Studies on the chemical modification of monensin. II. Measurement of sodium ion permeability of monensylamino acids using sodium-23 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

A technique to assay Na+ ions in cells is presented. Intracellular and extracellular Na+ ions in a suspension of guinea pig erythrocytes were conveniently determined by using sodium-23 nuclear magnetic resonance (23Na-NMR), in combination with two anionic shift reagents: Dy(TTHA)3- and Dy(PPPi)2(7-). Monensin (1), monensylalanine (2b), monensylserine (2c), and monensylphenylalanine (2d) induced large increases of intracellular Na+ ion concentration ([Nain]), while monensylglycine (2a), monensyltyrosine (2e), monensylaspartic acid (2f), and monensylglutamic acid (2g) showed slight increases. The values of initial increasing rate (Vi) of 2a-g were much smaller than that of 1. This fact was probably due to the lower lipophilicity of 2a-g than 1, because a good correlation was observed between Vi and Rm50 values of 1 and 2a-g. This lower lipophilicity is a consequence of conformational differences between 1 and 2a-g.     

Oxygen atom transfer reactions from dioxygen to phosphines via a bridging sulfur dioxide in a trinuclear cluster complex of rhenium, [(Ph(3)P)(2)N][Re(3)(mu(3)-S)(mu-S)(2)(mu-SO(2))Cl(6)(PMe(2)Ph)(3)

A trinuclear rhenium sulfide cluster complex, [(Ph(3)P)(2)N][Re(3)(mu(3)-S)(mu-S)(3)Cl(6)(PMe(2)Ph)(3)], synthesized from Re(3)S(7)Cl(7), dimethylphenylphosphine, and [(Ph(3)P)(2)N]Cl is readily converted to a bridging SO(2) complex, [(Ph(3)P)(2)N][Re(3)(mu(3)-S)(mu-S)(2)(mu-SO(2))Cl(6)(PMe(2)Ph)(3)], by reaction with O(2). The oxygen atoms on the SO(2) ligand react with phosphines or phosphites to form phosphine oxides or phosphates, and the original cluster complex is recovered. The reaction course has been monitored by (31)P NMR as well as by UV-vis spectroscopy. The catalytic oxygenation of PMePh(2) in the presence of the SO(2) complex shows that turnovers are 8 per hour at 23 degrees C in CDCl(3). The X-ray structures of the cluster complexes are described.     

Electron tunneling of photochemical reactions on metal surfaces: nonequilibrium Green's function-density functional theory approach to photon energy dependence of reaction probability

We have developed a theoretical model of photoinduced reactions on metal surfaces initiated by the substrate/indirect excitation mechanism using the nonequilibrium Green's function approach. We focus on electron transfer, which consists of (1) electron-hole pair creation, (2) transport of created hot electrons, and (3) tunneling of hot electrons to form an anion resonance. We assume that steps (1), (2), and (3) are separable. By this assumption, the electron dynamics might be restated as a tunneling problem of an open system. Combining the Keldysh time-independent formalism with the simple transport theory introduced by Berglund and Spicer, we present a practical scheme for first-principle calculation of the reaction probability as a function of incident photon energy. The method is illustrated by application to the photoinduced desorption/dissociation of O2 on a Ag(110) surface by adopting density functional theory.     

The use of 2,2′-thiodiethanol in the fluorimetric determination of secondary amines with o-phthalaldehyde and 2-mercaptoethanol

The fluorimetric determination of secondary amines based on conversion with sodium hypochlorite to primary amines and the o-phthalaldehydemercaptoethanol (OPA) reagent is discussed. Interference by excess hypochlorite (e.g., oxidation of OPA or conversion of primary amines to chloramines) were suppressed by 2,2′-thiodiethanol. Two spectrophotofluorimetric method are reported, one for aromatic and the other for aliphatic secondary amines. These methods permitted determinations at nanomolar levels; relative standard deviations were 4% for 5 nmol of N-methylaniline and 13% for 5 nmol of sarcosine.     

Differentiation inducing activities of isocoumarins from Hydrangea Dulcis Folium

In the course of searching for differentiation inducers against leukemic cells from plants, we have recognized the differentiation inducing activities of the methanolic extract of Hydrangea Dulcis Folium. Activity guided separation of the extract was carried out using M1 cells, and seven isocoumarins were isolated as active substances. These isocoumarins showed the activities at the concentration of 100 microM and non-cytotoxic effects even at 300 microM.     

Dynamical origin of enhanced conformational searches of Tsallis statistics sampling

The characteristic sampling dynamics of importance samplings driven by the Tsallis weight [C. Tsallis, J. Stat. Phys. 52, 479 (1988)] has been analyzed in terms of recently developed Langevin stochastic model by considering the effects of the density of states and the potential smoothing of the Tsallis transformation. Our study reveals that the fixed points, which are determined by the crossing points of the statistical temperature and the Tsallis effective temperature, play a critical role in overall dynamics of the Tsallis statistics sampling. The dynamical origin of enhanced conformational searches of the Tsallis weight has been investigated by unveiling the intimate relationship between the sampling dynamics and the stability change of corresponding fixed points. Based on this stochastic analysis, we propose one effective method to realize a broad energy distribution in the Tsallis statistics sampling by determining optimal Tsallis parameters systematically based on preliminary canonical samplings. The effectiveness of our method has been validated in the folding simulation of Met-Enkephalin and liquid-solid transition simulation of Lennard-Jones cluster systems.     

Trimethylselenonium hydroxide: A new methylating agent

Trimethylselenonium hydroxide is very useful for methylating COOH, SH, aromatic OH, ring NH groups is aromatic heterocycles, etc.