Energetics and Structural Characterization of the large-scale Functional Motion of Adenylate Kinase

Adenylate Kinase (AK) is a signal transducing protein that regulates cellular energy homeostasis balancing between different conformations. An alteration of its activity can lead to severe pathologies such as heart failure, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. A comprehensive elucidation of the large-scale conformational motions that rule the functional mechanism of this enzyme is of great value to guide rationally the development of new medications. Here using a metadynamics-based computational protocol we elucidate the thermodynamics and structural properties underlying the AK functional transitions. The free energy estimation of the conformational motions of the enzyme allows characterizing the sequence of events that regulate its action. We reveal the atomistic details of the most relevant enzyme states, identifying residues such as Arg119 and Lys13, which play a key role during the conformational transitions and represent druggable spots to design enzyme inhibitors. Our study offers tools that open new areas of investigation on large-scale motion in proteins.

Synthesis and structural characterisation of [Cu2[(PDC)2(bpa)(H2O)2]•nH2O•mDMF (n=3 and m=1 for 1, n=7 and m=0 for 2, PDC=2,5-pyrindinedicarboxylate and bpa= 1,2-di(4-pyridil)ethane))

[EN] Combination of polycarboxylate anions and dipyridyl ligands is an effective strategy to produce solid coordination frameworks (SCF) which are crystalline materials based on connections between metal ions through organic ligands. In this sense, combination of polycarboxylate anions and dipyridyl ligands is an effective strategy to produce extended structures. In this context, this work is focused on two novel CuII-based SCFs exhibiting PDC (2,5-pyridinedicarboxylate) and bpa (1,2-di(4-pyridyl)ethane), being the first structures reported in literature containing both ligands. Chemical formula are [Cu2[(PDC)2(bpa)(H2O)2]•3H2O•DMF (1), and [Cu2(PDC)2(bpa)(H2O)2]•7H2O (2), where DMF is dimethylformamide. Compounds 1 and 2 have been characterized by means of XRD, IR, TG/DTG, and DTA analysis.

Defect and structural imperfection effects on the electronic properties of BiTeI surfaces

The surface electronic structure of the narrow-gap seminconductor BiTeI exhibits a large Rashba-splitting which strongly depends on the surface termination. Here we report on a detailed investigation of the surface morphology and electronic properties of cleaved BiTeI single crystals by scanning tunneling microscopy, photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES, XPS), electron diffraction (SPA-LEED) and density functional theory calculations. Our measurements confirm a previously reported coexistence of Te- and I-terminated surface areas