Inclusivef 2 (1270) meson production in νp and\bar vp charged current interactions

Using data obtained with the bubble chamber BEBC at CERN, the inclusivef ₂ (1270) meson production invp and \(\bar vp\) charged current reactions is studied. It is found thatf ₂ production occurs mainly in events with a hadronic invariant massW?7 GeV. In these events, the averagef ₂ multiplicity is about half the average ρ^O multiplicity, and thex _F andp _T ² distributions of thef ₂ agree in shape with those of the ρ^O. The predictions of a semi-empirical model (Wells model) are in accord with the measured multiplicities atW>7 GeV, whereas at lowerW the model predicts too largef ₂ multiplicities.     

A combination chemical and enzymatic approach for the preparation of azole carboxamide nucleoside triphosphate

Alternative substrates for DNA and RNA polymerases offer an important set of biochemical tools. Many of the standard methods for nucleoside triphosphate synthesis fail in the cases of nonpurine and nonpyrimidine nucleosides. An efficient preparation of the 5'-O-tosylates for both the deoxy- and ribonucleosides enabled preparation of the diphosphate esters by displacement with tris(tetra-n-butylammonium) pyrophosphate. Enzymatic synthesis of the azole carboxamide deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate was based on ATP as the phosphate donor, nucleoside diphosphate kinase as the catalyst, coupled with phosphoenol pyruvate (PEP) and pyruvate kinase as an ATP regeneration system. Ribonucleoside triphosphate synthesis required PEP as the phosphate donor and pyruvate kinase as the catalyst. An optimized purification procedure based upon boronate affinity gel was developed to yield highly purified nucleoside triphosphates. The strategy outlined here provides a new and efficient method for preparation of nucleoside 5'-triphosphate and is likely applicable to a broad variety of base and sugar modified nucleoside analogues.     

Counterion exchange selectivity coefficients at water-in-oil microemulsion interface

The counterion binding at a water/Aerosol-OT (AOT)/heptane microemulsion interface was treated in the context of the pseudo-phase ion exchange formalism. Two approaches were used to determine the selectivity coefficient for copper/sodium counterion binding at the AOT microemulsion interface: measurements of the Cu(II) concentration taken up by the reverse micelle in a Winsor II microemulsion system and steady-state emission quenching measurements of an anionic water-solubilized probe, the tris-(4,4'-dicarboxy-2,2'-bipyridine) ruthenium (II) ion. In addition, the selectivity coefficient for methyl viologen/sodium at the microemulsion surface was determined by the same photophysical technique. The value for copper (II)/sodium exchange (K(Cu/Na)) is 1.1+/-0.3 and that for methyl viologen/sodium (K(MV/Na)) is 0.9+/-0.3. The results show that the pseudo-phase ion exchange model can be used to obtain the selectivity coefficient in a microemulsion system.     

Translational to vibrational energy conversion during surface-induced dissociation of n-butylbenzene molecular ions colliding at self-assembled monolayer surfaces

Translational to vibrational (T-->V) energy conversion in the course of inelastic collisions of n-butylbenzene molecular ions with thiolate self-assembled monolayer (SAM) gold surfaces is studied to better understand internal energy uptake by the hyperthermal projectile ions. The projectile ion is selected by a mass spectrometer of BE configuration and product ions are analyzed using a quadrupole mass analyzer after kinetic energy selection with an electric sector. The branching ratio for formation of the fragment ions m/z 91 and m/z 92, measured over a range of collision energies, is used to estimate the average internal energy with the aid of calculations based on unimolecular dissociation kinetics [Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) theory]. The measured T-->V conversion efficiencies (the fraction of the laboratory kinetic energy converted into internal energy) are 11 approximately 12% for dodecanethiolate SAM (H-SAM) and 19 approximately 20% for 2-perfluorooctylethanethiolate SAM (F-SAM), respectively, over ranges of a few 10s of eV. The values are similar to those reported earlier for other thermometer molecules undergoing surface collisions. Chemical sputtering leading to ionization of the surface is a prominent feature of the surface-induced dissociation (SID) spectra of n-butylbenzene acquired using the H-SAM surface but not the F-SAM surface because of the lower ionization energy of the former.     

