Unprecedented hour-long residence time of a cation in a left-handed G-quadruplex

Cations are critical for the folding and assembly of nucleic acids. In G-quadruplex structures, cations can bind between stacked G-tetrads and coordinate with negatively charged guanine carbonyl oxygens. They usually exchange between binding sites and with the bulk in solution with time constants ranging from sub-millisecond to seconds. Here we report the first observation of extremely long-lived K⁺ and NH₄⁺ ions, with an exchange time constant on the order of an hour, when coordinated at the center of a left-handed G-quadruplex DNA. A single-base mutation, that switched one half of the structure from left- to right-handed conformation resulting in a right–left hybrid G-quadruplex, was shown to remove this long-lived behaviour of the central cation.

An extremely long-lived cation has been detected in left-handed G-quadruplexes.     

Amperometric monitoring of lactate accumulation in rabbit ischemic myocardium

Fabrication and characterization of miniature, flexible, planar biosensors for monitoring l-lactate accumulation in an ischemic myocardium are described. Three configurations of Au-based electrodes were fabricated by a photolithographic technique on flexible polyimide Kapton((R)) foil. All sensors are based on an immobilized lactate oxidase with amperometric detection of the enzymatically produced hydrogen peroxide at a platinum-electroplated-gold base electrode polarized at 0.5 V versus Ag/AgCl. An inner electropolymeric layer is used to prevent electrode fouling and to reject the interference effects of easily oxidizable molecules. In addition, a diffusion controlling outer layer that greatly enhances the linear dynamic range of the sensor, is obtained by casting a polyurethane external film. The developed sensor was evaluated in vitro and proved to have high selectivity, good operational stability, good accuracy and precision (average recovery = 102.3 +/- 0.4% for control sera), fast response time (t(95) = 20 s) and high upper limit of the linear dynamic range (25-80 mM, with sensitivity of 1.7-0.4 nA mM(-1) respectively at PO(2) = 15 mmHg). Subsequently, the sensor was brought into direct contact with the surface of the rabbit papillary muscle and used for continuous quantitative monitoring of extracellular lactate accumulation during no-flow ischemia.     

The unexpected rearrangement of 1,5‐benzodiazepin‐2,4‐dione to a benzimidazol‐2‐one derivative during N,N'‐diglucosylation

Reaction of 1,5‐benzodiazepin‐2,4‐dione with 3‐O‐substituted‐5,6‐anhydro‐1,2‐isopropylidene‐α‐D‐glucofuranose gave the unexpected N,N'‐di‐glucofuranosyl benzimidazol‐2‐one by a novel rearrangement and ring closure reaction. A mechanism is proposed.     

Mechanism for resonant O electron stimulated desorption from condensed O2. Non-adiabatic transitions and dynamics

Absolute kinetic energy distributions and yields associated with ground state ³P and excited state ¹D oxygen atoms have been obtained for O⁻ anion electron stimulated desorption from condensed O₂ in the electron energy range 6–15 eV. The observed yields are understood as resulting essentially from dissociative electron attachment reactions via the two lowest ²Σ⁺_g O⁻₂ resonance states through adiabatic and non-adiabatic transitions to the limits O⁻(²P) + O(³P) and O⁻(²P) + O(¹D). The kinetic energy distributions show the prominent role of electron multiple collision processes and post-dissociation interactions of the O⁻ anions in the condensed phase.     

Organic Synthesis and Technetium-99m Labeling of Some Amino-Phenol Ligands

We reported the synthesis and labeling of one tetradentate and two pentadentate amino-phenol ligands with technetium-99m by the direct pertechnetate addition and by ligand exchange methods. Labeling by direct pertechnetate addition was attended by adding pertechnetate eluate to the ethanolic solution of the amino-phenol ligands at pH 9. Stannous chloride dihydrate was used as reducing agent. Exchange studies were carried out via the use of the following ^99mTc-chelates: ^99mTc-DTPA, ^99mTc-gluconate, ^99mTc-tartrate and ^99mTc-citrate complexes. Ligand exchange method was achieved by incubation the ligand solutions with ^99mTc-co-ligands complexes in 0.05M bicarbonate buffer pH 9. At this pH value the ^99mTc-co-ligands dissociated and the more stable new ^99mTc-ligands were formed with high radiochemical yield 95%. The radiochemical yield of ^99mTc-labeled amino-phenol ligands were estimated by solvent extraction, electrophoresis and HPLC methods. The produced technetium-99m amino-phenol complexes were neutral, lipophilic and stable during the period of 24 hours.     

Structure determination of Na3DySi6O15 and crystal chemistry of zektzerite related compounds

The crystal structure of Na₃DySi₆O₁₅ has been solved and refined to an R₁=2.97% (wR₂=8.25%) for 1311 independent reflections. The compound was found to crystallize within the orthorhombic system with the space group Cmca (Z=8) and the lattice parameters: a=14.590(7) Å, b=17.813(4) Å, c=10.519(2) Å, V=2734.0 Å³, D_cal=3.11 g/cm³. The structure of Na₃DySi₆O₁₅ is a filled variant of the zektzerite with S like corrugated double chains of [SiO₄] tetrahedral, connected via Na⁺ and Dy³⁺ cations and running parallel to c-axis. The three-dimensional network results from the packing of these chains along [100] by skewering them in rods represented by the tunnels delimited by the S shape of the silicate chains. One of the main peculiar features of the Na₃DySi₆O₁₅ structure is the location of Na⁺ in tetrahedral sites with rather short Na-O bond lengths (2×2.243 and 2×2.262 Å).     

Collisional dynamics of Ag19 on Pd(100): a molecular dynamics study

By means of molecular dynamics simulations based on realistic n-body potentials we investigate structural and dynamical features inherent to the energetic collision of a silver cluster (Ag₁₉) on the Pd(100) substrate. Both the system and the impact energy (E_i = 95 eV) adopted have been chosen to parallel an experimental study of size selected Ag cluster deposition on Pd(100). Our results indicate that the experimental cross section obtained via thermal energy atom scattering at the same collision energy is well reproduced by the simulations.The modeling allows to rationalize the collision outcome in terms of defect production and cluster atoms implantation. The adsorbed structures have an heterogenous nature and are mostly two-dimensional.     

Crystal Structure of a New Ammonium Potassium Selenomolybdate Compound K3.31(NH4)0.69[Se2Mo5O21]·2H2O

An inorganic compound formulated as K_3.31(NH₄)_0.69[Se₂Mo₅O₂₁]·2H₂O has been synthesized by conventional solution method and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, IR, UV-Vis spectroscopies behaviors. The structure of the title compound has been determined from a single-crystal X-ray diffraction. It crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁/n, with a?=?9.9371(2) ?, b?=?23.3545(2) ?, c?=?10.5179(2) ?, β?=?114.12(3)°, V?=?2227.7(5) ?³ and Z?=?4. It was revealed that the Strandberg-type polyoxoselenomolybdate cluster can be considered as a ring formed by five distorted edge- and corner-sharing MoO₆ octahedra, capped on both poles by a selenate pyramids sharing three vertices with the ring molybdenum centers. The Strandberg clusters are connected with ammonium ions and water molecules through hydrogen-bonding interactions which ensure the cohesion of the structure into a three-dimensional network.