Inhalable nitric oxide (iNO) is a lifesaving, FDA-approved drug to improve oxygenation in persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn. iNO also has many other applications in lung diseases owing to its vasodilatory and antimicrobial effects. However, its wider therapeutic application is often prohibited by the high cost and logistical barriers of traditional NO/N gas tanks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA set of antimony(III) compounds containing a ligand (Ar) with a pendant guanidine function (where Ar = 2-[(MeN)CN]CH) was prepared and characterized. This includes triorgano-Ar3Sb, diorgano-Ar2SbCl and monoorgano-ArSbCl2 compounds and they were characterized by H and C NMR spectroscopy and by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis (sc-XRD). The coordination capability of Ar3Sb and Ar2SbCl was examined in the reactions with either -[PdCl(CHCN)] or PtCl and complexes -[(κ-Sb,N-Ar3Sb)MCl] (M = Pd 1, Pt 2) and [(κ-N,Sb,N-Ar2SbCl)MCl] (M = Pd 3, Pt 4) were isolated, while their structures were determined by sc-XRD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDistal arthrogryposis (DA) is a skeletal muscle disorder that is characterized by the presence of joint contractures in various parts of the body, particularly in the distal extremities. In this study, after a systematic review of the literature, we present a case report of a non-consanguineous family. In our case, the first-trimester ultrasound was negative, and the presence of the affected mother was not enough for the parents to consent to us performing invasive amniotic fluid sampling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFission yeast, a single-cell eukaryotic organism, shares many fundamental cellular processes with higher eukaryotes, including gene transcription and regulation, cell cycle regulation, vesicular transport and membrane trafficking, and cell death resulting from the cellular stress response. As a result, fission yeast has proven to be a versatile model organism for studying human physiology and diseases such as cell cycle dysregulation and cancer, as well as autophagy and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's diseases. Given that viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that rely on host cellular machinery to replicate and produce, fission yeast could serve as a surrogate to identify viral proteins that affect host cellular processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhthalazine can behave as a diene in Diels-Alder (DA) cycloadditions, typically at the pyridazine ring, however, its application is somewhat limited because these reactions usually require harsh conditions or sophisticated catalysts. As an unconventional example, phthalazine was reported to undergo cycloaddition with the [PCO] anion without any catalyst. In this computational study, we scrutinise the mechanism of the DA reactions between phthalazine and the so far known [ECX] (E: P, As; X: O, S, Se) anions as dienophiles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the synthesis of tofisopam drug substance, an interesting diastereospecific lithium variant of Oppenauer oxidation was observed and investigated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The computations revealed energetic differences caused by steric differences between the diastereomers that might provide an explanation for the experimentally formed products. In addition, the trend in the measured NMR shifts was also in line with the computed values, which allowed the assignment of the absolute configuration of the diastereomers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough phosphonyl radicals play an important role as transient species in many chemical transformations, such as photoinitiated polymerisation reactions, permanently stable phosphonyl radicals are yet to be discovered. In this computational study, we aim at a conceptual understanding of the electronic effects influencing the stabilities of phosphonyl radicals through computing radical stabilisation energies (RSEs) for a large set of phosphonyl radicals with carbocyclic backbones. The studied radicals exhibit ring sizes varying from 3- to 7-membered with full saturation or different grades of unsaturation adjacent to the P-centre in an endo or exocyclic fashion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral P-type ATPases are important Cd/Cu pumps in species, and they are tightly associated with the heavy metal stress tolerance of these ascomycetous fungi. To better understand the roles of the two P-type ATPases, CrpA Cd/Cu pump (orthologue of the Cd/Cu pump) and PcaA Cd pump (orthologue of the Pca1 Cd pump), we have generated individual mutants and characterized their heavy metal susceptibilities. The deletion of CrpA in has led to the increased sensitivity of the fungus to stresses induced by Zn, Fe, or the combination of oxidative-stress-inducing menadione sodium bisulfite and Fe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHerbicides are effective tools to manage weeds and enable food production and sustainable agriculture. Corteva Agriscience R&D has recently discovered new diphenyl-ether compounds displaying excellent postemergent efficacy on important weed species along with corn safety. Here, we describe the chemistry, biology, biochemistry, and computational modeling research that led to the discovery and elucidation of the primary mode of action for these compounds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report on the development of a novel class of diaryl ether herbicides. After the discovery of a phenoxybenzoic acid with modest herbicidal activity, optimization led to several molecules with improved control of broadleaf and grass weeds. To facilitate this process, we first employed a three-step combinatorial approach, then pivoted to a one-step Ullmann-type coupling that provided faster access to new analogs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
