N-terminal vacuolar sorting signal at the mouse antibody alters the N-linked glycosylation pattern in suspension-cultured tobacco BY2 cells

Recombinant DNA technology enables the use of plants as the host for the production of pharmaceutical proteins, such as antibodies. The glycosylation of recombinant proteins plays physiological and biological roles. However, because glycosylation in plants is different from that in human cells, the development of glycoengineering is required. In plant cells, glycan structures are shown to correlate with the localization of the recombinant protein produced. In this study, the vacuolar sorting signal (VSS) of sporamin was fused to the heavy (H) and light (L) chains of a mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb), and the mAb was produced in suspension-cultured tobacco BY2 cells. The sugar chain structures were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography, exoglycosidase digestion, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Typical plant glycans with α1,3-fucosylation and/or β1,2-xylosylation derived from mAb with the VSS-fused H-chain (mIgG1000) and mAb with the VSS-fused H- and L-chain (mIgG1010) occupied the large amount of the total N-glycans, 72.1% and 85.0%, respectively, such as those derived from mAb without VSS (mIgG0000), 74.6% (Fujiyama et al., J. Biosci. Bioeng., 101, 212-218, 2006). In contrast, the typical plant glycan structure Man?FucXylGlcNAc? particularly in vacuoles accounted for 37.8% of the total sugar chains derived from mIgG1000 and 58.5% of those derived from mIgG1010 compared with 24.3% of those derived from mIgG0000. These results suggest that the sporamin signal peptide fused to mAb acts as a VSS and leads to the increase in the amount of Man?FucXylGlcNAc?, which is the main N-glycan structure in vacuoles.     

Electrochemical and spectrophotometric study on trivalent neodymium ion in molten binary mixtures of LiCl and alkali earth chlorides

The thermodynamic stability of Nd(III) complexes was studied by electrochemical techniques for molten binary mixtures composed of LiCl and an alkali earth chloride, CaCl₂, SrCl₂, or BaCl₂ at 923 K. The Gibbs free energy change of formation of Nd(III) in the melts was determined. The obtained values showed a good correlation with the polarizing power of solvent cations. The Nd(III) complex was more stable in the melts with low polarizing power. The electronic absorption spectrum of the hypersensitive f-f transition of Nd³⁺ was investigated to obtain information about the structural change of the complex. The estimated oscillator strength of the ⁴G_5/2,²G_7/2 ← ⁴I_9/2 transition and the degree of the energy splitting in electronic energy levels showed different trends upon the polarizing power for each of added alkali earth chloride. This indicates that the coordination environments further from second neighbors could have significant impact on the electronic energy levels of Nd(III) in the mixtures including alkali earth cations.     

Preparation of active layers in polymer solar cells by aerosol jet printing

Active layers of polymer solar cells were prepared by aerosol jet printing of organic inks. Various solvents and additives with high boiling points were screened for the preparation of high-quality polymer films. The effects on device performance of treating the films by thermal and solvent vapor annealing were also investigated. The components of the solvent were important for controlling the drying rate of the liquid films, reducing the number of particle-like protrusions on the film surface, and realizing high molecular ordering in the polymer phases. The optimized solar cell device with poly(3-hexylthiophene) and a C(60) derivative showed a high fill factor of 67% and power conversion efficiency of 2.53% without thermal annealing. The combination of poly[N-9-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-3,6-bis(thiophen-5-yl)-2,5-diethylhexyl-2,5-dihydropyrrolo-[3,4-]pyrrole-1,4-dione] and a C(70) derivative led to power conversion efficiency of 3.92 and 3.14% for device areas of 0.03 and 1 cm(2), respectively.     

Pivoting based manipulation by a humanoid robot

In this paper we address whole-body manipulation of bulky objects by a humanoid robot. We adopt a “pivoting” manipulation method that allows the humanoid to displace an object without lifting, but by the support of the ground contact. First, the small-time controllability of pivoting is demonstrated. On its basis, an algorithm for collision-free pivoting motion planning is established taking into account the naturalness of motion as nonholonomic constraints. Finally, we present a whole-body motion generation method by a humanoid robot, which is verified by experiments.     

