ASSESSMENT OF GENOTOXICITY AND MUTAGENICITY OF 1,2-DIOXETANES IN HUMAN CELLS USING A PLASMID SHUTTLE VECTOR

Abstract— 1,2-Dioxetanes are efficient sources of triplet excited carbonyl compounds on thermal decomposition. They cause photochemical and photobiological transformations in the dark. In order to study the genotoxicity and mutagenicity of 1,2-dioxetanes, the replicating shuttle vector pZ189 was damaged with 3,3,4-trimethyl-l,2-dioxetane(TrMD) or 3-hydroxymethyl-3,4,4-trimethyl-l,2-dioxetane (HTMD) in vitro and subsequently transfected into normal human lymphoblasts. We found a dose-dependent increase of genotoxicity (decrease of plasmid survival) and increase of mutation frequency with both dioxetanes. However, TrMD was less mutagenic than HTMD at similar genotoxicity. Sequence analysis of the supF gene revealed more point mutations than deletions. Single base substitutions occurred exclusively at G:C sites: 94.6% of point mutations with TrMD and 100% with HTMD were G:C to T:A and G:C to C:G transversions. These are the typical mutations following 7,8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (8-oxo-G) formation, the main DNA lesion induced by TrMD and HTMD. Only with TrMD we found 5.4% G:C to A:T transitions, probably reflecting the more pronounced ability of TrMD to form some pyrimidine dimers. Our results indicate that 8-oxo-G is also the most relevant modification in in vivo mutagenesis.     

A simple and versatile method for the synthesis of acetals from aldehydes and ketones using bismuth triflate

Acetals are obtained in good yields by treatment of aldehydes and ketones with trialkyl orthoformate and the corresponding alcohol in the presence of 0.1 mol % Bi(OTf)3.4H2O. A simple procedure for the formation of acetals of diaryl ketones has also been developed. The conversion of carbonyl compounds to the corresponding 1,3-dioxolane using ethylene glycol is also catalyzed by Bi(OTf)3.4H2O (1 mol %). Two methods, both of which avoid the use of benzene, have been developed.     

Solvation and Ion-Pairing Effects of Choline Acetate Electrolyte in Protic and Aprotic Solvents Studied by NMR Titrations

Choline-based electrolytes have been proposed as environmentally friendly and low-cost alternatives for secondary zinc air batteries. Choline acetate [Ch]⁺[OAc]⁻ in protic (D₂O) and aprotic (DMSO-d₆) solvents has been studied by means of concentration-dependent ¹H NMR, viscosity, and density measurements. The viscosities have been calculated on the basis of the Jones-Dole equation and showed that the dominant contribution originates from short-range ion-solvent interactions. Site-specific association affinities were assigned from NMR chemical shift titrations. In DMSO-d₆, the hydroxyl group of choline was found to have the smallest dissociation constant followed by the methyl group of acetate. The corresponding Gibbs energies at low concentration were found to be in agreement with a solvent-separated ion pair (2SIP) configuration, whereas at concentrations above 300 mM, a solvent-shared ion pair (SIP) configuration was assigned. For [Ch]⁺[OAc]⁻ in D₂O, association effects were found to be weaker, attributed to the high dielectric constant of the solvent. On time scales on the order of 100 ms, NMR linewidth perturbations indicated a change in the local rotational dynamics of the ions, attributed to short-range cation-solvent interactions and not to solvent viscosity. At 184 mM, 40 % of the cations in DMSO-d₆ and 10 % in D₂O were found to exhibit short-range interactions, as indicated by the linewidth perturbations. It was found that at about 300 mM, the ions in DMSO-d₆ exhibit a transition from free to collective translational dynamics on time scales on the order of 400 ms. In DMSO-d₆, both ions were found to be almost equally solvated, whereas in D₂O solvation of acetate was stronger, as indicated by the obtained effective hydrodynamic radii. For [Ch]⁺[OAc]⁻ in DMSO-d₆, the results suggest a solvent-shared ion association with weak H-bonding interactions for concentrations between 0.3–1 M. Overall, the extent of ion association in solvents such as DMSO is not expected to significantly limit charge transport and hinder the performance of choline-based electrolytes.     

Improved excitation schemes for multiple-quantum magic-angle spinning for quadrupolar nuclei designed using optimal control theory

We have investigated the use of optimal control theory for the design of improved multiple-quantum excitation schemes for the popular multiple-quantum magic-angle spinning NMR experiment for quadrupolar nuclei with half-integer quadrupolar spin. The advantage of the new low-power experiments, termed OCFASTER, is demonstrated by sensitivity improvements approaching 50% for 87Rb in RbClO4 and RbNO3 as compared to FASTER and standard strong-pulse excitation schemes.     

