Ligase-Independent Cloning of Amylase Gene from a Local Bacillus subtilis Isolate and Biochemical Characterization of the Purified Enzyme

Five hundred ninety-seven bacterial isolates from Turkish hot spring water sources were screened for their ability to produce extracellular α-amylase. Among them, a high enzyme-producing Bacillus subtilis isolate, A28, was selected, and its α-amylase gene was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli by a ligase-independent method. α-Amylase from the recombinant strain was purified to homogeneity by Q-Sepharose anion exchange and Sephacryl S-100 gel filtration chromatographies. The final yield of the enzyme was about 22.5 % of the initial activity, with a 16.4-fold increase in specific activity compared with the culture lysate. The optimum temperature and pH of the enzyme were 70 °C and 6.0, respectively. The enzyme was highly active at acidic-neutral pH range of 4.5–7.0. The amy28 α-amylase retained 100 % of its activity after incubation at 50 °C for 90 min. Co⁺², Cu²⁺, Fe²⁺, Fe³⁺, Ni⁺², and Zn⁺² caused significant inhibition in enzyme activity, which was not affected by Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Li⁺, and Ba²⁺. The activity was inhibited about 70 % upon treatment of the enzyme with 10 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. However, Ca²⁺ ions known as high temperature stabilizer for other amylases did not stimulate the activity of the enzyme. Due to pH stability and thermostability of the recombinant amylase, this enzyme may be suitable in starch processing, brewing, and food industries.     

Artificial neural network combined with principal component analysis for resolution of complex pharmaceutical formulations

A chemometric approach based on the combined use of the principal component analysis (PCA) and artificial neural network (ANN) was developed for the multicomponent determination of caffeine (CAF), mepyramine (MEP), phenylpropanolamine (PPA) and pheniramine (PNA) in their pharmaceutical preparations without any chemical separation. The predictive ability of the ANN method was compared with the classical linear regression method Partial Least Squares 2 (PLS2). The UV spectral data between 220 and 300 nm of a training set of sixteen quaternary mixtures were processed by PCA to reduce the dimensions of input data and eliminate the noise coming from instrumentation. Several spectral ranges and different numbers of principal components (PCs) were tested to find the PCA-ANN and PLS2 models reaching the best determination results. A two layer ANN, using the first four PCs, was used with log-sigmoid transfer function in first hidden layer and linear transfer function in output layer. Standard error of prediction (SEP) was adopted to assess the predictive accuracy of the models when subjected to external validation. PCA-ANN showed better prediction ability in the determination of PPA and PNA in synthetic samples with added excipients and pharmaceutical formulations. Since both components are characterized by low absorptivity, the better performance of PCA-ANN was ascribed to the ability in considering all non-linear information from noise or interfering excipients.     

Dendron–polymer conjugates via the diels–alder “click” reaction of novel anthracene‐based dendrons

Diblock and triblock dendron–polymer conjugates containing biodegradable polyester dendron blocks and polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymer were synthesized using the Diels–Alder “click” cycloaddition reaction. PEG polymers with furan‐protected maleimide functionality were synthesized and reacted with biodegradable polyester dendrons containing an anthracene moiety at their focal point. First through third generations of biodegradable polyester dendrons containing an anthracene unit at their focal point were synthesized using a divergent strategy. Efficient conjugation of the dendrons to polymers was demonstrated using ¹HNMR and size exclusion chromatography. This modular approach provides an easy access to the design of multivalent PEG conjugates. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2013, 51, 3191–3201     

Determination of trace cadmium in waters by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry after preconcentration with 1-nitroso-2-naphthol-3,6-disulfonic acid on Ambersorb 572

A procedure for the determination of trace amount of cadmium after adsorption of its 1-nitroso-2-naphthol-3,6-disulfonic acid chelate on Ambersorb 572 has been proposed. This chelate is adsorbed on the adsorbent in the pH range 3-8 from large volumes of aqueous solution of water samples with a preconcentration factor of 200. After being sorbed, cadmium was eluted by 5 mL of 2.0 mol L(-1) nitric acid solution and determined directly by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometery (FAAS). The detection limit (3sigma) of cadmium was 0.32 microg L(-1). The precision of the proposed procedure, calculated as the relative standard deviation of recovery in sample solution (100 mL) containing 5 microg of cadmium was satisfactory (1.9%). The adsorption of cadmium onto adsorbent can formally be described by a Langmuir equation with a maximum adsorption capacity of 19.6 mg g(-1) and a binding constant of 6.5 x 10(-3) L mg(-1). Various parameters, such as the effect of pH and the interference of a number of metal ions on the determination of cadmium, have been studied in detail to optimize the conditions for the preconcentration and determination of cadmium in water samples. This procedure was applied to the determination of cadmium in tap and river water samples.     

