Aggregation of alkyllithiums in tetrahydrofuran

Density functional theory was used to examine the solvation number and aggregation state of several alkyllithium compounds in clusters with tetrahydrofuran molecules coordinated to each lithium atom. We then made the microsolvation approximation and approximated the bulk free energy of solvation by the free energy of clustering with solvent molecules in the gas phase. The trends in the computed results are in reasonable agreement with the available experimental data.     

Benzylic cations with triplet ground states: computational studies of aryl carbenium ions, silylenium ions, nitrenium ions, and oxenium ions substituted with meta pi donors

Density functional theory (B3LYP/6-31G(d,p)) was used to predict the effect of meta substitution on aryl cationic (Ar-X+) species, including aryloxenium ions, arylsilylenium ions, arylnitrenium ions, and arylcarbenium ions. Multireference second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2) calculations were used to benchmark the quantitative accuracy of the DFT calculations for representative systems. Substituting the meta positions on these species with pi donors stabilizes a pi,pi* diradical state analogous to the well-known m-xylylene diradical. Notably, the 3,5-bis(N,N-dimethylamino)benzyl cation is predicted to have a triplet ground state by 1.9 kcal/mol by DFT and to have essentially degenerate singlet-triplet states at the CASPT2(10,9) level of theory. Adding electron-withdrawing CF3 groups to the exocyclic carbon of this meta-disubstituted benzyl cation further increases the predicted singlet-triplet gap in favor of the triplet. Other aryl cationic species substituted with strong pi electron-donating groups in the meta positions are predicted to have low-energy or ground-state triplet states. Systems analogous to the naphthaquinodimethane diradicals are also reported.     

Integration of cell phone imaging with microchip ELISA to detect ovarian cancer HE4 biomarker in urine at the point-of-care

Ovarian cancer is asymptomatic in the early stages and most patients present with advanced levels of disease. The lack of cost-effective methods that can achieve frequent, simple and non-invasive testing hinders early detection and causes high mortality in ovarian cancer patients. Here, we report a simple and inexpensive microchip ELISA-based detection module that employs a portable detection system, i.e., a cell phone/charge-coupled device (CCD) to quantify an ovarian cancer biomarker, HE4, in urine. Integration of a mobile application with a cell phone enabled immediate processing of microchip ELISA results, which eliminated the need for a bulky, expensive spectrophotometer. The HE4 level detected by a cell phone or a lensless CCD system was significantly elevated in urine samples from cancer patients (n = 19) than healthy controls (n = 20) (p < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses showed that the microchip ELISA coupled with a cell phone running an automated analysis mobile application had a sensitivity of 89.5% at a specificity of 90%. Under the same specificity, the microchip ELISA coupled with a CCD had a sensitivity of 84.2%. In conclusion, integration of microchip ELISA with cell phone/CCD-based colorimetric measurement technology can be used to detect HE4 biomarker at the point-of-care (POC), paving the way to create bedside technologies for diagnostics and treatment monitoring.     

Structure, bonding, and energetic properties of nitrile-borane complexes: RCN-BH3

