Enzymatic synthesis of flavin adenine dinucleotide

A new and simple enzymatic method for the synthesis of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) from flavin mononucleotide by the transadenylylation reaction using microbial cells is described. Among various microorganisms tested,Artherobacter globiformis IFO 12138 and two soil bacteria were selected as useful enzyme sources. Under suitable reaction conditions, the amount of FAD synthesized was 2.25 μmol/mL with cells ofA. globiformis. The transadenylylation reaction could be coupled with the ATP supplying system through a glycolysis process with yeast.     

Synthesis of chemically stabilized phosmidosine analogues and the structure--activity relationship of phosmidosine

Phosmidosine is known to have potent antitumor activity and the unique property of stopping cell growth at the G(1) phase in the cell cycle. However, this natural product having N-prolylphosphoramidate and O-methyl ester linkages on the 5'-phosphoryl residue is unstable under basic conditions and even during the chemical synthesis due to its inherent methyl transfer activity. To find stable derivatives of phosmidosine, a variety of phosmidosine analogues 1a-d replaced by longer alkyl groups in place of the methyl group on the phosphoramidate linkage were synthesized by reaction of alkyl N-(N-tritylprolyl)phosphorodiamidite derivatives 7a-d with an 8-oxoadenosine derivative 4 protected with acid-labile protecting groups. Consequently, the O-ethyl ester derivative 1b was found to be sufficiently stable in aqueous solution. When the prolyl group was replaced by other aminoacyl moieties, the reaction of N-tritylaminoacylamide derivatives 25a-d with an appropriately protected 8-oxoadenosine 5'-(ethyl phosphoramidite) derivative 9 gave better results than the above coupling reaction. A phosphoramidothioate derivative 17 and several simple compounds such as 11, 13, and 15 lacking partial structures of phosmidosine were also synthesized. The antitumor activities of these modified analogues were extensively studied to clarify the structure-activity relationship of phosmidosine. As a result, the two diastereoisomers of longer alkyl-containing phosmidosine analogues both proved to have similar antitumor activities. Replacement of l-proline with other l-amino acids or d-proline resulted in considerable decrease of the antitumor activity. The non-nucleotidic materials 13 did not show any antitumor activity, but a simple core compound of 11 exhibited weak cytotoxicity. The phosphoramidothioate derivative 17 maintained essentially a similar antitumor activity, but the efficiency decreased slightly.     

Preparation and O2 binding study of myoglobin having a cobalt porphycene

Sperm whale myoglobin, an oxygen-storage hemoprotein, was reconstituted with 2,7-diethyl-3,6,12,17-tetramethyl-13,16-bis(carboxyethyl)porphycenatocobalt(II) in order to investigate the reactivities of a cobalt porphycene in a protein matrix. Similar to the previously reported finding for the myoglobin with the iron porphycene, the reconstituted myoglobin with the cobalt porphycene was also found to have an O2 affinity 2 orders of magnitude greater than that of the myoglobin possessing cobalt protoporphyrin IX. The EPR spectra of the deoxy and oxy myoglobins having the cobalt porphycene at 77 K also have features similar to those of the myoglobin with cobalt protoporphyrin IX. These spectra suggest that the porphycene cobalt in the deoxy form is coordinated by one nitrogenous ligand postulated to be the imidazole ring of His93, and that the bond configuration of CoII-O2 is regarded as the CoIII-Omicron2*- species.     

Controllable polymerization of N-carboxy anhydrides in a microreaction system

We have developed a microfluidic system for polymerization of amino acid N-carboxyanhydride and compared the properties of the products with those obtained by batchwise system under various experimental conditions. It was found that the microreactor produced polymers with narrower molecular weight distribution compared with polymers obtained by the batchwise system. Also, the molecular mass of the polymer produced using the microreactor was simply governed by the flow (pumping) rate. These results indicated that the microreactor could be a model for synthesis of amino acid polymer with highly controllable average molecular weight and molecular weight distribution.     

