Haematopoietic lineage cell-specific protein 1 (HS1) promotes actin-related protein (Arp) 2/3 complex-mediated actin polymerization

HS1 (haematopoietic lineage cell-specific gene protein 1), a prominent substrate of intracellular protein tyrosine kinases in haematopoietic cells, is implicated in the immune response to extracellular stimuli and in cell differentiation induced by cytokines. Although HS1 contains a 37-amino acid tandem repeat motif and a C-terminal Src homology 3 domain and is closely related to the cortical-actin-associated protein cortactin, it lacks the fourth repeat that has been shown to be essential for cortactin binding to filamentous actin (F-actin). In this study, we examined the possible role of HS1 in the regulation of the actin cytoskeleton. Immunofluorescent staining demonstrated that HS1 co-localizes in the cytoplasm of cells with actin-related protein (Arp) 2/3 complex, the primary component of the cellular machinery responsible for de novo actin assembly. Furthermore, recombinant HS1 binds directly to Arp2/3 complex with an equilibrium dissociation constant (K-d) of 880 nM. Although HS1 is a modest F-actin-binding protein with a Kd of 400 nM, it increases the rate of the actin assembly mediated by Arp2/3 complex, and promotes the formation of branched actin filaments induced by Arp2/3 complex and a constitutively activated peptide of N-WASP (neural Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein). Our data suggest that HS1, like cortactin, plays an important role in the modulation of actin assembly.

羟基自由基降解琼胶及其产物的活性研究

琼胶是一种从石花菜等红藻中提取的，目前生产工艺和结构等方面研究比较成熟的海藻多糖，广泛应用于医药、仪器等行业。但是，海藻多糖因为具有分子量大，粘度大，溶解度较小的等特点，而使其应用范围受到限制。利用降解的手段对其进行修饰，降低分子量和粘度，改善溶解性，可以拓展其应用范围。并且根据文献报道，琼 胶寡糖具有一些特殊的生物活性，如抗氧化性，抗炎症等。因此，对琼胶降解的研究具有生要意义。本研究中，为了选择一种合适的降解方法，进行了几种水解方法的尝试，其中包括在不同湿度和酸度下盐酸水解，过氧化氢和醋酸催化水解，Fenton体系羟基自由基降解。对于酸水解和Fenton体系氧化还原降解方法，通过粘度法对反应的速度进行了比较，表明氧化还原降解反应中琼胶的粘度降低比较快，并且具有代表性和新意，确定为本实验的降解琼胶的方法并对氧化还原降解所得的产物进行了活性实验。通过模仿自然界普遍存在的氧化还原降解反应，利用Vc诱导的Fenton体系产生的羟基自由基氧化还原降解琼胶得到低分子量的琼胶。降解产物经过高速离心、60％乙醇沉淀，除去分子量比较大的降解产物和磷酸盐，得到可溶于60％乙醇的分子量估计小于3000的降争产物，其产率为85％。利用经Sephadex-G25凝胶色谱分离所香的不同分子量的级分进行分子量和α－葡萄糖苷酶抑制活性关系的实验。降解产物对α－葡萄糖苷酶的抑制率和各级分的浓度呈线性正相关，并且各级分的IC_(50)则随着分子量的降低而降低。另外，对所得的降解产物混合物进行了红外吸收光谱、质子去偶核磁共震碳谱和负离子基质辅助激光诱导－飞行时间质谱结构分析。结果表明，氧化还原降解反应的专一性差，在得到寡糖的同时，在光谱图中出现一些比较复杂的副产物的结构信息。最后，根据MTT法的原理，以有体皮肤成纤维细胞为材料，通过紫外线辐射产生自由基造成氧化损伤，研究降解产物对成纤维细胞的保护作用。当无紫外线辐射时，降解产物对成纤维细胞具有显著的促进生长增殖作用：当经UVa、UBb辐射时则可以显著地表现出对损伤的保护作用，并且这种促进生长和保护作用呈显著的量效关系，表明降解产物具有清除基自由基的作用。但是，因为氧化还原降解以应的机理尚不十分明的以及琼羟胶的特殊结构，使得反应的副产物很难预测，也就使得分离工作难以进行，所以，根据目前所得的信息，尚不能确定是降解产物的什么级分产生的以上两种生物活性。

Addition reactions of nitrones on the reconstructed C(100)-2 x 1 surfaces

In this paper, the reactions of nitrone, N-methyl nitrone, N-phenyl nitrone and their hydroxylamine tautomers (vinyl-hydroxylamine, N-methyl-vinyl-hydroxylamine and N-phenyl-vinyl-hydroxylamine) on the reconstructed C(100)-2 x 1 surface have been investigated using hybrid density functional theory (B3LYP), Moller-Plesset second-order perturbation (MP2) and multi-configuration complete-active-space self-consistent-field (CASSCF) methods. The calculations showed that all the nitrones can react with the surface "dimer" via facile 1.3-dipolar cycloaddition with small activation barriers (less than 12.0 kJ/mol at B3LYP/6-31g(d) level). The [2+2] cycloaddition of hydroxylamine tautomers on the C(100) surface follows a diradical mechanism. Hydroxylamine tautomers first form diradical intermediates with the reconstructed C(I 00)-2 x I surface by overcoming a large activation barrier of 50-60 kJ/mol (B3LYP), then generate [2+2] cycloaddition products via diradical transition states with negligible activation barriers. The surface reactions result in hydroxyl or amino-terminated diamond surfaces, which offers new opportunity for further modifications. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Addition reaction of nitrones on the reconstructed Si(100)-2 x 1 surface

