, a new structural indicator for water specially designed to be suitable for hydration and nanoconfined contexts, has been recently introduced and preliminarily applied for water in contact with self-assembled monolayers and graphene-like systems. This index enabled an accurate detection of defective high local density water molecules (called HDA-like given their structural resemblance with the high-density amorphous ice, HDA). In the present work, we shall apply this new metric to characterize protein hydration water with particular interest in protein binding sites. As a first result, we shall find that protein hydration water has a higher concentration of HDA-like molecular arrangements compared to the bulk. Significantly, we shall show that the concentration of HDA-like molecules sharply decreases beyond the first hydration layer. Finally, we shall also reveal a highly nonuniform spatial distribution of the values for the first hydration shell on the protein surface, where the higher hydrophobicity inherent to the ligand binding site will be evident from an enrichment in HDA-like molecules as compared to the population exhibited by the global protein surface.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c04382 | DOI Listing |
J Hazard Mater
December 2024
Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea. Electronic address:
In this study, a novel adsorbent called Ca@SP was developed by immobilizing microalgae protein (Spirulina platensis, SP) in an alginate matrix for enhanced Pb²⁺ removal from aqueous solutions. Synthesized via in situ crosslinking, Ca@SP leverages the synergistic effects of alginate's gel-forming ability and SP's N-rich biomass. Characterization of Ca@SP revealed a green spherical hydrogel with a BET specific surface area of 159.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Nano
December 2024
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 1H9, Canada.
Nanometer-thick ultrathin coatings with superior mechanical strength and desirable lubricating and antifouling performance are critical for the miniaturization of implantable medical devices. However, integrating these properties at the nanoscale remains challenging due to the inherent trade-off between mechanical strength and hydration as well as limitations in coating thickness. In this work, we address these challenges by employing dual-function metal coordination to construct a ∼25 nm thick bilayer structure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Nutr
December 2024
Center for Molecular Research in Nephrology and Vascular Disease, Victor Babeș University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania.
Introduction: Obesity is a growing public health issue, especially among young adults, with long-term management strategies still under debate. This prospective study compares the effects of caloric restriction and isocaloric diets with different macronutrient distributions on body composition and anthropometric parameters in obese women during a 12-week weight loss program, aiming to identify the most effective dietary strategies for managing obesity-related health outcomes.
Methods: A certified clinical nutritionist assigned specific diets over a 12-week period to 150 participants, distributed as follows: hypocaloric diets-low-energy diet (LED, 31 subjects) and very low-energy diet (VLED, 13 subjects); isocaloric diets with macronutrient distribution-low-carbohydrate diet (LCD, 48 subjects), ketogenic diet (KD, 23 subjects), and high-protein diet (HPD, 24 subjects); and isocaloric diet without macronutrient distribution-time-restricted eating (TRE, 11 subjects).
Front Mol Biosci
December 2024
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.
Oleate hydratase (OhyA), a flavoenzyme that catalyzes the hydration of unsaturated fatty acids, has been identified in various Bacillales organisms, including those in the , , , and genera. In this study, we combine structural biology with molecular and phylogenetic analyses to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of the OhyA protein family within the Bacillales order. Our evolutionary analysis reveals two distinct OhyA clades (clade I and clade II) within Bacillales that, while sharing catalytic function, exhibit significant genomic and structural differences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLangmuir
December 2024
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, United States.
Fouling-resistant coating materials have important applications in marine industry and biomedicine. Zwitterionic carboxybetaine polymers have demonstrated robust antibiofouling functionalities in experiments. In this work, we performed atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to study the molecular mechanism of hydration and antibiofouling of poly(carboxybetaine acrylamide) (polyCBAA) brush surfaces.
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