Design of spread-out Bragg peaks in hadron therapy with oxygen ions

Aim

Design of a numerical method for creating spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) and evaluation of the best parameter in Bortfeld Model to this aim in oxygen ion therapy.

Apoprotein heterogeneity increases spectral disorder and a step-wise modification of the B850 fluorescence peak position

It has already been established that the quaternary structure of the main light-harvesting complex (LH2) from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris is a nonameric ‘ring’ of PucAB heterodimers and under low-light culturing conditions an increased diversity of PucB synthesis occurs. In this work, single molecule fluorescence emission studies show that different classes of LH2 ‘rings’ are present in “low-light” adapted cells and that an unknown chaperon process creates multiple sub-types of ‘rings’ with more conformational sub-states and configurations. This increase in spectral disorder significantly augments the cross-section for photon absorption and subsequent energy flow to the reaction centre trap when photon availability is a limiting factor. This work highlights yet another variant used by phototrophs to gather energy for cellular development.     

Ten years of MON 810 resistance monitoring of field populations of Ostrinia nubilalis in Europe

From 2005 to 2015, Ostrinia nubilalis were collected in the most important maize‐growing areas in Europe where MON 810 was cultivated. The susceptibility of these O. nubilalis collections to the Cry1Ab protein was determined using overlay bioassays and compared to that of reference (control) strains. Larvae that died or did not moult after 7 days were used to calculate a moulting inhibition concentration (MIC). Two different batches of Cry1Ab protein were used over the course of this study. Between 2005 and 2015, 145 collections of O. nubilalis from 14 areas were analysed. The Cry1Ab susceptibility of populations from different geographic regions differed only slightly across years. The greatest variability in the MIC₅₀ for field samples collected from 2005 to 2011 and tested with batch 1 was 6.6‐fold in 2006. For field‐collected O. nubilalis, the difference between MIC₅₀ values of the most susceptible and most tolerant samples was 13.1‐fold for this period. For samples collected in 2012–2015 and tested with batch 2, the greatest variability was 4.1‐fold in 2014. A diagnostic concentration (MIC₉₉) was calculated for batch 1 (48 ng/cm²) using the results from all the collections in 2005–2012. Bridging experiments indicated that the diagnostic concentration for batch 2 was 28 ng/cm². From 2006 onwards, no O. nubilalis reached the 2nd larval stage when the diagnostic concentration of either batch of Cry1Ab was used. Only one insect collected from Romania in 2012 and two insects collected as reference strain from Spain in 2015 survived exposure to a dosage of 20 ng/cm², and none of these larvae survived on MON 810 maize. Our results indicate that there has been no significant change in susceptibility to Cry1Ab in European populations of O. nubilalis over the period 2005–2015.     

Introducing a novel method based on the imperialistic competitive algorithm to determine fluorine intermolecular potential from ab initio calculations and calculation of some properties via MD simulations

In this work, the possibility of obtaining an accurate site-site potential model suitable for use in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of fluorine from ab initio calculations has been explored. The exploration was made on ab initio calculations. To reduce the ab initio pair potentials into a site-site potential, a higher significance was assigned to the configuration which is more stable. For this purpose, the imperialistic competitive algorithm (ICA) was implemented as a powerful optimisation tool. The calculated second virial coefficients were compared to the experimental values to test the quality of the presented intermolecular potential. The relative error for the calculated second virial coefficient ranged from 0.1 to 5.6%. MD simulations were used to evaluate the ability of the proposed intermolecular potential function. The relative error for the MD simulations ranged from 0.5 to 5.2%. The results are in good agreement with experimental data.     

Clostridium difficile toxin B induces senescence in enteric glial cells: A potential new mechanism of Clostridium difficile pathogenesis

