Molecular interactions of glycopeptide antibiotics investigated by affinity capillary electrophoresis and bioaffinity electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry

Many analytical approaches are available to evaluate (bio)molecular interactions, all of which have their particular advantages and disadvantages. In recent years, two relatively new techniques have emerged that may be used by the bioanalytical community to evaluate such interactions, namely affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE) and bioaffinity electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). In this paper, we describe and evaluate the use of both these techniques for the investigation of the interactions of glycopeptide antibiotics with peptides that mimic the bacterial cell wall binding site. We focus particularly on the effect of the sugar moieties attached to the antibiotic peptide backbone and on the noncovalent dimerization of these glycopeptide antibiotics.     

Influence of concentration on the particle size analysis of polymer latexes using diffusing-wave spectroscopy

The use of a diffusing-wave spectroscopy (DWS) technique for the particle size analysis of a series of suspensions of polymer latexes with diameters ranging between 90 nm and 1300 nm and volume fractions from 0.02 to 0.18 has been investigated. Particle sizes from DWS were in reasonable agreement with those from transmission electron microscopy and disc centrifuge photosedimentometry. Photon correlation spectroscopy was applicable only to the latexes with particle sizes less than 500 nm. For polymer latexes with volume fractions (V_f) up to 0.09, the decay rate of the autocorrelation function from DWS was related to the particle size over the range of particle sizes examined. At the highest volume fraction (V_f = 0.18), it was possible to distinguish between particles with diameters of 740 and 1,300 nm from their autocorrelation functions, but not between particles with diameters of 90 and 430 nm.     

Trimethylsilyl fluorosulfonyldifluoroacetate (TFDA): a new, highly efficient difluorocarbene reagent

TFDA is readily prepared from the reaction of fluorosulfonyldifluoroacetic acid with trimethylsilyl chloride, and it is a very effective and efficient source of difluorocarbene for use in addition reactions to alkenes of a broad scope of reactivities. Acid-sensitive substrates may require an additional purification step involving treatment of the distilled TFDA with sufficient Et₃N to remove the acid impurity. Other trialkylsilyl fluorosulfonyldifluoroacetates can also be prepared, and they have been found to have reactivities similar to TFDA. The triethyl derivative, TEFDA is more convenient to prepare in a pure state and has similar reactivity to TFDA. Thus, it may prove to be a superior reagent.     

Temperature drop turbidity. IV. Polystyrene

The molecular weight distribution of fractionated and unfractionated polystyrene samples has been determined by temperature drop turbidimetry, in which polymer is precipitated from dilute solutions in cyclohexanol by progressively cooling from 388 to 310 K. Estimates of the molecular weight averages and the polydispersities, obtained by calibration of the temperature of initial onset of precipitation, T_i, and the weight-average molecular weight were low, but could be substantially improved by correcting for concentration changes during precipitation. An empirical procedure correlating the breadth of turbidity-temperature curves to the logarithm of the polydispersity, as measured by gel permeation chromatography, appeared to be a simpler method of characterizing the polymer samples and as accurate as the computational methods above.     

Rapid Screening of Serum-Free Media for the Growth of Adherent Vero Cells by Using a Small-Scale and Non-invasive Tool

The paper proposes a rapid screening method for a first step improvement of an animal component-free medium dedicated to the growth of the anchorage-dependent Vero cell line. A new, rapid, and non-invasive technique is presented to specifically monitor cultures of adherent cells in 96-well plates. The operating conditions of an image analyzer are adapted to take into account the decrease of cell size when the attached cell density increases. An experimental design is carried out to assess the influence of ten component groups in the original medium. Two groups including protein extracts, growth factor, insulin, glucose, and pyruvate show significant positive effects. The groups with vitamins and molecules related to nitrogenous bases display a less pronounced influence. The mixture of amino acids, B₁ vitamin, magnesium sulfate, and sodium phosphate as well as the couple sodium citrate and ferric chloride lead to a downward trend. The screening results are proved to be scalable in stirred cultures with cells on microcarriers. An improved serum-free medium, with some component groups being removed or added, can be rapidly formulated to reach respectively similar or 1.6 times higher cell density than in the original medium. The results from this global approach could be helpful to further focus experiments on identified medium components.     

Methodological approach to development of enzymatic technologies for semisynthetic betalactam antibiotic production

The algorithm for the research and design of optimized processes for synthesis of semisynthetic betalactam antibiotics with the use of peptidases with mechanism of action based on the acylenzyme interm ediate formation as a catalyst was formulated. The applicability of the proposed approach to the development of the processes for enzymatic synthesis of cefoxitin and cefazolin, semisynthetic cephalosporins, as an example, was demonstrated.     

Impact of Heteroatom Substitution on Dual-State Emissive Rigidified 2-(2’-hydroxyphenyl)benzazole Dyes: Towards Ultra-Bright ESIPT Fluorophores**

2-(2’-Hydroxyphenyl)benzazole (HBX) fluorophores are well-known excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) emitters largely studied for their synthetic versatility, photostability, strong solid-state fluorescence and ability to engineer dual emission, thus paving the way to applications as white emitters, ratiometric sensors, and cryptographic dyes. However, they are heavily quenched in solution, due to efficient non-radiative pathways taking place as a consequence of the proton transfer in the excited-state. In this contribution, the nature of the heteroring constitutive of these rigidified HBX dyes was modified and we demonstrate that this simple structural modification triggers major optical changes in terms of emission color, dual emission engineering, and importantly, fluorescent quantum yield. Investigation of the photophysical properties in solution and in the solid state of a series of ethynyl-TIPS extended HBX fluorophores, along with ab initio calculations demonstrate the very promising abilities of these dyes to act as bright dual-state emitters, in both solution (even in protic environments) and solid state.     

A one pot multi-component CuAAC “click” approach to bidentate and tridentate pyridyl-1,2,3-triazole ligands: Synthesis,X-ray structures and copper(II) and silver(I) complexes

A one pot, multi-component CuAAC reaction has been developed for the generation of alkyl, benzyl or aryl substituted bi and tridentate pyridyl-1,2,3-triazole ligands from their corresponding halides, sodium azide and alkynes in excellent yields. The ligands have been fully characterized by elemental analysis, HR-ESMS, IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR and in the ferrocenyl substituted cases the structures were confirmed by X-ray crystallography. Additionally, we have examined the coordination chemistry of these ligands and found that a variety of geometrically diverse Cu(II) and Ag(I) complexes, including interesting tri and tetrasilver complexes, can be formed.     

A technique for sequential leaching of coal and fly ash resulting in good recovery of trace elements

Coal and fly ash contain many elements. These elements exist in different forms which may change throughout the coal combustion process. There are several processes, including X-ray techniques and leaching techniques by which studies have attempted to assess the form of a particular element in a sample. This work focuses on determining the leachability of selected elements sequentially leached in four extraction solutions: water, 1 M ammonium acetate, 3 M hydrochloric acid and 50% hydrofluoric acid. The emphasis is on evaluating the steps involved in the leaching process with the mass recovery for each element being the basis for evaluation. The total amount of each element that will leach out under the given extraction condition is presented as a fraction of the total present in the material. The materials evaluated were NIST coal and fly ash standards. The elements measured in this study include aluminum, barium, beryllium, calcium, chromium, cobalt, iron, magnesium, manganese, nickel, potassium, sodium, strontium, vanadium and zinc.