Search results for "Biophysic"

Temperature effects on counterion binding to spherical polyelectrolytes: the charge-discharge transition of lignosulfonate

1995

Abstract The effect of temperature on the effective charge numbers and diffusion coefficients of polyelectrolytes has not nobee dealth with in many studies. The present study concerns the temperature behavior of lignosulfonate. Lignosulfonate is a polydisperse polyelectrolyte whose molecules are compact spheres in aqueous solutions. One of its most remarkable properties is that is loses its charge in 0.1 M NaCl aqueous solution at about 40°C. In order to explain this charge-discharge transition, a theory for ion binding to spherical polyelectrolytes based on the relative population of two hydration states of the charged groups is presented. The water molecules adjacent to the charged groups…

Influence of Several Effectors on the Structure-Activity Relationship of Spleen Phosphodiesterase

1993

The influence of Mg(II) and organic solvents on the structure-activity relationship of spleen phosphodiesterase II was analyzed using UV and fluorescence spectroscopies. An increase in the RNase activity found in the presence of Mg(II) was related to the enzyme-Mg(II) interaction detected by UV spectroscopy. In the fluorescence spectra of phosphodiesterase strong hypochromic and bathochromic effects were observed when RNA was present at a concentration (52 μg ml−1) of the same magnitude as the concentration that inhibits the activity (Ki = 40 μg ml−1). The strong quenching observed in the presence of RNA shows the importance of large dynamic and static quenching of the Trp residues of the e…

Time-Resolved study of network self-organization from a biopolymeric solution

1991

Time-resolved studies of network self-organization from homogeneous solutions of the representative biostructural polymer agarose are presented. Solutions are temperature quenched and observed by several techniques. Consistent with previous suggestions by the authors, experiments at concentrations up to about 1.75% w/v provide direct kinetic evidence for the occurrence of at least two distinct processes, leading, in sequence, to self-assembly. These are as follows: (a) a liquid–liquid phase separation of the solution occurring via spinodal demixing and resulting in two sets of regions that have, respectively, higher and lower than average concentrations of random-coiled polymers; and (b) th…

2015

The rationale of the study was two-fold: (i) develop a functional synthetic model of the Cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) active site, (ii) use it as a convenient tool to understand or predict the outcome of the reaction of CcO with ligands (physiologically relevant gases and other ligands). At physiological pH and potential, the model catalyzes the 4-electron reduction of oxygen. This model was immobilized on self-assembled-monolayer (SAM) modified electrode. During catalytic oxygen reduction, electron delivery through SAMs is rate limiting, similar to the situation in CcO. This model contains all three redox-active components in CcO's active site, which are required to minimize the production o…

Introducing PeptoPlexes: Polylysine-block-Polysarcosine Based Polyplexes for Transfection of HEK 293T Cells

2014

A series of well-defined polypeptide-polypeptoid block copolymers based on the body's own amino acids sarcosine and lysine are prepared by ring opening polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides. Block lengths were varied between 200-300 for the shielding polysarcosine block and 20-70 for the complexing polylysine block. Dispersity indexes ranged from 1.05 to 1.18. Polylysine is polymerized with benzyloxycarbonyl as well as trifluoroacetyl protecting groups at the ϵ-amine group and optimized deprotection protocols for both groups are reported. The obtained block ionomers are used to complex pDNA resulting in the formation of polyplexes (PeptoPlexes). The PeptoPlexes can be successfully applied i…

Relaxation of electron-hole pairs and scintillation mechanism in alkali halide crystals

1997

Abstract The mechanism of the ionizing radiation energy transfer from host lattice to luminescence centers is discussed taking into account the results of the recent experimental investigations of electron-hole pair relaxation in alkali iodide crystals. The high scintillation yield in CsI-Tl, CsI-Na and partially in Nal-Tl crystals is explained by the process of the motion and capture of a one-center self-trapped exciton by impurity ions.

Polymer-induced phase separation in suspensions of bacteria

2010

We study phase separation in suspensions of two unrelated species of rod-like bacteria, Escherichia coli and Sinorhizobium meliloti, induced by the addition of two different anionic polyelectrolytes, sodium polystyrene sulfonate or succinoglycan, the former being synthetic and the latter of natural origin. Comparison with the known behaviour of synthetic colloid-polymer mixtures and with simulations show that "depletion" (or, equivalently, "macromolecular crowding") is the dominant mechanism: exclusion of the non-adsorbing polymer from the region between two neighbouring bacteria creates an unbalanced osmotic force pushing them together. The implications of our results for understanding phe…

Conformational preferences of side-chain protected amino acid residues and their impact in peptide synthesis

1983

Using the host-guest technique, tentative scales for the helix-inducing power and the β-structure-forming potential of various side-chain protected amino acid residues in trifluoro-ethanol are established mainly by CD measurements. The generally lower tendency for β-structure formation of the host–guest peptides compared to that of the host peptide is discussed. The influence of these conformational features on the solubility of the peptides is also pointed out.

Thermodynamics of binary mixtures: Volumes, heat capacities, and dilution enthalpies for then-pentanol+2-methyl-2-butanol system

1983

The densities, heat capacities, and dilution enthalpies ofn-pentanol+2-methyl-2-butanol mixtures have been measured, in many cases as a function of temperature, over the complete mole fraction range. Excesses thermodynamic properties, apparent and partial molar heat capacities, volumes and expansibilities were derived. The concentration and temperature dependences of these functions are discussed in terms of the variations of the structure of the system caused by the participation of the two alcohol molecules (with quite different steric hindrance of the alkyl chain around the-OH group) in the dynamic intermolecular association process through hydrogen bonding.

Forever Young: Structural Stability of Telomeric Guanine-Quadruplexes in Presence of Oxidative DNA Lesions

2020

AbstractHuman telomeric DNA (h-Telo), in G-quadruplex (G4) conformation, is characterized by a remarkable structural stability that confers it the capacity to resist to oxidative stress producing one or even clustered 8-oxoguanine lesions. We present a combined experimental/computational investigation, by using circular dichroism in aqueous solutions, cellular immunofluorescence assays and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, that identifies the crucial role of the stability of G4s to oxidative lesions, related also to their biological role as inhibitors of telomerase, an enzyme overexpressed in most cancers associated to oxidative stress.