Study on the Interaction of the CpG Alternating DNA with CdTe Quantum Dots

A novel sensitive method for detection of DNA methylation was developed with thioglycollic acid (TGA)-capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) as fluorescence probes. Recognition of methylated DNA sites would be useful strategy due to the important roles of methylation in disease occurrence and developmental processes. DNA methylation occurs most often at cytosine-guanine sites (CpG dinucleotides) of gene promoters. The QDs significantly interacted with hybridized unmethylated and methylated DNA. The interaction of CpG rich methylated and unmethylated DNA hybrid with quantum dots as an optical probe has been investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy and electrophoresis assay. The fluorescence intensity of QDs was highly dependent to unmethylated and methylated DNA. Specific site of CpG islands of Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), a well-studied tumor suppressor gene, was used as the detection target. Under optimum conditions, upon the addition of unmethylated dsDNA, the fluorescence intensity increased in linear range from 1.0?×?10^??10 to 1.0?×?10^??6M with detection limit of 6.2?×?10^??11 M and on the other hand, the intensity of QDs showed no changes with addition of methylated dsDNA. We also demonstrated that the unmethylated and methylated DNA and QDs complexes showed different mobility in electrophoresis assay. This easy and reliable method could distinguish between methylated and unmethylated DNA sequences.     

A meshless method for numerical solution of a linear hyperbolic equation with variable coefficients in two space dimensions

A meshless method is proposed for the numerical solution of the two space dimensional linear hyperbolic equation subject to appropriate initial and Dirichlet boundary conditions. The new developed scheme uses collocation points and approximates the solution employing thin plate splines radial basis functions. Numerical results are obtained for various cases involving variable, singular and constant coefficients, and are compared with analytical solutions to confirm the good accuracy of the presented scheme. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

Hydrogen bonded arrays: the power of multiple hydrogen bonds

Hydrogen bond interactions in small covalent model compounds (i.e., deprotonated polyhydroxy alcohols) were measured by negative ion photoelectron spectroscopy. The experimentally determined vertical and adiabatic electron detachment energies for (HOCH(2)CH(2))(2)CHO(-)(2a), (HOCH(2)CH(2))(3)CO(-) (3a), and (HOCH(2)CH(2)CH(OH)CH(2))(3)CO(-) (4a)reveal that hydrogen-bonded networks can provide enormous stabilizations and that a single charge center not only can be stabilized by up to three hydrogen bonds but also can increase the interaction energy between noncharged OH groups by 5.8 kcal mol(-1) or more per hydrogen bond. This can lead to pK(a) values that are very different from those in water and can provide some of the impetus for catalytic processes.     

Effect of hydrogen bonds on pKa values: importance of networking

The pK(a) of an acyclic aliphatic heptaol ((HOCH(2)CH(2)CH(OH)CH(2))(3)COH) was measured in DMSO, and its gas-phase acidity is reported as well. This tertiary alcohol was found to be 10(21) times more acidic than tert-butyl alcohol in DMSO and an order of magnitude more acidic than acetic acid (i.e., pK(a) = 11.4 vs 12.3). This can be attributed to a 21.9 kcal mol(-1) stabilization of the charged oxygen center in the conjugate base by three hydrogen bonds and another 6.3 kcal mol(-1) stabilization resulting from an additional three hydrogen bonds between the uncharged primary and secondary hydroxyl groups. Charge delocalization by both the first and second solvation shells may be used to facilitate enzymatic reactions. Acidity constants of a series of polyols were also computed, and the combination of hydrogen-bonding and electron-withdrawing substituents was found to afford acids that are predicted to be extremely acidic in DMSO (i.e., pK(a) < 0). These hydrogen bond enhanced acids represent an attractive class of Br?nsted acid catalysts.     

Surface modification and wear test of carbon steel by plasma electrolytic nitrocarburizing

Plasma electrolytic nitrocarburizing (PEN/C) was applied to the surface of carbon steel under the boiling condition of saturated urea electrolyte. In addition to the general effect of the bath temperature, different applied voltages and processing times were also considered in this new process. Optical and scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, microhardness and pin‐on‐disc wear tests were used to characterize the PEN/C‐treated surfaces. A mixture of θ‐(Fe₃C) and ε‐(Fe_2–3N) was found in the compound layers. At certain conditions, dense surface layers with minimum porosity were observed at the top of the samples. The boiling condition resulted in special character of the compound layers on the surface. The layers consisted of some irregularities grown inward the samples andaffected the characteristics of the surface layers. The microhardness of the PEN/C‐treated layers increased up to 1280 HV0.1, which was 3 to 4 times higher than that for untreated material and higher than that obtained by other investigators (750 HV0.1). PEN/C decreased the wear loss of carbon steel significantly due to the change of the adhesive wear of untreated material to the abrasive mode of treated surfaces. The major advantage of this technique was a higher growth rate of the nitrocarburized layers and a more significant improvement in the tribological performance of the treated samples if compared to similarly oriented surface treatments. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spectroscopic studies,structural characterization and electrochemical studies of two cobalt (III) complexes with tridentate hydrazone Schiff base ligands: Evaluation of antibacterial activities,DNA‐binding,BSA interaction and molecular docking

