Search results for "Biophysic"

Interactions in water-alcohol mixtures: Conductance of lithium picrate in solutions of water and isomeric pentanols at 25�C

1982

Conductance measurements of lithium picrate in solutions of water in n-pentanol, 2-pentanol, 3-pentanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol and 3-methyl-1-butanol have been carried out at 25°C. Ionic association and conductance were found to change with water content and with the molecular structure of the alcohols (i.e. position of the OH group and degree of branching of the alkyl chain). These results indicate that both conductance and ion pair formation are not the consequence of the simple motion of ions in the electrical field as required by the continuum model. A more realistic approach, involving the internal structure of the solvent mixtures, has been considered.

Use of two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography for the components study of poly(adenosine diphosphate ribose)

1990

Two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography on cellulose plates has been used for separating and quantifying the three adenosine derivatives: AMP, phosphoribosyl AMP (PRAMP), and (PR)2AMP obtained by venom phosphodiesterase digestion of poly(ADP-ribose). In vitro synthesized polymer, up to 300 derivatives in length were studied. Some parameters of the complexity of poly(ADP-ribose) could be deduced from our results: (i) The first branching point appears in fragments of approximately 21 derivatives in length. (ii) The branching points are located at regular distances of approximately 41 derivatives from each other.

Poly-l-Lysine-Poly[HPMA] Block Copolymers Obtained by RAFT Polymerization as Polyplex-Transfection Reagents with Minimal Toxicity

2015

Herein we describe the synthesis of poly-L-lysine-b-poly[N-(2-hydroxypropyl)-metha-crylamide)] (poly[HPMA]) block copolymers by combination of solid phase peptide synthesis or polymerization of α-amino acid-N-carboxy-anhydrides (NCA-polymerization) with the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT). In the presence of p-DNA, these polymers form polyplex micelles with a size of 100-200 nm in diameter (monitored by SDS-PAGE and FCS). Primary in vitro studies with HEK-293T cells reveal their cellular uptake (FACS studies and CLSM) and proof successful transfection with efficiencies depending on the length of polylysine. Moreover, these polyplexes display minimal to…

Polymerizable phospholipid analogues--new stable biomembrane and cell models.

1980

Membrane oligo- and polysialic acids

2011

AbstractPolysialic acid (polySia) and oligosialic acid (oligoSia) chains are linear polysaccharides composed of sialic acid monomers. The majority of biological poly/oligoSia chains are bound to membranes. There is a large diversity of membrane poly/oligoSia in terms of chain length, occurrence, biological function, and the mode of membrane attachment. Poly/oligoSia can be anchored to a membrane via a phospholipid (polySia in bacteria), a glycosphingolipid (oligoSia in gangliosides), an integral membrane glycoprotein, or a glycoprotein attached to a membrane via glycosylphosphatidylinositol. In eukaryotic cells, the attachment of a poly/oligoSia chain to the membrane anchor is usually throu…

Ion pair association in isodielectric mixtures at 25�C

1974

Conductance measurements of potassium perchlorate and iodide have been carried out on the following mixtures: methanol-ethylene carbonate, acetone-ethylene carbonate, acetonitrile-ethylene carbonate, sulfolane-ethylene carbonate, isodielectric with water; and in benzene-sulfolane, benzene-acetonitrile, ethanol-sulfolane, isodielectric with methanol. The extent of ionic association at a given concentration in two solvents of the same dielectric constant is greater in the aprotic solvent.

Influence of solvent structure on ion pair association: The conductance of potassium perchlorate in ethylene carbonate-acetonitrile mixtures at 25�C

1974

The conductance of potassium perchlorate in mixtures of ethylene carbonate and acetonitrile covering the range 82.6 ≥ D ≥ 36.0 in dielectric constant has been measured. The Walden products in these aprotic solvents are approximately one-half as large as the products for the same salt in isodielectric mixtures of water and tetramethylene sulfone. This alters the distribution between electrostatic and hydrodynamic terms in the theoretical conductance function in such a way that the calculated association constants for potassium perchlorate are much smaller in the aprotic mixtures.

Intra-Helical Salt Bridge Contribution to Membrane Protein Insertion.

2021

ABSTRACTSalt bridges between negatively (D, E) and positively charged (K, R, H) amino acids play an important role in protein stabilization. This has a more prevalent effect in membrane proteins where polar amino acids are exposed to a very hydrophobic environment. In transmembrane (TM) helices the presence of charged residues can hinder the insertion of the helices into the membrane. This can sometimes be avoided by TM region rearrangements after insertion, but it is also possible that the formation of salt bridges could decrease the cost of membrane integration. However, the presence of intra-helical salt bridges in TM domains and their effect on insertion has not been properly studied ye…

Scaling concepts for polymer brushes and their test with computer simulation

2004

After a brief review of the scaling concepts for static and dynamic properties of polymer brushes in good solvents and Theta solvents, the Monte Carlo evidence is discussed. It is shown that under typical conditions the diameter of the last blob is of the order of 10-20% of the brush height, and therefore pronounced deviations from the self-consistent field predictions occur. In bad solvents, lateral microphase separation occurs leading to an irregular pattern of "dimples". Particularly interesting is the response of brushes to shear deformation, and the interaction between two interpenetrating brushes. Recent attempts to understand the resulting shear forces via molecular-dynamics simulati…

A Unified Theory of Liquid-Liquid Demixing and Polymer Formation Kinetics

2009

Sickle hemoglobin is a natural hemoglobin mutation with a hydrophobic replacement of a charged aminoacid on the molecular surface. This leads to aggregation into rigid helical structures (“polymerization”), the underlying cause of sickle cell disease. It has also been shown that polymerization occurs in close correspondence with the phase transition of liquid-liquid demixing , or with the critically diverging fluctuations of local concentration occurring in its proximity. Due to this correspondence, polymerization kinetics remarkably appear to exhibit, with respect to demixing temperature, the same universal scaling features shown by amplitudes and lifetimes of fluctuations occurring in pro…