The structural and energetic properties of CH(3)CN-BH(3), HCN-BH(3), FCH(2)CN-BH(3), and F(3)CCN-BH(3) have been examined via density functional theory and post-Hartree-Fock calculations. The B-N distances in these systems are notably short, less than 1.6 ?, and the binding energies are substantial, about 20 kcal/mol. The properties of these systems do vary as a result of the nitrile substituent, but surprisingly, more electronegative substituents result in shorter B-N distances. For example, the B-N distance for F(3)CCN-BH(3) is 1.576 ? via MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ, while that for CH(3)CN-BH(3) is 1.584 ?. However, the binding energies vary as expected, from 17.4 kcal/mol in the case of F(3)CCN-BH(3) to 22.6 kcal/mol for CH(3)CN-BH(3) (via MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ). The extent of charge transfer and the degree of covalent character in the B-N bonds were explored by a natural bond orbital analysis, and the atoms in molecules formalism, respectively, and do provide some rationale for the substituent effects. Frequency calculations indicate that BH(3)-localized vibrational modes do shift appreciably upon complex formation, especially the BH(3) asymmetric stretch. For CH(3)CN-BH(3), experimental and calculated frequency shifts compare well for the asymmetric BH(3) bending mode, but the observed shift for the BH(3) asymmetric stretch, the most structurally sensitive mode, is about 40 cm(-1) larger than the predictions. While this may suggest a very slight contraction of the B-N bond upon formation of solid CH(3)CN-BH(3) (for which experimental data are available) the balance of evidence indicates that no significant medium effects occur in these complexes. We also discuss the distinct differences between these complexes and their BF(3) analogs. The underlying reasons for the markedly different structural properties are illustrated through an energy decomposition analysis applied to HCN-BH(3) and HCN-BF(3). These data indicate that less Pauli repulsion of the electrons on each respective subunit is the most significant factor that favors the overall stability of the BH(3) complex.     

Director patterns and inversion walls in 2D inhomogeneously deformed nematic LC layers

Abstract

With progressing resolution of dot matrix displays, effects of inhomogeneous electric fields at the edges of structured electrodes become more and more important in the optical performance. We present a new method of polarizing microscopy for the study of the director field in two-dimensionally inhomogeneous nematic LC layers. Planar cells with electrode strips are investigated. The novel effects observed in these systems are two types of inversion walls, depending upon the preferred director orientation at the glass plates with respect to the electrodes.     

Photopolymerized sol–gel monoliths for separations of glycosylated proteins and peptides in microfluidic chips

Photopolymerized silica sol–gel monoliths, functionalized with boronic acid ligands, have been developed for protein and peptide separations in polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic devices. Pore size characterization of the monoliths was carried out with SEM, image analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry to evaluate both the micron‐sized macropores and the nanometer‐sized mesopores. Monoliths were functionalized with boronic acid using three different immobilization techniques. Batch experiments were conducted to determine the capacity of the monoliths and selectivity toward cis‐diol‐containing compounds. Conalbumin was used as a model glycoprotein, and a tryptic digest of the glycoprotein horseradish peroxidase was used as a peptide mixture to demonstrate proof‐of‐concept extraction of glycoproteins and glycopeptides by the monoliths formulated in polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic chips. For proteins, fluorescence detection was used, whereas the peptide separations employed off‐line analysis using MALDI‐MS.     

Protein-surface interaction maps for ion-exchange chromatography

In this paper, protein-surface interaction maps were generated by performing coarse-grained protein-surface calculations. This approach allowed for the rapid determination of the protein-surface interaction energies at a range of orientations and distances. Interaction maps of lysozyme indicated that there was a contiguous series of orientations corresponding to several adjacent preferred binding regions on the protein surface. Examination of these orientations provided insight into the residues involved in surface interactions, which qualitatively agreed with the retention data for single-site mutants. Interaction maps of lysozyme single-site mutants were also generated and provided significant insight into why these variants exhibited significant differences in their chromatographic behavior. This approach was also employed to study the binding behavior of CspB and related mutants. The results indicated that, in addition to describing general trends in the data, these maps provided significant insight into retention data of the single-site mutants. In particular, subtle retention trends observed with the K12 and K13 mutants were well-described using this interaction map approach. Finally, the number of interaction points with energies stronger than -2 kcal/mol was shown to be able to semi-quantitatively predict the behavior of most of the mutants. This rapid approach for calculating protein-surface interaction maps is expected to facilitate future method development for separating closely related protein variants in ion-exchange systems.     

Rethinking 3D-QSAR

The average error of pIC50 prediction reported for 140 structures in make-and-test applications of topomer CoMFA by four discovery organizations is 0.5. This remarkable accuracy can be understood to result from a topomer pose’s goal of generating field differences only at lattice intersections adjacent to intended structural change.