Covalently β-cyclodextrin modified single-walled carbon nanotubes: a novel artificial receptor synthesized by ‘click’ chemistry

Novel β-cyclodextrin covalently modified single-walled carbon nanotubes have been synthesized via a ‘click’ coupling reaction. The product was fully characterized with Raman, FTIR, XRD, UV-Vis-NIR spectra as well as TEM and TGA measurements. The effective functionalization via ‘click’ coupling has set up a facile and versatile route for modular preparation of SWNTs based functional materials. The inclusion complexation behavior of this artificial receptor with quinine has been investigated in aqueous solution by fluorescence spectroscopy.     

The Detection of Unfolding Intermediates of Soybean Lipoxygenase-1 during Urea Denaturation by Fluorescence Spectroscopy

The unfolding of soybean lipoxygenase-1 during urea denaturation has been followed by activity assays and fluorescence measurement. The presence of stable intermediates during unfolding for both ferrous and ferric forms of lipoxygenase-1 were observed. In the presence of 6.0 M urea, the unfolding of soybean lipoxygenase-1, as monitored by fluorescence intensity, is a triphasic process, while the inactivation of the enzyme shows a single-phase kinetics. The rate constant of inactivation is consistent with that of the fast conformational change of the enzyme. Based on these, a minimal scheme containing two intermediates was proposed to interpret the unfolding of lipoxygenase-1 induced by urea.     

Study of Interaction of Silver Nanoparticles with Bovine Serum Albumin Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy

The interaction between silver nanoparticles (SNPs) and Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) was investigated at physiological pH in an aqueous solution using fluorescence spectroscopy. The analysis of fluorescence spectrum and fluorescence intensity indicates that SNPs have a strong ability to quench the intrinsic fluorescence of BSA by both static and dynamic quenching mechanisms. Resonance light scattering (RLS) spectra indicated the formation of a complex between BSA and SNP. The number of binding sites ‘n’ and binding constants ‘K’ were determined at different temperatures based on fluorescence quenching. The thermodynamic parameters namely ∆H^°, ∆G^°, ∆S^° were calculated at different temperatures and the results indicate that hydrophobic forces are predominant in the SNP-BSA complex. Negative ∆G^° values imply that the binding process is spontaneous. Synchronous fluorescence spectra showed a blue shift which is indicative of increasing hydrophobicity.     

三维光谱学--二维红外光谱和时间分辨光谱

本文介绍了一类重要的光谱学分析方法-三维光谱学方法,对其中的时间分辨光谱和二维红外光谱作了详细的介绍,包括它们的基本原理、获取谱图的方法、谱图的性质等.介绍了二维红外光谱方法在光谱学分析中的一些应用领域.三维光谱分析方法已经成为光谱分析中重要的研究方法之一.     

一种基于石墨化炭黑过滤吸附处理荧光抑制和改进系统聚类分析的轻质燃油种类拉曼光谱快速识别方法

提出了一种石墨化炭黑过滤吸附前处理抑制轻质燃油拉曼光谱荧光背景干扰的方法和一种改进的系统聚类分析算法,实现了39个样品的种类快速识别,即能自动将样品识别为0#车用柴油、0#普通柴油、97#车用汽油、93#车用汽油、90#车用汽油和3#喷气燃料等6种类型。过滤吸附处理方法是用定制的50 mg石墨化炭黑过滤吸附0.75 mL油样,然后对其进行拉曼光谱数据采集。试验结果证明：石墨化炭黑过滤吸附处理对无荧光背景干扰的3#喷气燃料和车用汽油样品拉曼光谱特征无明显影响,且能够有效抑制车用汽油和车用柴油样品的拉曼弱荧光背景干扰,以及车用汽油和普通柴油的强荧光背景干扰。改进的有监督系统聚类分析算法将普鲁克距离作为系统聚类分析中样本间相似度的评价方法;并将经典的系统聚类分析视为标准校正样品集的“建模”过程,通过计算未知样品与各类属中心向量之间的普鲁克距离,依据距离最小原则判断未知样品的类属。通过对39个具有不同拉曼荧光背景干扰特征油样的石墨化炭黑前处理和“留一法”交互验证分类识别,分析结果证明：石墨化炭黑过滤吸附前处理抑制拉曼光谱荧光背景的方法能够有效提取轻质燃油的拉曼光谱特征并应用于定性种类识别。     

Monitoring Local Unfolding of Bovine Serum Albumin During Denaturation Using Steady-State and Time-Resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy

