A Minor New Flavone from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi

A new flavone,6,2′-dihydroxy-5,7,8,6′-tetramethoxyflavone,was isolated from the roots of Scutellaria baicalensis. Its structure was established on the basis of spectral evidences.     

导电高分子膜包覆YBa2Cu3O7超导体抗环境作用的研究

通过电化学途径和化学途径在ＹＢａ＿２Ｃｕ＿３Ｏ＿７超导体表面制备了导电高分子聚吡咯膜，用以保护超导体不受环境作用的影响，实验结果发现电化学过程能破坏ＹＢａ＿２Ｃｕ＿Ｏ＿７的超导性，而采用化学法制备的聚吡咯和聚氯乙烯混和材料包覆在ＹＢａ＿２Ｃｕ＿３Ｏ＿７表面后，超导体不仅保持原有超导性，而且有很好的保护超导体免遭环境中酸和水作用的能力。     

High-level expression of soluble human β-defensin-2 fused with green fluorescent protein in Escherichia coli cell-free system

Human β-defensin-2 (hBD2), a small cationic peptide, exhibits a broad range of antimicrobial activity and does not acquire any microbial resistance. To produce this uneasily detectable, degradable, and toxic polypeptide efficiently, an alternative approach based on the Escherichia coli cell-free biosynthesis system was proposed. The approach implies that a polypeptide of interest is synthesized as a fusion protein linked to a green fluorescent protein (GFP) through a cleavable spacer. With batch-mode operation, a significant amount of hBD2 fused with GFP (0.25 mg/mL) can be expressed in this cell-free system. The productivity of the fusion protein can be improved up to 1.2 mg/mL by employing a continuous-exchange cell-free system. Furthermore, the GFP moiety provides directly visible and quantitative monitoring of the polypeptide synthesis, and the product is soluble and stable. This work will be helpful in allowing the rapid and visible expression of other similar defensins using an in vitro cell-free system.     

Highly efficient rhodium/monodentate phosphoramidite catalyst and its application in the enantioselective hydrogenation of enamides and alpha-dehydroamino acid derivatives

An easily prepared and highly efficient monodentate phosphoramidite ligand derived from BINOL, (S)-2,2'-O,O-(1,1'-binaphthyl)-dioxo-N,N-diethylphospholidine, was examined in the hydrogenation of both enamides and alpha-dehydroamino acid derivatives. The catalyst provided remarkably high enantioselectivities (up to 99.6% ee for enamides and >99.9% ee for alpha-dehydroamino acid derivatives).     

2-Deoxy-d-glucose Promotes Buforin IIb-Induced Cytotoxicity in Prostate Cancer DU145 Cells and Xenograft Tumors

Inhibition of the glycolytic pathway is a critical strategy in anticancer therapy because of the role of aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells. The glycolytic inhibitor 2-Deoxy-d-glucose (2-DG) has shown potential in combination with other anticancer agents. Buforin IIb is an effective antimicrobial peptide (AMP) with broad-spectrum anticancer activity and selectivity. The efficacy of combination treatment with 2-DG and buforin IIb in prostate cancer remains unknown. Here, we tested the efficacy of buforin IIb as a mitochondria-targeting AMP in the androgen-independent human prostate cancer cell line DU145. Combining 2-DG with buforin IIb had a synergistic toxic effect on DU145 cells and mouse xenograft tumors. Combination treatment with 2-DG and buforin IIb caused stronger proliferation inhibition, greater G1 cell cycle arrest, and higher apoptosis than either treatment alone. Combination treatment dramatically decreased L-lactate production and intracellular ATP levels, indicating severe inhibition of glycolysis and ATP production. Flow cytometry and confocal laser scanning microscopy results indicate that 2-DG may increase buforin IIb uptake by DU145 cells, thereby increasing the mitochondria-targeting capacity of buforin IIb. This may partly explain the effect of combination treatment on enhancing buforin IIb-induced apoptosis. Consistently, 2-DG increased mitochondrial dysfunction and upregulated Bax/Bcl-2, promoting cytochrome c release to initiate procaspase 3 cleavage induced by buforin IIb. These results suggest that 2-DG sensitizes prostate cancer DU145 cells to buforin IIb. Moreover, combination treatment caused minimal hemolysis and cytotoxicity to normal WPMY-1 cells. Collectively, the current study demonstrates that dual targeting of glycolysis and mitochondria by 2-DG and buforin IIb may be an effective anticancer strategy for the treatment of some advanced prostate cancer.     

