Evaluation of capillary isoelectric focusing in glycerol-water media with a view to hydrophobic protein applications

Capillary isoelectric focusing (CIEF) separations are usually performed with neutral coated fused-silica capillaries in aqueous anticonvective media. Glycerol, a very viscous solvent (eta = 945 mPa x s at 25 degrees C), known to help stabilize any kind of proteins and solubilize hydrophobic ones, was tested as an alternative to using commercial gels. Viscosity and electroosmotic mobility were measured as a function of gel or glycerol content in water, and a 30:70 v/v glycerol-water medium appeared as a good compromise for performing CIEF in a bare fused-silica capillary without imposing too high a viscosity. To demonstrate the feasibility of this new CIEF system, a standard mixture of nine model proteins was separated according to their pI with a good agreement between experimental and literature aqueous pIs. Moreover, better resolution was achieved with this system than with the conventional aqueous CIEF system, as two of the model proteins could not be separated in the latter system. Glycerol-water CIEF in bare silica capillary was next applied to the separation of horse radish peroxidase, a complex mixture of protein isoforms. The good concordance with the separation obtained by the conventional CIEF system indicated the adequacy of this new system. Finally, as anticipated from the results obtained for the separation of bacteriorhodopsin, a membrane protein, glycerol-water CIEF performed in bare silica capillary appears to be a promising alternative to conventional aqueous CIEF for hydrophobic protein characterization, under their native form.     

Non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis of the positional isomers of a sulfated monosaccharide

A non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) method coupled to indirect absorbance detection has been developed for the separation of the three positional isomers of monosulfated fucose. The optimized electrolyte was composed of 12 mM ethanolamine, 2 mM trimesic acid buffer in a methanol-ethanol (1:1, v/v) mixture. As the retained electrolyte entails no separating agent other than the pH buffer, the NACE separation of the positional isomers has been ascribed mainly to selective ion-pairing with the electrolyte counter-ion and the possibility of a selective solvation effect in the alcohol mixture. In the absence of pure isomeric standards, peak identification was completed by MS and NMR spectroscopy and selective enzymatic desulfation. This method should be of interest for the structure elucidation of monosulfated fucose-based polysaccharides and for the screening of sulfoesterase of unknown activity.     

Simultaneous determination of ondansetron and tropisetron in human plasma using HPLC with UV detection

A rapid and sensitive HPLC method for the simultaneous quantitation of ondansetron and tropisetron, two serotonin (5-HT) receptor antagonists frequently used in treatment and prevention of nausea and emesis, is described. The procedure involves liquid-liquid extraction of human plasma with dichloromethane coupled with reversed-phase HPLC and UV detection. The lower limits of quantification (LOQ) were 0.62 ng/mL for ondansetron and 1.25 ng/mL or tropisetron. Intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation ranged from 1.5 to 7.5% and 5.3 to 13.7%, respectively. The sensitivity and precision were sufficient for determination of plasma concentrations after therapeutic administration of both drugs and the method can be used for the estimation of pharmacokinetic parameters.     

Plasma-chemical decomposition of methane during diamond synthesis

Using a mass spectrometric sampling method, we have observed the decomposition of CH₄ in an rf plasma usedfor diamond deposition. The gas samples were extracted through an orifice located downstream of the plasma zone and analyzed online. For the experiments a dilute mixture of H₂ and CH₄ containing 0.1–3% CH₄ has been used. CH₄ is converted to C₂H₂ and C₂H₄ quantitatively. Small amounts of heavier hydrocarbons are formed. A comparison of the experimental results with a recent kinetic model treating a purely thermal environment is made and the differences between our experiment and the model are explained. The role of acetylene as a species formed in an atmosphere rich in atomic hydrogen is proposed. The electron impact dissociation process is suggested as the rare-determining step in the plasma-chemical decomposition of methane.     

Carbazole compounds as host materials for triplet emitters in organic light-emitting diodes: polymer hosts for high-efficiency light-emitting diodes

A carbazole homopolymer and carbazole copolymers based on 9,9'-dialkyl-[3,3']-bicarbazolyl, 2,5-diphenyl-[1,3,4]-oxadiazole and 9,9-bis(4-[3,7-dimethyloctyloxy]phenyl)fluorene were synthesized and their electrical and photophysical properties were characterized with respect to their application as host in phosphorescent polymer light-emitting diodes. It is shown that the triplet energy of a polymer depends on the specific connections between its building blocks. Without changing the composition of the polymer, its triplet energy can be increased from 2.3 to 2.6 eV by changing the way in which the different building blocks are coupled together. For poly(9-vinylcarbazole) (PVK), a carbazole polymer often used as host for high-energy triplet emitters in polymer light-emitting diodes, a large hole-injection barrier of about 1 eV exists due to the low-lying HOMO level of PVK. For all carbazole polymers presented here, the HOMO levels are much closer to the Fermi level of a commonly used anode such as ITO and/or a commonly used hole-injection layer such as PEDOT:PSS. This makes high current densities and consequently high luminance levels possible at moderate applied voltages in polymer light-emitting diodes. A double-layer polymer light-emitting diode is constructed comprising a PEDOT:PSS layer as hole-injection layer and a carbazole-oxadiazole copolymer doped with a green triplet emitter as emissive layer that shows an efficacy of 23 cd/A independent of current density and light output.     