In a previous report (J. Fluoresc. 16, 153, 2006) we studied the chaotropiclly induced denaturation of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) using the fluorescence decay kinetics at different stages in the denaturation of BSA by guanidinium hydrochloride (GuHCl). In this work, we gain a more detailed insight into the BSA denaturation process by investigating the thermodynamics of the process. Structural changes were monitored spectrophotometrically via the intrinsic protein fluorescence from tryptophan residues, and the extrinsic fluorescence from 1,8-anilinonaphthalene sulphonate (ANS). ANS tends to locate in a variety of binding sites in BSA which are located in different domains, and these can be selectively populated using different, 1:1 and 1:10 molar ratios of BSA to ANS. The data from steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy were analyzed using thermodynamic two-state and three-state models and the lifetime data clearly indicated the presence of an intermediate state during denaturation. A global analysis using non-linear regression gave a DG_H2O,D⁰ = 6.7  \textkcal.\textmo\textl ^{- 1} \Delta G_{{H_2}O,D}^0 = 6.7\;{\text{kcal}}.{\text{mo}}{{\text{l}}^{ - 1}} for the complete unfolding of the BSA-ANS complexes, and a DG_H2O,I⁰ = 0.9  \textkcal.\textmo\textl ^{- 1} \Delta G_{{H_2}O,I}^0 = 0.9\;{\text{kcal}}.{\text{mo}}{{\text{l}}^{ - 1}} for the first step to the intermediate. Therefore, the unfolding energy of the intermediate, which appears mostly at intermediate GuHCl concentrations (1.0 to 1.5 M), to the denatured state, is 5.8 kcal.mol⁻¹. The lifetime analysis of the BSA-ANS complexes also shows clearly that there are differences in stability of the BSA domains, with domain III unfolding first at low GuHCl concentrations (<1.5 M).     

宽频段太赫兹光谱技术的抗坏血酸和硫胺素研究

采用太赫兹时域光谱(THz-TDS)和傅里叶变换红外光谱(FTIR),测量了L-抗坏血酸与硫胺素在0.10~3.50 THz的光谱特性。给出了两种维生素的分子模型,详细分析比较了抗坏血酸与硫胺素在两种方法测量下吸收光谱的异同。结果表明：利用太赫兹时域光谱和傅里叶红外光谱测得的特征吸收谱在0.70~3.00 THz完全吻合,而在较低频段0.30~0.50 THz,两种样品的傅里叶红外光谱展现了太赫兹时域光谱所没有的特征峰,同时硫胺素样品在8.00~12.00 THz范围内,8.75,8.85,9.00,9.30和10.30 THz出现指纹峰;研究了样品掺杂不同比例聚乙烯粉末时THz吸收光谱的差异,抗坏血酸对太赫兹吸收较弱,总结了两种维生素的折射率曲线与其吸收峰的对应关系;结果对抗坏血酸和硫胺素的分析识别以及维生素太赫兹光谱数据库的建立具有重要参考意义。     

傅里叶变换红外光谱和近红外傅里叶变换拉曼光谱法无损鉴定中国字画

利用傅里叶变换红外(FTIR)和近红外傅里叶变换拉曼(NIR FT-Raman)光谱法鉴定了中国字画,结果表明：与荧光光谱法相比,根据谱峰的强度和位置可更容易地将真伪字画区别开来。拉曼光谱和红外光谱相互印证,互相补充,在鉴定中具有快速、准确、操作简单、重复性好、不需对样品进行预处理的优点,适于珍贵字画的无损鉴定。     

Probing the Conformational Stability of Two Different Copper Proteins: A Dynamic Fluorescence Study on Azurin and Ascorbate Oxidase

Tryptophan fluorescence is extremely useful to monitor structural conformational transitions in proteins. Denaturant-induced unfolding of azurin and ascorbate oxidase has been studied by dynamic fluorescence measurements in the frequency domain and the results have been interpreted in terms of continuous distribution of lifetimes. The data add new information on the unfolding mechanism that was previously analyzed by steady-state emission spectroscopy. In particular, the existence of multiple, parallel unfolding pathways may be envisaged and correlated, in both cases, to the two protein structures. The effect of metal depletion has been also characterized by fluorescence lifetime measurements. In the case of azurin, a monomeric protein, the data demonstrate that copper removal yields a totally different unfolding pathways with respect to the holo protein, indicating that metal ion plays a fundamental structural role in the wild type, native protein. In the case of ascorbate oxidase a dimer of 140 kDa, only minor effects have been detected by copper removal. However, the analysis of the fluorescence decay in presence of different amounts of guanidinium hydrochloride gives new important insights on the unfolding intermediates. In particular the data support the hypothesis of a partial exposure of an outer layer of dimer at intermediate denaturant concentration. This ability of dynamic fluorescence to pinpoint the presence of structural micro-heterogeneity in the unfolding pathways of proteins demonstrates the greater power of this technique compared to the most commonly used steady-state measurements.     

