Monitoring of the Proton Electrochemical Gradient in Reconstituted Vesicles: Quantitative Measurements of Both Transmembrane Potential and Intravesicular pH by Ratiometric Fluorescent Probes

Proteoliposomes carrying reconstituted yeast plasma membrane H⁺-ATPase in their lipid membrane or plasma membrane vesicles are model systems convenient for studying basic electrochemical processes involved in formation of the proton electrochemical gradient (Δμ_H ⁺) across the microbial or plant cell membrane. Δψ- and pH-sensitive fluorescent probes were used to monitor the gradients formed between inner and outer volume of the reconstituted vesicles. The Δψ-sensitive fluorescent ratiometric probe oxonol VI is suitable for quantitative measurements of inside-positive Δψ generated by the reconstituted H⁺-ATPase. Its Δψ response can be calibrated by the K⁺/valinomycin method and ratiometric mode of fluorescence measurements reduces undesirable artefacts. In situ pH-sensitive fluorescent probe pyranine was used for quantitative measurements of pH inside the proteoliposomes. Calibration of pH-sensitive fluorescence response of pyranine entrapped inside proteoliposomes was performed with several ionophores combined in order to deplete the gradients passively formed across the membrane. Presented model system offers a suitable tool for simultaneous monitoring of both components of the proton electrochemical gradient, Δψ and ΔpH. This approach should help in further understanding how their formation is interconnected on biomembranes and even how transport of other ions is combined to it.     

Monitoring of circulating amino acids in patients with pancreatic cancer and cancer cachexia using capillary electrophoresis and contactless conductivity detection

Branched chain amino acids (BCAAs), alanine and glutamine are determined in human plasma by capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection (CE/C⁴D). The baseline separation of five amino acids from other plasma components is achieved on the short capillary effective length of 18 cm in 3.2 mol/L acetic acid with addition of 13% v/v methanol as background electrolyte. Migration times range from 2.01 min for valine to 2.84 min for glutamine, and LODs for untreated plasma are in the interval 0.7–0.9 μmol/L. Sample treatment is based on the addition of acetonitrile to only 15 μL of plasma and supernatant is directly subjected to CE/C⁴D. Circulating amino acids are measured in patients with pancreatic cancer and cancer cachexia during oral glucose tolerance test. It is shown that patients with pancreatic cancer and cancer cachexia syndrome exhibit low basal circulating BCAAs and glutamine levels and loss of their insulin-dependent suppression.     

In-bone protein digestion followed by LC-MS/MS peptide analysis as a new way towards the routine proteomic characterization of human maxillary and mandibular bone tissue in oral surgery

Proteomic characterization of alveolar bones in oral surgery represents an analytical challenge due to their insoluble character. The implementation of a straightforward technique could lead to the routine use of proteomics in this field. This work thus developed a simple technique for the characterization of bone tissue for human maxillary and mandibular bones. It is based on the direct in-bone tryptic digestion of proteins in both healthy and pathological human maxillary and mandibular bone samples. The released peptides were then identified by the LC-MS/MS. Using this approach, a total of 1120 proteins were identified in the maxillary bone and 1151 proteins in the mandibular bone. The subsequent partial least squares–discrimination analysis (PLS-DA) of protein data made it possible to reach 100% discrimination between the samples of healthy alveolar bones and those of the bone tissue surrounding the inflammatory focus. These results indicate that the in-bone protein digestion followed by the LC-MS/MS and subsequent statistical analysis can provide a deeper insight into the field of oral surgery at the molecular level. Furthermore, it could also have a diagnostic potential in the differentiation between the proteomic patterns of healthy and pathological alveolar bone tissue. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD026775.     

Preparation of a 99mTc-labeled graft polymer and its in vitro and in vivo evaluation

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - The aim of this study is the synthesis of a novel 99mTc-labeld graft polymer and the biological evaluation of its in vitro and in vivo properties....     

