Charge density of divalent metal cations determines RNA stability

RNA molecules are exquisitely sensitive to the properties of counterions. The folding equilibrium of the Tetrahymena ribozyme is measured by nondenaturing gel electrophoresis in the presence of divalent group IIA metal cations. The stability of the folded ribozyme increases with the charge density (zeta) of the cation. Similar scaling is found when the free energy of the RNA folded in small and large metal cations is measured by urea denaturation. Brownian dynamics simulations of a polyelectrolyte show that the experimental observations can be explained by nonspecific ion-RNA interactions in the absence of site-specific metal chelation. The experimental and simulation results establish that RNA stability is largely determined by a combination of counterion charge and the packing efficiency of condensed cations that depends on the excluded volume of the cations.     

Water-Catalyzed Oxidation of Few-Layer Black Phosphorous in a Dark Environment

Black phosphorus (BP) shows great potential in electronic and optoelectronic devices owing to its semiconducting properties, such as thickness-dependent direct bandgap and ambipolar transport characteristics. However, the poor stability of BP in air seriously limits its practical applications. To develop effective schemes to protect BP, it is crucial to reveal the degradation mechanism under various environments. To date, it is generally accepted that BP degrades in air via light-induced oxidation. Herein, we report a new degradation channel via water-catalyzed oxidation of BP in the dark. When oxygen co-adsorbs with highly polarized water molecules on BP surface, the polarization effect of water can significantly lower the energy levels of oxygen (i.e. enhanced electron affinity), thereby facilitating the electron transfer from BP to oxygen to trigger the BP oxidation even in the dark environment. This new degradation mechanism lays important foundation for the development of proper protecting schemes in black phosphorus-based devices.     

Screening of Carbonic Anhydrase,Acetylcholinesterase, Butyrylcholinesterase,and α-Glycosidase Enzyme Inhibition Effects and Antioxidant Activity of Coumestrol

Coumestrol (3,9-dihydroxy-6-benzofuran [3,2-c] chromenone) as a phytoestrogen and polyphenolic compound is a member of the Coumestans family and is quite common in plants. In this study, antiglaucoma, antidiabetic, anticholinergic, and antioxidant effects of Coumestrol were evaluated and compared with standards. To determine the antioxidant activity of coumestrol, several methods—namely N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride radical (DMPD^•+)-scavenging activity, 2,2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonate) radical (ABTS^•+)-scavenging activity, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH^•)-scavenging activity, potassium ferric cyanide reduction ability, and cupric ion (Cu²⁺)-reducing activity—were performed. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), Trolox, α-Tocopherol, and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) were used as the reference antioxidants for comparison. Coumestrol scavenged the DPPH radical with an IC₅₀ value of 25.95 μg/mL (r²: 0.9005) while BHA, BHT, Trolox, and α-Tocopherol demonstrated IC₅₀ values of 10.10, 25.95, 7.059, and 11.31 μg/mL, respectively. When these results evaluated, Coumestrol had similar DPPH^•-scavenging effect to BHT and lower better than Trolox, BHA and α-tocopherol. In addition, the inhibition effects of Coumestrol were tested against the metabolic enzymes acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), carbonic anhydrase II (CA II), and α-glycosidase, which are associated with some global diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), glaucoma, and diabetes. Coumestrol exhibited K_i values of 10.25 ± 1.94, 5.99 ± 1.79, 25.41 ± 1.10, and 30.56 ± 3.36 nM towards these enzymes, respectively.     

