A quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics study on the hydrolysis mechanism of New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1

New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) has emerged as a major global threat to human health for its rapid rate of dissemination and ability to make pathogenic microbes resistant to almost all known β-lactam antibiotics. In addition, effective NDM-1 inhibitors have not been identified to date. In spite of the plethora of structural and kinetic data available, the accurate molecular characteristics of and details on the enzymatic reaction of NDM-1 hydrolyzing β-lactam antibiotics remain incompletely understood. In this study, a combined computational approach including molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations and quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics calculations was performed to characterize the catalytic mechanism of meropenem catalyzed by NDM-1. The quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics results indicate that the ionized D124 is beneficial to the cleavage of the C–N bond within the β-lactam ring. Meanwhile, it is energetically favorable to form an intermediate if no water molecule coordinates to Zn2. Moreover, according to the molecular dynamics results, the conserved residue K211 plays a pivotal role in substrate binding and catalysis, which is quite consistent with previous mutagenesis data. Our study provides detailed insights into the catalytic mechanism of NDM-1 hydrolyzing meropenem β-lactam antibiotics and offers clues for the discovery of new antibiotics against NDM-1 positive strains in clinical studies.     

Bridging Ligand Length Controls AT Selectivity and Enantioselectivity of Binuclear Ruthenium Threading Intercalators

The slow dissociation of DNA threading intercalators makes them interesting as model compounds in the search for new DNA targeting drugs, as there appears to be a correlation between slow dissociation and biological activity. Thus, it would be of great value to understand the mechanisms controlling threading intercalation, and for this purpose we have investigated how the length of the bridging ligand of binuclear ruthenium threading intercalators affects their DNA binding properties. We have synthesised a new binuclear ruthenium threading intercalator with slower dissociation kinetics from ct‐DNA than has ever been observed for any ruthenium complex with any type of DNA, a property that we attribute to the increased distance between the ruthenium centres of the new complex. By comparison with previously studied ruthenium complexes, we further conclude that elongation of the bridging ligand reduces the sensitivity of the threading interaction to DNA flexibility, resulting in a decreased AT selectivity for the new complex. We also find that the length of the bridging ligand affects the enantioselectivity with increasing preference for the ΔΔ enantiomer as the bridging ligand becomes longer.     

Initial‐Boundary Value Problems for the Coupled Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation on the Half‐Line

Initial‐boundary value problems for the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equation on the half‐line are investigated via the Fokas method. It is shown that the solution can be expressed in terms of the unique solution of a matrix Riemann–Hilbert problem formulated in the complex k‐plane, whose jump matrix is defined in terms of the matrix spectral functions and that depend on the initial data and all boundary values, respectively. If there exist spectral functions satisfying the global relation, it can be proved that the function defined by the above Riemann–Hilbert problem solves the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equation and agrees with the prescribed initial and boundary values. The most challenging problem in the implementation of this method is to characterize the unknown boundary values that appear in the spectral function . For a particular class of boundary conditions so‐called linearizable boundary conditions, it is possible to compute the spectral function in terms of and given boundary conditions by using the algebraic manipulation of the global relation. For the general case of boundary conditions, an effective characterization of the unknown boundary values can be obtained by employing perturbation expansion.     

广义sine-Gordon方程高精度隐式紧致差分方法

本文研究一类二维非线性的广义sine-Gordon(简称SG)方程的有限差分格式.首先构造三层时间的紧致交替方向隐式差分格式,并用能量分析法证明格式具有二阶时间精度和四阶空间精度.然后应用改进的Richardson外推算法将时间精度提高到四阶.最后,数值算例证实改进后的算法在空间和时间上均达到四阶精度.     

Synthesis and characterization of π-extended thienoacenes with up to 13 fused aromatic rings

π-Extended thienoacenes that comprise alternatively arranged anthracene and thieno[3,2-b]thiophene moieties and have 8 or 13 aromatic rings were synthesized. The delocalization of their HOMO and LUMO orbitals is over the entire molecules, and low-lying HOMO levels endow them good stability.     

