Optimum extraction process of polyphenols from Bridelia grandis stem bark using experimental design

Euphorbiaceae barks are known to contain an appreciable amount of polyphenolic compounds responsible for several biological activities. Preliminary extraction from Bridelia grandis stem bark afforded high content of polyphenols, determined by spectrophotometric methods such as Folin–Ciocalteu (for total phenols, TP) and n‐butanol‐HCl (for condensed tannins, CT). A preliminary Plackett–Burman screening design was used to identify the key factors that influence the TP and CT extraction. Between all the variables known to influence the extraction from vegetable matrixes, six were selected; maceration was chosen as traditional extraction methodology. To investigate the effect of solvents and extraction method, methanol, acetone 70% (v/v in water), centrifugation and ultrasound were chosen. A full factorial design 2³ was applied to optimize the extraction procedure. The responses were obtained analyzing the extracts for their TP and CT contents determined by the above‐mentioned spectrophotometric methods. The results confirm that, within the explored domain, the optimum solvent is methanol and the optimum method is one‐cycle centrifugation. Finally, it was also compared with the effect of maceration on the considered responses. It has never given results better than centrifugation, whereas in the case of CT it represents an advantage to employ a three‐cycle centrifugation instead of one.     

Empirical and DFT GIAO quantum‐mechanical methods of 13C chemical shifts prediction: competitors or collaborators?

The accuracy of ¹³C chemical shift prediction by both DFT GIAO quantum‐mechanical (QM) and empirical methods was compared using 205 structures for which experimental and QM‐calculated chemical shifts were published in the literature. For these structures, ¹³C chemical shifts were calculated using HOSE code and neural network (NN) algorithms developed within our laboratory. In total, 2531 chemical shifts were analyzed and statistically processed. It has been shown that, in general, QM methods are capable of providing similar but inferior accuracy to the empirical approaches, but quite frequently they give larger mean average error values. For the structural set examined in this work, the following mean absolute errors (MAEs) were found: MAE(HOSE) = 1.58 ppm, MAE(NN) = 1.91 ppm and MAE(QM) = 3.29 ppm. A strategy of combined application of both the empirical and DFT GIAO approaches is suggested. The strategy could provide a synergistic effect if the advantages intrinsic to each method are exploited. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Origin of the nonadhesive properties of fibrinogen matrices probed by force spectroscopy

The deposition of a multilayered fibrinogen matrix on various surfaces results in a dramatic reduction of integrin-mediated cell adhesion and outside-in signaling in platelets and leukocytes. The conversion of a highly adhesive, low-density fibrinogen substrate to the nonadhesive high-density fibrinogen matrix occurs within a very narrow range of fibrinogen coating concentrations. The molecular events responsible for this transition are not well understood. Herein, single-cell and molecular force spectroscopy were used to determine the early steps in the formation of nonadhesive fibrinogen substrates. We show that the adsorption of fibrinogen in the form of a molecular bilayer coincides with a several-fold reduction in the adhesion forces generated between the AFM tip and the substrate as well as between a cell and the substrate. The subsequent deposition of new layers at higher coating concentrations of fibrinogen results in a small additional decrease in adhesion forces. The poorly adhesive fibrinogen bilayer is more extensible under an applied tensile force than is the surface-bound fibrinogen monolayer. Following chemical cross-linking, the stabilized bilayer displays the mechanical and adhesive properties characteristic of a more adhesive fibrinogen monolayer. We propose that a greater compliance of the bi- and multilayer fibrinogen matrices has its origin in the interaction between the molecules forming the adjacent layers. Understanding the mechanical properties of nonadhesive fibrinogen matrices should be of importance in the therapeutic control of pathological thrombosis and in biomaterials science.     

Isomorphous substitutions of rare earth elements for calcium in synthetic hydroxyapatites

Polycrystalline hydroxyapatites Ca(10-x)REE(x)(PO(4))(6)(OH)(2-x)O(x) were synthesized and studied by X-ray powder diffraction, infrared absorption, diffuse-reflectance spectroscopy, and thermogravimetry. The solubility limits x(max) of rare earth elements (REE) in Ca hydroxyapatites decreases with an increasing REE atomic number from x(max) = 2.00 for La, Pr, and Nd to x(max) = 0.20 for Yb at 1100 °C. Refinements of X-ray diffraction patterns by the Rietveld method show that REE atoms substitute for Ca preferentially at the Ca(2) sites of the apatite structure. The substitution decreases the Ca(2)-O(4) atomic distances in the calcium coordination polyhedra and increases the Ca(2)-O(1,2,3) distances. This observation shows that interatomic distances depend not only on radii of the ions involved in the substitution but also on their charges.     