Application of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy in the Study of Atmospheric Heterogeneous Processes

Abstract

Atmospheric heterogeneous processes associated with the complex behavior of atmospheric particles may play a crucial role in atmospheric chemistry and global climate change. Many of these heterogeneous processes have been widely investigated in detail over the years, including heterogeneous reactions on the surface of aerosol particles, aerosol hygroscopicity, as well as aerosol chemical compositions. As a fast, sensitive, precise, nondestructive, in situ, and online experimental technique, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has played a significant role in investigating atmospheric heterogeneous processes. On the basis of the mechanisms and characteristics of various FTIR techniques, this work presents a review of the applications of in situ FTIR spectroscopy in atmospheric heterogeneous processes study, and future development directions for FTIR spectroscopy are proposed considering current and future research needs for heterogeneous processes.     

Simultaneous Determination of Xanthopterin and Isoxanthopterin in Human Urine by Synchronous Fluorescence Spectroscopy

A simple, rapid, sensitive and selective method for simultaneously determining xanthopterin and isoxanthopterin content in human urine has been developed using synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy based on their intrinsic fluorescence. The synchronous fluorescence spectra were obtained with Δλ = 65 nm in a pH 8.5 KH₂PO₄-NaOH buffer solution. The detected wavelengths of quantitative analysis were set at 410 nm for xanthopterin and 325 nm for isoxanthopterin, respectively. Pretreatment of urine samples only was filtrated through a 0.45 μm membrane filter, which was free from the tedious separation procedures. Under optimized conditions, the limits of detection (LOD) were 0.94 ng/mL for xanthopterin and 0.48 ng/mL for isoxanthopterin. The recoveries ranged from 88.0% to 103.8 % for healthy and cancer urine samples, with coefficient of variation between 2.09% and 7.06%. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the simultaneous analysis for xanthopterin and isoxanthopterin in human urine. The results showed that the average level of isoxanthopterin was significantly elevated in urine excreted by stomach cancer patients (P < 0.01), while no significant change of xanthopterin level was found between stomach cancer patients and healthy individuals. This potentially indicates that an increase in amounts of isoxanthopterin can be associated with the presence of stomach cancer.     

Efficiently Tuning the Absorption and Fluorescence Spectroscopy of the Novel Branched p-Nitro-stilbene Derivatives with Chemical Strategy

Suitable chemical strategy is a useful approach on the tuning color and photoluminescence of organic dyes. This paper presented tuning novel branched p-nitro-stilbene derivatives efficiently with a new chemical strategy through variation of chemical bridged bond. Linking bonds played significant effects on the absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy of the branched p-nitro-stilbene derivatives. A change from “D-π-A” to “A-π-A” chemical structural characteristics occurred for the branched p-nitro-stilbene derivatives as ester bond was attached. This led to not only large hypsochromic shift of the maximal absorption wavelength of the branched p-nitro-stilbene derivatives, but considerable reduction of the fluorescence intensity. While in contrast, the branched p-nitro-stilbene derivatives with ether bond exhibited longer wavelength absorption and much stronger fluorescence emission in modest polar solvent. The cyclic voltammograms of these branched p-nitro-stilbene derivatives were determined. Different electrochemistry processes were observed for the branched p-nitro-stilbene derivatives with various linking bonds. The energies of frontier orbital of the branched p-nitro-stilbene derivatives were estimated from their corresponding redox potentials. Molecular geometry optimization of the branched p-nitro-stilbene derivatives was performed, and the electron density distribution of frontier orbital was analyzed. Thermal stabilities of these branched nitro-stilbene derivatives were investigated via the analysis of the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermograving (TGA) curves. This paper presented strong evidences that the absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy of the branched stilbene derivatives could be mediated efficiently by chemical strategy.     

