1'-Ribose cyano substitution allows Remdesivir to effectively inhibit nucleotide addition and proofreading during SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA replication.

COVID-19 has recently caused a global health crisis and an effective interventional therapy is urgently needed. Remdesivir is one effective inhibitor for SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA replication. It supersedes other NTP analogues because it not only terminates the polymerization activity of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), but also inhibits the proofreading activity of intrinsic exoribonuclease (ExoN).

A flower-inspired divergent light-trapping structure with quasi-spherical symmetry towards a high-performance flexible photodetector.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has received widespread attention in recent years due to its exciting properties. However, the practical applications of MoS2 in optoelectronic devices are impeded by the power supply problem, the lack of flexibility, and the low light absorption for planar nanosheets and nanosheet arrays. Inspired by the elaborate architecture of the flower Tagetes erecta L.

Theoretical Insight into the Structural Nonplanarity in Aromatic Fused-Ring Metallabenzenes.

Metalla-aromatics have attracted considerable attention due to their fascinating structural and reactive properties as well as their potential as prospective functional materials. Metallabenzenes and their fused-ring counterparts are significant members of metalla-aromatics, while their crystal structures often display seemly counterintuitive nonplanar geometry. The geometric bending of metallabenzenes has been attributed to the unfavorable antibonding interactions in the σ-space orbitals rather than the general opinion regarding the π-space orbitals of an aromatic compound.

Ligand-bound glutamine binding protein assumes multiple metastable binding sites with different binding affinities.

Protein dynamics plays key roles in ligand binding. However, the microscopic description of conformational dynamics-coupled ligand binding remains a challenge. In this study, we integrate molecular dynamics simulations, Markov state model (MSM) analysis and experimental methods to characterize the conformational dynamics of ligand-bound glutamine binding protein (GlnBP).

A highly sensitive gas sensor employing biomorphic SnO with multi-level tubes/pores structure: bio-templated from waste of flax.

Metal oxide gas sensors with porous structures are widely used in numerous applications ranging from health monitoring and medical detection to safety; in this study, we report a highly sensitive SnO gas sensor with a multi-level tube/pore structure prepared biomimetic technology using flax waste as a bio-template and a simple wet chemical process combined with subsequent annealing. Indeed, MLTPS not only maintained and improved the excellence of porous structure gas sensing materials with abundant active sites and large surface-to-volume ratios, but also overcame the deficiency of the lack of gas diffusion channels in porous gas sensing materials. Thus, this novel multi-level tube/pore SnO gas sensor exhibited significantly enhanced sensing performance, an ultra-low response concentration (250 ppb), a high response (87.