediating agents. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 1547–1556, 2004     

Aryl pyrrolidinones via radical 1,4-aryl migration and 5-endo-trig cyclisation of N-(2-bromoallyl)arylcarboxamides

Radical reaction of a series of N-(2-bromoallyl)arylcarboxamides led to the production of 4-arylpyrrolidin-2-ones and directly reduced materials in comparable yields. A cascade process, involving sequential 5-exo-trig spirocyclisation, β-scission, and 5-endo-trig cyclisation of the resulting acyl radical, is proposed to explain the pyrrolidinone products.     

Current methods for site-directed structure generation

Summary There has been a rapid growth of interest in techniques for site-directed drug design, fuelled by the increasing availability of structural models of proteins of therapeutic importance, and by studies reported in the literature showing that potent chemical leads can be obtained by these techniques. Structure generation programs offer the prospect of discovering highly original lead structures from novel chemical families. Due to the fact that this technique is more-or-less still in its infancy, there are no case studies available that demonstrate the use of structure generation programs for site-directed drug design. Such programs were first proposed in 1986, and became commercially available in early 1992. They have shown their ability to reproduce, or suggest reasonable alternatives for, ligands in well-defined binding sites. This brief review will discuss the recent advances that have been made in the field of site-directed structure generation.     

PHOTOBLEACHING DIFFERENCE ABSORPTION SPECTRA OF HUMAN CONE PIGMENTS: QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON TO OTHER METHODS

Four human cone pigment apoproteins were expressed by transfection of human tissue culture cells with the corresponding complementary DNA clones. Following reconstitution of the cone pigments by incubation with 11-cis retinal, photobleaching difference absorption spectra were obtained for the blue pigment, the green pigment, and two polymorphic variants of the red pigment. These spectra were analyzed to determine the wavelengths of maximal absorbance and the bandwidths. The recombinant cone pigment spectra were compared to human cone spectral sensitivities and cone pigment absorption spectra determined by microspectrophotometry, single-cell electrophysiology, reflection densitometry, electroretinography, and psychophysical color and brightness matching.