Analysis of the population structure in Oman

Knowledge of a population structure can be a unique aid in planning genetic services. In order to facilitate the development of genetic services in the Sultanate of Oman, a tribal data base has been developed. The historic records of the beginning of the 19th century were used as the basis and were updated with contemporary information. The tribal data base includes tribal names, locations, and the main 185 major tribes and their subsections. Tribal data can be used for health care planning and the development of disease-specific genetic registers if the hospital records also include the tribal name. They may also provide a useful aid in genetic screening and disease prevention programmes, as when specific mutations are found in rare diseases, it is likely that these will be found to be exclusive to specific tribes, and laboratory testing will be greatly simplified. It is likely that similar data bases could be developed elsewhere in the Middle East and in the immigrant communities in Western Europe.     

Potent E‐Selectin Antagonists

In the search for drugs that could control excessive leukocyte extravasation, we now report on modifications of the already known potent E‐selectin antagonist 3 containing a cyclohexyllactic acid residue and a glucal‐derived building block. Thus, we describe the synthesis and biological evaluation of a series of derivatives 6 with modified glucal‐derived moieties (CH₂NR¹R² instead of CH₂OH in 3 ) to explore a hypothetical potential complementary interaction with E‐selectin. However, similar activity profiles of most derivatives 6 and compound 3 do not support such an interaction, but rather indicate topological‐structure changes of 6 (and 3 ) in the orientation of the neighboring fucose and galactose due to intramolecular steric interactions. The most potent E‐selectin antagonist 6v showed >50‐fold improved E‐selectin inhibition compared to the weak selectin ligand sialyl Lewis^x (sLe^x, 1 ; IC₅₀=1000 – 1500 μM ), but only a 2‐fold improvement compared to 3 . Compound 6x was tested in vivo in a murine model of acute inflammation and found to be as potent as 3 (ED₅₀=15 mg/kg).     

Engineering dehydro amino acids and thioethers into peptides using lacticin 481 synthetase

Lantibiotics are peptide antimicrobials containing the thioether-bridged amino acids lanthionine (Lan) and methyllanthionine (MeLan) and often the dehydrated residues dehydroalanine (Dha) and dehydrobutyrine (Dhb). While biologically advantageous, the incorporation of these residues into peptides is synthetically daunting, and their production in vivo is limited to peptides containing proteinogenic amino acids. The lacticin 481 synthetase LctM offers versatile control over the installation of dehydro amino acids and thioether rings into peptides. In vitro processing of semisynthetic substrates unrelated to the prelacticin 481 peptide demonstrated the broad substrate tolerance of LctM. Furthermore, a chemoenzymatic strategy was employed to generate novel thioether linkages by cyclization of peptidic substrates containing the nonproteinogenic cysteine analogs homocysteine and beta-homocysteine. These findings are promising with respect to the utility of LctM toward preparation of conformationally constrained peptide therapeutics.     

Online aerosol mass spectrometry of single micrometer-sized particles containing poly(ethylene glycol)

The analysis of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-containing particles by online single particle aerosol mass spectrometers equipped with laser desorption/ionization (LDI) is reported. We demonstrate that PEG-containing particles are useful in the development of aerosol mass spectrometers because of their ease of preparation, low cost, and inherently recognizable mass spectra. Solutions containing millimolar quantities of PEGs were nebulized and, after drying, the resultant micrometer-sized PEG-containing particles were sampled. LDI (266 nm) of particles containing NaCl and PEG molecules of average molecular weight<500 Da generated mass spectra reminiscent of mass spectra of PEG collected by other mass spectrometer platforms including the characteristic distribution of positive ions (Na+ adducts) separated by the 44 m/z units of the ethylene oxide units separating each degree of polymerization. PEGs of average molecular weight>500 Da were detected from particles that also contained the tripeptide tyrosine-tyrosine-tyrosine or 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid, which were added to nebulized solutions to act as matrices to assist LDI using pulsed 266 nm and 355 nm lasers, respectively. Experiments were performed on two aerosol mass spectrometers, one reflectron and one linear, that each utilize two time-of-flight mass analyzers to detect positive and negative ions created from a single particle. PEG-containing particles are currently being employed in the optimization of our bioaerosol mass spectrometers for the application of measurements of complex biological samples, including human effluents, and we recommend that the same strategies will be of great utility to the development of any online aerosol LDI mass spectrometer platform.     

