Nuclear magnetic resonance and thermal studies of drug doped dipalmitoyl phosphatidyl choline-H2O systems

The influence of the sulfone drugs, diamino diphenyl sulfone and diamino monophenyl sulfone on the phase transitions and dynamics of dipalmitoyl phosphatidyl choline-H₂O/D₂O vesicles have been investigated using differential scanning calorimetry and nuclear magnetic resonance. Our results show that diamino diphenyl sulfone interacts quite strongly with the headgroups of dipalmitoyl phosphatidyl choline whereas the diamino monophenyl sulfone-dipalmitoyl phosphatidyl choline interaction is quite weak. This is attributed to the difference in the structure and hydrophobic character of the two drugs.     

Association between serum irisin concentration and ischemic stroke: From etiology to clinic

BackgroundTo investigate the relationship between irisin levels in serum and classification of subtype of acute ischemic stroke, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and Modified Rankin Score (mRS) at the time of discharge from the hospital in Turkish patients who had their first acute ischemic stroke (AIS).MethodsSerum irisin levels were measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) 180 patients who applied to emergency department with the diagnosis of AIS from May 2021 to November 2021.ResultsA significant relationship was found between serum irisin levels and ischemic stroke aetiological factors (TAOST) (p=0.017). Increased serum irisin levels were detected in patients without neurological deficits with localization value than those with it (p<0.01). Serum irisin levels also have a negative correlation with high-density lipoprotein (HDL) value in ischemic stroke (r: -0.272, p<0.01).ConclusionsHigh serum irisin levels found in patients with stroke attributed to small vessel disease and in patients with ischemic stroke in whom we did not find any neurological deficits with a localization value. The results of the study show that serum irisin levels have an important role in the etiology of ischemic stroke. Although the question how the irisin is involved in the course of ischemic stroke and what the clinical reflection has not been answered, these findings are a pioneering study on this subject.     

Development of NMR spectroscopic methods for dynamic detection of acetylcholine synthesis by choline acetyltransferase in hippocampal tissue

Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) is the key enzyme for acetylcholine (ACh) synthesis and constitutes a reliable marker for the integrity of cholinergic neurons. Cortical ChAT activity is decreased in the brain of patients suffering from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The standard method used to measure the activity of ChAT enzyme relies on a very sensitive radiometric assay, but can only be performed on post‐mortem tissue samples. Here, we demonstrate the possibility to monitor ACh synthesis in rat brain homogenates in real time using NMR spectroscopy. First, the experimental conditions of the radiometric assay were carefully adjusted to produce maximum ACh levels. This was important for translating the assay to NMR, which has a low intrinsic sensitivity. We then used ¹⁵N‐choline and a pulse sequence designed to filter proton polarization by nitrogen coupling before ¹H‐NMR detection. ACh signal was resolved from choline signal and therefore it was possible to monitor ChAT‐mediated ACh synthesis selectively over time. We propose that the present approach using a labeled precursor to monitor the enzymatic synthesis of ACh in rat brain homogenates through real‐time NMR represents a useful tool to detect neurotransmitter synthesis. This method may be adapted to assess the state of the cholinergic system in the brain in vivo in a non‐invasive manner using NMR spectroscopic techniques.     

Neural processing of auditory looming in the human brain

Acoustic intensity change, along with interaural, spectral, and reverberation information, is an important cue for the perception of auditory motion. Approaching sound sources produce increases in intensity, and receding sound sources produce corresponding decreases. Human listeners typically overestimate increasing compared to equivalent decreasing sound intensity and underestimate the time to contact of approaching sound sources. These characteristics could provide a selective advantage by increasing the margin of safety for response to looming objects. Here, we used dynamic intensity and functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural underpinnings of the perceptual priority for rising intensity. We found that, consistent with activation by horizontal and vertical auditory apparent motion paradigms, rising and falling intensity activated the right temporal plane more than constant intensity. Rising compared to falling intensity activated a distributed neural network subserving space recognition, auditory motion perception, and attention and comprising the superior temporal sulci and the middle temporal gyri, the right temporoparietal junction, the right motor and premotor cortices, the left cerebellar cortex, and a circumscribed region in the midbrain. This anisotropic processing of acoustic intensity change may reflect the salience of rising intensity produced by looming sources in natural environments.     

