Search results for "hydrogen bonding"
showing 10 items of 290 documents
Molecular dynamics, dynamic site mapping, and highthroughput virtual screening on leptin and the Ob receptor as anti-obesity target.
2014
Body weight control is a mechanism finely regulated by several hormonal, metabolic, and nervous pathways. The leptin receptor (Ob-R) is crucial for energy homeostasis and regulation of food uptake. Leptin is a 16 kDa hormone that is mainly secreted by fat cells into the bloodstream, and under normal circumstances, circulating levels are proportionate to the fat body mass. Sensing of elevated leptin levels by the hypothalamic neurocircutry activates a negative feedback loop resulting in reduced food intake and increased energy expenditure. Decreased concentrations lead to opposite effects. Therefore rational design of leptin agonists constitute an appealing challenge in the battle against ob…
Is the Rigidity of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Receptor-Binding Motif the Hallmark for Its Enhanced Infectivity? Insights from All-Atom Simulations
2020
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is setting the global health crisis of our time, causing a devastating societal and economic burden. An idiosyncratic trait of coronaviruses is the presence of spike glycoproteins on the viral envelope, which mediate the virus binding to specific host receptor, enabling its entry into the human cells. In spite of the high sequence identity of SARS-CoV-2 with its closely related SARS-CoV emerged in 2002, the atomic-level determinants underlining the molecular recognition of SARS-CoV-2 to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and, thus, the rapid virus spread into human body, remain unresolved. Here, multi-m…
Halogenido ligand exchange synthesis, spectroscopic properties and thermal behaviour of the inorganic–organic hydrogen-bonded network solid [4,4′-H2b…
2014
Abstract Dark-red single crystals of 4,4′-bipyridinium triaquahydrogen(1+) hexabromidorhodate(III) [4,4′-H2bipy][H7O3][RhBr6] (1) have been synthesized by a diffusion-controlled ligand exchange process from rhodium(III) chloride trihydrate and 4,4′-bipyridine dissolved in hydrochloric and hydrobromic acid, respectively. 1 could be considered as an inorganic–organic hydrogen-bonded network solid built up from the inorganic isolated hexabromidorhodate [RhBr6]3− octahedra, organic 4,4′-bipyridinium(2+) [4,4′-H2bipy]2+ and triaquahydrogen(1+) [H7O3]+ cations with nearly symmetrical O⋯O distances. The oppositely charged components in the structure of 1 are bound together by an intricate system o…
Excitation-Wavelength-Dependent Photocycle Initiation Dynamics Resolve Heterogeneity in the Photoactive Yellow Protein from Halorhodospira halophila
2018
Photoactive yellow proteins (PYPs) make up a diverse class of blue-light-absorbing bacterial photoreceptors. Electronic excitation of the p-coumaric acid chromophore covalently bound within PYP results in triphasic quenching kinetics; however, the molecular basis of this behavior remains unresolved. Here we explore this question by examining the excitation-wavelength dependence of the photodynamics of the PYP from Halorhodospira halophila via a combined experimental and computational approach. The fluorescence quantum yield, steady-state fluorescence emission maximum, and cryotrapping spectra are demonstrated to depend on excitation wavelength. We also compare the femtosecond photodynamics …
Light-Induced Protein-Matrix Uncoupling and Protein Relaxation in Dry Samples of Trehalose-Coated MbCO at Room Temperature
2005
In humid samples of trehalose-coated carboxy-myoglobin (MbCO), thermally driven conformational relaxation takes place after photodissociation of the carbon monoxide (CO) molecule at room temperature. In such samples, because of the extreme viscosity of the external matrix, photodissociated CO cannot diffuse out of the protein and explores the whole (proximal and distal side) heme pocket, experiencing averaged protein heme pocket structures, as a result of the presence of Brownian motions. At variance, in very dry samples, a lower portion of the photodissociated CO diffuses from the distal to the proximal heme pocket side probing in nonaveraged structures. We revisit here the flash photolysi…
Photoactivation of Drosophila melanogaster cryptochrome through sequential conformational transitions
2019
Time-resolved x-ray scattering reveals light-induced signal transduction in insect cryptochromes.
On the chemiluminescence emission of luminol: protic and aprotic solvents and encapsulation to improve the properties in aqueous solution.
2020
Luminol is a popular molecule that is currently gaining further interest due to its potential role for non-invasive cancer treatments. Design of more efficient derivatives in this context would benefit from a clear knowledge on the origin of the distinct intensity and spectroscopic properties in protic and aprotic solvents observed experimentally, which are still not rationalized. By efficiently combining molecular dynamics, quantum methodologies based on density functional theory and multiconfigurational quantum chemistry and hybrid approaches, and developing herein a computational approach for accurately determining "molar negative extinction (or gain) coefficients of emission", we firstl…
Zn(II)-coordination and fluorescence studies of a new polyazamacrocycle incorporating 1H-pyrazole and naphthalene units.
2010
The synthesis and Zn(2+) coordination properties of a new macrocycle (L1) obtained by dipodal (2 + 2) condensation of the polyamine 3-(naphthalen-2-ylmethyl)pentane-1,5-diamine with 1H-pyrazole-3,5-dicarbaldehyde are reported. pH-metric studies show that L1 bears five measurable protonation steps in the 2.0-11.0 pH range. Fluorescence emission studies indicate that the removal of the first proton from the H(5)L1(5+) species leads to a significant decrease in the emission due to a photoinduced electron transfer process. Addition of Zn(2+) promotes a boat-like conformation that approaches both fluorophores and facilitates the formation of an excimer which reaches its highest emission for a 1 …
Guest exchange in dimeric capsules formed by tetra-urea calix[4]arenes
2008
Ten tetra-urea calix[4]arene derivatives with different ether residues (methyl, pentyl, benzyl, all combinations of methyl and pentyl, 1,3-dibenzyl-2,4-dipentyl), including also the tetrahydroxy compound and the 1,3-dipentyl ether, were synthesised. Their urea groups were substituted with a lipophilic residue to ensure sufficient solubility in cyclohexane. Thus, kinetics for the exchange of the included guest (benzene) against the solvent (cyclohexane) could be followed by 1H NMR spectroscopy. The apparent first order rate constants decrease with increasing size of the ether residues from methyl to benzyl by more than three orders of magnitude. This can be understood by a decreasing flexibi…
Conformational Properties of Oxazole-Amino Acids: Effect of the Intramolecular N–H···N Hydrogen Bond
2014
Oxazole ring occurs in numerous natural peptides, but conformational properties of the amino acid residue containing the oxazole ring in place of the C-terminal amide bond are poorly recognized. A series of model compounds constituted by the oxazole-amino acids occurring in nature, that is, oxazole-alanine (L-Ala-Ozl), oxazole-dehydroalanine (ΔAla-Ozl), and oxazole-dehydrobutyrine ((Z)-ΔAbu-Ozl), was investigated using theoretical calculations supported by FTIR and NMR spectra and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. It was found that the main feature of the studied oxazole-amino acids is the stable conformation β2 with the torsion angles φ and ψ of -150°, -10° for L-Ala-Ozl, -180°, 0° for ΔAl…