Caterpillars with maximum degree 3 are antimagic

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a connected graph with $m$ edges. An antimagic labeling of $G$ is a one-to-one mapping from $E$ to $\{1,2,\dots ,m\}$ such that the vertex sum (i.e., sum of the labels assigned to edges incident to a vertex) for distinct vertices are different. A graph $G$ is called antimagic if $G$ has an antimagic labeling. It was conjectured by Hartsfield and Ringel that every tree other than $K_2$ is antimagic. The conjecture remains open though it was verified for trees with some constrains. Caterpillars are an important subclass of trees. This paper shows caterpillars with maximum degree 3 are antimagic, which gives an affirmative answer to an open problem of Lozano et al. (2019).     

Application of higher energy collisional dissociation (HCD) to the fragmentation of new DOTA‐based labels and N‐termini DOTA‐labeled peptides

1,4,7,10‐Tetraazacyclododecane‐1,4,7,10‐tetraacetic acid (DOTA) derivatives are applied in quantitative proteomics owing to their ability to react with different functional groups, to harbor lanthanoides and hence their compatibility with molecular and elemental mass spectrometry. The new DOTA derivatives, namely Ln‐MeCAT‐Click and Ln‐DOTA‐Dimedone, allow efficient thiol labeling and targeting sulfenation as an important post‐translational modification, respectively. Quantitative applications require the investigation of fragmentation behavior of these reagents. Therefore, the fragmentation behavior of Ln‐MeCAT‐Click and Ln‐DOTA‐Dimedone was studied using collision‐induced dissociation (CID), infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) and higher‐energy collision dissociation (HCD) using different energy levels, and the efficiency of reporter ion production was estimated. The efficiency of characteristic fragment formation was in the order IRMPD > HCD (normal energy level) > CID. On the other hand, the application of HCD at high energy levels (HCD@HE; NCE > 250%) resulted in a significant increase in reporter ion production (33–54%). This new strategy was successfully applied to generate label‐specific reporter ions for DOTA amino labeling at the N‐termini and in a quantitative fashion for the estimation of amino:thiol ratio in peptides. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of 2-D-L-tryptophan by sequential Ir-catalyzed reactions

Herein, we report a practical synthesis of 2-D-l-tryptophan via sequential Ir-catalyzed CH borylation, and Ir-catalyzed C-2-deborylative deuteration steps. In this synthetic sequence, deprotection of the Boc and methyl ester groups proved challenging, due to replacement of deuterium with hydrogen. However, mild deprotection conditions were developed to avoid this D/H scrambling. Further, 2-D-L-Tryptophan is stable in many buffers used for biological studies.     

Superacid-Mediated Late-Stage Aromatic Polydeuteration of Pharmaceuticals

The field of medicinal chemistry is currently witnessing a deuterium rush owing to the remarkable properties of this element as bioisoster of hydrogen atom. Aromatic hydrogen isotope exchange (HIE) is one of the most studied strategies nowadays as it promises to access deuterium-modified drugs directly from their non-labeled parents. While most of the recent studies focus on metal-catalyzed C−H activation strategy, the use of superacidic conditions has been largely overlooked. This study shows that the use of TfOD as reaction medium allows the late-stage polydeuteration of a broad library of pharmaceuticals bearing a wide array of functional groups, complementing existing procedures.     

Differential isotope dansylation labeling combined with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry for quantification of intact and N-terminal truncated proteins

The N-terminal amino acids of proteins are important structure units for maintaining the biological function, localization, and interaction networks of proteins. Under different biological conditions, one or several N-terminal amino acids could be cleaved from an intact protein due to processes, such as proteolysis, resulting in the change of protein properties. Thus, the ability to quantify the N-terminal truncated forms of proteins is of great importance, particularly in the area of development and production of protein-based drugs where the relative quantity of the intact protein and its truncated form needs to be monitored. In this work, we describe a rapid method for absolute quantification of protein mixtures containing intact and N-terminal truncated proteins. This method is based on dansylation labeling of the N-terminal amino acids of proteins, followed by microwave-assisted acid hydrolysis of the proteins into amino acids. It is shown that dansyl labeled amino acids are stable in acidic conditions and can be quantified by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC–MS) with the use of isotope analog standards.     

Development of a facile and sensitive HPLC‐FLD method via fluorescence labeling for triterpenic acid bioavailability investigation

Triterpenic acids are widely distributed in many fruits and are known for their medicinal benefits. The study of bioavailability has been an important task for a better understanding of the triterpenic acids. Although many methods based on fluorescence labeling for triterpenic acid determination have been established, these reported methods needed anhydrous conditions, which are not suitable for the convenient study of triterpenic acid bioavailability. Inspired by that, a versatile method, which overcomes the difficulty of the reported methods, has been first developed in this study. The novel method using 2‐[12‐benzo[b ]acridin‐5‐ (12H)‐yl]‐acetohydrazide (BAAH) as the fluorescence labeling reagent coupled with high‐performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection was first developed for the study of triterpenic acid bioavailability. Furthermore, the labeling conditions have been optimized in order to achieve the best fluorescence labeling yield. Under the optimal conditions, the quantitative linear range of analytes was 2–1000 ng mL⁻¹, and the correlation coefficients were >0.9998. The detection limits for all triterpenic acid derivatives were achieved within the range of 0.28–0.29 ng mL⁻¹. The proposed method was successfully applied to the study of triterpenic acid bioavailability with excellent applicability and good reproducibility.     

环状硅酸盐图的友好指数集

Let G be a graph with vertex set V(G) and edge set E(G). A labeling f : V(G) →Z2 induces an edge labeling f*: E(G) → Z2 defined by f*(xy) = f(x) + f(y), for each edge xy ∈ E(G). For i ∈ Z2, let vf(i) = |{v ∈ V(G) : f(v) = i}| and ef(i) = |{e ∈ E(G) : f*(e) =i}|. A labeling f of a graph G is said to be friendly if |vf(0)- vf(1)| ≤ 1. The friendly index set of the graph G, denoted FI(G), is defined as {|ef(0)- ef(1)|: the vertex labeling f is friendly}. This is a generalization of graph cordiality. We investigate the friendly index sets of cyclic silicates CS(n, m).