Structural Investigation of the Interaction Mechanism between Chlorogenic Acid and AMPA Receptor via In Silico Approaches

Chlorogenic acid (CGA), an important metabolite in natural plant medicines such as honeysuckle and eucommia, has been shown to have potent antinociceptive effects. Nevertheless, the mechanism by which CGA relieves chronic pain remains unclear. α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isooxazolpropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) is a major ionotropic glutamate receptor that mediates rapid excitatory synaptic transmission and its glutamate ionotropic receptor AMPA type subunit 1 (GluA1) plays a key role in nociceptive transmission. In this study, we used Western blot, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) assay, and the molecular simulation technologies to investigate the mechanism of interaction between CGA and AMPAR to relieve chronic pain. Our results indicate that the protein expression level of GluA1 showed a dependent decrease as the concentration of CGA increased (0, 50, 100, and 200 μM). The SPR assay demonstrates that CGA can directly bind to GluA1 (K_D = 496 μM). Furthermore, CGA forms a stable binding interaction with GluA1, which is validated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The binding free energy between CGA and GluA1 is −39.803 ± 14.772 kJ/mol, where van der Waals interaction and electrostatic interaction are the major contributors to the GluA1–CGA binding, and the key residues are identified (Val-32, Glu-33, Ala-36, Glu-37, Leu-48), which play a crucial role in the binding interaction. This study first reveals the structural basis of the stable interaction between CGA and GluA1 to form a binding complex for the relief of chronic pain. The research provides the structural basis to understand the treatment of chronic pain and is valuable to the design of novel drug molecules in the future.     

Ru、Rh、Pd掺杂GaSb的电子结构和光学性质

运用第一性原理计算方法研究了过渡族金属TM(TM=Ru、Rh、Pd)掺杂GaSb的电子结构和光学性质,结果表明:TM掺杂GaSb主要以TM替代Ga(TM @Ga)缺陷存在,并可增强GaSb半导体材料对红外光区光子的响应,使体系光学吸收谱的吸收边红移;TM@Ga所引入的杂质能级分布于零点费米能级附近,这极大地增强了体系的介电性能,促进了电子-空穴对的产生和迁移,因而提升了掺杂体系的光电转换效率;Ru 掺杂对GaSb光学性质的改善最为明显,当掺杂浓度为6.25%(原子数分数)且均匀掺杂时,Ru掺杂GaSb体系对红外光区光子的吸收幅度最大,有效提升了GaSb光电转换效率和光催化活性。     

Fe掺杂α-Bi2O3光电性质的第一性原理研究

采用第一性原理杂化泛函HSE06方法对Fe掺杂α-Bi2 O3的电子结构和光学性质进行了计算研究.结果表明,Fe掺杂α-Bi2 O3体系有较小的结构变形,本征α-Bi2 O3的禁带宽度为2.69 eV,Fe掺杂使α-Bi2 O3的禁带宽度减小(约为2.34 eV).对其光学性质研究得出Fe掺杂扩展了α-Bi2 O3对可...     

DNA Interaction,DNA Photocleavage,Photocytotoxicity In Vitro,and Molecular Docking of Naphthyl-Appended Ruthenium Complexes

With the development of metal-based drugs, Ru(II) compounds present potential applications of PDT (photodynamic therapy) and anticancer reagents. We herein synthesized two naphthyl-appended ruthenium complexes by the combination of the ligand with naphthyl and bipyridyl. The DNA affinities, photocleavage abilities, and photocytotoxicity were studied by various spectral methods, viscosity measurement, theoretical computation method, gel electrophoresis, and MTT method. Two complexes exhibited strong interaction with calf thymus DNA by intercalation. Production of singlet oxygen (¹O₂) led to obvious DNA photocleavage activities of two complexes under 365 nm light. Furthermore, two complexes displayed obvious photocytotoxicity and low dark cytotoxicity towards Hela, A549, and A375 cells.     

