• Title/Summary/Keyword: Biophysics

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The relationship between precursor concentration and antibacterial activity of biosynthesized Ag nanoparticles

  • Balaz, Matej;Balazova, Ludmila;Kovacova, Maria;Daneu, Nina;Salayova, Aneta;Bedlovicova, Zdenka;Tkacikova, Ludmila
    • Advances in nano research
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    • v.7 no.2
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    • pp.125-134
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    • 2019
  • The Origanum vulgare L.-mediated synthesis of Ag nanoparticles was successfully realized within the present study. Various concentrations of the $AgNO_3$ used as a silver precursor (1, 2.5, 5, 10 and 100 mM) were used. Very rapid formation of Ag nanoparticles was observed, as only minutes were necessary for the completion of the reaction. With the increasing concentration, red shift of the surface plasmon resonance peak was observed in the Vis spectra. According to photon cross-correlation spectroscopy results, the finest grain size distribution was obtained for the 2.5 mM sample. The transmission electron microscopy analysis of this sample has shown bimodal size distribution with larger crystallites with 100 nm size and smaller around 10 nm. The antibacterial activity was also the best for this sample so the positive correlation between good grain size distribution and antibacterial activity was found. The in-depth discussion of antibacterial activity with related works from the materials science point of view is provided, namely emphasizing the role of effective nanoparticles distribution within the plant extract or matrix. The antibacterial activity seems to be governed by both content of Ag nanoparticles and their effective distribution. This work contributes to still expanding environmentally acceptable field of green synthesis of silver nanoparticles.

Insight into Rhodopsin Diversity from Viewpoint of Counterion

  • Terakita, Akihisa
    • Journal of Photoscience
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.33-36
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    • 2002
  • In vertebrate rhodopsins the glutamic acid at position 113 serves as a counterion to stabilize the protonated retinylidene Schiff base linkage and to shift the spectrum to the visible region. Invertebrate rhodopsins and retinochrome have the amino acid residue different from glutamic acid or asparatic acid at this position and therefore, these pigments may have a counterion at different position. We first investigated the counterion in retinochrome by site specific mutagenesis. The results showed that the counterion is the glutamic acid at position 181, where almost of all the pigments including vertebrate and invertebrate rhodopsins in the rhodopsin family have a glutamic acid or an aspartic acid. In vertebrate rhodopsins, however, Glu 181 does not act as a counterion, and the red-sensitive cone pigments have a histidine at this position, which serves as a chloride-binding site for red-shift of the absorption spectrum. These findings suggested that the role of Glu181 as a counterion may be weakened by the newly acquired counterion at position 113. Taken together with our recent studies on an invertebrate-type rhodopsin, the rhodopsin diversity was discussed from viewpoint of counterion.

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Radiation Hormesis: Incredible or Inevitable\ulcorner

  • Ducoff, Howard-S
    • Animal cells and systems
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    • v.6 no.3
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    • pp.187-193
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    • 2002
  • It has long been recognized that exposure to low levels of toxic chemicals could have beneficial effects, such as increased resistance to related chemicals or stimulation of growth or development. The notion of radiation hormesis, that exposure to low levels of ionizing radiation could produce beneficial effects, developed seriously in the late 1950’s, and was, to most radiation scientists, incredible. This was due in pan to the then prevailing ideas of radiobiological mechanisms, in part to the sweeping generalizations made by the leading proponents of the radiation hormesis concept, and in pan to the many failures to confirm reports of beneficial effects. More recent understanding of the mechanisms of radiation damage and repair, and discoveries of induction of gene expression by radiation and other genotoxic agents [the adaptive response] make it seem inevitable that under suitable conditions, irradiation will produce beneficial effects.

Direct Calculation Method for Excited-state Diffusion-influenced Reversible Reactions with an External Field

  • Reigh, Shang Yik;Kim, Hyo-Joon
    • Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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    • v.33 no.3
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    • pp.1015-1019
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    • 2012
  • The direct calculation method is generalized to the excited-state diffusion-influenced reversible reaction of a neutral and a charged particle under an external field with two different lifetimes and quenching in three dimensions. The present method provides an alternative way to calculate the binding probability density functions and the survival probabilities from the corresponding irreversible results. The solutions are obtained as the series solutions by the diagonal approximation due to the anisotropy of the unidirectional external field. The numerical results are found to be in good agreement with those of the previous study [S. Y. Reigh et al. J. Chem. Phys. 132, 164112 (2010)] within a weak field limit. The solutions of two approaches show qualitatively the same overall behavior including the power laws at long times.

Role of Diffusion in the Kinetics of Reversible Enzyme-catalyzed Reactions

  • Szabo, Attila;Zhou, Huan-Xiang
    • Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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    • v.33 no.3
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    • pp.925-928
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    • 2012
  • The accurate expression for the steady-state velocity of an irreversible enzyme-catalyzed reaction obtained by Shin and co-workers (J. Chem. Phys. 2001, 115, 1455) is generalized to allow for the rebinding of the product. The amplitude of the power-law ($t^{-1/2}$) relaxation of the free- and bound-enzyme concentrations to steady-state values is expressed in terms of the steady-state velocity and the intrinsic (chemical) rate constants. This result is conjectured to be exact, even though our expression for the steady-state velocity in terms of microscopic parameters is only approximate.

