Most efficient cocaine hydrolase designed by virtual screening of transition states

Cocaine is recognized as the most reinforcing of all drugs of abuse. There is no anticocaine medication available. The disastrous medical and social consequences of cocaine addiction have made the development of an anticocaine medication a high priority. It has been recognized that an ideal anticocaine medication is one that accelerates cocaine metabolism producing biologically inactive metabolites via a route similar to the primary cocaine-metabolizing pathway, i.e., cocaine hydrolysis catalyzed by plasma enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). However, wild-type BChE has a low catalytic efficiency against the abused cocaine. Design of a high-activity enzyme mutant is extremely challenging, particularly when the chemical reaction process is rate-determining for the enzymatic reaction. Here we report the design and discovery of a high-activity mutant of human BChE by using a novel, systematic computational design approach based on transition-state simulations and activation energy calculations. The novel computational design approach has led to discovery of the most efficient cocaine hydrolase, i.e., a human BChE mutant with an approximately 2000-fold improved catalytic efficiency, promising for therapeutic treatment of cocaine overdose and addiction as an exogenous enzyme in human. The encouraging discovery resulted from the computational design not only provides a promising anticocaine medication but also demonstrates that the novel, generally applicable computational design approach is promising for rational enzyme redesign and drug discovery.     

Effective reduction of bowing in free-standing GaN by N-face regrowth with hydride vapor-phase epitaxy

Free-standing GaN films prepared with hydride vapor-phase epitaxy (HVPE) technique usually show bowing resulting from the high densities of defects near the N-polar face after separation from the original substrates. To solve the problem, a simple technique has been developed. A GaN layer was regrown on the N-polar face of the free-standing GaN by HVPE. High-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) measurements were performed to compare the bowings among GaN films before laser lift-off (LLO), after LLO, and after regrowth. The apparent reductions of XRD full-width at half-maximum (FWHM), along with the increase of XRD peak intensity, after regrowth clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of this method to eliminate bowings of the free-standing GaN films.     

Ion-implanted treatment of (Ba,Sr)TiO3 films for DRAM applications

The effects of ion implantation on the properties of spin-on sol–gel Ba_0.7Sr_0.3TiO₃ (BST) thin films were studied by implanted Ar⁺, N⁺, and F⁺ doses. The F⁺-implanted BST samples present leakage current density <10⁻⁶ A/cm² at 2.5 V and dielectric constant 450. The leakage current of F⁺-implanted BST samples was reduced about one order of magnitude as compared with that of samples with implanted Ar⁺, N⁺ or without implantation. The thickness shrinkage from 135 to 115 nm was observed in F⁺-implanted BST films (before annealing treatment) and a respective increase in the refractive index from 1.84 to 2.05 was measured. After annealing the implanted samples, the changes of thickness and refractive index depend on the concentration of implanted dose. Based on an infrared transmission study of the samples we suggest that the ion-implanted samples with smaller dose (5×10¹⁴ cm⁻²) have fewer −OH contaminants than the non-implanted or implanted samples with the larger doses (1×10¹⁵ cm⁻²). Based on the results presented, we conclude that suitable ion implantation densifies the spin-on sol–gel BST films and reduces the −OH contaminants in the films.     

Determination of amphetamine in rat brain by in vivo microdialysis and ion-pairing liquid chromatography with electrospray tandem mass spectrometry

An ion-pairing liquid chromatography/electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ES-MS/MS) method with in vivo microdialysis for the determination of amphetamine in rat brain has been developed. A microdialysis probe was surgically implanted into the striatum of the rat and artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) was used as the perfusion medium. Samples were collected and then analyzed off-line by LC/ES-MS/MS. A reversed-phase C18 column was employed for LC separation and MS/MS was utilized for detection. Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) was added to the mobile phase (acetonitrile/water) as an ion-pairing reagent. Detection was by ES-MS/MS directly, and no post-column addition of organic modifier was needed. Dual linear ranges were determined from 0.1-0.5 microg/mL and 0.005-0.1 microg/mL, respectively. The detection limit, based on a signal-to-noise ratio of 3, was 0.001 microg/mL (5 nM). Good precision and accuracy were obtained. The applicability of this newly developed method was demonstrated by continuous monitoring of amphetamine concentrations in rat brain. Amphetamine reached a maximum concentration of 0.086 +/- 0.017 microg/mL over 20-40 min after a single 3.0 mg/kg intraperitoneal administration.     