Co(III) complexes of tridentate Schiff base ligands derived from N‐(2‐hydroxybenzylideneamino)benzamide (H ₂ L ¹ ) and 2‐(2‐hydroxybenzylidene)hydrazine‐1‐carboxamide ( H ₂ L ² ) were synthesized and characterized using IR, Raman, ¹H–NMR and UV–Vis spectroscopies. X‐ray single crystal structures of complexes 1 and 2 have also been determined, and it was indicated that these Co(III) complexes are in a distorted octahedral geometry. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) of the complexes indicates an irreversible redox behavior for both complexes 1 and 2 . The antibacterial effects of the synthesized compounds have been tested by minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration methods, which suggested that the metal complexes exhibit better antibacterial effects than the ligands against Gram‐positive bacteria. The effects of the drug (drug  =  ligands and complexes) on bovine serum albumin (BSA) were examined using circular dichroism (CD) spectropolarimetry, and it was revealed that the BSA (BSA, as a carrier protein) secondary structure changed in the presence of the drug. Interaction of the drug with calf‐thymus DNA (CT‐DNA) was investigated by UV–Vis absorption, fluorescence emission, CV and CD spectroscopy. Binding constants were determined using UV–Vis absorption. The results indicated that the studied Schiff bases bind to DNA, with the hyperchromic effect and non‐intercalative mode in which the metal complexes are more effective than ligands. Furthermore, molecular docking simulation was used to obtain the energetic and binding sites for the interaction of the complexes with Mycobacterium tuberculosis enoyl‐acyl carrier protein reductase (InhA), and results showed that complex 1 has more binding energy.     

The immobilized Ni(II)‐thiourea complex on silica‐layered copper ferrite: A novel and reusable nanocatalyst for one‐pot reductive‐acetylation of nitroarenes

In this study, magnetically nanoparticles of CuFe₂O₄@SiO₂@PTMS@Tu@Ni(II) as novel and reusable catalyst were prepared. Synthesis of the Ni (II)‐nanocatalyst was carried out through the complexation of Ni(OAc)₂·4H₂O with the immobilized thiourea on silica‐layered CuFe₂O₄. The prepared nanocomposite system was then characterized using SEM, EDX, XRD, VSM, ICP‐OES, Raman, UV–Vis and FT‐IR analyses. Catalytic activity of the Ni(II)‐CuFe₂O₄ system was investigated towards rapid reduction of aromatic nitro compounds to arylamines with sodium borohydride as well as one‐pot reductive‐acetylation of nitroarenes to acetanilides with NaBH₄/Ac₂O system without the isolation of intermediate arylamines. All reactions were carried out in H₂O within 3–7 min to afford the products arylamines/acetanilides in high to excellent yields. Reusability of the Ni(II)‐nanocatalyst was examined for seven consecutive cycles without the significant loss of the catalytic activity.     

Filamentation of a rotating electron beam in a magnetized plasma

Filamentation of a nonrelativistic rotating electron beam in a magnetized plasma is investigated by solving the kinetic equation and finding its dielectric permitivity. The period and the establishment time of the filamentation structure and threshold for instability development are obtained. It will be shown that only when the external magnetic field strength becomes smaller than a characteristic value, filamentation appears.     

Cauliflower‐like NiCo2O4−Zn/Al Layered Double Hydroxide Nanocomposite as an Efficient Electrochemical Sensing Platform for Selective Pyridoxine Detection

In the present study, a cauliflower‐like NiCo₂O₄?Zn/Al layered double hydroxide (NiCo₂O₄?Zn/Al LDH) nanocomposite was used as a novel electrode material for the sensitive and selective determination of pyridoxine (vitamin B₆). The structure and morphology of the as‐prepared nanocomposite were characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), FT‐IR, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX). The NiCo₂O₄?Zn/Al LDH nanocomposite exhibited excellent electrocatalytic ability in the oxidation of pyridoxine, which could result from the synergistic effect of the two components. The developed sensor also provided a selective determination of pyridoxine in the presence of other species such as vitamins (B₁, B₂, B₁₂ and ascorbic acid), inorganic ions and biomolecules. The fabricated sensor showed a good linear response for pyridoxine over the concentration ranges 2×10^?7–2.0×10^?4 mol L^?1 with a low detection limit of 8.6×10^?8 mol L^?1. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of pyridoxine in commercial tablets and plasma samples with satisfactory results. Furthermore, this novel sensor displayed superior benefits in terms of stability, sensitivity, repeatability and cost. The present work aims to expand NiCo₂O₄ based nanocomposites to sensor fields and promote the development of pyridoxine sensors.     

Cross-Linking in the Molecular Structure of Poly(vinyl butyral) and Properties Investigation

Russian Journal of Applied Chemistry - The poly(vinyl butyral) (PVB) is a resin that is used in areas where strong adhesion, optical transparency, multi-surface adhesion, hardness and flexibility...