Conformational changes of pyrene-labeled polyelectrolytes with pH: effect of hydrophobic modifications

Structural changes of pyrene-labeled and unlabeled poly(maleic acid/octyl vinyl ether) (PMAOVE) and poly(maleic acid/methyl vinyl ether) (PMAMVE) with changes in pH have been investigated in this study. The changes in the photophysical properties of pyrene are interpreted to investigate uncoiling or swelling of the polymeric chains with pH. The vibrational fine structure of the pyrene fluorescence (I(3)/I(1)) and the ratio between excimer and monomer fluorescence (I(e)/I(m)) of both pyrene-labeled and unlabeled PMAMVE and PMAOVE suggest that, at pH 4, the polymers are in the coiled form and PMAOVE forms hydrophobic nanodomains. An increase in pH ionizes a number of COOH groups on both PMAMVE and PMAOVE, which leads to the stretching or swelling of the polymers.     

Probing the surface polarity of native celluloses using genuine solvatochromic dyes

The surface polarity of native celluloses has been investigated by the following solvatochromic dyes: dicyano-bis (1,10)-phenanthroline iron (II) Fe(phen)2 (CN)2 (1), bis(4-N,N-dimethylamino)-benzophenone (2), and cou-marine 153 (3). Linear Solvation Energy (LSE) relationships and the UV/Vis data have been used to characterize the surface polarity of different native cellulose batches in terms of the empirical Kamlet–Taft polarity parameters (hydrogen bond acidity), (hydrogen bond basicity), and * (dipolarity/polarizability). , , *and calculated Reichardt's E T (30) values are reported for various native and regenerated cellulose samples with different degrees of crystallinity. The degree of crystallinity of the cellulose samples has been determined by X-ray. The microcrystalline environment of cellulose can be exactly parameterized in terms of the , and *values. It shows a fairly strong acidity and a low dipolarity/polarizability. For the amorphous sections smaller and larger * values are observed. The correspondence of the empirical polarity parameters determined has been discussed in relation to results from pyrene fluorescence and zetapotential measurements.     

Novel diode laser-compatible fluorophores and their application to single molecule detection, protein labeling and fluorescence resonance energy transfer immunoassay

We describe a series of new long-wave absorbing and fluorescing cyanine dyes and labels (based on a general logic for the design of such dyes), their spectra, covalent and noncovalent linkage to proteins, their use in single molecule detection (SMD) and as donors and acceptors, respectively, in fluorescence resonance energy transfer studies. The new labels represent water-soluble and reactive fluorophores whose quantum yields increase substantially if noncovalently or covalently bound to proteins. Due to their strong absorptions between 550 and 700 nm they are excitable by light-emitting diodes or diode lasers. Their high absorbances (epsilon around 100,000) and adequate fluorescence quantum yields (phi up to 0.68 if bound to proteins) along with their availability as reactive NHS esters make them viable labels for proteins and oligomers, e.g. in context with SMD or fluorescence energy transfer immunoassay which is demonstrated for the system HSA/anti-HSA.     

Hierarchical dynamics in allostery following ATP hydrolysis monitored by single molecule FRET measurements and MD simulations

We report on a study that combines advanced fluorescence methods with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to cover timescales from nanoseconds to milliseconds for a large protein. This allows us to delineate how ATP hydrolysis in a protein causes allosteric changes at a distant protein binding site, using the chaperone Hsp90 as test system. The allosteric process occurs via hierarchical dynamics involving timescales from nano- to milliseconds and length scales from Ångstroms to several nanometers. We find that hydrolysis of one ATP is coupled to a conformational change of Arg380, which in turn passes structural information via the large M-domain α-helix to the whole protein. The resulting structural asymmetry in Hsp90 leads to the collapse of a central folding substrate binding site, causing the formation of a novel collapsed state (closed state B) that we characterise structurally. We presume that similar hierarchical mechanisms are fundamental for information transfer induced by ATP hydrolysis through many other proteins.

We report on a study that combines advanced fluorescence methods with molecular dynamics simulations to cover timescales from nanoseconds to milliseconds for a large protein, the chaperone Hsp90.     

On the abstract theory of additive and multiplicative Schwarz algorithms

Summary. In recent years, it has been shown that many modern iterative algorithms (multigrid schemes, multilevel preconditioners, domain decomposition methods etc.) for solving problems resulting from the discretization of PDEs can be interpreted as additive (Jacobi-like) or multiplicative (Gauss-Seidel-like) subspace correction methods. The key to their analysis is the study of certain metric properties of the underlying splitting of the discretization space into a sum of subspaces and the splitting of the variational problem on into auxiliary problems on these subspaces. In this paper, we propose a modification of the abstract convergence theory of the additive and multiplicative Schwarz methods, that makes the relation to traditional iteration methods more explicit. The analysis of the additive and multiplicative Schwarz iterations can be carried out in almost the same spirit as in the traditional block-matrix situation, making convergence proofs of multilevel and domain decomposition methods clearer, or, at least, more classical. In addition, we present a new bound for the convergence rate of the appropriately scaled multiplicative Schwarz method directly in terms of the condition number of the corresponding additive Schwarz operator. These results may be viewed as an appendix to the recent surveys [X], [Ys]. Received February 1, 1994 / Revised version received August 1, 1994