Phase‐preserved macroscopic visible‐light carpet cloaking beyond two dimensions

Transformation optics, a recent geometrical design strategy of light manipulation with both ray trajectories and optical phase controlled simultaneously, promises an invisibility cloaking device that can render a macroscopic object invisible even to a scientific instrument measuring optical phase. Recent “carpet” cloaks have extended their cloaking capability to broadband frequency ranges and macroscopic scales, but they only demonstrated the recovery of ray trajectories after passing through the cloaks, while whether the optical phase would reveal their existence still remains unverified. In this paper, a phase‐preserved macroscopic visible‐light carpet cloak is demonstrated in a geometrical construction beyond two dimensions. As an extension of previous two‐dimensional (2D) macroscopic carpet cloaks, this almost‐three‐dimensional carpet cloak exhibits three‐dimensional (3D) invisibility for illumination near its center (i.e. with a limited field of view), and its ideal wide‐angle invisibility performance is preserved in multiple 2D planes intersecting in the 3D space. Optical path length is measured with a broadband pulsed‐laser interferometer, which provides unique experimental evidence on the geometrical nature of transformation optics.

     

Antibacterial cotton fabric prepared by a “grafting to” strategy using a QAC copolymer

Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) have outstanding antimicrobial effect, but covalent immobilization of plentiful QAC onto cotton fiber surface to realize a durable function remains a challenge. Herein, a quaternary ammonium monomer, [2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl] trimethylammonium chloride (DMC) was co-polymerized with methyl acrylate (MA) to prepare an antibacterial copolymer, poly(DMC-co-MA). To graft the copolymer with an improved grafting efficiency, cotton fabric was treated using carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) to establish an amino-functionalized fiber surface first. This treatment allows the amidation reactions between the amino groups and the pendant ester groups in the poly(DMC-co-MA) to take place, achieving a durable anionic polymer coating onto the fiber surfaces with remarkably antibacterial effect. Characterization results indicated that when DMC/MA monomer ratio was 100:1, the resulting copolymer endows the modified cotton fabric with antibacterial capability that inactivates all Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). Even after 50 laundering cycles, more than 98.0% of the antibacterial rate could still be retained. Moreover, the wearing comfort properties such as softness, water absorption and air permeability of the finishing cotton fabrics have been insignificantly changed by comparing to the untreated cotton fabric.

     

金属草酸盐基负极材料——离子电池储能材料的新选择

商业化锂离子电池石墨负极和锂盐过渡金属氧化物正极材料的储锂容量都已接近各自的理论值,探索下一代高能量密度电极材料是解决现阶段锂离子电池容量限制的关键。近年来,新型金属草酸基负极材料,借助其在金属离子电池中多元化储能机制诱发的较高储能效应在碱金属离子电池绿色储能材料领域备受关注。本文就金属草酸基材料在锂、钠、钾金属离子电池方面的最新研究进行了综述,着重介绍了材料的晶型结构、多元化储能机制及储能过程中的动力学特征,简单阐述了材料在电化学储能中存在的问题,分析了金属草酸基负极材料在形貌晶型控制、界面碳复合改性和金属元素掺杂方面的改性策略。最后,预测了金属草酸基负极材料在碱金属离子电池体系的发展方向。     

Convergent architecting of multifunction-in-one hydrogels as wound dressings for surgical anti-infections

Surgical procedures are susceptible to the cause of infections, which could induce delayed wound healing, oxidative stress and tissue ischemia. Multifunctional wound dressings (e.g., hydrogels) without the induction of antibiotics is promising for the elimination of surgical site infections and the associated complications. Herein, we report a reductionism approach for the fabrication of bioactive hydrogels to recapitulate antibacterial functions as well as antioxidant, pro-angiogenic and hemostatic properties in surgical infection treatments. The hydrogels composed of naturally derived Cirsium setosum extracts (CE, a traditional medicinal herb) and carboxymethyl chitosan (CS) show their capacity for surgical anti-infections on three different models (i.e., infectious random skin flap model, infectious skin defect model and infectious femur fracture model). Due to the innate bioactivities of CE and CS, CECS hydrogels can also reduce the bleeding loss (85% reduction) on a hemorrhaging liver model and improve the vascularization for skin flap regeneration. Overall, bioactive CECS hydrogels integrated with the ease and scalability of assembly process and biological activities without the addition of antibiotics is promising to act as multifunctional wound dressings for surgical anti-infections.