Structure and Function of the Developmental Signaling Molecule Hedgehog

  • Leahy, Daniel J.
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.32 no.2
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    • pp.103-111
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    • 1999
  • Hh proteins represent a new signaling paradigm in metazoan development. In species ranging from fruit flies to humans, Hh proteins mediate multiple processes vital to appropriate pattern formation in the developing embryo. Hh proteins undergo an autoprocessing event in which the full-length protein is cleaved into N-terminal and C-terminal domains (Hh-N and Hh-C, respectively), and a cholesterol moiety becomes covalently attached to Hh-N. All known signaling activities of Hh proteins are mediated by Hh-N while both the cleavage and cholesterol transfer reactions are mediated by Hh-C. The cholesterol attached to Hh-N is required to retrict the range of Hh signaling and may be involved in ensuring appropriate reception of the Hh signal in target tissues. Disruptions of Hh signaling pathways lead to severe developmental defects in newborns and cancers in adults. While studies of Hh proteins have yielded a wealth of new insight into the molecular mechanisms of metazoan development, many outstanding questions concerning Hh signaling mechanisms ensure that unraveling the secrets of this molecule will keep scientists well entertained for the foreseeable future.

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Sequence Analysis and Functional Expression of the Structural and ]Regulatory Genes for Pyruvate Dehydrogenase

  • Hwan Youn;Jangyul Kwak
    • Journal of Microbiology
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    • v.40 no.1
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    • pp.43-50
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    • 2002
  • A cluster of genes encoding the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) of Streptomyces seoulensis, a Gram-positive bacterium, was cloned and sequenced. The genes of S. seoulensis consist of four open reading frames. The first gene, lpd, which encodes a lipoamide dehydrogenase, is followed by pdhB encoding a dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase (E2p), pdhR, a regulatory gene, and pdhA encoding a pyruvate dehydrogenase component (Elp). Elp had an unusual homodimeric subunit, which has been known only in Gram-negative bacteria S. seoulensis E2p contains two lipoyl domains like those of humans and Streptomyces faecalis. The pdhR gene appears to be clustered with the structural genes of S. seoulensis PDC. The PdhR-overexpressed S. seoulensis howed growth retardation and the decrease of Elp, indicating that PdhR regulates the function of PDC by repressing the expression of Elp. A strain of Streptomyces licidans overexpressing S. seoulensis PdhR showed a significant decreasein the level of actinorhodin, implying a regulatory role for Streptomyces PDC in antibiotic biosynthesis.

Dual Action of d-Tubocurarine on Large-Conductance $Ca^{2+}-activated$ $K^+$ Channels from Rat Brain Reconstituted into Planar Lipid Bilayer

  • Chung, Sung-Kwon;Shin, Jung-Hoon
    • The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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    • v.2 no.5
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    • pp.549-553
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    • 1998
  • Using the planar lipid bilayer method, we investigated the effect of d-tubocurarine (dTC) on the extracellular side of large-conductance $Ca^{2+}-activated\;K^+$ channel from rat brain. When the initial open probability (Po) of the channel was relatively high, dTC decreased channel activity in a concentration dependent manner. In contrast, when the initial Po was lower, sub-micro molar dTC increased channel activity by destabilizing the closed states of the channel. Further addition of dTC up to micro molar range decreased channel activity. This dual effect of dTC implicates that there exist at least two different binding sites for dTC.

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Crystal Structure Analysis of 3-(4-ethylphenyl)-3H-chromeno[4,3-c]isoxazole-3a(4H)-carbonitrile

  • Malathy, P.;Ganapathy, Jagadeesan;Srinivasan, J.;Manickam, Bakthadoss
    • Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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    • v.8 no.4
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    • pp.250-257
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    • 2015
  • The crystal structure of the potential active 3-(4-ethylphenyl)-3H-chromeno[4,3-c]isoxazole-3a(4H)-carbonitrile ($C_{19}H_{16}N_2O_2$) has been determined from single crystal X-ray diffraction data. In the title compound crystallizes in the monoclinic space group $P2_1/c$ with unit cell dimension a=6.6869 (8) ${\AA}$, b=15.8326 (19) ${\AA}$ and c= 15.237 (2) ${\AA}$ [${\alpha}=90^{\circ}$, ${\beta}=100.663^{\circ}$ and ${\gamma}=90^{\circ}$]. In the structure chromene, isoxazole and carboxylate are almost coplanar each other. All geometrical parameters revelled that chromene ring of pyran ring adopt sofa conformation. The crystal packing is stabilized by intermolecular C-H...N and C-H...O hydrogen bond interaction.