A novel strategy on the spectrochromatographic analysis of a quaternary mixture by parallel factor analysis model

Poor chromatographic resolution is one of the main challenges in chromatographic analysis. Partially separated chromatographic peaks frequently occur, due to the nature of analytes and the demand for fast analysis using high flow rates and shorter columns. Modeling of chromatographic three-way data using suitable chemometric tools enables determining co-eluted peaks without using additional experimental efforts. In this paper, parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) was applied to chromatographic data for the quantitative resolution of a quaternary mixture at the co-elution condition of acetaminophen, aspirin, ascorbic acid, and guaifenesin in a spectrochromatogram. The spectrochromatograms of the calibration set, validation set, and real samples were arranged as a three-way array. In the next step, the PARAFAC model was implemented to decompose the spectrochromatographic array into trilinear components, corresponding to spectral, chromatographic, and relative concentration profiles of the analytes. The chromatographic and spectral modes were used for the qualitative analysis of components, whereas the analytes in commercial tablets were quantified from their individual profiles in their concentration mode. This study indicated that the application of the PARAFAC model provided a novel strategy for determining overlapping peaks in a chromatogram to perform the analysis of multicomponent mixtures with reduced runtime and without additional efforts.     

Nucleophilic substitution reactions of monofunctional nucleophilic reagents with cyclotriphosphazenes containing 2,2-dioxybiphenyl units

The nucleophilic substitution reactions of mono- and bis-spiro-2,2′ -dioxybiphenyl cyclotriphosphazenes (3 and 4) with cyclopropanemethylamine (5) and aniline (6) were performed in the presence of trimethylamine in THF. Five novel cyclopropanemethylamino- and anilino-substituted spiro-2,2′ -dioxybiphenyl cyclotriphosphazene derivatives (7–11) were obtained from these reactions. The molecular structures of the new cyclotriphosphazene derivatives (7–11) were characterized by elemental analysis, MALDI-TOF MS, FT-IR, and NMR ( ³¹ P and ¹ H) spectroscopies. The structure of the spiro-(2,2′ -dioxybiphenyl)-bis-(anilino)-cyclotriphosphazene (11) was also determined by single-crystal X-ray crystallography.     

Isophorone‐boronate ester: A simple chemosensor for optical detection of fluoride anion

A highly selective isophorone‐boronate ester based chemosensor, ( 1 ) , having a dicyanovinyl moiety as a convenient colorimetric probe, has been designed. Different types of anionic analyte such as CH₃COO^?, ClO₄^?, Cl^?, F^?, PF₆^?, Br^? and HSO₄^? were tested and among them only highly nucleophilic F^? anion displayed significant response towards the sensor. Addition of the fluoride anion across the boron atom disrupts the π‐conjugation thereby shifts the absorption wavelength towards the redshift region due to the decrease in the HOMO‐LUMO energy gap and a colour change from yellow to blue is observed under visible light condition. The detection limit of this probe was calculated to be 3.25 × 10^—8 M for fluoride anion. The binding constants and the detection limits of the sensor were calculated using absorption titration studies. The silica gel TLC strips dip‐coated by the chemosensor ( 1 ) revealed a colour change from yellow to brick red to naked eye.     

3‐miktoarm star terpolymers using triple click reactions: Diels–Alder,copper‐catalyzed azide‐alkyne cycloaddition,and nitroxide radical coupling reactions

Well‐defined linear furan‐protected maleimide‐terminated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG‐MI), tetramethylpiperidine‐1‐oxyl‐terminated poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL‐TEMPO), and azide‐terminated polystyrene (PS‐N₃) or ‐poly(N‐butyl oxanorbornene imide) (PONB‐N₃) were ligated to an orthogonally functionalized core ( 1 ) in a two‐step reaction mode through triple click reactions. In a first step, Diels–Alder click reaction of PEG‐MI with 1 was performed in toluene at 110 °C for 24 h to afford α‐alkyne‐α‐bromide‐terminated PEG (PEG‐alkyne/Br). As a second step, this precursor was subsequently ligated with the PCL‐TEMPO and PS‐N₃ or PONB‐N₃ in N,N‐dimethylformamide at room temperature for 12 h catalyzed by Cu(0)/Cu(I) through copper‐catalyzed azide‐alkyne cycloaddition and nitroxide radical coupling click reactions, yield resulting ABC miktoarm star polymers in a one‐pot mode. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012