Three-way Resolution of the Overlapping Ultrahigh-performance Liquid Spectrochromatograms for the Analysis of a Quaternary Mixture Using Parallel Factor Analysis

This paper presents a new application of three-way parallel factor analysis (3W-PARAFAC) model to the coeluting spectrochromatograms for the quantitative resolution of a quaternary mixture system consisting of paracetamol, propyphenazone, and caffeine with aspirin as an internal standard. Spectrochromatograms of calibration standards, validation sets, and unknown samples were recorded as a function of retention time and wavelength in the range of 0.0–2.5?min and 200–400?nm, respectively, using ultra-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (UPLC-PDA). Three-way UPLC-PDA data array X (retention time?×?wavelength?×?sample) was obtained from the data matrices of the spectrochromatograms. 3W-PARAFAC decomposition of three-way UPLC-PDA data array provided three loading matrices corresponding to chromatographic mode, spectral mode, and relative concentration mode. Quantitative estimation of paracetamol, propyphenazone, and caffeine in analyzed samples was accomplished using the relative concentration mode obtained by the deconvolution of the UPLC-PDA data set. The validity and ability of 3W-PARAFAC model were checked by analyzing independent test samples. It was observed from analyses that 3W-PARAFAC method has potential to uniquely resolve strongly overlapping peaks of analyzed compounds in a spectrochromatogram, which was obtained under experimental conditions consisting of the lower flow rate, short run time, and simple mobile phase composition. The proposed three-way chemometric approach was successfully applied to the simultaneous quantification of paracetamol, propyphenazone, and caffeine in tablets. Experiments showed that the determination results were in good agreement with label amount in commercial pharmaceutical preparation.     

Antimicrobial activities and absorption properties of disazo dyes containing imidazole and pyrazole moieties

The newly synthesized thirteen disazo dyes containing imidazole and pyrazole cycles (3a-3m) were carried out by diazotization reaction of 5-amino-4-arylazo-3-methyl-1H-pyrazoles (2a-2m) and coupling reaction with 1-methyl imidazole. Structures of synthesized azo dyes were characterized by UV–Vis, FT-IR, ¹H-NMR, elemental analysis and their solvatochromic properties were studied in DMSO, DMF, methanol, acetic acid and chloroform. In addition, the antimicrobial activities of dyes against twelve pathogenic bacteria were examined in detail and all dyes showed antimicrobial activity against different bacterial strains.     

Electron paramagnetic resonance study of irradiated tetramethyl-4-piperidion

The electron paramagnetic resonance of single crystals of tetramethyl-4-piperidion (TMP; C₉H₁₉NO) has been observed and analysed for different orientations of the crystal in the magnetic field, after being damaged at 300 K by γ-irradiation. The crystals have been investigated between 100 and 450 K. The spectra were found to be temperature dependent. The irradiation of TMP by γ-rays produces radicals at the nitrogen atoms in the molecule. The principal values of the hyperfine coupling tensor of the unpaired electron and the principal values of the g-tensor were determined. The results were found to be in good agreement with the existing literature data and theoretical predictions.     

An electron paramagnetic resonance study on irradiated triphenylphosphinselenid single crystal

The single crystals of triphenylphosphinselenid [C₁₈H₁₅PSe] were produced by slow evaporation of concentrated ethyl acetate solutions. These single crystals were exposed to ⁶⁰Co gamma (γ) rays with a dose speed of 0.980 kGy/h at the room temperature for 72 h. The free radical over the sample was observed using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)–X band spectrometer. The EPR spectra were recorded between 120 and 400 K. Furthermore, the sample irradiated was rotated in steps of 10° and analyzed for different orientations of the crystal in the magnetic field. Only one radical structure was determined on the molecule. The hyperfine constants of the sample were found to be anisotropic. The average values of these constants and value of g were calculated as following: g=2.007656, a_Se=37.47 G, a_P=27.44 G, a_Ha=17.28 G, and a_Hb=18.16 G.     

Fractional-continuous wavelet transforms and ultra-performance liquid chromatography for the multicomponent analysis of a ternary mixture containing thiamine, pyridoxine, and lidocaine in ampules

New chemometric approaches based on the application of partial least squares (PLS) and principal component regression (PCR) algorithms with fractional wavelet transform (FWT) and continuous wavelet transform (CWT) are proposed for the spectrophotometric multicomponent determination of thiamine hydrochloride (B1), pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), and lidocaine hydrochloride (LID) in ampules without any separation step. In this study PLS and PCR techniques were applied to the raw spectral data, FWT-coefficients, and FWT-CWT-coefficients. These calibration models were labeled as Raw-PLS and Raw-PCR, FWT-PLS and FWT-PCR, and FWT-CWT-PLS and FWT-CWT-PCR, respectively. A new ultra-performance liquid chromatographic (UPLC) method was developed for the comparison of the results obtained by applying the chemometric calibration methods. Chromatographic separation and determination of B1, B6, and LID in ampules were performed on an Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column (50x2.1 mm id, 1.7 pm particle size) using gradient elution with a mobile phase consisting of methanol and 0.01 M HCI at a constant flow rate of 0.6 mL/min. These combined chemometric calibrations and UPLC were validated by analyzing various ternary mixtures, B1, B6, and LID. The proposed chemometric approaches (signal processing-multivariate calibrations) and UPLC method were applied to the quantitative multicomponent analysis of marketed ampules containing the vitamins B1 and B6 with LID.     

Determination of the Complexing Constants by the Aid of 13C Dipole-Dipole Relaxation Time Measurements. Part. III. Complexing of 15-Crown-5 and 18-Crown-6 with Na+,K+ and Ca2+ in DHOX

The association constants, K_a of KI, Nal and CaCl₂ complexing with 1,4,7,10,13-pentaoxacyclopentadecane and 1,4,7,10,13,16-hexaoxacycloocta-decane in DHO were determined by the aid of ¹³C dipole-dipole relaxation time measurements.

The mole fraction of the complexed ligand, P_C were obtained by the use of the equation of 1/T^obs ₁ - 1/T₁₀ = P_C (1/T^O ₁ - 1/T₁₀) where the T₁₀ and T^o ₁ are the relaxation times of free and complexed macrocyclic ethers respectively.

K_a values obtained from the above given equation depending on the cation concentration, [A⁺ _O] typically reflected the relation between the cationic radius and cyclic ether ring size.