Bis-substituted benzo-15-crown-5 ethers as ion carriers in potassium ion-selective electrodes

Lipophilic bis-substituted ester and ether derivatives of benzo-15-crown-5 have been synthesised. The correlation between the structure and potentiometric ion-selectivity has been studied in PVC membrane ion-selective electrodes. An ion-selective potassium sensitive electrode based on 4,5-bis (biphenyloxymethyl)benzo-15-crown-5 exhibited the best electrode properties. The detection limit was loga _K = -5.4; logK _K,Na ^ppot = -3.5. The effect of the lipophilicity of neutral carriers upon electrode performance has been also discussed.     

Crystallographic and bioinformatic studies on restriction endonucleases: inference of evolutionary relationships in the "midnight zone" of homology

Type II restriction endonucleases (ENases) cleave DNA with remarkable sequence specificity. Their discovery in 1970 and studies on molecular genetics and biochemistry carried out over the past four decades laid foundations for recombinant DNA techniques. Today, restriction enzymes are indispensable tools in molecular biology and molecular medicine and a paradigm for proteins that specifically interact with DNA as well as a challenging target for protein engineering. The sequence-structure-function relationships for these proteins are therefore of central interest in biotechnology. However, among numerous ENase sequences, only a few exhibit statistically significant similarity in pairwise comparisons, which was initially interpreted as evidence for the lack of common origin. Nevertheless, X-ray crystallographic studies of seemingly dissimilar type II ENases demonstrated that they share a common structural core and metal-binding/catalytic site, arguing for extreme divergence rather than independent evolution. A similar nuclease domain has been also identified in various enzymes implicated in DNA repair and recombination. Ironically, following the series of crystallographic studies suggesting homology of all type II ENases, bioinformatic studies provided evidence that some restriction enzymes are in fact diverged members of unrelated nuclease superfamilies: Nuc, HNH and GIY-YIG. Hence, the restriction enzymes as a whole, represent a group of functionally similar proteins, which evolved on multiple occasions and subsequently diverged into the "midnight zone" of homology, where common origins within particular groups can be inferred only from structure-guided comparisons. The structure-guided approaches used for this purpose include: identification of functionally important residues using superposition of atomic coordinates, alignment of sequence profiles enhanced by secondary structures, fold recognition, and homology modeling. This review covers recent results of comparative analyses of restriction enzymes from the four currently known superfamilies of nucleases with distinct folds, using crystallographic and bioinformatic methods, with the emphasis on theoretical predictions and their experimental validation by site-directed mutagenesis and biochemical analyses of the mutants.     

Synthesis and properties of water-soluble gold colloids covalently derivatized with neutral polymer monolayers

Citrate-capped gold nanoparticles as well as planar gold surfaces can be efficiently grafted with a covalently attached polymer monolayer a few nanometers thick, by simple contact of the metal surface with dilute aqueous solutions of hydrophilic polymers that are end-capped with disulfide moieties, as shown by UV/vis absorption, dynamic light scattering, and surface plasmon resonance studies. The hydrophilic polymer-coated gold colloids can be freeze-dried and stored as powders that can be subsequently dissolved to yield stable aqueous dispersions, even at very large concentrations. They allow for applying filtrations, gel permeation chromatography, or centrifugation. They do not suffer from undesirable nonspecific adsorption of proteins while allowing the diffusion of small species within the hydrogel surface coating. In addition, specific properties of the original hydrophilic polymers are retained such as a lower critical solution temperature. The latter feature could be useful to enhance optical responses of functionalized gold surfaces toward interaction with various substrates.     

2,3‐Difluoro‐4‐formyl­phenyl­boronic acid

The mol­ecule of the title compound, 2,3‐F₂‐4‐(CHO)C₆H₂B(OH)₂ or C₇H₅BF₂O₃, contains a formyl group coplanar with the benzene ring. The boronic acid group is twisted with respect to the benzene ring plane. The mol­ecules are organized into infinite chains via inter­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. These chains are additionally connected via strong O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, producing a folded layer structure perpendicular to the a axis. These layers are paired due to B⋯F inter­actions.     