Preparation of α-terpineol and perillyl alcohol using zeolites beta

The preparation of α-terpineol by direct hydration of limonene catalyzed by zeolites beta was studied. The same catalyst was used to prepare perillyl alcohol by isomerization of β-pinene oxide in the presence of water. The aim was to optimize the reaction conditions to achieve high conversions of starting material and high selectivity to the desired products. In the case of limonene, it was found that the highest selectivity to α-terpineol was 88% with conversion of 36% under the conditions: 50 wt% of catalyst beta 25, 10% aqueous acetic acid (10 mL) (volume ratio limonene:H₂O?=?1:4.5), temperature 50 °C, after 24 h. In the case of β-pinene oxide, it was found that the highest selectivity to perillyl alcohol, which was 36% at total conversion, was obtained in the reaction under the following conditions: dimethyl sulfoxide as solvent (volume ratio β-pinene oxide:DMSO?=?1:5), catalyst beta 25 without calcination (15 wt%), demineralized water (molar ratio β-pinene oxide:H₂O?=?1:8), temperature 70 °C, 3 h. The present study shows that the studied reactions are suitable for the selective preparation of chosen compounds.

     

Photochemical Hydrogen Evolution at Metal Centers Probed with Hydrated Aluminium Cations,Al+(H2O)n,n=1–10

Hydrated aluminium cations have been investigated as a photochemical model system with up to ten water molecules by UV action spectroscopy in a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer. Intense photodissociation was observed starting at 4.5 eV for two to eight water molecules with loss of atomic hydrogen, molecular hydrogen and water molecules. Quantum chemical calculations for n=2 reveal that solvation shifts the intense 3s–3p excitations of Al⁺ into the investigated photon energy range below 5.5 eV. During the photochemical relaxation, internal conversion from S₁ to T₂ takes place, and photochemical hydrogen formation starts on the T₂ surface, which passes through a conical intersection, changing to T₁. On this triplet surface, the electron that was excited to the Al 3p orbital is transferred to a coordinated water molecule, which dissociates into a hydroxide ion and a hydrogen atom. If the system remains in the triplet state, this hydrogen radical is lost directly. If the system returns to singlet multiplicity, the reaction may be reversed, with recombination with the hydroxide moiety and electron transfer back to aluminium, resulting in water evaporation. Alternatively, the hydrogen radical can attack the intact water molecule, forming molecular hydrogen and aluminium dihydroxide. Photodissociation is observed for up to n=8. Clusters with n=9 or 10 occur exclusively as HAlOH⁺(H₂O)_n-1 and are transparent in the investigated energy range. For n=4–8, a mixture of Al⁺(H₂O)_n and HAlOH⁺(H₂O)_n-1 is present in the experiment.     

A macroscopic model for an intermediate state between type‐I and type‐II superconductivity

A vectorial nonlocal and nonlinear parabolic problem on a bounded domain for an intermediate state between type‐I and type‐II superconductivity is proposed. The domain is for instance a multiband superconductor that combines the characteristics of both types. The nonlocal term is represented by a (space) convolution with a singular kernel arising in Eringen's model. The nonlinearity is coming from the power law relation by Rhyner. The well‐posedness of the problem is discussed under low regularity assumptions and the error estimate for a semi‐implicit time‐discrete scheme based on backward Euler approximation is established. In the proofs, the monotonicity methods and the Minty–Browder argument are used. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 1551–1567, 2015     

Singer-Thorpe bases for special Einstein curvature tensors in dimension 4

Let (M, g) be a 4-dimensional Einstein Riemannian manifold. At each point p of M, the tangent space admits a so-called Singer-Thorpe basis (ST basis) with respect to the curvature tensor R at p. In this basis, up to standard symmetries and antisymmetries, just 5 components of the curvature tensor R are nonzero. For the space of constant curvature, the group O(4) acts as a transformation group between ST bases at T _p M and for the so-called 2-stein curvature tensors, the group Sp(1) ? SO(4) acts as a transformation group between ST bases. In the present work, the complete list of Lie subgroups of SO(4) which act as transformation groups between ST bases for certain classes of Einstein curvature tensors is presented. Special representations of groups SO(2), T ², Sp(1) or U(2) are obtained and the classes of curvature tensors whose transformation group into new ST bases is one of the mentioned groups are determined.