Design,Synthesis, and In Vitro and In Vivo Antifungal Activity of Novel Triazoles Containing Phenylethynyl Pyrazole Side Chains

A series of triazole derivatives containing phenylethynyl pyrazole moiety as side chain were designed, synthesized, and most of them exhibited good in vitro antifungal activities. Especially, compounds 5k and 6c showed excellent in vitro activities against C. albicans (MIC = 0.125, 0.0625 μg/mL), C. neoformans (MIC = 0.125, 0.0625 μg/mL), and A. fumigatus (MIC = 8.0, 4.0 μg/mL). Compound 6c also exerted superior activity to compound 5k and fluconazole in inhibiting hyphae growth of C. albicans and inhibiting drug-resistant strains of C. albicans, and it could reduce fungal burdens in mice kidney at a dosage of 1.0 mg/kg. An in vivo efficacy evaluation indicated that 6c could effectively protect mice models from C. albicans infection at doses of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg/kg. These results suggested that compound 6c deserves further investigation.     

Pyrene分子(小片石墨晶体)的电子传导特性

利用量子理论中基于Green函数的tight-binding方法,对pyrene分子的电子传导和电子流分布进行了理论研究。在考虑到界面耦合和Hopping积分的情况下,得出了电子透射谱和流分布的模拟结果。结果显示透射与电子的能量紧密相关;谱的振荡特征是能级量子化的结果;流分布有着特定的方向,并且在每一个原子点上符合Kirchhoff量子流守恒定律。另外还发现了桥接pyrene分子的正负能开关特性。     

缓冲层ZnPc对有机电致发光器件特性的影响

本文研究了酞菁锌(ZnPc)薄膜的表面形貌及ZnPc薄膜作为缓冲层对有机电致发光器件(OLEDs)光电特性的影响.对比两组样品的AFM图像,ZnPc薄膜相比于ITO薄膜,其表面的岛面积较大,薄膜表面更连续平整,基本上覆盖了ITO膜表面针孔,减少了表面的缺陷.另外,ZnPc薄膜的岛分布均匀有序.使用ZnPc作为缓冲层的器件性能明显好于未使用ZnPc修饰的器件,在7.42V的驱动电压下的最大发光亮度达到1.428kcd/m2,在4.3V电压驱动下时,最大光功率效率为1.411m/W;而未使用缓冲层的器件在8V的驱动电压下达到最大发光亮度达到1.212kcd/m2,在5.5V电压驱动下时,最大光功率效率为0.931m/W.     

硫缺陷型In2S3光催化剂高效分解水制氢研究

缺陷工程被认为是提高光催化剂分解水制氢性能的关键策略之一,然而有关缺陷诱导半导体材料电子结构演变并增强光生载流子传输机制尚不明确。在本研究中,我们通过简单的一步水热合成法成功构建了富含S缺陷的In2S3半导体光催化剂（VS-In2S3）,在模拟太阳光辐照下其光催化分解水产氢性能相比传统的In2S3（P-In2S3）提升了近一个数量级（达到221.18 μmol/g/h）。此外,利用自主研发的原位X射线光电子能谱（SI-XPS）结合相关密度泛函理论计算证实：S缺陷可诱导强还原性的低价态In（In(3-x)+）暴露,进而增强In位点对H2O的吸附和活化能力,因此,S缺陷型In2S3表现出显著增强的光催化析氢活性。此外,可视化观测到H2O分子在原位光照下脱质子转化为OH的分解水制氢过程。该研究为缺陷型光催化剂设计及光催化分解水反应机制和过程研究提供了一定的见解。     

Orbital-Free Density Functional Theory for Molecular Structure Calculations

We give here an overview of the orbital-free density functional theory that is used for modeling atoms and molecules.We review typical approximations to the kinetic energy,exchange-correlation corrections to the kinetic and Hartree energies, and constructions of the pseudopotentials.We discuss numerical discretizations for the orbital-free methods and include several numerical results for illustrations.