Studies on Interaction of CdTe Quantum Dots with Bovine Serum Albumin Using Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy

Luminescent quantum dots (QDs) have widely used in some biological and biomedical fields due to their unique and fascinating optical properties, meanwhile the interaction of QDs with biomolecules recently attract increasing attention. In this paper, we employed fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to investigate the nonspecific interaction between CdTe QDs and bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model, and evaluate their stoichiometric ratio and association constant. Our results documented that BSA was able to bind to CdTe QDs and form the QD–BSA complex by a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio. The association constant evaluated is 1.06 ± 0.14 × 10⁷ M⁻¹ in 0.01 M phosphate buffer (pH = 7.4). Furthermore, we found that QD–BSA complex dissociated with increase of ion strength, and we speculated that the interaction of CdTe QDs with BSA was mainly attributed to electrostatic attraction. Our preliminary results demonstrate that fluorescence correlation spectroscopy is an effective tool for investigation of the interaction between quantum dots (or nanoparticles) and biomolecules.     

基于细胞红外光谱预测乙酰化细胞的辐射敏感性

组蛋白乙酰化是表观遗传修饰的一种重要方式。肿瘤细胞的组蛋白大部分呈现低乙酰化状态,而组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂（histone deacetylase inhibitor,HDACi）可以增加肿瘤细胞的乙酰化水平,诱导细胞周期阻滞及凋亡。曲古菌素A （trichostatin A,TSA）是组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂的代表药物之一,能够提高肿瘤细胞组蛋白和非组蛋白的乙酰化水平。傅里叶变换红外（Fourier Transform Infrared,FTIR）光谱可以对无染色、无标记的生物样品进行无损检测,具有特征性明显、快速、分辨率高、重复性好等优点,已被广泛用于细胞的微观生物过程的研究。本文利用红外光谱技术结合免疫荧光技术的手段,研究TSA处理细胞后的乙酰化作用效果,发现红外光谱中甲基与亚甲基的伸缩振动强度之比能够表征细胞内的乙酰化水平变化,然后基于红外光谱的分析结果预测了乙酰化状态不同的细胞辐射敏感性的变化。结果表明,乙酰化细胞的辐射损伤效应可以通过甲基与亚甲基的伸缩振动强度之比进行评价,且该比值与细胞的辐射敏感性呈正相关,表明红外光谱技术可以辅助预测细胞的辐射敏感性,并进行细胞表观遗传学特征与辐射效应关系的研究。Histone acetylation is one of important epigenetic modifications, and histone in most of tumor cells shows low acetylation state. However, histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) can correct abnormal acetylation status, induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Trichostatin A (TSA) is one of the representatives of histone deacetylase inhibitors, which can inhibit histone deacetylase, increase the acetylation level of histone and nonhistone in cell. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a powerful analytical tool which can detect nondestructively, quatitatively and quantitatively biological samples without bio-tagging and bio-labeling. FTIR spectroscopy technology has multiple advantages, including finger-print characteristics, rapid analysis, high resolution and good repeatability. Therefore, it has been widely used in the research of biological processes. This work applied FTIR spectroscopy to study the changes in cells treated with TSA, compared the acetylation level according to FTIR intensity ratio of methyl to methylene stretching vibration, and based on the FTIR analysis predicted the radiosensitivity of the cells with different acetylation levels. As a result, we have verified that the damage caused by radiation in acetylated cells can be evaluated by the ratio of methyl and methylene intensity which is positively correlated with cellular radiosensitivity. Therefore, this work demonstrates that FTIR spectroscopy can be useful for the prediction of radiosensitivity and may also open a door for the study of relationship between epigenetics and radiation bio-effects.     

Molecular Interactions of Flavonoids to Hyaluronidase: Insights from Spectroscopic and Molecular Modeling Studies

In the work described on this paper, the interactions between eight flavonoids and hyaluronidase (HAase), an important enzyme involved in a promoting inflammation pathway, were investigated by spectroscopic and molecular modeling methods. The results revealed that all flavonoids could interact with HAase to form flavonoid-HAase complexes. The binding parameters obtained from the data at different temperatures indicated that flavonoids could spontaneously bind with HAase mainly through electrostatic forces and hydrophobic interactions with one binding site. According to synchronous and three-dimensional fluorescence spectra and the molecular docking results, all flavonoids bound directly into the enzyme cavity site and the binding of flavonoid into the enzyme cavity influenced the microenvironment of the HAase activity site which led to the reduced enzyme activity. The present study provides direct evidence at a molecular level to understand the mechanism of inhibitory effect of flavonoid against HAase and explain the anti-inflammatory mechanism of the Traditional Chinese Medicines as anti-inflammatory drugs.     