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) causes nosocomial/antibiotic-associated diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis, with dramatic incidence/mortality worldwide. C. difficile virulence factors are toxin A and toxin B (TcdB) which cause cytopathic/cytotoxic effects and inflammation. Until now studies were focused on molecular effects of C. difficile toxins (Tcds) on different cells while unexplored aspect is the status/fate of cells that survived their cytotoxicity. Recently we demonstrated that enteric glial cells (EGCs) are susceptible to TcdB cytotoxicity, but several EGCs survived and were irreversibly cell-cycle arrested and metabolically active, suggesting that EGCs could became senescent. This is important because allowed us to evaluate the not explored status/fate of cells surviving Tcds cytotoxicity, and particularly if TcdB induces senescence in EGCs.Rat-transformed EGCs were treated with 10?ng/ml TcdB for 6?h–48?h, or for 48?h, followed by incubation for additional 4 or 11?days in absence of TcdB (6 or 13 total days). Senescence markers/effectors were examined by specific assays.TcdB induces senescence in EGCs, as demonstrated by the senescence markers: irreversible cell-cycle arrest, senescence-associated-β?galactosidase positivity, flat morphology, early and persistent DNA damage (ATM and H2AX phosphorylation), p27 overexpression, pRB hypophosphorylation, c?Myc, cyclin B1, cdc2 and phosphorylated-cdc2 downregulation, Sirtuin?2 and Sirtuin?3 overexpression. TcdB-induced EGC senescence is dependent by JNK and AKT activation but independent by ROS, p16 and p53/p21 pathways.In conclusion, TcdB induces senescence in EGCs. The extrapolation of these results to CDI leads to hypothesize that EGCs that survived TcdB, once they have acquired a senescence state, could cause irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and tumors due to persistent inflammation, transfer of senescence status and stimulation of pre-neoplastic cells.     

Exposure of helices α4 and α5 is required for insecticidal activity of Cry2Ab by promoting assembly of a prepore oligomeric structure

Cry2Ab, a pore‐forming toxin derived from Bacillus thuringiensis, is widely used as a bio‐insecticide to control lepidopteran pests around the world. A previous study revealed that proteolytic activation of Cry2Ab by Plutella xylostella midgut juice was essential for its insecticidal activity against P. xylostella, although the exact molecular mechanism remained unknown. Here, we demonstrated for the first time that proteolysis of Cry2Ab uncovered an active region (the helices α4 and α5 in Domain I), which was required for the mode of action of Cry2Ab. Either the masking or the removal of helices α4 and α5 mediated the pesticidal activity of Cry2Ab. The exposure of helices α4 and α5 did not facilitate the binding of Cry2Ab to P. xylostella midgut receptors but did induce Cry2Ab monomer to aggregate and assemble a 250‐kDa prepore oligomer. Site‐directed mutagenesis assay was performed to generate Cry2Ab mutants site directed on the helices α4 and α5, and bioassays suggested that some Cry2Ab variants that could not form oligomers had significantly lowered their toxicities against P. xylostella. Taken together, our data highlight the importance of helices α4 and α5 in the mode of action of Cry2Ab and could lead to more detailed studies on the insecticidal activity of Cry2Ab.     

超氧阴离子自由基与嘧啶反应产物的量子化学研究

超氧阴离子自由基与嘧啶反应产物的量子化学研究班福强,戴柏青（哈尔滨师范大学,１５００８０）关键词超氧阴离子自由基;嘧啶;ＵＨＦ从头算超氧阴离子自由基（简称超氧自由基,）是一种重要的活性氧,与其他活性氧［如羟自由基（·ＯＨ）和过氧化氢（Ｈ２Ｏ２）等］一...     

Theoretical Study of the Water Exchange Reaction on Divalent Zinc Ion using Density Functional Theory

Recent ab initio studies reported in the literature have challenged the mechanistic assignments made on the basis of volume of activation data [1,2]. In addition to that ab initio molecular orbital calculations on hydrated zinc(II)-ions were used to elucidate the general role of this ion in metalloproteins [3]. Due to our interest in both inorganic reaction mechanisms and enzymatic catalysis we started a systematic investigation of solvent exchange processes on divalent zinc-ion using density functional calculations. Our investigations cover aqua complexes of the general form [Zn(H₂O)_n]²⁺·mH₂0 with n=3-6 and m=0-2, where n and m represent the number of water molecules in the coordination and solvation sphere, respectively.The complexes [Zn(H₂O)₅]²⁺·2H₂O and [Zn(H₂O)₄]²⁺·2H₂O turnend out to be the most stable zinc complexes with seven and six water molecules, respectively. This implies that a heptacoordinated zinc(II) complex, where all water molecules are located in the co-ordination sphere, should be energetically highly unfavorable and that [Zn(H₂O)₆]²⁺ can quite readily push two coordinated water molecules into the solvation sphere. For the pentaqua complex [Zn(H₂O)₅]²⁺ only one water molecule is easily lost to the solvation sphere, which makes the [Zn(H2O)₄]²⁺·H₂O complex the most favorable in order to consider the limiting dissociative and associative water exchange process of hexacoordinated zinc(II). The dehydration and hydration energies using the most stable zinc(II) complexes [Zn(H₂O)₄]²⁺·2H₂O, [Zn(H₂O)₅]²⁺·2H₂O and [Zn(H₂O)₄]²⁺·H₂O were calculated to be 24.1 and -21.0 kcal/mol, respectively.