Single-walled carbon nanotube binding peptides: probing tryptophan's importance by unnatural amino acid substitution

Peptides selected from phage-displayed libraries have been found to exhibit high-affinity binding to carbon nanotubes including single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), multi-walled carbon nanotubes, and single-walled carbon nanohorns. One unique feature of these peptides is that their amino acid sequences are rich in tryptophan and histidine residues. The aim of this study was to investigate the importance of the tryptophan residue in a newly identified SWNT-binding peptide, UW-1, which contains the motif, XTHXXPWTX, where X is any amino acid. Tryptophan was altered in the following ways: mutation to alanine or substitution with three unnatural tryptophan analogues, i.e., 5-fluorotryptophan, 5-hydroxytryptophan, and 7-azatryptophan. Analysis of experimental and computational data suggests that the highest occupied molecular orbital of the tryptophan residue in the peptide interacts with the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital from the SWNT. This information should be important in permitting modulation of peptide affinities to these nanomaterials.     

Crystal polymorphism of protein GB1 examined by solid-state NMR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction

The study of micro- or nanocrystalline proteins by magic-angle spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR (SSNMR) gives atomic-resolution insight into structure in cases when single crystals cannot be obtained for diffraction studies. Subtle differences in the local chemical environment around the protein, including the characteristics of the cosolvent and the buffer, determine whether a protein will form single crystals. The impact of these small changes in formulation is also evident in the SSNMR spectra; however, the changes lead only to correspondingly subtle changes in the spectra. Here, we demonstrate that several formulations of GB1 microcrystals yield very high quality SSNMR spectra, although only a subset of conditions enable growth of single crystals. We have characterized these polymorphs by X-ray powder diffraction and assigned the SSNMR spectra. Assignments of the 13C and 15N SSNMR chemical shifts confirm that the backbone structure is conserved, indicative of a common protein fold, but side chain chemical shifts are changed on the surface of the protein, in a manner dependent upon crystal packing and electrostatic interactions with salt in the mother liquor. Our results demonstrate the ability of SSNMR to reveal minor structural differences among crystal polymorphs. This ability has potential practical utility for studying the formulation chemistry of industrial and therapeutic proteins, as well as for deriving fundamental insights into the phenomenon of single-crystal growth.     

Solvent effects on the oxidation of RuIV=O to O=RuVI=O by MnO4-. hydrogen-atom versus oxygen-atom transfer

The kinetics of the oxidation of trans-[RuIV(tmc)(O)(solv)]2+ to trans-[RuVI(tmc)(O)2]2+ (tmc is 1,4,8,11-tetramethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane, a tetradentate macrocyclic tertiary amine ligand; solv = H2O or CH3CN) by MnO4- have been studied in aqueous solutions and in acetonitrile. In aqueous solutions the rate law is -d[MnO4]/dt = kH2O[RuIV][MnO4-] = (kx + (ky)/(Ka)[H+])[RuIV][MnO4-], kx = (1.49 +/- 0.09) x 101 M-1 s-1 and ky = (5.72 +/- 0.29) x 104 M-1 s-1 at 298.0 K and I = 0.1 M. The terms kx and ky are proposed to be the rate constants for the oxidation of RuIV by MnO4- and HMnO4, respectively, and Ka is the acid dissociation constant of HMnO4. At [H+] = I = 0.1 M, DeltaH and DeltaS are (9.6 +/- 0.6) kcal mol-1 and -(18 +/- 2) cal mol-1 K-1, respectively. The reaction is much slower in D2O, and the deuterium isotope effects are kx/kxD = 3.5 +/- 0.1 and ky/kyD = 5.0 +/- 0.3. The reaction is also noticeably slower in H218O, and the oxygen isotope effect is kH216O/kH218O = 1.30 +/- 0.07. 18O-labeled studies indicate that the oxygen atom gained by RuIV comes from water and not from KMnO4. These results are consistent with a mechanism that involves initial rate-limiting hydrogen-atom abstraction by MnO4- from coordinated water on RuIV. In acetonitrile the rate law is -d[MnO4-]/dt = kCH3CN[RuIV][MnO4-], kCH3CN = 1.95 +/- 0.08 M-1 s-1 at 298.0 K and I = 0.1 M. DeltaH and DeltaS are (12.0 +/- 0.3) kcal mol-1 and -(17 +/- 1) cal mol-1 K-1, respectively. 18O-labeled studies show that in this case the oxygen atom gained by RuIV comes from MnO4-, consistent with an oxygen-atom transfer mechanism.     