Reactive polymeric nanoparticles based on unconventional dextran derivatives

Unconventional dextran derivatives with reactive tosyl- and deoxy-azido moieties were synthesized homogeneously under various reaction conditions. Well soluble tosyl dextran of a high degree of substitution up to 1.66 was prepared applying N,N-dimethylacetamide/LiCl as solvent. Almost 50% of secondary toslyate moieties could be replaced by nucleophilic displacement reaction with azide ions. The structure of the products was efficiently analyzed by NMR spectroscopy also after peracylation of the unconventional dextran derivatives. Applying a simple dialysis technique, nanospheres with a size in the range from 160 to 420 nm (D50%) were obtained that possess reactive functional tosyl- and deoxy-azido groups.     

In Ssarch of new anti-bacterial target genes: a comparative/structural genomics approach

We outline a joint academic/industrial (CNRS/AVENTIS) functional genomics project aiming at the discovery of new anti-bacterial gene targets. Starting from all publicly available bacterial genomes, a subset of the most evolutionary conserved protein-coding genes has been identified. We retained genes with clear homolog in E. coli and at least one gram-positive bacterium among B.subtilis, M. tuberculosis, L. lactis or S. pyogenes. This subset was further reduced to genes encoding non-membrane proteins of unknown or hypothetical functions. The 221 E. coli Open Reading Frames (ORFs) identified through this comprehensive bioinformatic analysis are now submitted to a systematic 3-D structure determination protocol including cloning, protein expression and purification, crystallisation and X-ray diffraction. Our strategy was designed to focus on promising wide-spectrum targets as well as original biochemical pathways. Bioinformatics is used throughout all phases of project, including the initial large-scale comparative genomics analyses, the purification/expression and crystallisation stages for the detection of helpful sequence-specific features (e.g. cofactor binding motifs, non-structured N- or C- term extremities, etc ), and finally for the interpretation of the structures in conjunction with multiple sequence alignments for the identification of key residues, interaction areas on molecular surfaces, and overall function predictions.     

Fragmentation and reaction processes in cluster-surface collisions

We review the processes which have been observed from collisions between alkali-halide clusters and solid surfaces. Soft impact of nanocrystalline Na_nF _n?1 ⁺ clusters against solid surfaces causes them to cleave along the lowest energy (100) plane. At higher collision energies (E_i>1 eV/atom), an evaporative cascade occurs which is characteristic of a transformation of the nanocrystal to a molten state. Efficient F^? transfer from the cluster to the surface can occur for the larger clusters (>60 atoms) scattering from Si(111), in direct competition with the cleaving channel at low energies. In this regime, strong bonds can form between the F^? and silicon surface. The reaction probability increases with cluster size indicating that an impact-initiated shock wave is needed to enhance the reactive process.     

17O NMR Investigation of Chemical Homogeneity in Hybrid Systems

¹⁷O NMR experiments using enriched water were performed to followthe hydrolysis-condensation process of dimethyldiethoxysilanetetraethoxysilane and a 1/1 mixture of dimethyldiethoxysilane andtetraethoxysilane (H₂O/OEt = 0.5; pH = 2). The spectrarecorded over several hours time period were simulated to followquantitatively the variations of residual water, hydroxyl groups(Si–¹⁷ H) and oxo bridges (Si–¹⁷ –Si). Presence of a resonance signal due oxo bridges between di- andtetrafunctional Si units clearly demonstrates that co-condensationreactions occur to a large extent between the two alkoxides, and that thesebonds are stable during the aging period.     

Micropatterning of DNA-tagged vesicles

We present a novel concept for the creation of lipid vesicle microarrays based on a patterning approach termed Molecular Assembly Patterning by Lift-off (MAPL). A homogeneous MAPL-based single-stranded DNA microarray was converted into a vesicle array by the use of vesicles tagged with complementary DNAs, permitting sequence-specific coupling of vesicles to predefined surface regions through complementary DNA hybridization. In the multistep process utilized to fulfill this achievement, active spots consisting of PLL-g-PEGbiotin with a resistant PLL-g-PEG background, as provided by the MAPL process, was converted into a DNA array by addition of complexes of biotin-terminated DNA and NeutrAvidin. This was then followed by addition of POPC vesicles tagged with complementary cholesterol-terminated DNA, thus providing specific coupling of vesicles to the surface through complementary DNA hybridization. Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) and optical waveguide lightmode spectroscopy monitoring were used to optimize the multistep surface modification process. It was found that the amount of adsorbed biotinDNA-NeutrAvidin complexes decreases with increasing molar ratio of biotinDNA to NeutrAvidin and decreasing ionic strength of the buffer solution. Modeling of the QCM-D data showed that the shape of the immobilized vesicles depends on the amount of available anchoring groups between the vesicles and the surface. Fluorescent microscopy images confirmed the possibility to create well-defined patterns of DNA-tagged, fluorescently labeled vesicles in the micrometer range.