An insight into the mechanisms of the phototoxic response induced by cyamemazine in cultured fibroblasts and keratinocytes

The phototoxicity of cyamemazine (CMZ, Tercian), a neuroleptic of the phenothiazine family, has recently been reported in humans. CMZ has an absorbance maximum at 267 nm (molar absorptivity, 25,800 M(-1) cm(-1)) but a weaker molar absorptivity in the ultraviolet A (UV-A) region. CMZ exhibits a fluorescence with maximum emission at 535 nm and a quantum yield of 0.11. CMZ is a powerful photosensitizing agent toward HS 68 human skin fibroblasts and NCTC 2544 keratinocytes. At a UV-A radiation dose of 10 J/cm2, innocuous to cells in the absence of CMZ, the LD50 (lethal dose corresponding to 50% killing) are 0.5 and 1 microM for the fibroblasts and the keratinocytes, respectively, after overnight incubation with the drug. Short incubation times do not significantly alter the LD50. The CMZ-induced phototoxicity is accompanied by lipid membrane peroxidation consistent with the amphiphilic character of this photosensitizer. Keratinocytes are an order of magnitude less sensitive to the photosensitized lipid peroxidation than fibroblasts. Microspectrofluorometry reveals that lysosomal membranes are major sites of CMZ incorporation into the two cell lines because a Forster-type resonance energy transfer process occurs from CMZ to LysoTracker Red DND99 (LTR), a specific fluorescent probe of lysosomal membranes. The CMZ-photosensitized destruction of LTR demonstrates that CMZ retains its photosensitizing capacity after its lysosomal uptake.     

Approaches to unsaturated analogues of nucleosides comprising four- and six-membered rings

Unsaturated nucleoside analogues 21, 22, 46, and 54, comprising four- and six-membered rings, were synthesized using two different approaches. The 2-benzyloxycycloalkanones 23a and 23b served as starting materials for both methods. Conversion to methylenecyclobutanes 29a and 29b was followed by addition of bromine via pyridinium perbromide to give vicinal dibromides 30a and 30b. Reaction of 29a with Br2 gave a ring-contracted cyclopropane derivative 31. Alkylation-elimination of adenine with 30a gave bromoalkene 32 as the major product and adenine-containing unsaturated derivatives 33, 34, and 35 as minor components. Vicinal dibromide 30b gave the Zaitsev cyclohexene 45 as the only product. Epoxidation of 29a and 29b afforded oxiranes 36a and 36b which were used in alkylation of adenine to furnish hydroxy derivatives 37a, 37b, 38a, and 38b. Beta-elimination via mesylates 39a and 40a using tBuOK/DMF gave Z- and E-methylenecyclobutanes 34 and 35. With an excess of base the E-bis-methylenecyclobutane 41 was obtained. Mesylation of cyclohexane derivatives 37b and 38b gave the Z- and E-N6-mesylated product 48. By contrast, the N6-benzoyl derivatives 49 and 50 afforded O-mesyl intermediates 51 and 52. Beta-elimination gave both Hofmann and Zaitsev products 53 and 45. O-Debenzylation of 34 and 35, 45, and 53 afforded analogues 21, 22, 46, and 54. The E-isomer 22 was also obtained by hydroboration procedure from E-bis-methylenecyclobutane 41.     

