Potent and selective structure-based dibenzofuran inhibitors of transthyretin amyloidogenesis: kinetic stabilization of the native state

Transthyretin (TTR) amyloidogenesis requires rate-limiting tetramer dissociation and partial monomer denaturation to produce a misassembly competent species. This process has been followed by turbidity to identify transthyretin amyloidogenesis inhibitors including dibenzofuran-4,6-dicarboxylic acid (1). An X-ray cocrystal structure of TTR.1(2) reveals that it only utilizes the outer portion of the two thyroxine binding pockets to bind to and inhibit TTR amyloidogenesis. Herein, structure-based design was employed to append aryl substituents at C1 of the dibenzofuran ring to complement the unused inner portion of the thyroxine binding pockets. Twenty-eight amyloidogenesis inhibitors of increased potency and dramatically increased plasma TTR binding selectivity resulted. These function by imposing kinetic stabilization on the native tetrameric structure of TTR, creating a barrier that is insurmountable under physiological conditions. Since kinetic stabilization of the TTR native state by interallelic trans suppression is known to ameliorate disease, there is reason to be optimistic that the dibenzofuran-based inhibitors will do the same. Preventing the onset of amyloidogenesis is the most conservative strategy to intervene clinically, as it remains unclear which of the TTR misassembly intermediates results in toxicity. The exceptional binding selectivity enables these inhibitors to occupy the thyroxine binding site(s) in a complex biological fluid such as blood plasma, required for inhibition of amyloidogenesis in humans. It is now established that the dibenzofuran-based amyloidogenesis inhibitors have high selectivity, affinity, and efficacy and are thus excellent candidates for further pharmacologic evaluation.     

Organic functionalization of the sidewalls of carbon nanotubes by diels-alder reactions: a theoretical prediction

[structure: see text] The viability of the Diels-Alder (DA) cycloaddition of conjugated dienes onto the sidewalls of single-wall carbon nanotubes is assessed by means of a two-layered ONIOM(B3LYP/6-31G:AM1) approach. Whereas the DA reaction of 1,3-butadiene on the sidewall of an armchair (5,5) nanotube is found to be unfavorable, the cycloaddition of quinodimethane is predicted to be viable due to the aromaticity stabilization at the corresponding transition states and products.     

Effects of simultaneously doped and deposited Ag on the photocatalytic activity and surface states of TiO2

Ag-TiO2 catalysts with different Ag contents were prepared via a sol-gel method in the absence of light. Based on the characterizations of XRD, photoluminescence (PL), surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPS), field-induced surface photovoltage spectroscopy (FISPS), and XPS as well as the evaluation of the photocatalytic activity for degrading rhodamine B(RhB) solutions, it was found that the Ag dopant promoted the phase transformation as well as had an inhibition effect on the growth of anatase crystallite. The PL and SPS intensities were decreased with increasing Ag content, indicating that the Ag dopant could effectively inhibit the recombination of the photoinduced electrons and holes. However, the active sites capturing the photoinduced electrons reduced, while the Ag content exceeded 5 mol %. At rather low Ag dopant concentrations, the migration and diffusion of Ag+ ions were predominant, while at rather high Ag dopant concentrations, the migration, diffusion, and reduction of Ag ions simultaneously occurred. The Ag-TiO2 photocatalysts with appropriate content of Ag (Ag species concentration is from about 3 to 5 mol %) possessed abundant electron traps so as to be favorable for the separation of the photoinduced electron-hole pairs, which could greatly enhance the activity of the photocatalysts. From the results of FISPS measurements, it could be found that the impurity bands and abundant surface states were introduced into the interfacial layer of TiO2 because of Ag simultaneously doping and depositing, which could improve the absorption capability for visible light of the photocatalysts.     

Polyoxometalate Derivatives with Multiple Organic Groups. 3. Synthesis and Structure of Bis(phenyltin) Bis(decatungstosilicate), [(PhSnOH(2))(2)(gamma-SiW(10)O(36))(2)](10)(-)

A new phenyltin tungstosilicate derivative, [(PhSnOH(2))(2)(gamma-SiW(10)O(36))(2)](10)(-) (1), has been prepared by reaction of phenyltin trichloride with K(8)[gamma-SiW(10)O(36)].xH(2)O. The new heteropolyanion was characterized by elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, multinuclear NMR, and X-ray crystallography. The crystals of Cs(9)H[(PhSnOH(2))(2)(gamma-SiW(10)O(36))(2)].16H(2)O (Cs salt of 1) are triclinic, space group P&onemacr;, with lattice constants a = 12.401(3) ?, b = 13.832(3) ?, c = 16.313(3) ?, alpha = 96.17(2) degrees, beta = 109.73(2) degrees, gamma = 97.13(2) degrees, V = 2579.9(10) ?, and Z = 1. Anion 1 has a structure of virtual C(2)(h)() symmetry with two phenyltin groups sandwiched between two gamma-SiW(10) groups. Such a structure is different from all previously reported polytungstates derived from [gamma-SiW(10)O(36)](8)(-) lacunary anions.     

