A Novel Cardiac Glycoside from Parepigynum funingesis

From the dried aerial part ofParepigynumfuningesis Tsiang et P. T. Li (Apocynaceae),a new cardiac glucoside, named parefuningoside (1) had been isolated. Its structure was determined by means of hydrolysis and spectral analysis.     

Internal flexibility of cardiac myosins

Conventional and saturation transfer electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR and ST EPR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to study the motional dynamics and segmental flexibility of cardiac myosins.Cardiac myosins isolated from bovine and human heart muscle were spin-labelled with isothiocyanate- or maleimide-based probe molecules at the reactive sulfhydryl sites (Cys-697 and Cys-707) of the motor domain. The maleimide probe molecules attached to human cardiac myosin rotated with an effective rotational correlation time of 33 ns which was at least eight times shorter than the rotational correlation time of the same label on skeletal myosin (260 ns). In the presence of MgADP and MgADP plus orthovanadate, flexibility changes in the multisubunit structure of myosins were detected, but this did not lead to changes of the overall rotational property of the myosin heads. Significant difference in the internal flexibility was detected on myosin samples isolated from ischemic tissue, the rotational correlation time decreased to 25 ns.DSC measurements supported the view that addition of nucleotides produced additional loosening in the multisubunit structure of cardiac myosin. It is postulated that there is an intersite communication between the nucleotide binding domain and the 20 kDa subunit where the reactive thiol sites are located.This work was supported by grants from the National Research Foundation (OTKA T 017099) and Ministry of Social Welfare (ETT 737/1993). The Bruker ESP 300 E spectrometer and the SETARAM Micro DSC-II used in the experiments were purchased with funds provided by the National Research Foundation Grants CO-123 and CO-272. The computer (PC-386) was supported by POPEX Ltd., Pécs, Hungary. The authors thank to Prof. Dr. K. Hideg (Central Research Laboratory) for providing the iodoacetamide spin label.     

Nucleotide/Protein Interaction: Energetic and Structural Features of Na,K-ATPase

Microcalorimetric titrations allow to recognize and investigate high-affinity ligand binding to Na,K-ATPase. Titrations with the cardiac glycoside Ouabain, which acts as a specific inhibitor of the enzyme, have provided not only the thermodynamic parameters of high-affinity binding with a stoichiometric coefficient of about 0.6 but also evidence for low-affinity binding to the lipid. The marked enthalpic contribution of -95 kJ mol^-1 at 298.2 K is partially compensated by a large negative entropy change, attributed to an increased interaction between water and the protein. The calorimetric ADP and ATP titrations at 298.2 K are indicative of high-affinity nucleotide binding either in 3 mM NaCl, 3 mM MgCl₂ or at high ionic strength such as 120 mM choline chloride. However, no binding is detected in the buffer solution alone at low ionic strength. The affinities for ADP and ATP are similar, around 10⁶ M^-1 and the stoichiometric coefficients are close to that of Ouabain binding. The exothermic binding of ADP is characterized by a ΔH and ΔS value of -65 kJ mol^-1 and -100 J mol^-1 K^-1, respectively. TheΔH value for ATP binding is larger than for ADP and is compensated by a larger, unfavorable ΔS value. This leads to an enthalpy/entropy compensation, which could express that H-bond formation represents the major type of interaction. As for Ouabain, the negative ΔS values that are also characteristic of nucleotide binding can indicate an increase of solvate interaction with the protein due to a conformational transition occurring subsequent to the binding process. The resulting binding constants are discussed with regard to the results of other studies employing different techniques. A molecular interaction model for nucleotide binding is suggested. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Thermodynamic characterization of different actin isoforms

Summary The thermodynamic properties of the cardiac and skeletal a-actin isoforms were studied to characterize the molecular bases of the functional differences between them with the method of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermal properties of the actin filaments were described in the presence of calcium and magnesium ions as well. Based on the calculated free energy changes the α-cardiac actin filaments appeared to be more stable in its physiologically more relevant, magnesium saturated form. The magnesium saturated form of the α-cardiac actin filaments seemed to be more stable compared to the calcium saturated form of it. The enthalpy and entropy changes could differentiate between the α-cardiac and α-skeletal actin isoforms and between the calcium and magnesium saturated cardiac actin isoforms as well. Our results can demonstrate that the few differences between the amino acid sequences of the α-actin isoforms have an influence on the thermal properties and maybe on the function of these proteins as well.     

