Candida and Pseudomonas Lipase-Catalyzed Hydrolysis of Butteroil in the Absence of Organic Solvents

Candida rugosa lipase (CRL) and Pseudomonas fluorescein lipase (PFL) were used to hydrolyze a low-melting point butteroil fraction in the absence of orgaic solvents. CRL and PFL displayed pH activity optima of 6.7 and 7.8, and temperature-activity optima of 40–50°C and 35°C, respectively. Maximum activity for PFL was observed at 5% (v/v) water content. CRL showed higher specificity towards butyric acid relative to PFL after 3 hours of hydrolysis at 40°C (22.3 mol% vs 7.8 mol%, respectively). Both enzymes displayed, however, high specificities towards palmitic and oleic acids. CRL's inherent specificity towards butyric acid makes it an ideal choice for a biological catalyst to generate useful dairy flavor profiles.     

Antimicrobial finishing of regular and modified polyethylene terephthalate fabrics

An effective two-stage method has been developed for imparting antimicrobial properties to regular polyethylene terephthalate (R-PET), polyethylene glycol modified polyethylene terephthalate (PEG-M-PET), R-PET/Cotton blend (R-PET/C) and PEG-M-PET/Cotton blend (PEG-M-PET/C) fabrics. The method consists of partial hydrolysis of the fabrics to create carboxylic groups in PET macromolecules followed by subsequent reaction with dimethylalkylbenzyl ammonium chloride (DMABAC) under alkaline conditions. The reaction conditions such as pH, reaction temperature and time, carboxylic content, and DMABAC concentration were studied. Characterization of the finished fabrics was carried out through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR). All the modified PET fabrics showed excellent antibacterial activity towards Gram-positive (Bacillus mycoides), Gram-negative (Escherichia coli), and nonfilamentous fungus (Candida albicans). The achieved antimicrobial functions on the PET fabrics are durable in repeated laundering processes. Even after laundering 10 times the fabrics could still provide more than 85% of its antimicrobial activity against B. mycoides, E. coli, and C. albicans. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Methacrylic acid–acrylamide-g-poly(ethyleneterephthalate) fibres for urea hydrolysis

This paper presents the results of urease immobilization onto methacrylic acid–acrylamide grafted poly(ethyleneterephthalate) fibres. The graft yield strongly affected the maximum activity of the immobilized enzyme up to a value of 70·2%. Higher grafting caused a decline in urease activity and led to the degradation of the fibres. The minor changes observed in K_m and V_max demonstrated that the conformational changes existed during immobilization were not extensive. However, 70·2% methacrylic acid–acrylamide-g-fibres containing urease were more stable towards acidic and alkaline pH, high temperature and storage conditions compared with free enzyme. Apart from the increase in stability to heat inactivation, the initial enzymatic activity of the urease–fibre system remained almost unchanged even after 40 repeated assays corresponding to 10 h of operation in 4 months, indicating the excellent durability of the system.     

Zirconium tetra-n-butylate modified with different organic acids: Hydrolysis and polymerization of the products

In this work, (a) complexation reaction of zirconium tetra-n-butylate, Zr(OBu ⁿ )₄, with MAc and different organic acids, (b) the hydrolysis reaction of modified Zr species, and (c) the polymerization reaction of complex products are studied. Zr(OBu ⁿ )₄ was reacted with different mole ratios of methacrylic acid (MAc) at room temperature and the maximum combination ratio was found to be 1:2 [Zr(OBu ⁿ )₄:MAc] by FT-IR. The modification of zirconium tetra-n-butylate with the acid mixtures [methacrylic acid-acetic acid (MeCOOH), methacrylic acid-propionic acid (EtCOOH), methacrylic acid-butyric acid (PrCOOH)] was made for a combination ratio of 1:1:1 [MAc:RCOOH:Zr(OBu ⁿ )₄; R: Me, Et, Pr] and the products were characterized by¹H-NMR, FT-IR, and UV spectroscopies. Following their synthesis, hydrolysis of the complexes with various amounts of water and polymerization with benzoyl peroxide were realized. The hydrolysis and polymerization products of the complexes were studied by Karl-Fischer coulometric titration and thermal analysis, respectively. Methyl ethyl ketone(MEK) and chloroform were chosen as solvents.     

Acidic and basic hydrolysis of poly(N‐vinylformamide)

Poly(N‐vinylformamide) (PNVF) was synthesized and hydrolyzed to poly(vinylamine) (PVAm) in both HCl and NaOH solutions. The hydrolysis kinetics and the equilibrium hydrolysis were examined experimentally at different temperatures, polymer concentrations, and acid‐ or base‐to‐amide molar ratios. The hydrolysis kinetics strongly depended on temperature, polymer, and HCl or NaOH concentrations, but showed little dependence on PNVF molecular weight. The acid hydrolysis of PNVF exhibited limited conversions because of the electrostatic repulsion among the cationic amine groups generated during hydrolysis and proton hydrates. In the basic hydrolysis, complete amide conversions were observed when the NaOH/amide molar ratios were greater than unity. The effects of temperature and PNVF concentration on the equilibrium amide conversion appeared to be negligible in both acidic and basic hydrolysis. The equilibrium conversions of base hydrolysis were higher than those of acidic hydrolysis under the same reaction conditions. At NaOH/amide ratios of less than unity, the equilibrium hydrolysis experiments revealed that one base molecule could induce the hydrolysis of more than one amide group. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 86: 3412–3419, 2002     

Comparison among feature extraction methods for HIV-1 protease cleavage site prediction

Recently, several works have approached the HIV-1 protease specificity problem by applying a number of methods from the field of machine learning. However, it is still difficult for researchers to choose the best method due to the lack of an effective comparison. For the first time we have made an extensive study on methods for feature extraction for the problem of HIV-1 protease. We show that a fusion of classifiers trained in different feature spaces permits to obtain a drastically error reduction with respect to the performance of the state-of-the-art.     