Chiral recognition properties of chiral 18-crown-6 ethers with aromatic substituents

The chiral recognition properties of chiral 18-crown-6 ethers with phenyl, 1-naphthoxymethyl, 1-naphthylmethyl, or 2,3,5,6-tetramethylphenylmethyl substituents for -phenylglycine methyl ester and 1-phenylethylamine perchlorate were investigated by a standard extraction procedure. The chiral recognition factor of 1-naphthoxymethyl substituted crown ether is 2.0 for the former salt but near 1.0 for the latter, whereas that of the other crown ethers is not so dependent on the structure of salts, which indicates the importance of the mutual relation of the structure of host and quest molecules.     

Photoreversible reactions of poly(vinyl cinnamylideneacetate) and its model compound

Photochemical reactions of poly(vinyl cinnamylideneacetate) and its model compound were studied. The irradiation of these compounds with light of wavelength longer than 300 nm produced dimeric forms of cinnamylideneacetyl groups, which were effectively dissociated into the monomeric forms by the irradiation with 254 nm light.     

Dynamic character of human growth hormone and its receptor: normal mode analysis

Human growth hormone (hGH) induces dimerization of its binding protein (hGHbp). hGH binds to the first hGHbp (bp1) on site 1, and then the hGH-bp1 heterodimer complex binds to the second hGHbp (bp2) on site 2. Although the interactions of hGH and hGHbps have been studied from different viewpoints, few studies from a dynamic viewpoint have been reported. Especially, since in the SCOP domain database hGHbp is classified as two clear immunoglobulin-like domains, it is of interest to understand how hGH interacts with the hGHbp domains. Therefore, we carried out normal mode analysis (NMA) of free hGH, free bp1, free bp2, and the hGH-bp1 heterodimer complex, as well as the hGH-bp1-bp2 ternary complex to investigate how the dynamics of the proteins change before and after forming the complexes. NMA showed that the domain motion between the N-terminal and the C-terminal domains of free bp1 markedly decreased after binding to hGH, and that the domain motion of bp2 decreased similarly after binding to the hGH-bp1 heterodimer complex. The present study demonstrates that hGH regulates the inter-domain motions of both hGHbps.     

Fabrication of self-organized chemically and topologically heterogeneous patterns on the surface of polystyrene-b-oligothiophene block copolymer films

A novel fabrication of the chemically and topologically heterogeneous patterns on the surface of polymeric films over an area of more than 1 square centimeter in a single step was demonstrated by using the self-organizing character of polystyrene-b-oligothiophene block copolymers. Hexagonally arranged open pores of a size of approximately 2 mum are spontaneously formed by casting the polymer solution under a moist air flow. The amphiphilic character of the polystyrene-b-oligothiophene block copolymers played the crucial role as a surfactant to stabilize the inverse emulsion of water droplets in the organic solvent, and subsequently the structure of the arranged hydrophilic oligothiophene segments remained on the interiors of the micropores. The chemical composition of the surface of the microporous films was characterized by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) to prove the chemical heterogeneity. The ToF-SIMS imaging clearly indicated that the oligothiophene forms the aggregated structure on the interior of the open micropores on the surface while the flat area on the surface was covered with the polystyrene.     

Metal-containing crosslinked polyester resins by combined polyesterification and polymerization of curable mixtures based on divalent metal salts of mono(hydroxyethyl)phthalate

Preparations of metal-containing crosslinked polyester resins based on divalent metal salts of mono(hydroxyethyl)phthalate were investigated by the cure, by combined polyesterification and polymerization, of curable mixtures prepared from above metal salts, maleic anhydride, glycidyl methacrylate, and methyl methacrylate. The curable mixtures containing Ca showed lower viscosity than those containing Mg. They were subjected to curing reactions in the presence of peroxide and under photoirradiation, respectively. In the cure, polyesterification and polymerization proceeded simultaneously smoothly, giving metal-containing cured resins. Generally, the peroxide-cured resins showed better physical properties than the photo-cured resins. Especially, the former resins with high metal content showed high compressive strength and Rockwell hardness. Further, resistance to chemical attack and boiling water and thermal behavior are also discussed.