The reaction of nitrone, N-methyl nitrone, and their hydroxylamine tautomers (vinyl-hydroxylamine and N-methyl vinyl-hydroxylamine) on the reconstructed Si(100)-2 x 1 surface has been investigated by means of hybrid density functional theory (B3LYP) and Moller-Plesset second-order perturbation (MP2) methods. The calculations predicted that both of the nitrones should react with the surface dimer via facile concerted 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition leading to 5-member-ring compounds. The reaction of hydroxylamine tautomers on the Si(100) surface follows pi-complex (intermediate) mechanism. For the reaction of N-methyl vinyl-hydroxylamine, the pi-complex intermediate undergoes [2+2] cycloaddition leading to a 4-member-ring compound. But in the reaction of vinyl-hydroxylamine, the intermediate undergoes H-migration reaction ("ene" reaction) resulting in the oxime-terminated Si surface. All the surface reactions result in the hydroxyl-terminated silicon surfaces, which are very useful for the further modification of the semiconductor.

Theoretical study on the mechanism for the addition reaction of SiH3 with propylene and acetic acid

To explore the reactivities of alkene (-CH=CH2) and carboxy (-COOH) group with H-Si under UV irradiation, the addition mechanism for the reactions of SiH3 radical with propylene and acetic acid was studied by using the B3LYP/6-311++ G(d,p) method. Based on the surface energy profiles, the dominant reaction pathways can be established; i.e., SiH3 adds to the terminal carbon atom of the alkene (-CH=CH2) to form an anti-Markovnikov addition product, or adds to the oxygen atom of the carboxy group (-COOH) to form silyl acetate (CH3-COOSiH3). Because the barrier in the reaction of the carboxy group (39.9 kJ/ mol) is much larger than that of alkene (11.97 kJ/mol), we conclude that the reaction of bifunctional molecules (e.g., omega-alkenoic acid) with H-Si under irradiation condition is highly selective; i.e., the alkene group (-CH= CH2) reacts with SiH3 substantially faster than the carboxyl group (-COOH), which agrees well with the experimental results. This provides the possibility of preparing carboxy-terminated monolayers on silicon surface from omega-alkenoic acids via direct photochemical reaction.

Removal of NO by microwave discharge with the addition of CH4

Removal of NO by a continuous microwave discharge at atmospheric pressure with the addition of CH4 is reported. The conversion of NO to N-2 is approximately 80%, and the energy efficiency is up to 0.55 g-NO/kWh. The effects of CH4 addition and three discharge modes on NO conversion and energy efficiency are investigated. The dependence of NO conversion on experimental time is also observed.

Isospecific polymerization of styrene with modified ziegler-type catalysts

Effects of various kinds of additives as well as aging of the catalyst on the polymerization of styrene catalyzed by TiCl4/MgCl2-AlEt3 system have been studied. Experiments show that in toluene the isotacticity of polystyrene can be up to 83% for aged catalyst, whereas when the catalyst is not aged. non-stereospecific polymer is the main product. When PCl3 is used as an additive, the catalyst system gives high activity and isotacticity. The use of a mixture of AlEt3/H2O (1: 1 mole ratio) as a cocatalyst is also efficient. The catalyst [TiCl4-PCl3/MgCl2-AlEt3/H2O] displays high activity and product isotacticity (94%) with an average molecular weight up to 2 X 10(-6). When Co(acac)(3) is added to to [TiCl4/MgCl2-AlEt3] catalyst after it was aged, the isotacticity can be up to 97%. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of syngas addition on lower alkene production by the oxidative cracking of hexane

The lower alkene production by the gas-phase oxidative cracking (GOC) or catalytic oxidative cracking (COC) of hexane (C6) with added syngas was investigated. The addition of syngas to the COC process could effectively enhance the selectivity to lower alkenes and decrease the selectivity to COx, because of the preferential reaction between O-2 with H-2 contained in the syngas, whereas it has little effect on the conversion of C6 and product distribution in the GOC process. The high selectivity to lower alkenes of 70% and low selectivity to CO, of 6% at C6 conversion of 66% were achieved over 0.1% Pt/MgAl2O4 catalyst. The COC process of C6 combined with the syngas in the feed could directly produce a gas mixture of lower alkenes, H-2, and CO, which usually is a suitable feedstock for the hydroformylation process.

Rapid protein identification using monolithic enzymatic microreactor and LC-ESI-MS/MS

A monolithic enzymatic microreactor was prepared in a fused-silica capillary by in situ polymerization of acrylamide, glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and ethylene dimethacrylate (EDMA) in the presence of a binary porogenic mixture of dodecanol and cyclohexanol, followed by ammonia solution treatment, glutaraldehyde activation and trypsin modification. The choice of acrylamide as co-monomer was found useful to improve the efficiency of trypsin modification, thus, to increase the enzyme activity. The optimized microreactor offered very low back pressure, enabling the fast digestion of proteins flowing through the reactor. The performance of the monolithic microreactor was demonstrated with the digestion of cytochrome c at high flow rate. The digests were then characterized by CE and HPLC-MS/MS with the sequence coverage of 57.7%. The digestion efficiency was found over 230 times as high as that of the conventional method. in addition, for the first time, protein digestion carried out in a mixture of water and ACN was compared with the conventional aqueous reaction using MS/MS detection, and the former solution was found more compatible and more efficient for protein digestion.