Structural Cues for Understanding eEF1A2 Moonlighting

Spontaneous mutations in the EEF1A2 gene cause epilepsy and severe neurological disabilities in children. The crystal structure of eEF1A2 protein purified from rabbit skeletal muscle reveals a post-translationally modified dimer that provides information about the sites of interaction with numerous binding partners, including itself, and maps these mutations onto the dimer and tetramer interfaces. The spatial locations of the side chain carboxylates of Glu301 and Glu374, to which phosphatidylethanolamine is uniquely attached via an amide bond, define the anchoring points of eEF1A2 to cellular membranes and interorganellar membrane contact sites. Additional bioinformatic and molecular modeling results provide novel structural insight into the demonstrated binding of eEF1A2 to SH3 domains, the common MAPK docking groove, filamentous actin, and phosphatidylinositol-4 kinase IIIβ. In this new light, the role of eEF1A2 as an ancient, multifaceted, and articulated G protein at the crossroads of autophagy, oncogenesis and viral replication appears very distant from the “canonical” one of delivering aminoacyl-tRNAs to the ribosome that has dominated the scene and much of the thinking for many decades.     

Controlling thickness to tune performance of high-mobility transparent conducting films deposited from Ga-doped ZnO ceramic target

Structure modification has been found to tune significantly the transparent-conducting performance, especially mobility and conductivity of hydrogenated Ga-doped ZnO (HGZO) films. The strong correlation between film thickness and mobility of the films is revealed. The mobility increases quickly with increasing the thickness from 350 to 900 nm, and then tends to be saturated at further thicknesses. A higher mobility than 50 cm²/Vs can be achieved, which is an extra-high value for polycrystalline ZnO films deposited by using the sputtering technique. The thickness-dependent mobility originates from scatterings on grain boundaries and dislocation-induced defects controlled by thin-film growth. Based on the Volmer-Weber model, an expansion model is built up to describe the thickness-dependent crystal growth of the HGZO films, especially at the thick films. As a result, the 800 nm-thick HGZO film obtains the highest performance with high mobility of 51.5 cm²/Vs, low resistivity of 5.3 × 10^?4 Ωcm, and good transmittance of 83.3 %.     

Histone Methylation Marks on Circulating Nucleosomes as Novel Blood-Based Biomarker in Colorectal Cancer

Circulating nucleic acids (CNAs) are under investigation as a liquid biopsy in cancer as potential non-invasive biomarkers, as stable structure in circulation nucleosomes could be valuable sources for detection of cancer-specific alterations in histone modifications. Our interest is in histone methylation marks with a focus on colorectal cancer, one of the leading cancers respective the incidence and mortality. Our previous work included the analysis of trimethylations of lysine 9 on histone 3 (H3K9me3) and of lysine 20 on histone 4 (H4K20me3) by chromatin immuno- precipitation-related PCR in circulating nucleosomes. Here we asked whether global immunologic measurement of histone marks in circulation could be a suitable approach to show their potential as biomarkers. In addition to H3K9me3 and H4K20me3 we also measured H3K27me3 in plasma samples from CRC patients (n = 63) and cancer free individuals (n = 40) by ELISA-based methylation assays. Our results show that of three marks, the amounts of H3K27me3 (p = 0.04) and H4K20me3 (p < 0.001) were significantly lower in CRC patients than in healthy controls. For H3K9me3 similar amounts were measured in both groups. Areas under the curve (AUC) in receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves indicating the power of CRC detection were 0.620 for H3K27me3, 0.715 for H4K20me3 and 0.769 for the combination of both markers. In conclusion, findings of this preliminary study reveal the potential of blood-based detection of CRC by quantification of histone methylation marks and the additive effect of the marker combination.     

Site-Specific PEGylation of Therapeutic Proteins

The use of proteins as therapeutics has a long history and is becoming ever more common in modern medicine. While the number of protein-based drugs is growing every year, significant problems still remain with their use. Among these problems are rapid degradation and excretion from patients, thus requiring frequent dosing, which in turn increases the chances for an immunological response as well as increasing the cost of therapy. One of the main strategies to alleviate these problems is to link a polyethylene glycol (PEG) group to the protein of interest. This process, called PEGylation, has grown dramatically in recent years resulting in several approved drugs. Installing a single PEG chain at a defined site in a protein is challenging. Recently, there is has been considerable research into various methods for the site-specific PEGylation of proteins. This review seeks to summarize that work and provide background and context for how site-specific PEGylation is performed. After introducing the topic of site-specific PEGylation, recent developments using chemical methods are described. That is followed by a more extensive discussion of bioorthogonal reactions and enzymatic labeling.     

