Thanks to their outstanding properties and a wide range of promising applications, the development of a versatile and convenient preparation method for metallic copper nanocrystals with controllable shape is of primary significance. Different from the literature that utilized a capping agent bearing only one kind of Cu binding functionality, either an amino or a carboxylic unit, for their preparation and shape control, this contribution reports a convenient method to engage both amino and carboxylic binding units at the same time. In this method, natural amino acids have been chosen as capping agents and demonstrated their versatile capabilities for the preparation of both Cu nanoparticles and nanowires. Detailed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the binding mode between amino acids and the Cu surface is highly dependent on their chemical structures. Interestingly, the produced Cu nanocrystals, exhibited an extraordinarily excellent anti-oxidation power. Furthermore, it was found that the multiple functionalities of amino acids not only have a great impact on the properties of their capped nanocrystals, such as solvent dispersibility, but also provide a convenient route for their further modification and functionalization.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c5nr00146c | DOI Listing |
Analyst
January 2025
Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Organic Functional Molecules; Institute of Organic Chemistry, Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University, Nanchang 330013, PR China.
Glutathione (GSH) plays an important role in maintaining redox homeostasis in biological systems. Development of reliable glutathione sensors is of great significance to better understand the role of biomolecules in living cells and organisms. Based on the advantages of the photophysical properties of iridium complexes, we proposed a "turn-on" phosphorescent sensor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Vis Exp
January 2025
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis; Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Washington University in St. Louis;
For noninvasive light-based physiological monitoring, optimal wavelengths of individual tissue components can be identified using absorption spectroscopy. However, because of the lack of sensitivity of hardware at longer wavelengths, absorption spectroscopy has typically been applied for wavelengths in the visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) range from 400 to 1,000 nm. Hardware advancements in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) range have enabled investigators to explore wavelengths in the ~1,000 nm to 3,000 nm range in which fall characteristic absorption peaks for lipid, protein, and water.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBioinformatics
January 2025
Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States.
Motivation: The accurate prediction of O-GlcNAcylation sites is crucial for understanding disease mechanisms and developing effective treatments. Previous machine learning models primarily relied on primary or secondary protein structural and related properties, which have limitations in capturing the spatial interactions of neighboring amino acids. This study introduces local environmental features as a novel approach that incorporates three-dimensional spatial information, significantly improving model performance by considering the spatial context around the target site.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBraz J Microbiol
January 2025
Laboratorio de Biocatalizadores y sus Aplicaciones, Instituto de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Proteases are hydrolases that act on peptide bonds, releasing amino acids and/or oligopeptides, and are involved in essential functions in all organisms. They represent an important segment of the global enzyme market, with applications in the food, leather, detergent, and pharmaceutical industries. Depending on their industrial use, proteases should exhibit high activity under extreme conditions, such as low temperatures, e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArch Microbiol
January 2025
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, 43400, Malaysia.
Bacteriophages produce endolysins at the end of the lytic cycle, which are crucial for lysing the host cells and releasing virion progeny. This lytic feature allows endolysins to act as effective antimicrobial alternatives when applied exogenously. Staphylococcal endolysins typically possess a modular structure with one or two enzymatically active N-terminal domains (EADs) and a C-terminal cell wall binding domain (CBD).
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