铁缺乏症对婴幼儿智能发育的影响

为分析铁缺乏症(IDD)对婴幼儿智能发育的影响，随机抽取了6个月至3岁婴幼儿200例，按有否铁缺乏分组，比较了其与智能的关系。结果表明，铁缺乏症检出率为17．5％，铁缺乏组婴幼儿智能发育商(DQ)明显下降，与正常组比较差异有显著性，铁缺乏程度越重，DQ值越低。可见铁缺乏症对婴幼儿大脑发育造成不良影响，对该症无贫血阶段及轻度缺铁性贫血期(IDA)应予重视。     

基于COLLATE融合多图谱的心脏电影MRI右心室分割

右心室分割对肺动脉高压等疾病的心功能分析具有重要的临床意义.然而，右心室心肌薄、易变且不规则，其传统的医学图像分割方法仍然未能取得突破性进展.本文提出基于COLLATE（Consensus Level，Labeler Accuracy and Truth Estimation）的多图谱分割方法，首先以归一化互信息为相似测度对目标图像和图谱集进行B样条配准以获取粗分割结果；然后利用COLLATE对粗分割结果进行融合；最后采用基于形状约束的区域生长算法修正出现错误的数据.10例临床心脏磁共振短轴电影图像被用于算法验证.本文还将使用基于COLLATE的多图谱分割方法得到的结果与深度学习算法及手动分割进行了比较.结果显示与深度学习算法比较，使用本文算法得到的射血分数（Ejection Fraction，EF）与手动分割更加一致和相关，表明该算法的分割结果有望辅助临床心脏功能诊断.     

The use of untargeted and widely targeted metabolomics to distinguish between asphyxia and sudden cardiac death as the cause of death in rats: A preliminary study

It is important to determine the cause of death in the case of asphyxia. However, it is difficult to conclude death by asphyxia, especially when the deceased has underlying heart disease, because there are often no specific and representative corpse signs for both asphyxia and sudden cardiac death (SCD). The aim of the present work was to investigate the potential of metabolomics to discriminate asphyxia from SCD as the cause of death. A total of thirty male Sprague–Dawley rats were used to construct models of asphyxia, SCD (interfering cause of death), and cervical dislocation (control). Untargeted and widely targeted metabolomics approaches were used to obtain rat pulmonary metabolic profiles in this study. First, the metabolic alterations resulting from asphyxia were explored. There were significant changes found in carbohydrate metabolism, the endocrine system, and the sensory system. Second, we screened potential biomarkers and built classification models to determine the cause of death. Moreover, some biomarkers remained differentiated at 24 h and 48 h postmortem, so the cause of death could still be determined after death. This study showed the application potential of metabolomics to investigate the metabolic changes occurring in the process of death, as well as to determine the cause of death on the basis of metabolic differences even after death.     

An emerging strategy for tracing the anti-erectile dysfunction components of raw and salt-processed semens of Astragali Complanati by combinatory liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry-based quantitative analysis,efficacy assessment on impotent rats,and partial least squares regression

Semens of Astragali Complanati own anti-erectile dysfunction effect; however, the components which contribute to the anti-erectile dysfunction effect remain unclear. This work raised a strategy that integrates liquid chromatography coupled mass spectrometry-based quantitative analysis, anti-erectile dysfunction assessment on impotent rats, and their relationship analysis for pinpointing anti-erectile dysfunction components from semens of Astragali Complanati. For simultaneous quantification of seven major components in raw and salt-processed semens of Astragali Complanati, an accurate and reliable liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry method was developed under multiple reaction monitoring mode. Of note, chloramphenicol was employed as the internal standard. The method showed good linearity and repeatability, where the recovery rates of each component ranged from 98.1 to 104.7%, and the precisions of intra- and interday were all within 3.4%. The method has been used for quantification of the seven major components in 10 batches of raw and salt-processed semens of Astragali Complanati. Then, the anti-erectile dysfunction effects of raw and salt-processed semens of Astragali Complanati were evaluated on impotent rats. Gray relationship analysis and partial least squares regression were combined for elucidating the relationship. As a result, complanatuside, astragalin, complanatoside B, and kaempferol were found to be responsible for anti-erectile dysfunction effect of Astragali Complanati.