Activation profiles of opioid ligands in HEK cells expressing δ opioid receptors

Background  

The aim of the present study was to characterize the activation profiles of 15 opioid ligands in transfected human embryonic kidney cells expressing only δ opioid receptors. Activation profiles of most of these ligands at δ opioid receptors had not been previously characterized in vitro. Receptor activation was assessed by measuring the inhibition of forskolin-stimulated cAMP production.     

Efficient synthesis of ferrocenylenones by Friedel-Crafts acylation with EtAlCl2-Me3Al

Efficient synthesis of ferrocenylenones using a Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction is described. Acryloyl, methacryloyl, crotonoyl, cinnamoyl, and β-methylcrotonoyl chlorides react with ferrocene in the presence of a Lewis acid (EtAlCl₂ or EtAlCl₂-Me₃Al) to give the corresponding ferrocenylenones (acryloyl, methacryloyl, crotonoyl, cinnamoyl, and methylcrotonoylferrocenes) in good isolated yields. Besides ferrocenylenones, chloroactylferrocene is also synthesised by this method.     

Nuclear forward scattering vs. conventional Mössbauer studies of atomically tailored Eu-based materials

With the decrease in size of devices, rapid characterization of nano-devices is an inevitable necessity. It is shown that Mössbauer spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation from the advanced photon source provides such a tool of investigation. Results are presented and compared for conventional Mössbauer and Nuclear Forward Scattering for ¹⁵¹Eu-doped magnesium sulfide as an example, especially at low concentrations.     

Synthesis and comparative solution properties of single‐, twin‐, and triple‐tailed associating ionic polymers based on diallylammonium salts

The cycloterpolymerizations of single‐, twin‐, and triple‐tailed hydrophobes with hydrophilic monomer N,N‐diallyl‐N‐carboethoxymethylammonium chloride and sulfur dioxide afforded a series of cationic polyelectrolytes (CPEs) in excellent yields. These CPEs, upon the acidic hydrolysis of the pendent ester groups, gave the corresponding pH‐responsive cationic acid salts, which, upon a treatment with sodium hydroxide, were converted to polybetaines (PBs), anionic polyelectrolytes (APEs), and PB/APE polymers containing various proportions of zwitterionic (PB) and anionic fractions (APE) in the polymer chain. At a shear rate of 0.36 s⁻¹ at 30 °C, salt‐free water solutions of the CPEs (2 g/dL) containing 8, 4, and 2.67 mol % of the single‐, twin‐, and triple‐tailed hydrophobes (all having 8 mol % octyloxy tails) had apparent viscosity values of 70, 2800, and 396,000 cps, respectively. The PB/APE polymer with a ratio of 33:67 for the zwitterionic and anionic fractions in the polymer chain gave the highest viscosity value. The superior viscosity behavior of the polymers containing the triple‐tailed hydrophobe was attributed to the blocky nature of the comonomer. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 5480–5494, 2006     

Circles through two points that always enclose many points

This paper proves that any set of n points in the plane contains two points such that any circle through those two points encloses at least points of the set. The main ingredients used in the proof of this result are edge counting formulas for k-order Voronoi diagrams and a lower bound on the minimum number of semispaces of size at most k.Work on this paper by the first author has been supported by Amoco Fnd. Fac. Dev. Comput. Sci. 1-6-44862 and by the National Science Foundation under Grant CCR-8714565, by the second author has been partially supported by the Digital Equipment Corporation, by the fourth author has been partially supported by the Office of Naval Research under Grant N00014-86K-0416.     

An ultrasensitive fluorescence sensor for determination of trace levels of copper in blood samples

