Biosynthesis of sulfated glycopeptide antibiotics by using the sulfotransferase StaL

The unique glycopeptide antibiotic A47934, produced by Streptomyces toyocaensis, possesses a nonglycosylated heptapeptide core that is sulfated on the phenolic hydroxyl of the N-terminal 4-hydroxy-L-phenylglycine residue. Genetic and biochemical experiments confirmed that StaL is a sulfotransferase capable of sulfating the predicted crosslinked heptapeptide substrate to produce A47934 both in vivo and in vitro. Incubation of purified His(6)-StaL with various substrates in vitro revealed substrate specificity and yielded two sulfo-glycopeptide antibiotics: sulfo-teicoplanin aglycone and sulfo-teicoplanin. Quantification of the antibacterial activity of desulfo-A47934, A47934, teicoplanin, and sulfo-teicoplanin demonstrated that sulfation slightly increased the minimum inhibitory concentration. This unique modification by sulfation expands glycopeptide diversity with potential application for the development of new antibiotics.     

Novel System for the Synthesis of Nitriles from Aldehydes Using Aqueous Ammonia and [Bis(Trifluoroacetoxy)iodo]benzene

A simple and mild method for the conversion of varieties of aldehydes to the corresponding nitriles using aqueous ammonia and trivalent hypervalent iodine reagent, [bis(trifluoroacetoxy)iodo]benzene, at room temperature is discussed. Advantages of this system are short reaction time, easy workup, and moderate to good yields.     

Size Dependent Heat Conduction in One-Dimensional Diatomic Lattices

We study the size dependency of heat conduction in one-dimensional diatomic FPU-β lattices and establish that for low dimensional material,contribution from optical phonons is found more effective to the thermal conductivity and enhance heat transport in the thermodynamic limit N →∞.For the finite size,thermal conductivity of 1D diatomic lattice is found to be lower than 1D monoatomic chain of the same size made up of the constituent particle of the diatomic chain.For the present 1D diatomic chain,obtained value of power divergent exponent of thermal conductivity0.428±0.001 and diffusion exponent 1.2723 lead to the conclusions that increase in the system size,increases the thermal conductivity and existence of anomalous energy diffusion.Existing numerical data supports our findings.     

Microfabrication of an asymmetric, multi-layered microdevice for controlled release of orally delivered therapeutics

The creation of an oral drug delivery platform to administer chemotherapeutic agents effectively can not only increase patient compliance, but also potentially diminish drug toxicity. A microfabricated device offers advantages over conventional drug delivery technology. Here we describe the development of a multi-layered polymeric drug-loaded microfabricated device (microdevice) for the oral delivery of therapeutics, which offers unidirectional release of multiple therapeutics. The imaging and release of therapeutics from the multi-layered device was performed with three different fluorescently labeled albumins. The release of insulin and chemotherapeutic camptothecin was also observed to be released in a controlled manner over the course of 180 min in vitro. Furthermore, asymmetric delivery was shown to concentrate drug at the device/cell interface, wherein 10 times more drug permeated an intestinal epithelial cell monolayer, compared to unprotected drug-loaded hydrogels. The bioactivity of the released chemotherapeutic was shown with cytostasis of colorectal adenocarcinoma cells. Cytostasis of drug loaded hydrogels was significantly higher than control empty hydrogel laden microdevices. Our results conclude that microfabrication of a hydrogel laden microdevice leads to a viable oral delivery platform for chemotherapeutics.     

Surface modification of SU-8 for enhanced biofunctionality and nonfouling properties

SU-8 is a chemically amplified, epoxy-based negative photoresist typically used for producing ultrathick resist layers during device manufacturing in the semiconductor industry. As a simple resist, SU-8 has garnered attention as a possible material for a variety of biomedical applications, including tissue engineering, drug delivery, as well as cell-based screening and sensing. However, as a hydrophobic material, the use of SU-8 is limited due to a high degree of nonspecific adsorption of biomolecules, as well as limited cell attachment. In this work, surface chemistry is utilized to modify the SU-8 surface by covalently attaching poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) to increase biofunctionality and improve its nonfouling properties. Different molecular weights and concentrations of PEG were used to form films of various grafting densities on SU-8 surfaces. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to verify the presence of PEG moieties on the SU-8 surface. High-resolution C1s spectra show that, with an increase in concentration and immobilization time, the grafting density of PEG also increases. Further, a standard overlayer model was used to calculate the thickness of the PEG films formed. The effect of PEG-modified SU-8 was examined in terms of protein adsorption on the surface and fibroblast-surface interactions.     

Study of thermal conductivity and thermal rectification in exponential mass graded lattices

Concept of exponential mass variation of oscillators along the chain length of N oscillators is proposed in the present Letter. The temperature profile and thermal conductivity of one-dimensional (1D) exponential mass graded harmonic and anharmonic lattices are studied on the basis of Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) β model. Present findings conclude that the exponential mass graded chain provide higher conductivity than that of linear mass graded chain. The exponential mass graded anharmonic chain generates the thermal rectification of 70-75% which is better than linear mass graded materials, so far. Thus instead of using linear mass graded material, the use of exponential mass graded material will be a better and genuine choice for controlling the heat flow at nano-scale.     

Computer Simulation Study of Thermal Conduction in 1D Chains of Anharmonic Oscillators

In this work thermal conduction in one-dimensional(1D) chains of anharmonic oscillators are studied using computer simulation.The temperature profile,heat flux and thermal conductivity are investigated for chain length N = 100,200,400,800 and 1600.In the computer simulation anharmonicity is introduced due to Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-β(FPU-β) model.For substrate interaction,an onsite potential due to Frenkel-Kontorova(FK) model has been used.Numerical simulations demonstrate that temperature gradient scales behave as N-1 linearly with the relation J = 0.1765/N.For the thermal conductivity K,KN to N obey the linear relation of the type KN = 0.8805N.It is shown that thermal transport is dependent on phonon-phonon interaction as well as phonon-lattice interaction.The thermal conductivity increases linearly with increase inanharmonicity and predicts relation κ = 0.133 + 0.804β.It is also concluded that for higher value of the strength of the onsite potential system tends to a thermal insulator.