Rapid 3-dimensional shape determination of globular proteins by mobility capillary electrophoresis and native mass spectrometry

Established high-throughput proteomics methods provide limited information on the stereostructures of proteins. Traditional technologies for protein structure determination typically require laborious steps and cannot be performed in a high-throughput fashion. Here, we report a new medium throughput method by combining mobility capillary electrophoresis (MCE) and native mass spectrometry (MS) for the 3-dimensional (3D) shape determination of globular proteins in the liquid phase, which provides both the geometric structure and molecular mass information of proteins. A theory was established to correlate the ion hydrodynamic radius and charge state distribution in the native mass spectrum with protein geometrical parameters, through which a low-resolution structure (shape) of the protein could be determined. Our test data of 11 different globular proteins showed that this approach allows us to determine the shapes of individual proteins, protein complexes and proteins in a mixture, and to monitor protein conformational changes. Besides providing complementary protein structure information and having mixture analysis capability, this MCE and native MS based method is fast in speed and low in sample consumption, making it potentially applicable in top–down proteomics and structural biology for intact globular protein or protein complex analysis.

Using native mass spectrometry and mobility capillary electrophoresis, the ellipsoid dimensions of globular proteins or protein complexes could be measured efficiently.     

厌食与反复呼吸道感染小儿的发锌.铜分析

测定了７５例厌食小儿、１０１例呼吸道感染小儿和１２０例健康儿童发锌、铜，结果表明：厌食儿及易感儿平均发锌值分别为８０．９０×１０－６和７５．７６×１０－６，均极显著低于健康儿（Ｐ＜０．０１）；发铜则无显著差异。发锌值在７０×１０－６以下者有６０％以上身高、体重低于正常标准。说明微量元素锌与小儿食欲、免疫功能和生长发育有密切关系。     

High pressure Raman studies of 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and CuTCNQ

The high-pressure Raman studies of 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) single crystals and polycrystalline CuTCNQ are presented in this paper. TCNQ shows a phase transition at 22 kbar, a pressure higher than reported earlier. CuTCNQ undergoes a first order phase transition at 30 kbar, which is characterized by the abrupt disappearance of all the Raman bands.     

Multivariate classification based on metal contents in human senile cataract lenses

Multivariate classification methods were used to evaluate data on the concentrations of eight metals in human senile lenses measured by atomic absorption spectrometry. Principal components analysis and hierarchical clustering separated senile cataract lenses, nuclei from cataract lenses, and normal lenses into three classes on the basis of the eight elements. Stepwise discriminant analysis was applied to give discriminant functions with five selected variables. Results provided by the linear learning machine method were also satisfactory; the k-nearest neighbour method was less useful.     

The interaction of molecular oxygen with active sites of graphite: a theoretical study

The adsorption of molecular oxygen at defective edge sites of zigzag and armchair graphite surfaces has been investigated by adopting cluster models in conjunction with density functional theory. Several different types of chemisorbed O₂ species are identified. It was found that the defect edge sites exhibit the significant catalytic role toward the adsorption and activation of molecular oxygen. The O₂ molecule is not only able to strongly bind to these edge sites, but the O–O bond strength is obviously weakened. Moreover, the calculated adsorption energy for O₂ adsorbed on the clean graphite basal surface is fairly consistent with the weak interaction nature of O₂ with the surface observed in the experiment, indicating one-layer cluster model is an effective way to study O₂ adsorption on graphite surface in terms of accuracy and computational cost, which is in agreement with previous experience. Whereas, we note that the local detailed arrangement of edge carbon atoms can play an important effect on the adsorption of O₂ on defect surfaces.