两步法合成2-氨基-5-硝基苯酚

以邻氨基苯酚和尿素为原料,将传统环合-硝化-水解三步法工艺改为环合硝化-水解两步法合成了2-氨基-5-硝基苯酚(ANP);研究了影响环合硝化反应和水解反应的因素;优化了反应条件。环合硝化反应的最优条件为:n(邻氨基苯酚)∶n(尿素)=1.00∶1.20、环合时间6h、硝酸用量40.2g、硫酸用量20g、硝化时间3h、硝化温度70℃,在此条件下中间产物6-硝基苯并噁唑酮的收率为90.2%;水解反应的最优条件为:体积分数95%的乙醇为溶剂、n(6-硝基苯并噁唑酮)∶n(氢氧化钠)=1.0∶3.3、水解温度80℃、水解时间15h,在此条件下ANP收率为81.2%。两步反应ANP的总收率为73.2%。对产品进行了元素分析和红外光谱表征,确认终产物为ANP。该方法成本低,ANP总收率高,溶剂可回收,三废量少。     

IgGs-Abzymes from the Sera of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis Recognize and Hydrolyze miRNAs

Autoantibodies-abzymes hydrolyzing DNA, myelin basic protein, and oligosaccharides have been revealed in the sera of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). In MS, specific microRNAs are found in blood and cerebrospinal fluid, which are characterized by increased expression. Autoantibodies, specifically hydrolyzing four different miRNAs, were first detected in the blood of schizophrenia patients. Here, we present the first evidence that 23 IgG antibodies of MS patients effectively recognize and hydrolyze four neuroregulatory miRNAs (miR-137, miR-9-5p, miR-219-2-3p, and miR-219-5p) and four immunoregulatory miRNAs (miR-21-3p, miR-146a-3p, miR-155-5p, and miR-326). Several known criteria were checked to show that the recognition and hydrolysis of miRNAs is an intrinsic property of MS IgGs. The hydrolysis of all miRNAs is mostly site-specific. The major and moderate sites of the hydrolysis of each miRNA for most of the IgG preparations coincided; however, some of them showed other specific sites of splitting. Several individual IgGs hydrolyzed some miRNAs almost nonspecifically at nearly all internucleoside bonds or demonstrated a combination of site-specific and nonspecific splitting. Maximum average relative activity (RA) was observed in the hydrolysis of miR-155-5p for IgGs of patients of two types of MS—clinically isolated syndrome and relapsing-remitting MS—but was also high for patients with primary progressive and secondary progressive MS. Differences between RAs of IgGs of four groups of MS patients and healthy donors were statistically significant (p < 0.015). There was a tendency of decreasing efficiency of hydrolysis of all eight miRNAs during remission compared with the exacerbation of the disease.     

Preparation and Bioactivity of Iridium(III) Phenanthroline Complexes with Halide Ions and Pyridine Leaving Groups

A series of half-sandwich structural iridium(III) phenanthroline (Phen) complexes with halide ions (Cl⁻, Br⁻, I⁻) and pyridine leaving groups ([(η⁵-Cp^X)Ir(Phen)Z](PF₆)_n, Cp^x: electron-rich cyclopentadienyl group, Z: leaving group) have been prepared. Target complexes, especially the Cp^xbiph (biphenyl-substituted cyclopentadienyl)-based one, showed favourable anticancer activity against human lung cancer (A549) cells; the best one ( Ir8 ) was almost five times that of cisplatin under the same conditions. Compared with complexes involving halide ion leaving groups, the pyridine-based one did not display hydrolysis but effectively caused lysosomal damage, leading to accumulation in the cytosol, inducing an increase in the level of intracellular reactive oxygen species and apoptosis; this indicated an anticancer mechanism of oxidation. Additionally, these complexes could bind to serum albumin through a static quenching mechanism. The data highlight the potential value of half-sandwich iridium(III) phenanthroline complexes as anticancer drugs.     

间羟基苯磺酸合成工艺研究

系统研究了以间氨基苯磺酸为原料，通过重氮化，然后在酸性条件下水解制得间羟基苯磺酸的合成工艺。考察了重氨化过程中的NaNO2用量、H2SO4用量、重氮化温度、重氮化反应时间和水解过程中水解温度、水解用稀硫酸浓度及水解时间对间羟基苯磺酸收率的影响。实验表明，最佳工艺条件为：NaNO2与间氨基苯磺酸的摩尔比为1．05：1，重簧L化用H2SO4与间氨基苯磺酸的摩尔比为2．0：1，重氮化温度9℃，重氮化反应时间2小时，水解温度80℃．水解用稀硫酸浓度10％，水解时间川、时，间羟基苯磺酸收率90.95％：