Reactivity of pseudobases from pyridinium salts competition between hydrogen transfer and ring-opening reactions

The reactions of 3-cyano-1-methylpyridinium iodide (1a) and l-benzyl-3-cyanopyridinium chloride (1b) in aqueous NaOH have been studied over a range of concentrations from N 0.5 to N 2.5 with respect to the hydroxide ion, and with the concentrations of the reactants at different ratios. It has been found that the intermediate, not isolable pseudobases can undergo, depending on the experimental conditions, two competitive reaction channels, namely, a redox process leading to the dihydropyridines 3–5 and pyridones 2,6, and a ring-opening reaction leading to the pentadienenitrile 7, 2-imino-3-pyridinecarbaldehyde 8, and 2-(aryl)alkylamino-3-pyridinecarbaldehyde 9.     

Evolutionarily conserved functional mechanics across pepsin-like and retroviral aspartic proteases

The biological function of the aspartic protease from HIV-1 has recently been related to the conformational flexibility of its structural scaffold. Here, we use a multistep strategy to investigate whether the same mechanism affects the functionality in the pepsin-like fold. (i) We identify the set of conserved residues by using sequence-alignment techniques. These residues cluster in three distinct regions: near the cleavage-site cavity, in the four beta-sheets cross-linking the two lobes, and in a solvent-exposed region below the long beta-hairpin in the N-terminal lobe. (ii) We elucidate the role played by the conserved residues for the enzymatic functionality of one representative member of the fold family, the human beta-secretase, by means of classical molecular dynamics (MD). The conserved regions exhibit little overall mobility and yet are involved into the most important modes of structural fluctuations. These modes influence the substrate-catalytic aspartates distance through a relative rotation of the N- and C-terminal lobes. (iii) We investigate the effects of this modulation by estimating the reaction free energy at different representative substrate/enzyme conformations. The activation free energy is strongly affected by large-scale protein motions, similarly to what has been observed in the HIV-1 enzyme. (iv) We extend our findings to all other members of the two eukaryotic and retroviral fold families by recurring to a simple, topology-based, energy functional. This analysis reveals a sophisticated mechanism of enzymatic activity modulation common to all aspartic proteases. We suggest that aspartic proteases have been evolutionarily selected to possess similar functional motions despite the observed fold variations.     

Vibrational study on the interactions between yak keratin fibres and glyoxylic acid

Raman and IR spectroscopy were used to investigate the changes induced in yak hair keratin by the straightening treatment based on glyoxylic acid. The amino acidic residues that appeared involved in the reaction with glyoxylic acid were serine and lysine; the involvement of the latter was deduced by the spectroscopic detection of iminic species, resulting from the reaction between the aminic group of lysine and the carbonyl group of glyoxylic acid. The reaction with glyoxylic acid induced conformational rearrangements that mainly involved the fibre bulk rather than the cuticle. Changes in the average tyrosine environment and its hydrogen‐bonding state were detected: at increasing glyoxylic acid incorporation, the tyrosine residues appeared more exposed, probably because of H‐bond interactions with the COOH group. The distribution of the disulfide bridge conformation was also affected, although no cleavage of the S–S bond was detected, in agreement with the shiny and healthy appearance of the fibres. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of Regioisomerism on the Antiproliferative Activity of Hydroxystearic Acids on Human Cancer Cell Lines

A series of regioisomers of the hydroxystearic acid (HSA) was prepared, and the effect of the position of the hydroxyl group along the chain on a panel of human cancer cell lines was investigated. Among the various regioisomers, those carrying the hydroxyl at positions 5, 7, and 9 had growth inhibitor activity against various human tumor cell lines, including CaCo-2, HT29, HeLa, MCF7, PC3, and NLF cells. 10-HSA and 11-HSA showed a very weak effect. 8-HSA did not show inhibitory activity in all cell lines. The biological role of 7-HSA and 9-HSA is widely recognized, while little is known about the effects of 5-HSA. Therefore, the biological effects of 5-HSA in HeLa, HT29, MCF7, and NLF cell lines were investigated using the Livecyte’s ptychography technology, which allows correlating changes in proliferation, motility, and morphology as a function of treatment at the same time. 5-HSA not only reduces cell proliferation but also induces changes in cell displacement, directionality, and speed. It is important to characterize the biological effects of 5-HSA, this molecule being an important component of fatty acyl esters of hydroxy fatty acids (FAHFA), a class of endogenous mammalian lipids with noticeable anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory effects.     

Semicoherent elastic pion-carbon scattering at 25 and 40 GeV/c

In the frame of a systematic study of hadron-nucleus interactions performed at the Serpukhov accelerator (CERN-IHEP 5th experiment), semicoherent elastic scattering on carbon $\text{π}{}^{\mathrm{?12}}\text{C}\text{a}\text{?}\text{π}{}^{\mathrm{?12}}\text{C}{}^1\text{(4.44}\text{MeV}\text{)}$ was investigated with 25 and 40 GeV/c incident pions.The experimental data were obtained with a counter technique, looking at the coincidence between the scattered pion and the 4.44 MeV photon from the J^P = 2⁺ carbon excited state detected by a NaI counter.The value obtained for the integrated cross section at 40 GeV/c in the 0.0032 ? |t| ? 0.27 (GeV/c)² four-momentum transfer range isσ = 1.16 ± 0.11 mb.According to the theoretical models, this t-range at 40 GeV/c covers more than 99% of the angular distribution, so the above value almost corresponds to the total semicoherent elastic cross section.     

Role of secondary motifs in fast folding polymers: a dynamical variational principle

A fascinating and open question challenging biochemistry, physics, and even geometry is the presence of highly regular motifs such as alpha helices in the folded state of biopolymers and proteins. Stimulating explanations ranging from chemical propensity to simple geometrical reasoning have been invoked to rationalize the existence of such secondary structures. We formulate a dynamical variational principle for selection in conformation space based on the requirement that the backbone of the native state of biologically viable polymers be rapidly accessible from the denatured state. The variational principle is shown to result in the emergence of helical order in compact structures.     

Facile synthesis of hydantoins and thiohydantoins in aqueous solution

A series of hydantoins and thiohydantoins have been synthesized in water at room temperature from urea (or N-methylurea, or thiourea) and simple aldehydes (as glyoxal, and its simple derivatives) in the presence of phosphoric anhydride. The reaction time is 10 min using an equimolar amount of P₄O₁₀ with respect to the other reagents, but the reaction occurs also, even if with longer reaction times, with very small amounts of P₄O₁₀.In addition, this method provides a clean and ‘green’ approach to hydantoins, compounds of great interest in biological and pharmacological fields.     

First prebiotic generation of a ribonucleotide from adenine, D-ribose and trimetaphosphate

Adenosine monophosphate isomers are obtained by self-assembling of adenine, D-ribose and trimetaphosphate in aqueous solution in good yields. This generation of a ribonucleotide from its three molecular components occurs in a one-pot reaction at room temperature for about 30-40 days and with high chemio-, regio-, and stereo-selectivity. Similar results are obtained with guanine. A mechanism is also proposed.