Micelle-enhanced dissociation of a Ru cation /DNA complex

Anionic surfactant monomers have a large catalytic effect on the dissociation rate constant of a Ru2(4+)-DNA complex, an effect further enhanced upon exceeding the critical micelle concentration. Electrostatic estimates are made of this effect, the effect of salt and temperature on the binding constant, and of the binding constant itself. The effects are compared with the experiment, and the calculated salt effect on the binding constant is compared with condensation theory. The results indicate that the catalytic effect is primarily nonelectrostatic (hydrophobic) in nature.     

Synthesis of 6-amino-1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-c] pyridin-4(5H)one (8-aza-3-deazaguanine) and 6-amino-1-(β-D-ribofuranosyl)-1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-c] pyridin-4(5H)one (8-Aza-3-deazaguanosine) via novel ring closure procedures

The total synthesis of 6-amino-1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-c]pyridin-4(5H)one (8-aza-3-deazaguanine, 3 ) and 6-amino-1-(β-D-ribofuranosyl)-1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-c]pyridin-4(5H)one (8-aza-3-deazaguano-sine, 22 ) has been described for the first time by a novel base-catalyzed ring closure of 4(5)-cyanomethyl-1,2,3-triazole-5(4)carboxamide (14) and methyl 5-cyanomethyl-1-(2,3,5-tri-O-ben-zoyl-β-D-ribofuranosyl)-1,2,3-triazole-4-carboxylate (17) , respectively. Under the catalysis of DBU, 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone of dimethyl 1,3-acetonedicarboxylate (7) was converted to methyl 5-methoxycarbonylmethyl-1-(2,4-dinitroanilino)-1,2,3-triazole-4-carboxylate (12) via dimethyl 2-diazo-3-iminoglutarate (8) . Catalytic reduction of 12 gave methyl 4(5)methoxycar-bonylmethyl-1,2,3-triazole-5(4)carboxylate (11) from which methyl 4(5)carbamoylmethyl-1,2,3-triazole-5(4)carboxylate (10) was obtained by ammonolysis. Dehydration of 10 provided methyl 4(5)cyanomethyl-1,2,3-triazole-5(4)carboxylate (13) which on amination gave 14 . The 1,2,3-triazole nucleosides 17, 18 and 19 were obtained from the stannic chloride-catalyzed condensation of the trimethylsilyl 13 and a fully acylated β-D-ribofuranose. The yield and ratio of the ribofuranosyl derivatives of 13 markedly depends on the ratio of stannic chloride used. The structures of the nucleosides 22 and 23 were established by a combination of NOE, ¹H-nmr and ¹³C-nmr spectroscopy.     

Artificial neural network modification of simulation-based fitting: application to a protein-lipid system

Simulation-based fitting has been applied to data analysis and parameter determination of complex experimental systems in many areas of chemistry and biophysics. However, this method is limited because of the time costs of the calculations. In this paper it is proposed to approximate and substitute a simulation model by an artificial neural network during the fitting procedure. Such a substitution significantly speeds up the parameter determination. This approach is tested on a model of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) within a system of site-directed fluorescence labeled M13 major coat protein mutants incorporated into a lipid bilayer. It is demonstrated that in our case the application of a trained artificial neural network for the substitution of the simulation model results in a significant gain in computing time by a factor of 5 x 10(4). Moreover, an artificial neural network produces a smooth approximation of the noisy results of a stochastic simulation.     

Production of hybrid 16-membered macrolides by expressing combinations of polyketide synthase genes in engineered Streptomyces fradiae hosts

Combinations of the five polyketide synthase (PKS) genes for biosynthesis of tylosin in Streptomyces fradiae (tylG), spiramycin in Streptomyces ambofaciens (srmG), or chalcomycin in Streptomyces bikiniensis (chmG) were expressed in engineered hosts derived from a tylosin-producing strain of S. fradiae. Surprisingly efficient synthesis of compounds predicted from the expressed hybrid PKS was obtained. The post-PKS tailoring enzymes of tylosin biosynthesis acted efficiently on the hybrid intermediates with the exception of TylH-catalyzed hydroxylation of the methyl group at C14, which was efficient if C4 bore a methyl group, but inefficient if a methoxyl was present. Moreover, for some compounds, oxidation of the C6 ethyl side chain to an unprecedented carboxylic acid was observed. By also expressing chmH, a homolog of tylH from the chalcomycin gene cluster, efficient hydroxylation of the 14-methyl group was restored.     