金属组学在急性心肌梗死早期诊断的应用

为探讨急性心肌梗死(AMI)患者血清中K⁺、Na⁺、Ca²⁺、Fe²⁺、Mg²⁺含量变化,并研究其与心肌梗死患者之间的关系。选取2022年5月至2023年2月收治的AMI患者37例,同时选取健康体检者35例作为对照组。依据入院时或体检时收集的抽血样本进行临床生化分析,比较两组间血清K⁺、Na⁺、Ca²⁺、Fe²⁺、Mg²⁺含量,采用判别方程、主成分分析法(PCA),判断分析哪种金属离子对于心肌梗死的诊断价值大。结果表明,AMI患者的血清中Ca²⁺和Fe²⁺含量低于健康对照组,差异具有统计学意义。基于血钙、铁水平两组具有显著性差异,以它们为基础进行判别分析,获得判别函数式。将血清中K⁺、Na⁺、Ca²⁺、Fe²⁺、Mg²⁺     

WRSN的最短路径规划和最优电池容量研究

针对单个移动充电器自身耗能最短路径规划问题,采用基于改良圈修正初解的遗传算法进行求解,同时利用LKH算法进行检验得到一致的结果,最终得出的路径最小值为11483.24m.在此基础上,对于最小电池容量的问题,创新性地提出了条件大规模传感器电池容量和中小型传感器电池下的时变模型,并给出其中下满足不同周期的最小电池容量方案.     

Non-covalent reconfigurable microgel colloidosomes with a well-defined bilayer shell

Microgels are extremely interfacially active and are widely used to stabilize emulsions. However, they are commonly used to stabilize oil-in-water emulsions due to their intrinsic hydrophilicity and initially dispersed in water. In addition, there have been no attempts to control microgel structural layers that are formed at the interface and as a result it limits applications of microgel in advanced materials. Here, we show that by introducing octanol into poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) (PNIPAM-co-MAA) microgels, octanol-swollen microgels can rapidly diffuse from the initially dispersed oil phase onto the water droplet surface. This facilitates the formation of microgel-laden interfacial layers with strong elastic responses and also generates stable inverse water-in-oil Pickering emulsions. These emulsions can be used as templates to produce microgel colloidosomes, herein termed ‘microgelsomes’, with shells that can be fine-tuned from a particle monolayer to a well-defined bilayer. The microgelsomes can then be used to encapsulate and/or anchor nanoparticles, proteins, vitamin C, bio-based nanocrystals or enzymes. Moreover, the programmed release of these substances can be achieved by using ethanol as a trigger to mediate shell permeability. Thus, these reconfigurable microgelsomes with a microgel-bilayer shell can respond to external stimuli and demonstrate tailored properties, which offers novel insights into microgels and promise wider application of Pickering emulsions stabilized by soft colloids.

Inverse W/O Pickering emulsions and reconfigurable microgelsomes with a well-defined bilayer structure are prepared from octanol-swollen PNIPAM-co-MAA microgels and the combination of binary microgels, which promise wider application of soft colloids.     

Towards the rational design of Pt-based alloy catalysts for the low-temperature water-gas shift reaction: from extended surfaces to single atom alloys

The rational design of Pt-based catalysts for the low-temperature water-gas-shift (LT-WGS) reaction is an active research field because of its important role played in the fuel cell-based hydrogen economy, especially in mobile applications. Previous theoretical analyses have suggested that Pt alloys, leading to a weaker CO binding affinity than the Pt metal, could help alleviate CO poisoning and thus should be promising catalysts of the LT-WGS reaction. However, experimental research along this line was rather ineffective in the past decade. In the present work, we employed the state-of-the-art kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations to examine the influences of the electronic effect by introducing sub-surface alloys and/or core–shell structures, and the synergetic effect by introducing single atom alloys on the catalytic performance of Pt-alloy catalysts. Our KMC simulations have highlighted the importance of the OH binding affinity on the catalyst surfaces to reduce the barrier of water dissociation as the rate determining step, instead of the CO binding affinity as has been emphasized before in conventional mean-field kinetic models. Along this new direction of catalyst design, we found that Pt–Ru synergetic effects can significantly increase the activity of the Pt metal, leading to Ru_1–3@Pt alloys with a tetrahedron site of one surface-three subsurface Ru atoms on the Pt host, showing a turnover frequency of about five orders of magnitude higher than the Pt metal.

KMC simulations show that decreasing the barrier of H₂O decomposition is more beneficial than decreasing the CO binding affinity in LT-WGS, while the latter was overemphasized by MF-MKM. Here Ru_1–3@Pt alloy is proposed as a promising catalyst.     

Picture Fuzzy Threshold Graphs with Application in Medicine Replenishment

In this study, a novel concept of picture fuzzy threshold graph (PFTG) is introduced. It has been shown that PFTGs are free from alternating 4-cycle and it can be constructed by repeatedly adding a dominating or an isolated node. Several properties about PFTGs are discussed and obtained the results that every picture fuzzy graph (PFG) is equivalent to a PFTG under certain conditions. Also, the underlying crisp graph (UCG) of PFTG is a split graph (SG), and conversely, a given SG can be applied to constitute a PFTG. A PFTG can be decomposed in a unique way and it generates three distinct fuzzy threshold graphs (FTGs). Furthermore, two important parameters i.e., picture fuzzy (PF) threshold dimension (TD) and PF partition number (PN) of PFGs are defined. Several properties on TD and PN have also been discussed. Lastly, an application of these developed results are presented in controlling medicine resources.     

蝙蝠喉部发声组织建模及发声机理*

建立蝙蝠发声组织模型对超声机理研究及在智能设备的应用具有重要意义。根据蝙蝠喉部发声组织结构特点,通过有限元方法构建了蝙蝠的3种不同发声组织模型,分析了尺寸、材料力学参数、组织结构和张力4个因素对发声组织特征频率的影响。结果表明,如果用人类声带,按比例缩小构建蝙蝠喉部组织模型,蝙蝠无法发出超声波。构建组织结构含甲状软骨和声带的半鼓状模型和只含声带的条状模型,两种模型的特征频率相近且在合理的参数域内均无法达到超声范围。而含膜条状模型的特征频率可以通过张力进行超声频率的调节,这与文献的实验结果一致。因此,可基于含膜条状模型对蝙蝠喉管发声组织进行建模及其发声机理研究。