Levosimendan's Effects on Length-Dependent Activation in Murine Fast-Twitch Skeletal Muscle.

Levosimendan's calcium sensitizing effects in heart muscle cells are well established; yet, its potential impact on skeletal muscle cells has not been evidently determined. Despite controversial results, levosimendan is still expected to interact with skeletal muscle through off-target sites (further than troponin C). Adding to this debate, we investigated levosimendan's acute impact on fast-twitch skeletal muscle biomechanics in a length-dependent activation study by submersing single muscle fibres in a levosimendan-supplemented solution.

Redox Balance Differentially Affects Biomechanics in Permeabilized Single Muscle Fibres-Active and Passive Force Assessments with the .

An oxidizing redox state imposes unique effects on the contractile properties of muscle. Permeabilized fibres show reduced active force generation in the presence of HO. However, our knowledge about the muscle fibre's elasticity or flexibility is limited due to shortcomings in assessing the passive stress-strain properties, mostly due to technically limited experimental setups.

Short, terminally modified 2'-OMe RNAs as inhibitors of microRNA.

We applied 14-mer 2'-OMe RNAs as inhibitors of selected micro RNAs. To improve their properties, we introduced a trimethoxystilbene residue at the 5'-terminus and three 2'-fluoro-2'-deoxynucleotides at the 3'-terminus to obtain potent inhibitors, whose mismatch discrimination is substantially better than that of typically applied >18-mers.

Control of the photocatalytic activity of bimetallic complexes of pyropheophorbide-a by nucleic acids.

Photocatalytic activity of a photosensitizer (PS) in an oligodeoxyribonucleotide duplex 5'-PS~ODN1/ODN2~Q-3' is inhibited because of close proximity of a quencher Q. The ODN2 in this duplex is selected to be longer than the ODN1. Therefore, in the presence of a nucleic acid (analyte), which is fully complementary to the ODN2 strand, the duplex is decomposed with formation of an analyte/ODN2~Q duplex and a catalytically active, single stranded PS~ODN1.

1,9-Dialkoxyanthracene as a (1)O2-sensitive linker.

We developed a (1)O(2)-sensitive linker based on a 9,10-dialkoxyanthracene structure. Its cleavage in the presence of (1)O(2) is quick and high-yielding. A phosphoramidite containing this fragment was prepared and coupled to a variety of molecular fragments, including nucleosides, fluorescent dyes, and a cholesteryl derivative.

Single molecule atomic force microscopy studies of photosensitized singlet oxygen behavior on a DNA origami template.

DNA origami, the folding of a long single-stranded DNA sequence (scaffold strand) by hundreds of short synthetic oligonucleotides (staple strands) into parallel aligned helices, is a highly efficient method to form advanced self-assembled DNA-architectures. Since molecules and various materials can be conjugated to each of the short staple strands, the origami method offers a unique possibility of arranging molecules and materials in well-defined positions on a structured surface. Here we combine the action of light with AFM and DNA nanostructures to study the production of singlet oxygen from a single photosensitizer molecule conjugated to a selected DNA origami staple strand on an origami structure.

Zn2+ dependent DNA binders based on terminally modified peptide nucleic acids.

Two ligand-intercalator-peptide nucleic acid conjugates (L-NADI-PNAs) have been synthesized. Affinity of these conjugates to their complementary DNAs was found to be affected by Zn(2+). The magnitude of this effect could be controlled by a variation of the ligand.

Assembling novel heterotrimetallic Cu/Co/Ni and Cu/Co/Cd cores supported by diethanolamine ligand in one-pot reactions of zerovalent copper with metal salts.

The three novel heterotrimetallic complexes [Ni(H2L)2][CoCu(L)2(H2L)(NCS)]2(NCS)2 (1), [Ni(H2L)2][CuCo(L)2(H2L)(NCS)]2Br2.2H2O (2), and [CuCoCd(H2L)2(L)2(NCS)Br2].CH3OH (3) have been prepared using zerovalent copper; cobalt thiocyanate; nickel thiocyanate (1), nickel bromide (2), or cadmium bromide (3); and methanol solutions of diethanolamine in air.

On/off regulation of catalysis by allosteric control of metal complex nuclearity.

The nature of the allosteric metal ion M (Pd2+ or Pt2+) in complexes ML of a polytopic ligand controls uptake of additional Cu2+ ions; while [Cu2Pd(L-4H)]2+ is a highly active catalyst for phosphodiester cleavage, [CuPt(L-4H)] is inactive.