Discovery, Characterization, and Structure of a Cell Active PAD2 Inhibitor Acting through a Novel Allosteric Mechanism.

Peptidyl arginine deiminases (PADs) are important enzymes in many diseases, especially those involving inflammation and autoimmunity. Despite many years of effort, developing isoform-specific inhibitors has been a challenge. We describe herein the discovery of a potent, noncovalent PAD2 inhibitor, with selectivity over PAD3 and PAD4, from a DNA-encoded library.

Dominance of net autotrophy in arid landscape low relief polar lakes, Nunavut, Canada.

The Arctic is the fastest warming biome on the planet, and environmental changes are having striking effects on freshwater ecosystems that may impact the regional carbon cycle. The metabolic state of Arctic lakes is often considered net heterotrophic, due to an assumed supply of allochthonous organic matter that supports ecosystem respiration and carbon mineralization in excess of rates of primary production. However, lake metabolic patterns vary according to regional climatic characteristics, hydrological connectivity, organic matter sources and intrinsic lake properties, and the metabolism of most Arctic lakes is unknown.

Fatty-acid based assessment of benthic food-web responses to multiple stressors in a large river system.

Rivers are often exposed to multiple stressors, such as nutrients and contaminants, whose impacts on the river food webs may not be distinguished by sole assessment of biological community structures. We examined the benthic algal assemblages and the fatty acids (FA) of benthic macroinvertebrates in the lower Athabasca River in Canada, aiming to assess the changes in algal support and nutritional quality of the benthic food web in response to cumulative exposure to natural bitumen, municipal sewage discharge (hereafter, "sewage"), and oil sands mining ("mining"). Data show that the decline in water quality (increases in nutrient concentrations and total suspended solids) was associated with decreases in benthic diatom abundance, and was driven mainly by sewage-induced nutrient enrichment.

Sorption-Induced Fiber Optic Plasmonic Gas Sensing via Small Grazing Angle of Incidence.

Sensing technologies based on plasmonic nanomaterials are of interest for various chemical, biological, environmental, and medical applications. In this work, an incorporation strategy of colloidal plasmonic nanoparticles (pNPs) in microporous polymer for realizing distinct sorption-induced plasmonic sensing is reported. This approach is demonstrated by introducing tin-doped indium oxide pNPs into a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1).