Low-temperature behavior of a one-dimensional random Ising model

The random Ising chain is a very simple model with a large number of metastable states. Simple analytical calculation of the relaxation of energy and magnetization is presented. The effect of a nonzero magnetic field is discussed qualitatively. The slow relaxation in this simple model resembles that observed in spin glasses. A weak magnetic field can produce rather strong effects. The magnetization is shown to be a nonanalytic function of the field. The field also greatly alters the metastability characteristics.     

Myoglobin Detection: Utilizing Functional Magnetic Hybrid and Silica Micro Particles and Simple Molding Based Micro Channel Fabrication

A magnetic separator attached in a zig zag flow channel assembly has been fabricated to detect myoglobin on the micro particles. An anti‐myoglobin conjugated magnetic hybrid and myoglobin conjugated silica micro particles were prepared and used for myoglobin detection on channel. For the detections, the competitive assay principle was followed based on affinity interaction of anti‐myoglobin‐myoglobin. The caliberation curve was plotted based on the deposit percentage of myoglobin conjugated silica micro particles. The calibration curve of the myoglobin showed the linear range between 1 × 10^?8 ‐ 5 × 10^?11 (M) (R² = 0.9944). The minimum detectable concentration was 300 pg/mL. Hence all that concludes that, the application of zig zag flow channel with magnetic separator has offered new, simple and rapid approach for detecting myoglobin in whole blood samples with in 30 min.     

CW稳态热晕的数值模拟

运用本文推导的ＡＢＣＤ复杂光学系统的热晕积分方程，计算机数值模拟了ＣＷ稳态热晕，并对所得结果进行了讨论。     

有向Cayley图的直径

设Ｇ是一个有限Ａｂｅｌ群，Ｍ是Ｇ的一个二元生成集．Ｇ上的有向Ｃａｙｌｅｙ图Ｄ（Ｃ，Ｍ）是一个以Ｇ为顶点集的有向图，若ｘ，ｙ∈Ｇ，则存在ｘ到ｙ的弧当且仅当ｙ－ｘ∈Ｍ．Ｎ个顶点的所有这种有向Ｃａｙｌｅｙ图的最小直径和平均距离是多少？我们将此问题转化为一个几何问题并由此得到了直径的一个下－２和平均距离的一个下界．这两个界仅当Ｎ＝３ｘ２时可达，这里ｘ是任一自然数．     

AN 125I-LABELED N6-SUBSTITUTED AZIDO ANALOG OF NAD+ FOR THE PHOTOAFFINITY LABELING OF NAD+-LINKED ENZYMES

Abstract ¹²⁵I- N ⁶-(N-[6-N-{5-iodo-4-azidosalicyl}-aminohexyl]-aminocarbamoylmethyl)-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (¹²⁵I- N ⁶-I-ASA-AH-NAD⁺) was synthesized by coupling N ⁶ -([6-aminohexyl]-carbamoylmethyl)-NAD⁺ with 4-azidosalicylic acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester followed by radioiodination. The utility of ¹²⁵I-N ⁶ -I-ASA-AH-NAD⁺ as an effective site-directed photoprobe was demonstrated by the photolabeling of both glutamate dehydro-genase and 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase. Both enzymes can be saturated with labeled probe with apparent dissociation constants comparable to those reported for NAD⁺. Photoincorporation of the probe into both enzymes was found to be protected specifically by NAD⁺. These results indicate that ¹²⁵I- N ⁶-I-ASA-AH-NAD⁺ can be a specific photoprobe for NAD⁺-linked enzymes.