Correlation between Site ll-Specific Human Serum Albumin (HSA) Binding Affinity and Murine in vivo Photosensitizing Efficacy of Some Photofrin Components

Human serum albumin (HSA) is one of the key components in human blood that may influence drug distribution. As such, it is important to know the affinity of any drug for albumin. Previously, Photofrina mixture of monomeric, dimeric and oligomeric porphyrins, has been subjected to HSA binding studies. However, due to its complex nature, binding studies on Photofrin or other hematoporphyrin derivatives with HSA are inconclusive. In this report, the binding properties of some components (dimers and trimers) of Photofrin® and the relationship between murine photosensitizing efficacy and those binding properties were investigated. The interaction of these porphyrins with HSA was investigated by direct ultrafiltration and fluorescent titration techniques with fluorescent probes such as dansyl-L-proline (DP), which is known to interact selectively with site II on HSA. Porphyrins also were tested for antitumor activity in a mouse model following intravenous administration and exposure to laser light. Together, the results suggest that the photosensitizers that were preferentially bound to site II of HSA were most effective at controlling murine tumor regrowth     

Filamentous growth in activated sludge

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology - Bulking and foaming in activated sludge have been associated with filamentous overgrowth. FilamentousNocardia amarae and nonfilamentousPseudomonas...     

Pressure broadening study at low temperature: application to methane

We studied the R(0) line profile in the CH4 v4 band from room temperature to 188 K with N2 as a perturber, to 100 K with O2 as perturber, and from room temperature to 15 K using He as a perturber. The N2 and O2 measurements were performed over a total pressure range of 15-110 mbar, and for the He measurements the maximum sample pressure at 15 K was 1.10 mbar. Broadening parameters were determined, taking into account the confinement narrowing (Dicke effect), and narrowing parameters, deduced from the soft or hard collision model, are compared with the dynamic friction coefficient calculated values. We also obtained preliminary values for the temperature dependence of the N2, O2 and He line broadening parameters for this transition.     

Application of thermal analysis to carbon black-elastomer systems

In this study a relationship between the surface and textural properties of carbon blacks and the gasification process induced thermally in air is noted. A temperature jump method was used to follow the gasification in air and to establish the relevant Arrhenius parameters. This can be associated with the activity of ‘basal’ plane carbon atoms as well as ‘edge’ carbon atoms at the surface. This is based on a model of carbon black structure consisting of the irregular packing of small graphite carbon structures. The carbon black surface was measured using a single measurement of adsorption based essentially on the BET volumetric method. The carbon black surface had a rate of oxidation per unit are which clearly indicated that the lower area carbon blacks had a predominately active area of ‘edge’ atoms at the surface while the surface of the higher area carbon blacks had a predominate amount of ‘basal’ plane graphite carbon atoms.     

Biosynthesis of desosamine: construction of a new macrolide carrying a genetically designed sugar moiety

[formula: see text] The appended sugars in macrolide antibiotics are indispensable to the biological activities of these important drugs. In an effort to generate a set of novel macrolide derivatives, we have created a new analogue of methymycin and neomethymycin, antibiotics produced by Streptomyces venezuelae. This analogue 15 carrying a different sugar, D-quinovose, instead of D-desosamine, was constructed by taking advantage of targeted gene deletion combined with a specific pathway-independent C-3 reduction capability of the wild type S. venezuelae.     

An extremal problem related to probability

Summary We consider a walk from a stateA ₁ to a stateA _n+1 in which the probability of remaining atA _i isp _i , and the probability of progressing fromA _i toA _i+1 is 1 –p _i . The probabilityW _nk of reachingA _n+1 fromA ₁ in exactlyn + k steps can then be expressed as a polynomial of degreen + k in then variablesp ₁,,p _n . We determine the maximum value ofW _nk and the (unique) choice (p ₁,,p _n ) for which this extremum occurs.Dedicated to Professor Otto Haupt with best wishes on his 100th birthday     

The spectrum of a quasiperiodic Schrödinger operator

The spectrum (H) of the tight binding Fibonacci Hamiltonian (H _mn= _m,n+1+ _m+1,n + _m,n v(n),v(n)= ((n–1)), 1/ is the golden number) is shown to coincide with the dynamical spectrum, the set on which an infinite subsequence of traces of transfer matrices is bounded. The point spectrum is absent for any , and (H) is a Cantor set for 4. Combining this with Casdagli's earlier result, one finds that the spectrum is singular continuous for 16.On leave from the Central Research Institute for Physics, Budapest, Hungary