Interaction and lipid-induced conformation of two cecropin-melittin hybrid peptides depend on peptide and membrane composition

The interaction of two hybrid peptides of cecropin A and melittin [CA(1-8)M(1-18) and CA(1-7)M(2-9)] with liposomes was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), circular dichroism (CD), and quasi-elastic light scattering (QELS). The study was carried out with large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) of three different lipid compositions: 1,2-dimyristoil-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC), 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-rac-(1-glycerol) (DMPG) and a binary mixture of DMPC/DMPG, in a wide range of peptide-to-lipid (P:L) molar ratios (0 to 1:7). DSC results indicate that, for both peptides, the interaction depends on membrane composition, with very different behavior for zwitterionic and anionic membranes. CD data show that, although the two peptides have different secondary structures in buffer (random coil for CA(1-7)M(2-9) and predominantly beta-sheet for CA(1-8)M(1-18)), they both adopt an alpha-helical structure in the presence of the membranes. Overall, results are compatible with a model involving a strong electrostatic surface interaction between the peptides and the negatively charged liposomes, which gives place to aggregation in the gel phase and precipitation after a threshold peptide concentration. In the case of zwitterionic membranes, a progressive surface coverage with peptide molecules destabilizes the membrane, eventually leading to membrane disruption. Moreover, delicate modulations in behavior were observed depending on the peptide.     

Chemiluminometric determination of carvedilol in a multi-pumping flow system

In this work a simple, fast, sensitive and selective flow-based procedure for the chemiluminometric determination of carvedilol, a recent non-cardioselective β-blocker with noteworthy antioxidant activity, is proposed. The developed methodology takes advantage of the antioxidant capacity of carvedilol to inhibit the chemiluminescence response resulting from the oxidation of luminol by hypochlorite, by acting as a hypochlorite scavenger. The analytical process was implemented in a multi-pumping flow system that employs multiple solenoid actuated micro-pumps as the only active components. These acted as solution insertion, propelling and commuting units assuring an easily controlled, low cost, compact and reliable analytical system.A linear working range for carvedilol concentrations ranging from 1.2 × 10⁻⁷ to 3.0 × 10⁻⁶ mol l⁻¹ (r > 0.999, n = 6), was obtained, with a detection limit of 8.7 × 10⁻⁹ mol l⁻¹. The system handles about 65 samples per hour yielding precise results (R.S.D. < 1.3%, n = 10). Recoveries within 95 and 104% were obtained.     

Molecular structure-activity relationships for the oxidation of organic compounds using mesoporous silica catalysts derivatised with bis(halogeno)dioxomolybdenum(VI) complexes

Mo K-edge XAFS spectra have been measured for ordered mesoporous silica MCM-41 grafted with the complexes [MoO2X2(thf)2] (X=Cl, Br). For grafting reactions in the absence of triethylamine, materials with 1 wt. % Mo are obtained; the Mo K-edge EXAFS results indicate the co-existence of isolated surface-fixed monomeric species [MoO2[(-O)3SiO]2(thf)(n)] and [MoO2[(-O)3SiO]X(thf)(n)]. When Et3N is used in the grafting reactions, materials with 4 wt. % Mo are obtained. The EXAFS data for the material prepared using [MoO2Cl2(thf)2] and Et3N indicate the presence of dinuclear species with two Mo(VI) centres, each with two Mo=O groups and each linked by one or two oxo bridges (Mo...Mo 3.27 A). The molybdenum centres in the material prepared using the dibromo complex comprise mainly isolated four-coordinate dioxomolybdenum(VI) and trioxomolybdenum(VI) monomeric species, with a small contribution from dimeric species. All materials were further characterised in the solid state by powder X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption analysis, MAS NMR (13C, 29Si) and FTIR spectroscopy. The derivatised MCMs perform differently as catalysts in the liquid-phase oxidation of various olefins and alcohols with tert-butyl hydroperoxide. The highest alkene epoxidation activity was recorded for the catalysts with low metal loading, whereas the material containing oxo-bridged dimers had the highest activity for oxidation of alcohols. The recyclability of all the catalysts was tested: the catalytic activity of the derivatised materials tended to stabilize with ageing.