Peat Exploration for Medical Use

An extended swamp was developed in the western foreland of Lake Balaton in the Holocene. The peat has already been explored for hundred years. The peat based product, the HUMET-R syrup became a medicine by the ´90s. Its main component is humin acid that acts as a transporter of trace elements or as a reducer of the excess trace elements of the human body. The aim of the exploration was to delineate medical peat in Keszthely region. By the 84 core drillings of the 190 000 m2 exploration area 367 000 m3 of exploitable peat reserve was found. The peat is divided into three types: mature, fibrous peat (bull liver) and mixed types. The bulk of the reserve belongs to the mixed peat type. It has favourable properties such as 43 - 68 m % of humin acid and 12 - 16 m % of ash content. The groundwater table is at 0.4 - 0.6 m thus it is necessary to drawdown during the periods of exploitation

Növényi RNS degradációs rendszerek: a nonsense-mediated decay rendszer molekuláris biológiája = RNA degradation systems in plants: the molecular biology of nonsense-mediated decay system

A program célja a növényi Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) rendszer molekuláris biológiájának megismerése volt. Az NMD egy ősi eukarióta minőségbiztosítási rendszer, amely felismeri és lebontja a korai stop kodonokat (PTC) tartalmazó mRNS-eket, ezáltal megelőzi a csonka, domináns-negatív mutáns fehérjék képződését. A program során kimutattuk, hogy a növényi NMD rendszer PTC-ként ismer fel minden stop kodont, amely utána 3'UTR régió szokatlanul hosszú, vagy ahol a 3'UTR-ban intron található. Azonosítottuk a növényi NMD rendszer 6 transz faktorát, és kimutattuk, hogy a kétféle NMD cisz elem felismerés csak részben átfedő génkészletet igényel. Igazoltuk, hogy a PTC tartalmú növényi transzkriptek kétféle úton bomolhatnak le, az SMG-7, illetve a UPF1 irányította útvonalon. Kimutattuk, hogy az utóbbi XRN4 5'-3' exonukleázt igényel. Munkánk során bizonyítottuk, hogy a növényi NMD autoregulált, az SMG-7 NMD faktort az NMD negatívan regulálja. Végül eredményeink alapján egy új eukarióta NMD evolúciós modellt dolgoztunk ki. | The aim of this project was to understand the molecular basis of plant Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) system. NMD is an ancient eukaryotic quality control system that identifies and degrades mRNAs containing premature termination codons (PTC), thereby preventing the accumulation of truncated dominant-negative mutant proteins. During this project we have shown that plant NMD system identifies any stop codon as a PTC if the 3'UTR is unusually long or if the 3' UTR contains an intron. We have identified 6 NMD trans factors and shown that the two NMD cis elements identification system requires overlapping but not identical gene sets. We have demonstrated that PTC containing mRNAs can be degraded by two pathways, one is mediated by SMG-7 and another is controlled by UPF1. XRN4 exonuclease is required only for the UPF1 mediated pathway. We have shown that plant NMD is an autoregulated system as SMG-7 NMD trans factor is negatively regulated by NMD. Finally, we have elaborated a new model for the evolution of eukaryotic NMD systems

New synthetic strategies for xanthene-dye-appended cyclodextrins

Xanthene dyes can be appended to cyclodextrins via an ester or amide bridge in order to switch the fluorescence on or off. This is made possible through the formation of nonfluorescent lactones or lactams as the fluorophore can reversibly cyclize. In this context we report a green approach for the synthesis of switchable xanthene-dye-appended cyclodextrins based on the coupling agent 4-(4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-4-methylmorpholinium chloride (DMT-MM). By using 6-monoamino-β-cyclodextrin and commercially available inexpensive dyes, we prepared rhodamine- and fluorescein-appended cyclodextrins. The compounds were characterized by NMR and IR spectroscopy and MS spectrometry, their UV–vis spectra were recorded at various pH, and their purity was determined by capillary electrophoresis. Two potential models for the supramolecular assembly of the xanthene-dye-appended cyclodextrins were developed based on the set of data collected by the extensive NMR characterization

Homo and hetero-difunctionalized β-cyclodextrins: Short direct synthesis in gram scale and analysis of regiochemistry

The regioselective difunctionalization of cyclodextrins (CDs) leading to derivatives amenable to further transformations is a daunting task due to challenging purification and unambiguous characterization of the obtained regioisomers with similar physicochemical properties. The primary-side homo-difunctionalization of β-CD can lead to three regioisomers, while the hetero-difunctionalization can generate three pairs of pseudoenantiomers. Previously, approaches with several synthetic steps, expensive reagents, high purification demands and low yields of the products have been employed. Herein we present direct, short and efficient primary-side difunctionalization strategies featuring reproducibility, ease of product purification, scalability of the reactions and versatility of the substituents introduced. Specifically, the prepared ditosylated β-CDs were separated using preparative reversed-phase column chromatography and their structures were elucidated by NMR experiments. Azidation led to the corresponding pure diazido regioisomers. Direct monotosylation of 6-monoazido-β-CD or monoazidation of the single regioisomers 6A,6X-ditosyl-β-CDs afforded hetero-difunctionalized 6A-monoazido-6X-tosyl-β-CDs in significant yields. Overall, the single regioisomers, 6A,6X-ditosyl-, 6A,6X-diazido- and 6A-monoazido-6X-monotosyl-β-CD were prepared in one or two steps and purified in multigram scale thus opening the way towards further selective and orthogonal functionalizations of β-CD hosts

Supramolecular structures based on regiosisomers of cinnamyl-α-cyclodextrins - new media for capillary separation techniques

This work focuses on the preparation and application of supramolecular structures based on mono-cinnamyl-α-cyclodextrins (Cin-α-CD). Pure regioisomers of Cin-α-CD having the cinnamyl moiety at the 2-O- or at the 3-O-position, respectively, were prepared, characterized and applied in capillary electrophoresis as additives to the background electrolyte. These new monomer units with a potential to self-organize into supramolecular structures were synthesized via a straightforward one-step synthetic procedure and purified using preparative reversed-phase chromatography allowing a large scale separation of the regioisomers. The ability of the monomers to self-assemble was proved by various methods including NMR spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The light scattering experiments showed that the monomer units have distinguishable ability to form supramolecular structures in different solvents and the size distribution of the aggregates in water can be easily modulated using different external stimuli, such as temperature or competitive guest molecules. The obtained results indicated that the two regioisomers of Cin-α-CD formed different supramolecular assemblies highlighting the fact that the position of the cinnamyl group plays an important role in the intermolecular complex formation