Biological Solid-state NMR at ETH Zurich

Solid-state Magnetic Resonance has been greatly developed over the past decade. Higher field spectrometers and other technical developments are expected to lead to further significant improvements

Untersuchung einer Wasserstoff‐π Wechselwirkung in einem eingeschlossenen Wassermolekül im Festkörper

Der Nachweis und die Charakterisierung von eingeschlossenen Wassermolekülen in chemischen Gebilden und Biomakromolekülen ist weiterhin eine Herausforderung für feste Materialien. Wir präsentieren hier Protonen-detektierte Festkörper-Kernspinresonanzspektroskopie (NMR) Experimente bei Rotationsfrequenzen von 100 kHz um den magischen Winkel und bei hohen statischen Magnetfeldstärken (28.2 T), die den Nachweis eines einzelnen Wassermoleküls ermöglichen, das im Calix[4]aren-Hohlraum eines Lanthan-Komplexes durch eine Kombination von drei Arten nicht-kovalenter Wechselwirkungen fixiert ist. Die Protonenresonanzen des Wassers werden bei einer chemischen Verschiebung nahe Null ppm nachgewiesen, was wir durch quantenchemische Berechnungen bestätigen. Berechnungen mit der Dichtefunktionaltheorie zeigen, wie empfindlich der Wert der chemischen Verschiebung der Protonen auf Wasserstoff-π-Wechselwirkungen reagiert. Unsere Studie unterstreicht, wie sich die Protonen-detektierte Festkörper NMR zur Methode der Wahl für die Untersuchung schwacher nicht-kovalenter Wechselwirkungen entwickelt, die einen ganzen Zweig molekularer Erkennungsvorgänge in der Chemie und Biologie bestimmen

Mechanism of Inhibition of Enveloped Virus Membrane Fusion by the Antiviral Drug Arbidol

The broad-spectrum antiviral arbidol (Arb) inhibits cell entry of enveloped viruses by blocking viral fusion with host cell membrane. To better understand Arb mechanism of action, we investigated its interactions with phospholipids and membrane peptides. We demonstrate that Arb associates with phospholipids in the micromolar range. NMR reveals that Arb interacts with the polar head-group of phospholipid at the membrane interface. Fluorescence studies of interactions between Arb and either tryptophan derivatives or membrane peptides reconstituted into liposomes show that Arb interacts with tryptophan in the micromolar range. Interestingly, apparent binding affinities between lipids and tryptophan residues are comparable with those of Arb IC50 of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) membrane fusion. Since tryptophan residues of membrane proteins are known to bind preferentially at the membrane interface, these data suggest that Arb could increase the strength of virus glycoprotein's interactions with the membrane, due to a dual binding mode involving aromatic residues and phospholipids. The resulting complexation would inhibit the expected viral glycoprotein conformational changes required during the fusion process. Our findings pave the way towards the design of new drugs exhibiting Arb-like interfacial membrane binding properties to inhibit early steps of virus entry, i.e., attractive targets to combat viral infection

Les droits disciplinaires des fonctions publiques : « unification », « harmonisation » ou « distanciation ». A propos de la loi du 26 avril 2016 relative à la déontologie et aux droits et obligations des fonctionnaires

The production of tt‾ , W+bb‾ and W+cc‾ is studied in the forward region of proton–proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.98±0.02 fb−1 . The W bosons are reconstructed in the decays W→ℓν , where ℓ denotes muon or electron, while the b and c quarks are reconstructed as jets. All measured cross-sections are in agreement with next-to-leading-order Standard Model predictions.The production of $t\overline{t}$, $W+b\overline{b}$ and $W+c\overline{c}$ is studied in the forward region of proton-proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.98 $\pm$ 0.02 \mbox{fb}^{-1}. The $W$ bosons are reconstructed in the decays $W\rightarrow\ell\nu$, where $\ell$ denotes muon or electron, while the $b$ and $c$ quarks are reconstructed as jets. All measured cross-sections are in agreement with next-to-leading-order Standard Model predictions

Measurement of the J/ψ pair production cross-section in pp collisions at s=13 \sqrt{s}=13 TeV

The production cross-section of J/ψ pairs is measured using a data sample of pp collisions collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 279 ±11 pb$^{−1}$. The measurement is performed for J/ψ mesons with a transverse momentum of less than 10 GeV/c in the rapidity range 2.0 < y < 4.5. The production cross-section is measured to be 15.2 ± 1.0 ± 0.9 nb. The first uncertainty is statistical, and the second is systematic. The differential cross-sections as functions of several kinematic variables of the J/ψ pair are measured and compared to theoretical predictions.The production cross-section of $J/\psi$ pairs is measured using a data sample of $pp$ collisions collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13 \,{\mathrm{TeV}}$, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $279 \pm 11 \,{\mathrm{pb^{-1}}}$. The measurement is performed for $J/\psi$ mesons with a transverse momentum of less than $10 \,{\mathrm{GeV}}/c$ in the rapidity range $2.0<y<4.5$. The production cross-section is measured to be $15.2 \pm 1.0 \pm 0.9 \,{\mathrm{nb}}$. The first uncertainty is statistical, and the second is systematic. The differential cross-sections as functions of several kinematic variables of the $J/\psi$ pair are measured and compared to theoretical predictions

Adiabatic-passage cross polarization in N-15NMR spectroscopy of peptides weakly associated to phospholipids: Determination of large RDC

ISSN:0925-2738ISSN:1573-500

Alternative salt bridge formation in Aβ-a hallmark of early-onset Alzheimer's disease?

Affiliations ECOFECTInternational audienceRecently the 3D structure of the Osaka mutant form (E22Δ) of Amyloid-β1-40 has been determined. We here compare the NMR chemical-shift with the published shifts of a brain-seeded form of wild-type Aβ and suggest that the determined mutant fold is accessible to the wild-type protein as well, with small conformational adaptations which accommodate the E22 residue missing in the Osaka mutant. In addition, we illustrate how other mutants could also conform to this model. The stabilization of the N-terminal part of the protein via an intermolecular salt bridge to Lys28 may represent a common structural motif for the mutants which are related to early-onset Alzheimer disease. This feature might connect to the observed increased toxicity of the mutant forms compared to wild-type Aβ1-40, where the salt bridge involving Lys28 is intramolecular

A Simple Model for Heteronuclear Spin Decoupling in Solid State NMR

We propose a simple model to describe heteronuclear spin decoupling in solid-state NMR under magic-angle sample spinning (MAS). It is based on a coherent description of two heteronuclear dipolar-coupled spins (I and S) and an incoherent description of the interaction of the I-spin with a large number of other I-spins. The abundant and strongly coupled I-spins are irradiated. The selected I-spin is coupled by a spin-diffusion type superoperator to the I-spin bath, and this coupling is described by a single spin-diffusion rate constant. Such a model allows us to simulate efficiently the behavior of a spin system under heteronuclear decoupling in the case of CW irradiation as well as in the case of phase-modulated sequences such as TPPM