Isolation, structure determination, and synthesis of galaxamide, a rare cytotoxic cyclic pentapeptide from a marine algae Galaxaura filamentosa

Galaxamide (1), a rare cyclic pentapeptide, was isolated from the marine algae Galaxaura filamentosa. A preliminary bioassay of Galaxamide showed remarkable in vitro antiproliferative activities against GRC-1 and HepG2 cell lines. The first total synthesis of the cyclic peptide was achieved for further biological evaluation.     

Single-molecule study of lateral mobility of epidermal growth factor receptor 2/HER2 on activation

The transmembrane protein HER2, a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family of tyrosine kinase, plays important roles in many fundamental cellular processes as well as the pathogenesis of many cancers. In this work, we have applied the single-molecule fluorescence microscopic method to study lateral mobility change of HER2 on activation by imaging and tracking individual GFP-tagged HER2 molecules on the membrane of living cells. The single HER2 molecules displayed different diffusion rates and modes. It was interesting to find that the mobility of HER2 increased upon stimulation by heregulin beta1, the specific ligand of HER3. The faster diffusion was related to the tyrosine phosphorylation of HER2 or EGFR. The results provided new information for the understanding of HER2 activation and molecular mechanism of signal transduction through HER2/HER3 heterodimerization.     

Synthesis, Structure and Growth Mechanism of ZnS Nanowires with High Aspect Ratio

ZnS nanowires were successfully synthesized through the direct reaction of Zn and S vapor via carbon-assisted chemical evaporation deposition method with Au catalyst. The investigations indicated that the size of ZnS nanowires with a diameter of approximately 40 nm was uniform along the axis of the wire and the surfaces were slick. The ZnS nanowire with a hexagonal wurtzite structure was a typical single crystalline structure. HRTEM and SEAD results demonstrated that the nanowire grew along [100] direction, which was different from the common direction reported in literatures. The growth of nanowires was controlled by vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism.     

On the nonlinear matrix equation

Based on fixed point theorems for monotone and mixed monotone operators in a normal cone, we prove that the nonlinear matrix equation always has a unique positive definite solution. A conjecture which is proposed in [X.G. Liu, H. Gao, On the positive definite solutions of the matrix equation X^s±A^TX^-tA=I_n, Linear Algebra Appl. 368 (2003) 83–97] is solved. Multi-step stationary iterative method is proposed to compute the unique positive definite solution. Numerical examples show that this iterative method is feasible and effective.     

High-quality hydrogen from the catalyzed decomposition of formic acid by Pd-Au/C and Pd-Ag/C

Pd-Au/C and Pd-Ag/C were found to have a unique characteristic of evolving high-quality hydrogen dramatically and steadily from the catalyzed decomposition of liquid formic acid at convenient temperature, and further this was improved by the addition of CeO(2)(H(2)O)(x).     

Highly enantioselective Michael addition of malononitrile to alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones

The highly enantioselective Michael addition of malononitrile to acyclic and cyclic alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones has been developed. The Michael reaction catalyzed by a primary amine derived from quinidine proceeded smoothly and provided the desired adducts with excellent enantioselectivities (83-97% ee).     

Non-covalent anionic porphyrin functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes as an optical probe for specific DNA detection

With water-soluble anionic tetra (p-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP) to solubilize multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MCNTs), we obtained a suspension that could be stable more than 1 week. With this TCPP/MCNTs suspension, we propose a spectrofluorometric method of DNA hybridization in this contribution. Our basic finding for this work is that the fluorescence from a dye-tagged single stranded DNA (ssDNA), which was directly added to the TCPP/MCNTs suspension, gets quenched, and the fluorescence could be remained if the dye-tagged single stranded DNA is first to be hybridized with its complementary target DNA to form a double stranded DNA (dsDNA) hybrid and added into the TCPP/MCNTs suspension. Mechanism investigations showed that the reason for the former is due to the adsorption of ssDNA on the surfaces of MCNTs, and that for the latter is due to the strong electrostatic repulsion force between the negative charge TCPP/MCNTs complexes and dsDNA. Thus, target DNA in a DNA sample and single-base mismatch in DNA sequences could be easily detected.     

A novel covalent coupling method for coating of capillaries with liposomes in capillary electrophoresis

A novel covalent coupling method for coating of capillaries with liposomes has been developed, which includes three steps: (i) epoxy-diol coating, (ii) activation with 2,2,2-trifluoroethanesulfonyl chloride, and (iii) liposome coupling. The coating conditions, such as the reaction time and temperature of liposome coupling, the content of dimyristoylphosphatidylethanolamine in liposomes, were optimized. Vesicles were visualized on the inner silica wall as confirmed by atomic force microscopy. The effectiveness of the coating was demonstrated by investigating the effect of pH of BGE on EOF and separating neutral compounds. The intra- and inter-capillary variations in EOF are 4.02% RSD (n=30) and 6.72% RSD (n=4) respectively, and the coated capillaries can be used to perform analysis at least for one month without any performance deterioration when stored at 4 degrees C. A set of drugs with diverse structures was applied into the developed liposome-coated CE. The normalized capacity factor (K) was introduced to quantitatively evaluate drug-membrane interactions. The relationship between log K and the fraction dose absorbed in humans (Fa%) shows that the liposome-coated CE can be utilized for in vitro prediction of Fa% of drugs that follow the transcellular passive transport route.