Sensitive Spectroscopic Detection of Large and Denatured Protein Aggregates in Solution by Use of the Fluorescent Dye Nile Red

The fluorescent dye Nile red was used as a probe for the sensitive detection of large, denatured aggregates of the model protein β-galactosidase (E. coli) in solution. Aggregates were formed by irreversible heat denaturation of β-galactosidase below and above the protein’s unfolding temperature of 57.4°C, and the presence of aggregates in heated solutions was confirmed by static light scattering. Interaction of Nile red with β-galactosidase aggregates led to a shift of the emission maximum (λ _max) from 660 to 611 nm, and to an increase of fluorescence intensity. Time-resolved fluorescence and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) measurements showed that Nile red detected large aggregates with hydrodynamic radii around 130 nm. By steady-state fluorescence measurements, it was possible to detect 1 nM of denatured and aggregated β-galactosidase in solution. The comparison with size exclusion chromatography (SEC) showed that native β-galactosidase and small aggregates thereof had no substantial effect on the fluorescence of Nile red. Large aggregates were not detected by SEC, because they were excluded from the column. The results with β-galactosidase demonstrate the potential of Nile red for developing complementary analytical methods that overcome the size limitations of SEC, and can detect the formation of large protein aggregates at early stages.     

New Perspectives of Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy

The principle of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy is outlined. The technique has been applied to a mutant of the well-known green fluorescent protein. A comparative study has been made with time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy. The latter experiment shows that the fluorophore is rigidly bound inside the protein matrix follows the rotation of the whole protein and does not show any fast restricted motion. It is evident from fluorescence correlation spectroscopy that some excited-state reaction plays a role, since the autocorrelation traces show a significant effect on the incident laser power. Other potential applications of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy are presented as taken from very recent publications.     

基于光谱法研究盐酸胍诱导的人血红蛋白去折叠过程

借助于紫外-可见吸收光谱法、荧光光谱法以及停流-荧光光谱法研究了盐酸胍(GdmHcl)诱导人血红蛋白的去折叠过程。实验发现,盐酸胍诱导的血红蛋白去折叠有两个不同的过程,即随着GdmHcl浓度增加到1.0 mol·L-1左右时,血红蛋白亚基发生解聚,形成中间态;持续增加其浓度时,各亚基发生内部去折叠,最终导致血红素发生崩解。加入还原剂(β-巯基乙醇)对血红蛋白亚基解聚、血红素崩解有协同作用且直接引起亚基和全分子同步变构。血红蛋白去折叠过程从“三态模型”转变为“二态模型”。     

Synthesis, Crystal, Absorption and Fluorescence Spectroscopy of Nitro-Stilbene Derivatives with Benzophenones

In this paper, we have presented a range of new nitro-stilbene derivatives with benzophenones via ether or ester bridged bond. These nitro-stilbene derivatives with benzophenones have been conveniently obtained by condensation reaction. The linked benzophenones were efficiently introduced to nitro-stilbene dyes. The structures of these compounds have been characterized with NMR and element analysis. The single crystals of two target compounds (11 and 12) have been obtained, and their X-ray crystallographic data have been determined and discussed. Remarkably different absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy was observed for nitro-stilbene derivatives with benzophenones via different linked bonds. The results show that electron-donating or electron withdrawing bridged bonds have significant influence on the absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, which makes it possible for the development of ideal nitro-stilbene dyes with benzophenones through chemical strategy.     

Studies of Atmospherically Relevant Reactions Using Differentially Pumped Mass Spectrometer and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

This article describes recent studies of atmospherically relevant reactions using spectroscopic techniques by our group at the Wadsworth Center. Heterogeneous reactions of SO₂ with either HOBr or HOCl on ice have been studied using a coated-wall flow reactor coupled with differentially pumped quadrupole mass spectrometer, and the reaction of NO₂+HI has been investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Reaction probabilities or rate constants have been determined at relevant atmospheric temperatures. Specular reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy and the temperature programmed desorption technique were employed to study the adsorption of oxalic acid on a Cu surface at 175 K. Reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy showed that oxalic acid is molecularly adsorbed on the Cu surface. The results obtained from these studies provide a better understanding of atmospheric reactions at a molecular level and enable an assessment of the relative importance of the reactions in the atmosphere.