Ruthenium-caged antisense morpholinos for regulating gene expression in zebrafish embryos

Photochemical approaches afford high spatiotemporal control over molecular structure and function, for broad applications in materials and biological science. Here, we present the first example of a visible light responsive ruthenium-based photolinker, Ru(bipyridine)₂(3-ethynylpyridine)₂ (RuBEP), which was reacted stoichiometrically with a 25mer DNA or morpholino (MO) oligonucleotide functionalized with 3′ and 5′ terminal azides, via Cu(i)-mediated [3+2] Huisgen cycloaddition reactions. RuBEP-caged circular morpholinos (Ru-MOs) targeting two early developmental zebrafish genes, chordin and notail, were synthesized and tested in vivo. One-cell-stage zebrafish embryos microinjected with Ru-MO and incubated in the dark for 24 h developed normally, consistent with caging, whereas irradiation at 450 nm dissociated one 3-ethynylpyridine ligand (Φ = 0.33) and uncaged the MO to achieve gene knockdown. As demonstrated, Ru photolinkers provide a versatile method for controlling structure and function of biopolymers.     

Wavelength selection framework for classifying food and pharmaceutical samples into multiple classes

Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is an efficient, low‐cost analytical technique widely applied to identify the origin of food and pharmaceutical products. NIR spectra‐based classification strategies typically use thousands of equally spaced wavelengths as input information, some of which may not carry relevant information for product classification. When that is the case, the performance of predictive and exploratory multivariate techniques may be undermined by such noisy information. In this paper, we propose an iterative framework for selecting subsets of NIR wavelengths aimed at classifying samples into categories. For that matter, we integrate Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and three classification techniques: k‐Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). PCA is first applied to NIR data, and a wavelength importance index is derived based on the PCA loadings. Samples are then categorized using the wavelength with the highest index and the classification accuracy is calculated; next, the wavelength with the second highest index is inserted into the dataset and a new classification is performed. This forward‐based iterative procedure is carried out until all original wavelengths are inserted into the dataset used for classification. The subset of wavelengths leading to the maximum accuracy is chosen as the recommended subset. Our propositions performed remarkably well when applied to four datasets related to food and pharmaceutical products. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Physical Chemistry of the Interaction of Cellulose with Lignin during Wood Surface Treatment with a Phosphate Flame Retardant

Russian Journal of General Chemistry - A phosphate flame-retardant hardener (PFH) produced on the basis of industrial orthophosphoric acid and acetic anhydride was proposed for reducing the...     

Effect of Support on Catalytic Properties of Platinum-Containing Catalysts in Hydrogenation of a Biphenyl–Diphenylmethane Eutectic Mixture

Russian Journal of Applied Chemistry - Pt/Sup catalysts with SiO2, MCM-48, and Al2O3 supports (Sup) were prepared. The catalysts were studied by methods of low-temperature nitrogen adsorption,...     

Convenient Microwave-Assisted Chlorosulfonic Acid-Catalyzed Synthesis of Some Quinazolinones from 2-Phenylindole

Russian Journal of Organic Chemistry - A new convenient method has been developed for the synthesis of quinazolinones from 2-phenyl-1H-indole and substituted amines under catalysis by...     

Comparison of the Reactivities of Tyrosine–Proline-Based Dipeptides toward Acylation with Nitrophenyl Benzoates

Russian Journal of Organic Chemistry - The reactivities of the L-Tyr–L-Pro dipeptide and its analog with a hydroxymethyl group instead of carboxy group in the proline moiety were compared by...     

Magnetically separable biocatalysts based on glucose oxidase for d-glucose oxidation

Russian Chemical Bulletin - Biocatalytic systems based on glucose oxidase immobilized on the surface of magnetically separable oxides SiO2 and Al2O3 were studied. Silicon and aluminum oxides...