Proton-density-weighted spinal fMRI with sensorimotor stimulation at 0.2 T.

Proton-density-weighted fMRI at low field (0.2 T) was carried out in the cervical spinal cord of healthy volunteers in this study to examine the feasibility of detecting proton density alteration accompanying activation in the spinal cord. Subjects were asked to grip both hands simultaneously, providing sensorimotor simulation for spinal fMRI.

Suprachoroidal hemorrhage during cataract surgery in a vitrectomized eye.

We report a case of surprachoroidal hemorrhage (SCH) that occurred during cataract surgery in a previously vitrectomized eye. The only sign of SCH was a progressive shadow obscuring the red reflex. There was no increase in intraocular pressure (IOP), shallowing of the anterior chamber, or iris prolapse.

Two pathways converge at CED-10 to mediate actin rearrangement and corpse removal in C. elegans.

The removal of apoptotic cells is essential for the physiological well being of the organism. In Caenorhabditis elegans, two conserved, partially redundant genetic pathways regulate this process. In the first pathway, the proteins CED-2, CED-5 and CED-12 (mammalian homologues CrkII, Dock180 and ELMO, respectively) function to activate CED-10 (Rac1).

In vivo study of microbubbles as an MR susceptibility contrast agent.

The potential application of gas microbubbles as a unique intravascular susceptibility contrast agent for MRI has not been fully explored. In this study, the MR susceptibility effect of an ultrasound microbubble contrast agent, Optison, was studied with rat liver imaging at 7 T. Optison suspension in two different doses (0.

Development of an efficient, scalable, aldolase-catalyzed process for enantioselective synthesis of statin intermediates.

A process is reported for efficient, enantioselective production of key intermediates for the common chiral side chain of statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Lipitor (atorvastatin) and Crestor (rosuvastatin). The process features a one-pot tandem aldol reaction catalyzed by a deoxyribose-5-phosphate aldolase (DERA) to form a 6-carbon intermediate with installation of two stereogenic centers from 2-carbon starting materials. An improvement of almost 400-fold in volumetric productivity relative to the published enzymatic reaction conditions has been achieved, resulting in a commercially attractive process that has been run on up to a 100-g scale in a single batch at a rate of 30.

Exploring nitrilase sequence space for enantioselective catalysis.

Nitrilases are important in the biosphere as participants in synthesis and degradation pathways for naturally occurring, as well as xenobiotically derived, nitriles. Because of their inherent enantioselectivity, nitrilases are also attractive as mild, selective catalysts for setting chiral centers in fine chemical synthesis. Unfortunately, <20 nitrilases have been reported in the scientific and patent literature, and because of stability or specificity shortcomings, their utility has been largely unrealized.

Mapping cyclic change of regional myocardial blood volume using steady-state susceptibility effect of iron oxide nanoparticles.

Purpose: To demonstrate an in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that maps the cyclic change of regional myocardial blood volume (MBV) during the cardiac cycle.

Materials And Methods: The method is based on the dominant T(2)* shortening effect of iron oxide nanoparticle-induced magnetic susceptibility perturbation in myocardium in the steady state. The technique was demonstrated in vivo with normal mouse hearts at 9.

Superconducting RF coils for clinical MR imaging at low field.

Rationale And Objectives: A number of recent reports in the MRI literature have established that substantial signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gains can be achieved with small samples or low resonance frequencies, through the use of high-quality factor high-temperature superconducting (HTS) RF receive coils. We show the application of HTS coils to the imaging of human subjects with improved SNR compared with copper coils.

Materials And Methods: HTS coils were constructed from 7.

Creation of a productive, highly enantioselective nitrilase through gene site saturation mutagenesis (GSSM).

Gene site saturation mutagenesis (GSSM) technology is applied for the directed evolution of a nitrilase. The nitrilase effectively catalyzes the desymmetrization of the prochiral substrate 3-hydroxyglutaronitrile to afford (R)-4-cyano-3-hydroxybutyric acid, a precursor to the valuable cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor. The discovered wild-type enzyme effectively performs the reaction at the industrially relevant 3 M substrate concentration but affords a product enantiomeric excess of only 87.

High-resolution in vivo CBV mapping with MRI in wild-type mice.

NMR microimaging has the potential to elucidate cerebrovascular abnormalities in mouse models. In this study, the relative regional cerebral blood volume (CBV) map is presented for C57BL6/J wild-type mice. The CBV mapping was based on changes in the steady-state NMR transverse relaxation rate (DeltaR(2)) associated with the presence of a superparamagnetic intravascular contrast agent (MION) with a long blood halflife.

An fMRI study comparing brain activation between word generation and electrical stimulation of language-implicated acupoints.

We compared the brain activation on functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during word generation with the activation during electrical stimulation of two language-implicated acupoints in 17 healthy, Mandarin-speaking, Chinese male volunteers (age 19-26 years). All subjects were strongly right handed according to a handedness inventory. Using a standard functional MRI procedure and a word-generation paradigm, significant activation was seen in the left and right inferior frontal gyri (BA 44, 45) as well as the left superior temporal gyrus (BA 22, 42).

An enzyme library approach to biocatalysis: development of nitrilases for enantioselective production of carboxylic acid derivatives.

The discovery, from Nature, of a large and diverse set of nitrilases is reported. The utility of this nitrilase library for identifying enzymes that catalyze efficient production of valuable hydroxy carboxylic acid derivatives is demonstrated. Unprecedented enantioselectivity and substrate scope are highlighted for three newly discovered and distinct nitrilases.

Importance of a myosin II-containing progenitor for actomyosin ring assembly in fission yeast.

An actomyosin-based contractile ring provides the forces necessary for cell cleavage in several organisms [1-3]. Myosin II is an essential component of the actomyosin ring and has also been detected as a "spot" in interphase Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells [4-5]. It is currently unknown if this myosin II-containing spot is important for cytokinesis.