Research on hydrophobicity of electrospun Fe3O4/PVDF nanofiber membranes under different preparation conditions

Abstract

Preparation condition can affect the structure and the properties of nanofiber membrane. In order to explore suitable conditions to prepare the Fe₃O₄/PVDF nanofiber membrane with good hydrophobicity, the hydrophobicity of Fe₃O₄/PVDF nanofiber membranes obtained by electrospinning was investigated by changing preparation conditions like weight percentage of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles, blending quality concentration of poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles, and positive voltage. And the variations of hydrophobicity of Fe₃O₄/PVDF nanofiber membranes modified by 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorodecyl trimethoxysilane were studied. The results show that the hydrophobicity of Fe₃O₄/PVDF nanofiber membranes has changed under different preparation conditions. The contact angles of samples increased after a modification by 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorodecyl trimethoxysilane, which indicates that the hydrophobicity of Fe₃O₄/PVDF nanofiber membranes has been enhanced.     

改性纳米TiO2光催化降解苯酚活性的研究

在装有紫外光的光催化反应器中，用锐钛型纳米TiO2为光催化剂，进行了苯酚水溶液的光催化降解性能的研究。考察了溶液的pH值、纳米TiO2用量、镍（Ni^2＋）掺杂量、苯酚的初始质量浓度等因素对苯酚水溶液光催化降解过程的影响。结果表明，在pH值为7时，苯酚水溶液的降解率达95％以上，强酸和强碱条件均不利于苯酚的降解。当TiO2用量为50mg，UV辐照40min时，200mL质量浓度为50mg／L的苯酚水溶液的降解率为96．3％；当TiO2用量为150mg，UV辐照60min时，200mL质量浓度100mg／L的苯酚水溶液的降解率为95．8％。镍掺杂增加了TiO2的光催化活性，用质量分数为10％的二氯化镍水溶液掺杂制备的复合光催化剂，苯酚水溶液的降解率比未掺杂时增加13．6％。     

润滑油用纳米TiO2的表面改性及自修复性能研究

采用油酸对纳米TiO2进行表面改性，使其稳定分散于基础油中。利用HQ-1摩擦磨损试验机考察纳米TiO2的自修复性能，并探讨其自修复机理。试验结果表明，经改性后的纳米TiO2粉体作为润滑添加剂具有良好的分散稳定性、减摩抗磨性和自修复性。     

无钴黑色陶瓷颜料中铬含量测定的新方法

本文以盐酸羟胺作还原剂,研究了三价铬与二甲酚橙的显色反应,结果发现Cr3 在0～80滋g/50ml范围内,其吸光度与Cr3 含量成正比相关,用于无钴黑色陶瓷颜料中铬含量的测定,作出了回归方程,且进行了显著性检验,获得了理想的结果。     

低温低渗透砂岩油藏窜流大孔道深部封堵技术研究

所用堵剂为高强度的淀粉接枝聚丙烯酰胺交联凝胶SAMG-1,由<6%淀粉、4.5%-5.5%丙烯酰胺、0.003%-0.006%交联剂组成,35℃成胶时间受淀粉和交联剂用量控制,为18-20小时以上,成胶前黏度-100 mPa.s。该堵剂具有长期稳定性,在储层岩心中注入深度15 cm的堵剂,在35℃候凝48小时后及老化90天后,封堵强度分别为0.61和0.59 MPa/cm,封堵率分别为98.6%和98.1%。该堵剂优先进入高渗层,注入0.5 PV并成胶后,2组双填砂管组成的模型低、高渗管渗透率保留率分别为68.4%、0.7%和69.4%、0.0%。吉林扶余油田西一区+15-8.2区块有水井6口,油井13口,含水率达91.5%,注入水最快在5天内到达油井。报道了该区块整体深部调剖封堵窜流通道的情况,详细叙述了+15-9.2井施工中通过注入压力和井底回压控制注入流量,使堵剂陆续进入原生和次生孔道的工艺作业,该井设计注入堵剂92 m3。6口水井整体调剖后,油井产液量差别减小,产油量增加,有效期已超过了9个月,共增油843 t,含水平均下降3.87%。图7表1参8。