A model proton-transfer system in the condensed phase: NH4(+)OOH(-), a crystal with short intermolecular H-bonds

The crystal structure of NH(4)(+)OOH(-) is determined from single-crystal x-ray data obtained at 150 K. The crystal belongs to the space group P2(1)/c and has four molecules in a unit cell. The structure consists of discrete NH(4)(+) and OOH(-) ions. The OOH(-) ions are linked by short hydrogen bonds (2.533 A?) to form parallel infinite chains. The ammonium ions form links between these chains (the N?O distances vary from 2.714 to 2.855 A?) giving a three-dimensional network. The harmonic IR spectrum and H-bond energies are computed at the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE)/6-31G(??) level with periodic boundary conditions. A detailed analysis of the shared (bridging) protons' dynamics is obtained from the CPMD simulations at different temperatures. PBE functional with plane-wave basis set (110 Ry) is used. At 10 K the shared proton sits near the oxygen atom, only a few proton jumps along the chain are detected at 70 K while at 270 K numerous proton jumps exist in the trajectory. The local-minimum structure of the space group Cc is localized. It appears as a result of proton transfer along a chain. This process is endothermic (～2?kJ/mol) and is described as P2(1)/c?2Cc. The computed IR spectrum at 10 K is close to the harmonic one, the numerous bands appear at 70 K while at 270 K it shows a very broad absorption band that covers frequencies from about 1000 to 3000?cm(-1). The advantages of the NH(4)(+)OOH(-) crystal as a promising model for the experimental and DFT based molecular dynamics simulation studies of proton transfer along the chain are discussed.     

N-terminal tagging strategy for De Novo sequencing of short peptides by ESI-MS/MS and MALDI-MS/MS

The major portion of skin secretory peptidome of the European Tree frog Hyla arborea consists of short peptides from tryptophyllin family. It is known that b-ions of these peptides undergo head-to-tail cyclization, forming a ring that can open, resulting in several linear forms. As a result, the spectrum contains multiple ion series, thus complicating de novo sequencing. This was observed in the Q-TOF spectrum of one of the tryptophyllins isolated from Hyla arborea; the sequence FLPFFP-NH₂ was established by Edman degradation and counter-synthesis. Though no rearrangements were observed in FTICR-MS and MALDI-TOF/TOF spectra, both of them were not suitable for mass-spectrometry sequencing due to the low sequence coverage. To obtain full amino acid sequence by mass spectrometry, three chemical modifications to N-terminal amino moiety were applied. They include acetylation and sulfobenzoylation of N-amino group and its transformation to 2,4,6-trimethylpyridinium by interaction with 2,4,6-trimethylpyrillium tetrafluoroborate. All three reagents block scrambling and provide spectra better than the intact peptide. Unfortunately, all of them also readily react with lysine side chain. Hence, all investigated procedures can be used to improve sequencing of short peptides, while acetylation is the recommended one. It shows excellent results, and it is plain and simple to perform. This is the procedure of choice for MS-sequencing of short peptides by manual or automatic algorithms.     

A laser photolysis study of the quenching kinetics of triplet-state all-<Emphasis Type="Italic">trans</Emphasis>-retinal by oxygen in aqueous albumin and liposome solutions

The kinetics of quenching of the all-trans-retinal triplet state by air oxygen in aqueous solutions of bovine serum albumin and in a cardiolipin liposome suspension was investigated by nanosecond laser photolysis. It was established that the quenching reaction rate constant in the albumin solution (1.8 × 10⁸ l mol⁻¹ s⁻¹) was an order of magnitude less than in liposomes (3.1 × 10⁹ l mol⁻¹ s⁻¹). These constants were 5.0 × 10⁹ and 1.1 × 10⁹ l mol⁻¹ s⁻¹ in methanol and aqueous solutions containing 10 vol % methanol, respectively. The effect of hindered oxygen access to the Lall-trans-retinal attached to albumin is discussed in terms of its influence on the photooxidation processes in the retina.     

Transition strengths and first-order properties of excited states from local coupled cluster CC2 response theory with density fitting

A new ab initio method for calculating transition strengths and orbital-unrelaxed first-order properties of singlet ground and excited states of extended molecular systems is presented. It is based on coupled cluster response theory at the level of the CC2 model with local approximations introduced to the doubles-excitation part of the wave function. Density fitting is employed for the calculation of the electron repulsion integrals, so that--with the exception of doubles amplitudes--only three-indexed objects do occur in the formalism. The new method was tested by performing calculations for a set of various molecules and excited states and by comparing the results with corresponding canonical (nonlocal) calculations. It turned out that for calculating transition strengths and properties of excited states the ordinary Boughton-Pulay domains are insufficient in numerous cases. To circumvent this problem a new scheme for extending domains is proposed, which is based on the solution of the coupled perturbed localization and Hartree-Fock equations. When such extended domains are used, a satisfactory agreement between canonical and local results is achieved.     

On the role of higher-order correlation effects on the induction interactions between closed-shell molecules

High-order correlation contributions to the second-order induction energy were studied for various representative van der Waals complexes. It was found that the induction energy obtained by the truncation of the relaxed M?ller-Plesset expansion in the second or third order is in most cases quite close to the induction energy computed with the coupled-cluster method (restricted to single and double excitations). Also, the effect of triples excitations on this perturbation term is usually small. However, given an oscillatory behaviour of the M?ller-Plesset induction corrections, the coupled-cluster method seems to be better suited to a reliable calculation of the induction energy. The sources of the remaining differences between the interaction energies computed by symmetry-adapted perturbation theory and those computed by the supermolecule coupled-cluster method (restricted to single, double, and noniterative triple excitations) are examined. It has been found that they can be attributed to the higher-order correlation terms in the second-order dispersion and exchange-induction corrections.