Atomic Insights of Self-Healing in Silicon Nanowires

The self-healing capability is highly desirable in semiconductors to develop advanced devices with improved stability and longevity. In this study, the automatic self-healing in silicon nanowires is reported, which are one of the most important building blocks for high-performance semiconductor nanodevices. A recovery of fracture strength (10.1%) on fractured silicon nanowires is achieved, which is demonstrated by in situ transmission electron microscopy tensile tests. The self-healing mechanism and factors governing the self-healing efficiency are revealed by a combination of atomic-resolution characterizations and atomistic simulations. Spontaneous rebonding, atomic rearrangement, and van der Waals attraction are responsible for the self-healing in silicon nanowires. Additionally, the self-healing efficiency is affected by the fracture surface roughness, the nanowire size, the nanowire orientation, and the passivation of dangling bonds on fracture surfaces. These new findings shed light on the self-healing mechanism of silicon nanowires and provide new insights into developing high-lifetime and high-security semiconductor devices.     

Absolute Value of the Surface Tension of Liquid 4He

In 1985 Iino et al. [J. Low Temp. Phys. 61, 155 (1985)] measured the surface tension of liquid ⁴ He by the surface-wave resonance method, and reported that the surface tension at 0K is 354 N/m. Recently, Roche et al. [J. Low Temp. Phys. 106, 565 (1997)] obtained the absolute value at 0K to be 375 N/m from the dispersion relation of a capillary wave at a micron wavelength. There is a 6% discrepancy between those two values. To determine the meniscus effects for the surface waves and the absolute value of the surface tension, we measured the resonance frequencies of the surface wave in two parallelepiped cavities with different widths. By comparing the same wave number of the two cavities, it was found that the resonance frequencies are shifted to be slightly smaller by the meniscus effects. The absolute value of the surface tension, which was obtained by eliminating these effects by using the resonance frequencies of the two cavities, was in agreement with that of Iino et al.     

Correction of the thermal neutron capture cross section of 241Am obtained by the Westcott convention

There is large discrepancy among the reported experimental data of the thermal neutron capture cross section of ²⁴¹Am, where the activation measurements provided larger cross sections than those in the time-of-flight ones. The Westcott convention has been widely used for the derivation of the thermal neutron capture cross section in the activation measurements. We have estimated that this large discrepancy is due to the existence of the resonances below the cadmium cut-off energy (E_Cd ～ 0.5 eV). By reviewing the Westcott convention, we developed the correction method taking account of the contribution of the resonances near or below E_Cd. The correction term was evaluated using the JENDL-4.0. Application of the present method successfully improved the existing discrepancy of the thermal capture cross section of ²⁴¹Am.     

Synthesis of Red-Light-Responsive Pheophorbide-a Tryptamine Conjugated Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy

Six methyl pheophorbide-a derivatives were prepared by linking a tryptamine side chain at the C-13 ¹ , C-15 ² and C-17 ³ positions of pheophorbide-a. P repared conjugates were characterized and evaluated for their photocytotoxicity against A549 cells. The conjugate 6 a with strong absorption at 413 nm (Soret band), 663–671 nm (Q bands) and comparable fluorescence quantum yield (0.26) was found to exhibit significant cytotoxicity (659 nM). Molecular integration of pheophorbide-a and tryptamines showed synergistic effects as the most potent conjugate 6 a was identified with enhanced photocytotoxicity when compared to methyl pheophorbide-a. T he conjugate 6 a was smoothly taken up by A549 cells and exhibited intracellular localization predominantly to lysosome in the cytoplasm. Upon photoirradiation 6 a generated singlet oxygen to show potent cytotoxicity toward A549 cells.     

S-Denitrosylase-Like Activity of Cyclic Diselenides Conjugated with Xaa-His Dipeptide: Role of Proline Spacer as a Key Activity Booster

This study developed dipeptide-conjugated 1,2-diselenan-4-amine ( 1 ), i. e., 1 -Xaa-His, as a new class of S-denitrosylase mimic. The synthesized compounds, especially 1 -Pro-His, remarkably promoted S-denitrosylation of nitrosothiols (RSNO) via a catalytic cycle involving the reversible redox reaction between the diselenide and its corresponding diselenol ([SeH,SeH]) form with coexisting reductant thiols (R′SH), during which the [SeH,SeH] form as a key reactive species reduces RSNO to the corresponding thiol (RSH). Structural analyses of 1 -Pro-His suggested that the peptide backbone of [SeH,SeH] is rigidly bent to form a γ-turn, possibly including an NH⋅⋅⋅Se hydrogen bond between the imidazole ring of His and selenol group, thus stabilizing the [SeH,SeH] form thermodynamically, and dramatically enhancing the catalytic activity. Furthermore, the synthetic compounds were found to prohibit S-nitrosylation-induced protein misfolding in the presence of RSNO, eventually implying their potential as a drug seed for misfolding diseases caused by the dysregulation of the S-denitrosylation system.