A novel SBA-15-based fluorescent sensor, SBA-PI: mesoporous SBA-15 structure modified with iminostilbene groups, was designed, synthesized, and characterized by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), low-angle X-ray diffraction techniques (low-angle XRD), and N₂ adsorption–desorption techniques. The SBA-PI as a sensor with a selective behavior for detection of Cu²⁺ comprises iminostilbene carbonyl as the fluorophore group. The SBA-PI sensor displays an excellent fluorescence response in aqueous solutions and the fluorescence intensity quenches remarkably upon addition of Cu²⁺. Other common interfering ions even at high concentration ratio showed either no or very small changes in the fluorescence intensity of SBA-PI in the absence of Cu²⁺. A limit of detection of 8.7 × 10⁻⁹ M for Cu²⁺ indicated that this fluorescence sensor has a high sensitivity and selectivity toward the target copper (II) ion. The fabricated Cu²⁺ sensor was successfully applied for the determination of the Cu²⁺ in human blood samples without any significant interference. With the selective analysis of Cu²⁺ ions down to 0.9 nM in blood, the sensor is a promising and a novel detection candidate for Cu²⁺ and can be applied in the clinical laboratory. A reversibility and accuracy in the fluorescence behavior of the sensor was found in the presence of I^¯ that was described as a masking agent for Cu²⁺.

Graphical abstract

     

The fate of sulfur-bound hydrogen on formation of self-assembled thiol monolayers on gold: (1)H NMR spectroscopic evidence from solutions of gold clusters

It is demonstrated that thiols can adsorb to gold without losing hydrogen. Dodecyl sulfide-capped gold clusters have been prepared and subjected to ligand exchange reactions in perdeuterated benzene by addition of dodecanethiol and subsequently dodecyl disulfide. It is shown by 1H NMR spectroscopy that dodecanethiol molecules are readily taken up as ligands producing characteristic broad signals corresponding to the alpha-methylene and S-H protons, with chemical shifts close to those found for thiol in solution; these signals are absent in spectra of thiolate-capped clusters. Addition of excess disulfide to such clusters capped with both dialkyl sulfides and thiols leads to the appearance of sharp signals for free dialkyl sulfide and intact thiol. Amounts of thiols up to 50% of the ligand shell are, however, taken up by the clusters under rapid and irreversible loss of hydrogen.     

Simultaneous Spectrophotometric Determination of Group B Vitamins Using Parallel Factor Analysis: PARAFAC

In this work, a simple and rapid analytical procedure was applied for simultaneous determination of folic acid (vitamin B₀), thiamin (vitamin B₁), riboflavin (vitamin B₂) and pyridoxal (vitamin B₆) based on the absorbance data in the pH range 2.0‐12.0 at 25 °C using parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC). The effect of the pH as the most important factor on the sensitivity of the determination was studied. The spectral data were recorded in 400‐650 nm intervals and a 2‐12 pH range for all four vitamins. The calibration set was constructed in the concentration ranges of 4‐22, 1‐20, 6‐26, and 4‐20 μg mL^?;1 for B₆,B₂,B₁ and B₀, respectively. The root mean squares errors of prediction for the prediction set, (RMSEP), are 0.65, 0.63, 1.13 and 0.34 for B₀,B₁,B₂ and B₆, respectively. The recovery percent for the validation set are in the range of 90.6 to 107.0%. The effect of the experimental conditions and diverse species were discussed. The optimum values of these factors were searched according to the relative standard deviation of the prediction set of mixtures solutions.     

Distributed Gaussian discrete variable representation

A discrete variable representation (DVR) made from distributed Gaussians g_n(x) = e, (n = ?∞, …, ∞) and its infinite grid limit is described. The infinite grid limit of the distributed Gaussian DVR (DGDVR) reduces to the sinc function DVR of Colbert and Miller in the limit c → 0. The numerical performance of both finite and infinite grid DGDVRs and the sinc function DVR is compared. If a small number of quadrature points are taken, the finite grid DGDVR performs much better than both infinite grid DGDVR and sinc function DVR. The infinite grid DVRs lose accuracy due to the truncation error. In contrast, the sinc function DVR is found to be superior to both finite and infinite grid DGDVRs if enough grid points are taken to eliminate the truncation error. In particular, the accuracy of DGDVRs does not get better than some limit when the distance between Gaussians d goes to zero with fixed c, whereas the accuracy of the sinc function DVR improves very quickly as d becomes smaller, and the results are exact in the limit d → 0. An analysis of the performance of distributed basis functions to represent a given function is presented in a recent publication. With this analysis, we explain why the sinc function DVR performs better than the infinite grid DGDVR. The analysis also traces the inability of Gaussians to yield exact results in the limit d → 0 to the incompleteness of this basis in this limit. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005