An acid-labile block copolymer of PDMAEMA and PEG as potential carrier for intelligent gene delivery systems

Intelligent gene delivery systems based on physiologically triggered reversible shielding technology have evinced enormous interest due to their potential in vivo applications. In the present work, an acid-labile block copolymer consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) segments connected through a cyclic ortho ester linkage (PEG- a-PDMAEMA) was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization of DMAEMA using a PEG macroinitiator with an acid-cleavable end group. PEG- a-PDMAEMA condensed with plasmid DNA formed polyplex nanoparticles with an acid-triggered reversible PEG shield. The pH-dependent shielding/deshielding effect of PEG chains on the polyplex particles were evaluated by zeta potential and size measurements. At pH 7.4, polyplexes generated from PEG- a-PDMAEMA exhibited smaller particle size, lower surface charge, reduced interaction with erythrocytes, and less cytotoxicity compared to PDMAEMA-derived polyplexes. At pH 5.0, zeta potential of polyplexes formed from PEG- a-PDMAEMA increased, leveled up after 2 h of incubation and gradual aggregation occurred in the presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA). In contrast, the stably shielded polyplexes formed by DNA and an acid-stable block copolymer, PEG- b-PDMAEMA, did not change in size and zeta potential in 6 h. In vitro transfection efficiency of the acid-labile copolymer greatly increased after 6 h incubation at pH 5.0, approaching the same level of PDMAEMA, whereas there was only slight increase in efficiency for the stable copolymer, PEG- b-PDMAEMA.     

Ligand binding induces a conformational change in ifnar1 that is propagated to its membrane-proximal domain

The type I interferon (IFN) receptor plays a key role in innate immunity against viral and bacterial infections. Here, we show by intramolecular Förster resonance energy transfer spectroscopy that ligand binding induces substantial conformational changes in the ectodomain of ifnar1 (ifnar1-EC). Binding of IFNα2 and IFNβ induce very similar conformations of ifnar1, which were confirmed by single-particle electron microscopy analysis of the ternary complexes formed by IFNα2 or IFNβ with the two receptor subunits ifnar1-EC and ifnar2-EC. Photo-induced electron-transfer-based fluorescence quenching and single-molecule fluorescence lifetime measurements revealed that the ligand-induced conformational change in the membrane-distal domains of ifnar1-EC is propagated to its membrane-proximal domain, which is not involved in ligand recognition but is essential for signal activation. Temperature-dependent ligand binding studies as well as stopped-flow fluorescence experiments corroborated a multistep conformational change in ifnar1 upon ligand binding. Our results thus suggest that the relatively intricate architecture of the type I IFN receptor complex is designed to propagate the ligand binding event to and possibly even across the membrane by conformational changes.     

培菲康在儿童腹型过敏性紫癜中的应用

目的探讨活菌剂培菲康在腹型过敏性紫癜(HSP)治疗中的辅助作用。方法选择2004年8月至2006年1月,腹型HSP的住院患儿325例,其中男187例,女138例,年龄3～14岁,病程1～16 d。随机分为培菲康治疗组173例,对照组152例。2组病例在性别、年龄、病程长短及临床表现方面差异均无统计学意义。所有患儿入院后均予免动物蛋白流食或禁食。对照组给予维生素C、能量合剂、西米替丁及糖皮质激素等综合治疗,合并感染者给予抗生素、消化道出血的给予止血敏、维生素K1等。观察组在此基础上加用培菲康1袋,3次/d。用药1周后进行疗效判定。结果 2组患者治疗效果比较:总有效率培菲康治疗组为96.5%,对照组为91.4%,P<0.05。2组患者消化道症状消失时间比较:培菲康治疗组小于对照组,P<0.05。结论活菌剂培菲康对腹型HSP的治疗显示出了一定的疗效,临床证明培菲康可保护胃黏膜,防止胃肠道出血,减轻腹痛症状,从而可缩短病程,临床值得应用。其作用机制目前尚不明确,可能与其发挥免疫系统的调节作用有关。     

光合作用与呼吸作用中的[H]

光合作用与呼吸作用所涉及的[H]指NADH、FADH2与NADPH中的还原性氢。光合作用与呼吸作用中产生和利用的[H]不同,光合作用产生及利用NADPH,而呼吸作用产生与利用的[H]主要是NADH与FADH2。     

萝卜带柄子叶高频再生体系的建立

以11份萝卜（Raphanus sativus）基因型为材料进行子叶离体培养研究,筛选出具有较高再生率的基因型进行实验,考察基因型、外植体类型、激素配比和苗龄等因素对萝卜再生的影响。结果表明：萝卜离体再生的最佳外植体为全子叶-叶柄,最适苗龄为4天,最适培养基为MS＋6mg·L-16-BA＋0.05mg·L-1NAA,再生率高达86.95%,再生系数为1.80。该研究为进行萝卜遗传转化实验奠定了良好基础。     

Assessment of Heavy Metal Contamination in the Sediments of the Shuangtaizi Estuary Using Multivariate Statistical Techniques

In order to assess heavy metal pollution of sediment samples collected from Shuangtaizi estuary, contamination factor (CF) and multivariate statistical analyses, including principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis (CA) and correlation analysis, are carried out in this paper. CF confirms that Pb, Cu and Hg concentrations are very low and all fall within the range of background, while Zn and Cd demonstrate moderate contamination (in A10, A13, A15, A16 and A17 sites) and very high contamination (in A10, A13, A15 and A17 sites), respectively. The PCA indicates that four significant principal components (PCs) are extracted, explaining 88.959% of total variance, which suggests that Pb, Cu and Zn are mainly associated with organic carbon (OC). The result from CA is consistent with that obtained from PCA, classifying that the heavy metals in two clusters derive from different sources. Correlation analysis supports the conclusions from PCA and CA, elucidating the relationships between heavy metals and particle sizes of the sediments.     

High‐Performance and Stable All‐Polymer Solar Cells Using Donor and Acceptor Polymers with Complementary Absorption

To explore the advantages of emerging all‐polymer solar cells (all‐PSCs), growing efforts have been devoted to developing matched donor and acceptor polymers to outperform fullerene‐based PSCs. In this work, a detailed characterization and comparison of all‐PSCs using a set of donor and acceptor polymers with both conventional and inverted device structures is performed. A simple method to quantify the actual composition and light harvesting contributions from the individual donor and acceptor is described. Detailed study on the exciton dissociation and charge recombination is carried out by a set of measurements to understand the photocurrent loss. It is unraveled that fine‐tuned crystallinity of the acceptor, matched donor and acceptor with complementary absorption and desired energy levels, and device architecture engineering can synergistically boost the performance of all‐PSCs. As expected, the PBDTTS‐FTAZ:PNDI‐T10 all‐PSC attains a high and stable power conversion efficiency of 6.9% without obvious efficiency decay in 60 d. This work demonstrates that PNDI‐T10 can be a potential alternative acceptor polymer to the widely used acceptor N2200 for high‐performance and stable all‐PSCs.