Investigating carbazole jacketed precursor dendrimers: sonochemical synthesis, characterization, and electrochemical crosslinking properties

Precursor carbazole terminated dendrons and dendrimers up to generation four (G4-D) were synthesized using a convergent approach. Sonication as a means of facilitating organic reactions in dendrimer chemistry was explored resulting in very facile and very fast (up to 50x) reaction times compared to those using traditional reflux conditions. The limits of peripheral group functionality were explored as a function of generation. The electrochemical cross-linking of the dendrimers as thin films revealed unusual cyclic voltammetry (CV) behavior depending upon the generations, which were significantly different from their linear counterpart, Poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK). G1-D showed a higher extent of intermolecular cross-linking while G4-D showed a higher extent of intramolecular cross-linking. The formed films were optically clear and possess superior energy band gap properties making them an alternative candidate over PVK for future hole-transport layer materials in electro-optical devices.     

Global energy minimisation and cotranslational protein folding of HP models

The globally minimum energy configurations of simple HP lattice models (which use only two amino acid types, positioned on the vertices of a square lattice) of proteins have been established for short sequences. Here we investigate the folding of such proteins to this globally minimum energy configuration, both cotranslationally (as they are manufactured, sequentially, in the ribosome) and starting from a fully extended state. In order to do this we model the folding process and develop a heuristic method for finding local energy minima. Two main results emerge. First, some sequences do fold better cotranslationally than from a fully extended state and second, this can be due to cotranslational folding leading to an initial local energy minimum from which movement to the global minimum is efficient. Sequences for which this is true tend to have a higher density of hydrophobic residues at the start than at the finish. Structural properties of sequences that fold better cotranslationally than from a fully extended state are also identified.     

Heterodyne spectral interferometry for multidimensional nonlinear spectroscopy of individual quantum systems

A novel implementation of transient nonlinear spectroscopy is presented that allows the study of the transient nonlinear polarization emitted from individual electronic transitions. Both the amplitude and the phase of the polarization are retrieved, permitting the implementation of multidimensional spectroscopy in the excitation pulse delays. The technique is shown to detect mutual coherent coupling in a group of individual, localized excitonic transitions.     

Thiophene dendron jacketed poly(amidoamine) dendrimers: nanoparticle synthesis and adsorption on graphite

The peripheral functionalization of amine-terminated fourth-generation poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) with thiophene dendrons and the preparation of dendrimer-encapsulated metal nanoparticles are described. Interesting nanoparticle stabilization and energy-transfer properties were observed with these hybrid materials. The synthesis involved imine coupling of the dendron derivatives to the peripheral amine groups of PAMAM followed by reduction. The formation of these metal-organic nanoparticle hybrid materials was monitored by UV-vis spectroscopy. The complexation of metal ions and the stabilization effect of PAMAM on metal nanoparticles were investigated by FT-IR. Energy transfer was observed between the metal surface plasmon absorption and fluorescence of the terthiophene dendrons. Noncontact magnetic-AC mode AFM imaging revealed the formation of monodispersed and very stable nanoparticles adsorbed on an HOPG flat substrate.     

Ditopic halogen bonding with bipyrimidines and activated pyrimidines

The potential of pyrimidines to serve as ditopic halogen‐bond acceptors is explored. The halogen‐bonded cocrystals formed from solutions of either 5,5′‐bipyrimidine (C₈H₆N₄) or 1,2‐bis(pyrimidin‐5‐yl)ethyne (C₁₀H₆N₄) and 2 molar equivalents of 1,3‐diiodotetrafluorobenzene (C₆F₄I₂) have a 1:1 composition. Each pyrimidine moiety acts as a single halogen‐bond acceptor and the bipyrimidines act as ditopic halogen‐bond acceptors. In contrast, the activated pyrimidines 2‐ and 5‐{[4‐(dimethylamino)phenyl]ethynyl}pyrimidine (C₁₄H₁₃N₃) are ditopic halogen‐bond acceptors, and 1:1 halogen‐bonded cocrystals are formed from 1:1 mixtures of each of the activated pyrimidines and either 1,2‐ or 1,3‐diiodotetrafluorobenzene. A 1:1 cocrystal was also formed between 2‐{[4‐(dimethylamino)phenyl]ethynyl}pyrimidine and 1,4‐diiodotetrafluorobenzene, while a 2:1 cocrystal was formed between 5‐{[4‐(dimethylamino)phenyl]ethynyl}pyrimidine and 1,4‐diiodotetrafluorobenzene.