Thermodynamic studies of complexation and enantiorecognition processes of monoterpenoids by alpha- and beta-cyclodextrin in gas chromatography

Gas-liquid chromatography was applied in thermodynamic investigations of processes of complexation and enantioseparation by alpha- and [-cyclodextrins of chiral monoterpenoids. The distribution constants, stability constants and thermodynamic parameters enthalpy, entropy and free energy of the complexation processes were determined. It has been found that enantioseparation of monoterpenes by alpha- and beta-cyclodextrins is the result of formation of 1:2 stoichiometric complexes. When 1:1 stoichiometric complexes are formed, enantioselectivity is not observed. All investigated processes of complexation are enthalpy-driven regardless of the stoichiometry of the formed complexes. -deltaH, -TdeltaS and -deltaG of complexation process have higher values for bicyclic than for monocyclic monoterpenoids as well as for alpha-CD than for beta-CD. The first or second step of complexation may be responsible for enantioselectivity.     

Synthese von Propellanen aus 1,8-Dihydroxynaphthalin: 3,7,11,15-Tetraoxa[4,5,6-12,13,14-dinaphtho(1′,8′)]-(7.7.1)propellan

Condensation of 1,1,2,2,-tetrabromomethylcyclopropane with 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene yielded the (7.7.1)-type propellane. The peri effect on the reaction and the product conformation is discussed. As a result condensation of 1,1-dibromomethylcyclopropane withperi-dihydroxynaphthalene gives the diether-type compound2 instead of the expected spirane2.

Jamrozik, J., Propellanes III. J. für prakt. Chemie, im Druck (1980).     

Geometrically Convex Solutions of Certain Difference Equations and Generalized Bohr-Mollerup Type Theorems

Let G: (0, ∞) → (0, ∞) be logarithmically concave on a neighbourhood of ∞ and suppose lim_x→∞ G(x + δ)/G(x) = 1 for some δ > 0. Then, the functional equation $$g(x+1)=G(x)\cdot g(x),\ \ \ x\in (0,\infty),$$ admits, up to a multiplicative constant, at most one solution g: (0, ∞) → (0, ∞), geometrically convex on a neighbourhood of ∞. Sufficient conditions on G are given, for which also such a unique geometrically convex solution of (D) exists. This result improves the classical theorems of Bohr-Mollerup type and gives a new characterization of the gamma function and the q-gamma function for q ∈ (0, 1).     

Discretization of the thermal excitation in highly excited matter

In this paper the thermal energy diffusion for quantum particles is described. The quantum heat transport equation is obtained. It is shown that, for a short-time thermal excitation (of the order of the relaxation time), the excited matter response is quantized on the different levels (atomic, nuclear, quark) with quantum thermal energy equalE ^atomic 9 eV,E ^nuclear 7 MeV, andE ^quark 139 MeV.     

Derivative of the exponential mapping for infinite dimensional lie groups

It is proved that for infinite dimensional Lie groups in the sense of the differential calculus of Frölicher and Kriegl the derivative of the exponential mappings is given by the formula d(exp)(X)Y=d_exp(X)(e) ₀ ¹ Ad_exp(–tX) Y dt, where stands for the left translation ande is the neutral element.This work was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung.     

Bio-compatible in-tube solid-phase microextraction capillary for the direct extraction and high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of drugs in human serum

A restricted access material (RAM), alkyl-diol-silica (ADS), was used to prepare a highly bio-compatible solid-phase microextraction (SPME) capillary for the automated and direct in-tube extraction of several benzodiazepines from human serum. The bifunctionality of the ADS extraction phase prevented fouling of the capillary by protein adsorption while simultaneously trapping the analytes in the hydrophobic porous interior. This the first report of a restricted access material utilized as an extraction phase for in-tube SPME. The approach simplified the required apparatus in comparison to existing RAM column switching procedures, and more importantly eliminated the excessive use of extraction solvents. The biocompatibility of the ADS material also overcame the existing problems with in-tube SPME that requires an ultrafiltration or other deproteinization step prior to handling biological samples, therefore further minimizing the sample preparation requirements. The calculated oxazepam, temazepam, nordazepam and diazepam detection limits were 26, 29, 22 and 24 ng/ml in serum, respectively. The method was linear over the range of 50-50 000 ng/ml with an average linear coefficient (R2) value of 0.9998. The injection repeatability and intra-assay precision of the method were evaluated with five injections of a 10-microg/ml serum sample (spiked with all compounds), resulting in an average RSD<7%. The ADS extraction column was robust, providing many direct injections of biological fluids for the extraction and subsequent determination of benzodiazepines.