Molecular Dynamics Studies on the Role of Tetramethylammonium Cations in the Stability of the Silica Octamers Si8in Solution

2005 ◽  
Vol 109 (20) ◽  
pp. 10429-10434 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Caratzoulas ◽  
D. G. Vlachos ◽  
M. Tsapatsis
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Miclot ◽  
Camille Corbier ◽  
Alessio Terenzi ◽  
Cécilia Hognon ◽  
Stéphanie Grandemange ◽  
...  

AbstractHuman telomeric DNA (h-Telo), in G-quadruplex (G4) conformation, is characterized by a remarkable structural stability that confers it the capacity to resist to oxidative stress producing one or even clustered 8-oxoguanine lesions. We present a combined experimental/computational investigation, by using circular dichroism in aqueous solutions, cellular immunofluorescence assays and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, that identifies the crucial role of the stability of G4s to oxidative lesions, related also to their biological role as inhibitors of telomerase, an enzyme overexpressed in most cancers associated to oxidative stress.


Author(s):  
Akshay Mathavan ◽  
Akash Mathavan ◽  
Michael Fortunato ◽  
Coray Colina

A fully-atomistic molecular dynamics study was performed to determine the importance of disulfide bonds on the stability of immunoglobulin G (IgG) and bovine serum albumin (BSA).The transferability of a previous prescreening methodology to assess contributions from individual disulfide bonds on conformational stability was tested on both proteins. In IgG, it was apparent that inter-chain and intra-chain disulfide bonds play different roles in maintaining structure, evidenced by clear separation of inter-chain cysteine residues upon cleavage of disulfide bonds. In BSA, a set of double disulfide bonds required both to be broken in order to observe significant structural changes, equivalently seen in a previous study of human serum albumin (HSA), a structurally similar protein. Structural analysis of IgG showed deviations in distances between domains, while analysis of BSA suggested more local structural changes. This work helps confirm the efficacy and reproducibility of the prescreening methodology on both a novel, larger protein such as IgG and a more homologous (to HSA), globular protein such as BSA. The results provide insight into the role of specific disulfide bonds in the stability of IgG and BSA. KEYWORDS: Molecular Dynamics; Atomistic Simulations; Immunoglobulin G; Bovine Serum Albumin; Disulfide Bonds


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Preeti Pandey ◽  
Natalie Nguyen ◽  
Ulrich H.E. Hansmann

AbstractMotivated by the role that amylin aggregates pay in type-II diabetes, we compare the stability of regular amylin fibrils with the stability of fibrils where L-amino acid chains are replaced by D-Retro Inverso (DRI) amylin, i.e., peptides where the sequence of amino acids is reversed, and at the same time the L-amino acids are replaced by their mirror images. Our molecular dynamics simulations show that despite leading to only marginal difference in fibril structure and stability, aggregating DRI-amylin peptides have different pattern of contacts and hydrogen bonding. Because of these differences does DRI-amylin, when interacting with regular (L) amylin, alter the elongation process and lowers the stability of hybrid amylin fibrils. Our results suggest not only a potential use of DRI-amylin as inhibitor of amylin fibril-formation, but points also to the possibility of using insertion of DRI-proteins in L-assemblies as a way to probe the role of certain kinds of hydrogen bonds in supra-molecular assemblies or aggregates.


TAPPI Journal ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
PEEYUSH TRIPATHI ◽  
MARGARET JOYCE ◽  
PAUL D. FLEMING ◽  
MASAHIRO SUGIHARA

Using an experimental design approach, researchers altered process parameters and material prop-erties to stabilize the curtain of a pilot curtain coater at high speeds. Part I of this paper identifies the four significant variables that influence curtain stability. The boundary layer air removal system was critical to the stability of the curtain and base sheet roughness was found to be very important. A shear thinning coating rheology and higher curtain heights improved the curtain stability at high speeds. The sizing of the base sheet affected coverage and cur-tain stability because of its effect on base sheet wettability. The role of surfactant was inconclusive. Part II of this paper will report on further optimization of curtain stability with these four variables using a D-optimal partial-facto-rial design.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Weber ◽  
Martin McCullagh

<p>pH-switchable, self-assembling materials are of interest in biological imaging and sensing applications. Here we propose that combining the pH-switchability of RXDX (X=Ala, Val, Leu, Ile, Phe) peptides and the optical properties of coumarin creates an ideal candidate for these materials. This suggestion is tested with a thorough set of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. We first investigate the dependence of pH-switchabiliy on the identity of the hydrophobic residue, X, in the bare (RXDX)<sub>4</sub> systems. Increasing the hydrophobicity stabilizes the fiber which, in turn, reduces the pH-switchabilty of the system. This behavior is found to be somewhat transferable to systems in which a single hydrophobic residue is replaced with a coumarin containing amino acid. In this case, conjugates with X=Ala are found to be unstable and both pHs while conjugates with X=Val, Leu, Ile and Phe are found to form stable β-sheets at least at neutral pH. The (RFDF)<sub>4</sub>-coumarin conjugate is found to have the largest relative entropy value of 0.884 +/- 0.001 between neutral and acidic coumarin ordering distributions. Thus, we posit that coumarin-(RFDF)<sub>4</sub> containing peptide sequences are ideal candidates for pH-sensing bioelectronic materials.</p>


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