Sensitive spectrophotometric determination of ascorbic acid in fruit juices and pharmaceutical formulations using 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol (Br-PADAP)

A simple and very sensitive method has been developed for the determination of ascorbic acid based on the oxidation of ascorbic acid to dehydroascorbic acid by iron(III), followed by a complexation of iron(II) with 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol(Br-PADAP). The iron(II) complex is formed immediately, with absorption maxima at 560 and 748 nm and a molar absorptivity of 1.31 × 10⁵ l mole^–1cm^–1 and 5.69 × 10⁴ l mole^–1cm^–1, respectively. The ascorbic acid determination is possible with a linear range up to 2.4 μg ml^–1, a calibration sensitivity of 0.744 ml μg^–1 at 560 nm and 0.323 ml μg^–1 at 748 nm, and a detection limit of 15 ng ml^–1 and 44 ng ml^–1, respectively. The procedure was used for the ascorbic acid determination in several fruit juices and pharmaceutical formulations. The results demonstrated a good precision (R.S.D. < 1%) and are in agreement with those obtained with others methods. The Br-PADAP method proposed is six times more sensitive than the method using the iron(II)-1,10-phenanthroline system. Received: 7 May 1996 / Revised: 1 July 1996 / Accepted: 8 August 1996     

DNA-binding of semirigid binuclear ruthenium complex delta,delta-[mu-(11,11'-bidppz)(phen)(4)ru(2)](4+): extremely slow intercalation kinetics

We here report a remarkably slow rearrangement of binding modes for a binuclear ruthenium(II) complex upon interaction with DNA. It has been previously shown that Delta,Delta-[mu-(11,11'-bidppz)(phen)4Ru2]4+ binds to DNA in one of the grooves. However, we find that this is only an initial, metastable, binding mode, which is extremely slowly reorganized into an intercalative binding geometry. The slow rearrangement and dissociation, revealed by flow linear dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy, are concluded to be a result from the complex being threaded through the DNA, with one of the bridging aromatic dppz ligands intercalated between the base pairs of the DNA, placing one metal center in the minor groove and one in the major groove. A negative LD, a high luminescence quantum yield, and long luminescence lifetimes, similar to the intercalating complex Delta-[Ru(phen)2dppz]2+, indicate intercalation of the bidppz moiety. The unique slow dissociation of the complex in its final DNA-binding mode suggests that this class of threading, partially intercalated binuclear complexes may be interesting in the context of cancer therapy. Also, their unique optical and photophysical properties could make such complexes, either alone or scaffolded by DNA structures, of interest for the development of nanometer-sized molecular optoelectronic devices.     

Agreement between experiment and hybrid DFT calculations for O--H bond dissociation enthalpies in manganese complexes

Information on the accuracy of DFT functionals for redox reactions in transition metal systems is rather limited. To analyze the performance of some popular functionals for redox reactions in manganese systems, calculated O--H bond dissociation enthalpies for Mn-ligands in six different complexes are compared to experimental results. In this benchmark, B3LYP performs well with a mean absolute error of 3.0 kcal/mol. B98 gives similar results to B3LYP (error of 3.8 kcal/mol). B3LYP* gives lower O--H bond strengths than B3LYP and has a mean error of 5.0 kcal/mol. Compared to B98 and B3LYP, B3LYP* has an error trend for the manganese ligands that is more similar to the error for a free water molecule. The nonhybrid functional BLYP consistently and significantly underestimates the O--H bond strengths by approximately 20 kcal/mol. HCTH407 has a rather large mean error of 9.4 kcal/mol and shows no consistent trend. The results support the use of hybrid functionals and the present computational method for large model systems containing manganese. An example is the oxygen evolving complex in photosystem II where hybrid functionals predict the appearance of a Mn(IV)-oxyl radical before the O--O bond formation step.