Computational investigation of sensing properties of Ca-doped zinc oxide nanotube toward formaldehyde.

Following an experimental work, we employed density functionals B3LYP, B97D, CAM-B3LYP, BMK, and M06-HF to study the impact of Ca-doping on a ZnO nanotube (ZnONT) sensing performance to the formaldehyde gas. The interaction of the pristine ZnONT with the formaldehyde gas was found to be weak, and the sensing response is 0.7 based on the B3LYP results.

Piperine protects against pancreatic β-cell dysfunction by alleviating macrophage inflammation in obese mice.

Aims: Piperine, the major pharmacological ingredient of pepper, can delay the procession of "obesity to diabetes". However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. This study aims to investigate whether piperine protects against β-cell dysfunction by inhibiting macrophage accumulation and M-like polarization.

Structural and Biochemical Analysis of the Citrate-Responsive Mechanism of the Regulatory Domain of Catabolite Control Protein E from Staphylococcus aureus.

Catabolite control protein E (CcpE) is a LysR-type transcriptional regulator that positively regulates the transcription of the first two enzymes of the TCA cycle, namely, citZ and citB, by sensing accumulated intracellular citrate. CcpE comprises an N-terminal DNA-binding domain and a C-terminal regulatory domain (RD) and senses citrate with conserved arginine residues in the RD. Although the crystal structure of the apo SaCcpE-RD has been reported, the citrate-responsive and DNA-binding mechanisms by which CcpE regulates TCA activity remain unclear.

Crystal structure of the nicotinamidase/pyrazinamidase PncA from Bacillus subtilis.

The nicotinamidase/pyrazinamidase PncA is a member of a large family of hydrolase enzymes that catalyze the deamination of nicotinamide to nicotinic acid. PncA also functions as a pyrazinamidase in a wide variety of eubacteria and is an essential coenzyme in many cellular redox reactions in living systems. We report the crystal structure of substrate-free PncA from Bacillus subtilis (BsPncA) at 2.