Site-directed conjugation of "clicked" glycopolymers to form glycoprotein mimics: binding to mammalian lectin and induction of immunological function

Synthesis of well-defined neoglycopolymer-protein biohybrid materials and a preliminary study focused on their ability of binding mammalian lectins and inducing immunological function is reported. Crucial intermediates for their preparation are well-defined maleimide-terminated neoglycopolymers (M(n) = 8-30 kDa; M(w)/M(n) = 1.20-1.28) presenting multiple copies of mannose epitope units, obtained by combination of transition-metal-mediated living radical polymerization (TMM LRP) and Huisgen [2+3] cycloaddition. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was employed as single thiol-containing model protein, and the resulting bioconjugates were purified following two independent protocols and characterized by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, SDS PAGE, and SEC HPLC. The versatility of the synthetic strategy presented in this work was demonstrated by preparing a small library of conjugating glycopolymers that only differ from each other for their relative epitope density were prepared by coclicking of appropriate mixtures of mannopyranoside and galactopyranoside azides to the same polyalkyne scaffold intermediate. Surface plasmon resonance binding studies carried out using recombinant rat mannose-binding lectin (MBL) showed clear and dose-dependent MBL binding to glycopolymer-conjugated BSA. In addition, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) revealed that the neoglycopolymer-protein materials described in this work possess significantly enhanced capacity to activate complement via the lectin pathway when compared with native unmodified BSA.     

Hydrogen generation from weak acids: electrochemical and computational studies of a diiron hydrogenase mimic

Extended investigation of electrocatalytic generation of dihydrogen using [(mu-1,2-benzenedithiolato)][Fe(CO)3]2 has revealed that weak acids, such as acetic acid, can be used. The catalytic reduction producing dihydrogen occurs at approximately -2 V for several carboxylic acids and phenols resulting in overpotentials of only -0.44 to -0.71 V depending on the weak acid used. This unusual catalytic reduction occurs at a potential at which the starting material, in the absence of a proton source, does not show a reduction peak. The mechanism for this process and structures for the intermediates have been discerned by electrochemical and computational analysis. These studies reveal that the catalyst is the monoanion of the starting material and an ECEC mechanism occurs.     

Toward controlled spacing in one-dimensional molecular chains: alkyl-chain-functionalized fullerenes in carbon nanotubes

A range of fullerenes (C60) functionalized with long alkyl chains have been synthesized and inserted into single-walled carbon nanotubes. The impact of the alkyl chain length and of the type of linker between the addend and the fullerene cage on the geometry of molecular arrays in nanotube has been studied by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. In the presence of functional groups the mean interfullerene separations are significantly increased by 2-8 nm depending on the length of the alkyl chain, but the periodicity of the fullerene arrays is disrupted due to the conformational flexibility of the alkyl groups.     

The sixteen CB(11)H(n)Me(12-n)(-) anions with fivefold substitution symmetry: anodic oxidation and electronic structure

The 15 symmetrically methylated derivatives of the CB11H12(-) anion (1a) have been synthesized and found to vary greatly in ease of oxidation. Cyclic voltammetry in liquid SO2 yielded fully reversible oxidation potentials for five of those that have no adjacent unsubstituted vertices in positions 7-12; three others showed some indication of reversibility. The anions 1a-16a and the Jahn-Teller distorted neutral radicals 1r-16r have been characterized by ab initio and density functional theory calculations. In the state average CASSCF(13,12)/6-31+G* approximation, the ground state potential energy surface of 1r contains five symmetry-related pairs of minima. The computational results account for the reversible redox potentials very well when the solvent is included explicitly (RI-DFT(BP)/TZVP, COSMO). For display and for a semiquantitative understanding of methyl substituent effects in terms of perturbation theory, the molecular orbitals of 1a have been expressed in the symmetry-adapted cluster basis. The results serve as an underpinning for a set of additive empirical increments for redox potential prediction. Relative to the usual hydrogen standard, a single methyl group facilitates oxidation by approximately 50, 70, 70, and 10 mV in positions 1, 2, 7, and 12, respectively. This electron donor effect on the redox potential is due to a contribution, whereas those of (inductive and direct field) type are negligible.