Direct Electrochemistry of Myoglobin in DDAB-Clay Composite Films

Direct electrochemistry of redox proteins can provide a good model for the studies of redox process in biological system Electron transfer between redox metalloproteins and underlying electrodes was greatly enhanced in lamillar liquid crystal surfactant films compared to that on bare electrodes with the puoteins in solution1,because these filmsprovide a favorable biomebrane-like micuoencironment for the puwtins2 Orderedsurfactant-clay composite films in which anionic clay platelet layers sandw…     

Directed evolution of cyclic peptides for inhibition of autophagy

In recent decades it has become increasingly clear that induction of autophagy plays an important role in the development of treatment resistance and dormancy in many cancer types. Unfortunately, chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), two autophagy inhibitors in clinical trials, suffer from poor pharmacokinetics and high toxicity at therapeutic dosages. This has prompted intense interest in the development of targeted autophagy inhibitors to re-sensitize disease to treatment with minimal impact on normal tissue. We utilized Scanning Unnatural Protease Resistant (SUPR) mRNA display to develop macrocyclic peptides targeting the autophagy protein LC3. The resulting peptides bound LC3A and LC3B—two essential components of the autophagosome maturation machinery—with mid-nanomolar affinities and disrupted protein–protein interactions (PPIs) between LC3 and its binding partners in vitro. The most promising LC3-binding SUPR peptide accessed the cytosol at low micromolar concentrations as measured by chloroalkane penetration assay (CAPA) and inhibited starvation-mediated GFP-LC3 puncta formation in a concentration-dependent manner. LC3-binding SUPR peptides re-sensitized platinum-resistant ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin treatment and triggered accumulation of the adapter protein p62 suggesting decreased autophagic flux through successful disruption of LC3 PPIs in cell culture. In mouse models of metastatic ovarian cancer, treatment with LC3-binding SUPR peptides and carboplatin resulted in almost complete inhibition of tumor growth after four weeks of treatment. These results indicate that SUPR peptide mRNA display can be used to develop cell-penetrating macrocyclic peptides that target and disrupt the autophagic machinery in vitro and in vivo.

SUPR peptide mRNA display was used to evolve a cell-permeable, macrocyclic peptide for autophagy inhibition.     

Di­methyl 2‐(4‐bromo­phenyl)‐10,11‐di­methoxy‐2,3,7,8‐tetra­hydro­spiro­[azepino[2,1‐a]­iso­quinoline‐3,9′‐fluorene]‐4,5‐di­carboxyl­ate

The title compound, C₃₈H₃₂BrNO₆, is a new photochromic tetra­hydro­azepinoiso­quinoline (THAI). The longest spiro bond [1.589 (4) Å] can be broken very easily by UV light, leading to ring opening. This explains the photochromic behaviour.     

Coupling Reaction of 4-Chloro-7-H-Pyrrolo[2,3-d]Pyrimidine with 2,3,5-Tri-O-Acetyl-β-D-Ribofuranosyl Chloride

Tubercidin (4-amino-7--D-riobofuranosyl-7-H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine) 1, an antibio-tic substance produced in the culture broth of Streptomyces tubericidus1, is an adenosine analog in which N-7 is replaced by a carbon atom. It has attracted much attention due to the biological activities for the growth inhibition of certain tumors, and many derivatives of tubercidin have been synthesized2-5.For the synthesis of tubercidin analogs, 4-chloro-7-H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine-2,3,5-tri-O-acetyl--D-r…     

Crystal structure and the role of cation group factor in the third‐order nonlinear optical properties of cadmium complexes constructed by 1,3‐dithiole‐2‐thione‐4,5‐dithiolato ligand

A cadmium complex bis(benzyltriethylammonium) bis(1,3‐dithiole‐2‐thione‐4,5‐dithiolato)‐cadmium(II) ((TEBA)₂[Cd(DMIT)₂]) has been synthesized and its crystal structure has been determined by means of X‐ray single‐crystal diffraction. The central cadmium(II) ion coordinates with two DMIT, which constructed a distorted tetrahedron environment. Its third‐order nonlinear optical properties have been studied using Z‐scan technique with 20 ps pulses at wavelength 1064 nm. Its third‐order nonlinear susceptibility χ⁽³⁾ value was determined to be 1.24 × 10⁻¹⁹ m² V⁻², the figure of merit, χ⁽³⁾/α₀, was estimated to be 2.64 × 10⁻²⁰ m³ V⁻². Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Four New Alkaloids,Brevianamides O – R,from the Fungus Aspergillus versicolor

Four new alkaloids, brevianamides O–R ( 1 – 4 , resp.), were isolated from the AcOEt extract of the solid‐state fermented rice culture of the fungus Aspergillus versicolor. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic analyses.     

Geometrical structures,electronic states,and stability of NinAl clusters

Density‐functional with generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for the exchange‐correlation potential has been used to calculate the energetically global‐minimum geometries and electronic states of Ni_nAl (n = 2–8) neutral clusters. Our calculations predict the existence of a number of previously unknown isomers. All structures may be derived from a substitution of a Ni atom at marginal positions by an Al atom in the Ni_n+1 cluster. Aluminum atom remains on the surface of the geometrical configurations. Moreover, these species prefer to adopt three‐dimensional (3D) spacial forms at the smaller number of nickel atoms compared with the pure Ni_n+1 (n ≥ 3) configuration. Atomization energies per atom for Ni_nAl (n = 2–8) have the same trend as the binding energies per atom for Ni_n (n = 3–9). The stabilization energies reveal that Ni₅Al is the relatively most stable in this series. In comparison with the magnetic moment of pure metal nickel (0.6 μ_B), the average magnetic moment of Ni atom increases in Ni Al clusters except the Ni₃Al. Moreover, except the case of Ni₅Al, Ni average magnetic moment decreases when alloyed with Al atoms than that in pure Ni clusters, which originate the effective charge transferring from Al to Ni atoms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010     

A Blue Light-inducible Phosphodiesterase Activity in the Cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus

A blue light-inducible phosphodiesterase (PDE) activity, specific for the hydrolysis of cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP), has been identified in a recombinant protein from Synechococcus elongatus. Blue light (BL) activation is accomplished by a light, oxygen, voltage (LOV) domain, found in plant phototropins and bacterial BL photoreceptors. The genome of S. elongatus contains two genes coding for proteins with LOV domains fused to EAL domains (SL1 and SL2). In both cases, a GGDEF motif is placed in between the LOV and the EAL motifs. Such arrangement is frequently found with diguanylate-cyclase (DGC) functions that form c-di-GMP. Cyclic di-GMP acts as a second messenger molecule regulating biofilm formation in many microbial species. Both enzyme activities modulate the intracellular level of this second messenger, although in most proteins only one of the two enzyme functions is active. Both S. elongatus LOV-GGDEF-EAL proteins were expressed in full length or as truncated proteins. Only the SL2 protein, expressed as a LOV-GGDEF-EAL construct, showed an increase of PDE activity upon BL irradiation, demonstrating this activity for the first time in a LOV-domain protein. Addition of GTP or c-di-GMP did not affect the observed enzymatic activity. In none of the full-length or truncated proteins was a DGC activity detected.     

A New Method to Remove Neutral Template in the Synthesis of HMS

The synthesis of mesoporous molecular sieves is believed to be one of the most exciting discoveries in the field of material science1. The formation of mesoporous structure relies on the template effect of the surfactant micelles2-4. Generally three kinds of interactions are involved in this process, i.e. electrostatic charge matching, hydrogen bonding and coordinative interaction5. After template-directed synthesis procedure, the after-treatment process is needed to remove the surfactant temp…