DNA ligase III promotes alternative nonhomologous end-joining during chromosomal translocation formation

Nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) is the primary DNA repair pathway thought to underlie chromosomal translocations and other genomic rearrangements in somatic cells. The canonical NHEJ pathway, including DNA ligase IV (Lig4), suppresses genomic instability and chromosomal translocations, leading to the notion that a poorly defined, alternative NHEJ (alt-NHEJ) pathway generates these rearrangements. Here, we investigate the DNA ligase requirement of chromosomal translocation formation in mouse cells. Mammals have two other DNA ligases, Lig1 and Lig3, in addition to Lig4. As deletion of Lig3 results in cellular lethality due to its requirement in mitochondria, we used recently developed cell lines deficient in nuclear Lig3 but rescued for mitochondrial DNA ligase activity. Further, zinc finger endonucleases were used to generate DNA breaks at endogenous loci to induce translocations. Unlike with Lig4 deficiency, which causes an increase in translocation frequency, translocations are reduced in frequency in the absence of Lig3. Residual translocations in Lig3-deficient cells do not show a bias toward use of pre-existing microhomology at the breakpoint junctions, unlike either wild-type or Lig4-deficient cells, consistent with the notion that alt-NHEJ is impaired with Lig3 loss. By contrast, Lig1 depletion in otherwise wild-type cells does not reduce translocations or affect microhomology use. However, translocations are further reduced in Lig3-deficient cells upon Lig1 knockdown, suggesting the existence of two alt-NHEJ pathways, one that is biased toward microhomology use and requires Lig3 and a back-up pathway which does not depend on microhomology and utilizes Lig1.     

Purification and Characterization of Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase from Rat Small Intestine

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) was purified from rat small intestine with 19.2% yield and had a specific activity of 53.8 units per miligram protein. The pH optimum was determined to be 8.1. The purified rat small intestinal G6PD gave one activity, one protein band on native PAGE. The observation of one band on SDS/PAGE with an Mr of 48 kDa and a specific activity lower than expected may suggest the proteolytically affected enzyme or different form of G6PD in the rat small intestine. The activation energy, activation enthalpy, Q10, and optimum temperature from Arrhenius plot for the rat small intestinal G6PD were found to be 8.52 kcal/mol, 7.90 kcal/mol, 1.59, and 38 degrees C, respectively. The Km values for G6P and NADP+ were 70.1 +/- 20.8 and 23.2 +/- 7.6 microM, respectively. Double-reciprocal plots of 1/Vm versus 1/G6P (at constant [NADP+]) and of 1/Vm versus 1/NADP+ at constant [G6P]) intersected at the same point on the 1/Vm axis to give Vm = 53.8 U/mg protein.     

Immobilization of Rhizomucor miehei lipase onto montmorillonite K-10 and polyvinyl alcohol gel

Abstract

Immobilization of enzymes from different sources on various supports in designed systems increases enzymes’ stability by protecting the active site of it from undesired effect of reaction environment. Also, immobilization decreases the cost of separation and facilities the reuse of the enzymes. Therefore, the design of new immobilization enzyme preparations has been an inevitable area of modern biotechnology. Herein, Rhizomucor miehei lipase (RML) was immobilized on montmorillonite K-10 (MMT-RML) by adsorption and in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA-RML) by entrapment to obtain a more stable and active lipase preparation. The free and immobilized lipase preparations were characterized for p-nitrophenyl palmitate hydrolysis. The apparent Michaelis–Menten (K_mapp) constant was almost the same for the free RML and PVA-RML, whereas the corresponding value was 17.7-fold lower for MMT-RML. PVA-RML and MMT-RML have shown a 1.1 and 23.8 folds higher catalytic efficiency, respectively, than that of the free RML. The half-lives of PVA-RML and MMT-RML were found to be 7.4 and 3.4 times longer than the free RML at 35?°C, respectively. PVA-RML and MMT-RML maintained 65% and 87% of their initial activities after four reuses. These results showed that the catalytic performance of RML has improved significantly by immobilization.