May 2023
A number of stable group 6 metal complexes bearing 2,4,6-oxy functionalised 1,3,5-triphosphinines, phosphorus containing heterocyclic ligands with a central CP core, were synthesised such that a complete series of [M{PC(OX)}(CO)] compounds is obtained [M = Cr(0), Mo(0), W(0); X = H, SiBuPh, B(ipc)]. In all complexes, the triphosphinine coordinates in a η-binding mode the delocalized 6π-system of the ring. The ligand properties can be tuned by changing the substituent on the oxygen centre.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper reviews the bird skin collection housed in the Zoological Museum of Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The collection includes 925 specimens, belonging to 193 species from 53 families and 20 orders, collected between 1859 and 2021. Due to its historical background and the presence of rare species, it is considered to be one of most important ornithological collections in Eastern Europe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPre-mRNA splicing plays a fundamental role in securing protein diversity by generating multiple transcript isoforms from a single gene. Recently, it has been shown that specific G-patch domain-containing proteins are critical cofactors involved in the regulation of splicing processes. In this study, using the knock-out strategy, affinity purification and the yeast-two-hybrid assay, we demonstrated that the spliceosome-associated G-patch protein Gpl1 of the fission yeast mediates interactions between putative RNA helicase Gih35 (SPAC20H4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAddition of the P-H bond in bis(mesitoyl)phosphine, HP(COMes) (BAPH), to a wide variety of activated carbon-carbon double bonds as acceptors was investigated. While this phospha-Michael addition does not proceed in the absence of an additive or catalyst, excellent results were obtained with stoichiometric basic potassium or caesium salts. Simple amine bases can be employed in catalytic amounts, and tetramethylguanidine (TMG) in particular is an outstanding catalyst that allows the preparation of bis(acyl)phosphines, R-P(COMes) , under very mild conditions in excellent yields after only a short time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this computational study, we report on the stability of cyclic phosphinyl radicals with an aim for a systematical assessment of stabilization effects. The radical stabilization energies (RSEs) were calculated using isodesmic reactions for a large number of carbocyclic radicals possessing different ring sizes and grades of unsaturation. In general, the RSE values range from -1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe use of yeast-containing probiotics is on the rise; however, these products occasionally cause fungal infections and possibly even fungemia among susceptible probiotic-treated patients. The incidence of such cases is probably underestimated, which is why it is important to delve deeper into the pathomechanism and the adaptive features of S. ‘boulardii’.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile Diels-Alder (DA) reactions involving neutral or cationic dienophiles are well-known, the characteristics of the analogous reactions with anionic dienophiles are practically unexplored. Herein we present the first comparative computational investigations on the characteristics of DA cycloadditions with anionic dienophiles on the basis of the reactions of [ECX] anions (E = P, As; X = O, S, Se) with 2-pyran-2-one. All of these reactions were found to be both kinetically and thermodynamically feasible, enabling synthetic access toward 2-phosphaphenolate and arsaphenolate derivatives in the future.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBecause it is impossible to comprehensively characterize biodiversity at all levels of organization, conservation prioritization efforts need to rely on surrogates. As species distribution maps of relished groups as well as high-resolution remotely sensed data increasingly become available, both types of surrogates are commonly used. A good surrogate should represent as much of biodiversity as possible, but it often remains unclear to what extent this is the case.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFData dimensionality informs us about data complexity and sets limit on the structure of successful signal processing pipelines. In this work we revisit and improve the manifold adaptive Farahmand-Szepesvári-Audibert (FSA) dimension estimator, making it one of the best nearest neighbor-based dimension estimators available. We compute the probability density function of local FSA estimates, if the local manifold density is uniform.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn innovative, Raman spectroscopy-based monitoring and control system is introduced in this paper for designing dynamic feeding strategies that allow the maintenance of key cellular nutrients at an ideal level in Chinese hamster ovary cell culture. The Partial Least Squares calibration models built for glucose, lactate and 16 (out of 20) individual amino acids had very good predictive power with low root mean square errors values and high square correlation coefficients. The developed models used for real-time measurement of nutrient and by-product concentrations allowed us to gain better insight into the metabolic behavior and nutritional consumption of cells.
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