Two new asterosaponins from the starfish Asterias rubens: application of a cryogenic NMR probe head

We report two new asterosaponins from the Baltic starfish Asterias rubens along with their ¹H and ¹³C NMR data. The compounds were isolated after on‐flow liquid chromatography–NMR–mass spectrometry screening indicated that they had not been identified before. The one‐ and two‐dimensional NMR experiments used to elucidate the structures were recorded using a 5 mm cryogenic probe head. The advantages of cryogenic probes for this kind of examination in comparison with conventional probe heads are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Illuminating Molecular Processes in Living Cells

Lately, scientists have explored approaches to developing fluorescent and/or bioluminescent indicators to pinpoint cellular processes in single living cells. These analytical methods have become a key technology for visualizing and detecting what was otherwise unseen in live cells. The target signaling included second messengers, protein phosphorylations, protein–protein interactions, and protein localizations.     

三嗪类光学探针与标记分析

评述了以三聚氰氯作桥联剂或骨架而合成的三嗪类衍生物、特别是其光学标记探针的研究进展及分析应用。     

Intramolecular dimers: a new design strategy for fluorescence-quenched probes

Fluorogenic probes dual-labeled with reporter and quencher dyes use a change in fluorescence to monitor biochemical events (e.g., substrate binding or enzyme digestion). Such events change the reporter-quencher distance, which affects fluorescence. Recently, it is has been shown that static quenching through intramolecular dimers is an important mechanism that can sometimes be more efficient than F?rster resonance energy transfer (FRET).     

Recent progress in two-photon small molecule fluorescent probes for enzymes

This review aims to provide a summary of the progress in TP small molecule fluorescent probes for enzymes in recent years and displays the main fluorescent mechanisms that have been applied to design probes.     

Thermostability of landscape phage probes

Immunoassays have traditionally relied on antibodies as diagnostic probes. Their use outside of a laboratory, however, may be problematic because antibodies are often unstable in severe environmental conditions. Environmental monitoring requires thermostable probes, such as landscape phage, that carry thousands of foreign peptides on their surfaces, are superior to antibodies, and can operate in non-controlled conditions. While parent wild-type phage are known to be extremely stable in various media at high temperatures, no work has been done to demonstrate the stability of landscape phage probes. We examined the thermostability of a landscape phage probe and a monoclonal antibody specific for -galactosidase in parallel in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) format. They were both stable for greater than six months at room temperature, but at higher temperatures the antibody degraded more rapidly than the phage probe. Phage retained detectable binding ability for more than six weeks at 63 °C, and three days at 76 °C. The activation energy of phage degradation was determined to be 1.34×10⁵ J/mol. These results confirm that phage probes are highly thermostable and can function even after exposure to high temperatures during shipping, storage and operation.     

Microenvironmental differences amongst micelles of various shapes and structures

Micelles of different amphiphiles adopt different shapes and internal packing arrangements in water, depending on their chemical structures and the conditions of the medium. Two microenvironmental features, namely the polarity and the microviscosity that the aggregate offers to a solubilized molecule, have been monitored using extrinsic fluorescence probes. While the differences between micelles of spherical and rod-like shapes are not always distinct, stacked micelles and peptide micelles offer distinctly lower polarity and higher microviscosity to solubilizates than the others.     

Development of a systems analysis approach for resolving the structure of biodegrading soil systems

An experimental and mathematical method is developed for the microbial systems analysis of polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-degrading mixed cultures in PAH-contaminated “town gas” soil systems. Frequency response is the primary experimental and data analysis tool used to probe the structure of these complicated systems. The objective is to provide a fundamental protocol for evaluating the performance of specific mixed microbial cultures on specific soil systems by elucidating the salient system variables and their interactions. Two well-described reactor systems, a constant volume stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and a plug flow differential volume reactor, are used in order to remove performance effects that are related to reactor type as opposed to system structure. These two reactor systems are well-defined systems that can be described mathematically and represent the two extremes of one potentially important system variable, macroscopic mass transfer. The experimental and mathematical structure of the protocol is described, experimental data is presented, and data analysis is demonstrated for the stripping, sorption, and biodegradation of napththalene.     

SNAP-tag蛋白标签技术与荧光分析法在蛋白原位分析中的联合应用

为将生物体内微观的蛋白行为可视化并以宏观信号呈现出来对蛋白进行实时、动态分析，借助SNAP-tag蛋白标签技术与有机小分子荧光染料，构建了一系列用于活细胞内实时监测目标蛋白的免洗荧光探针。标签蛋白SNAP-tag能够特异性识别探针中的苄基鸟嘌呤，从而使目标蛋白共价连接上荧光团（萘酰亚胺），携带上荧光信使。此外，由于萘酰亚胺从水环境中被牵引至SNAP-tag蛋白的疏水空腔，其荧光信号呈现出2~13倍的增强。通过SNAP-tag标签蛋白与目标蛋白的融合，该荧光探针实现了对活细胞内线粒体蛋白CoX8A及核内蛋白H2B特异性识别，在免洗条件下完成了对目标蛋白的实时追踪及原位分析。     

pH-sensitive modulation of the second hydration sphere in lanthanide(III) tetraamide-DOTA complexes: a novel approach to smart MR contrast media

The lanthanide(III) complexes of three tetraamide DOTA bearing pyridyl, phenolic and hydroxypyridyl substituents have been studied by NMR, luminescence and cyclic voltammetry. The relaxivity profiles of the gadolinium complexes of the pyridyl and phenolic ligands were flat and essentially the same between pH 2 and 8. The hydroxypyridyl ligand, however, exhibited two regions of enhanced relaxivity. The small relaxivity enhancement (25 %) at lower pH (pH 2-4) has been attributed to an increase in the prototropic exchange of the coordinated water molecule while the slightly larger enhancement (84 %) at higher pH (pH 6-9) reflects deprotonation of the ligand amide protons. Deprotonation of the amides results in the formation of an intramolecular acid-base pair interaction with the phenolic protons and this, in turn, causes a highly organized second hydration sphere to come into effect, thereby increasing the relaxivity. The water relaxivity of the Gd(3+)-hydroxypyridyl complex is further enhanced upon binding to serum albumin.