28 research outputs found
Effect of ionic ordering in conductivity experiments of DNA aqueous solutions
The effects of ionic ordering in DNA water solutions are studied by
conductivity experiments. The conductivity measurements are performed for the
solutions of DNA with KCl salt in the temperature range from 28 to 70 C. Salt
concentration vary from 0 to 2 M. The conductivity of solutions without DNA but
with the same concentration of KCl salt are also performed. The results show
that in case of salt free solution of DNA the melting process of the double
helix is observed, while in case of DNA solution with added salt the
macromolecule denaturation is not featured. For salt concentrations lower than
some critical one (0.4 M) the conductivity of DNA solution is higher than the
conductivity of KCl water solution without DNA. Starting from the critical
concentration the conductivity of KCl solution is higher than the conductivity
of DNA solution with added salt. For description of the experimental data
phenomenological model is elaborated basing on electrolyte theory. In framework
of the developed model a mechanism of counterion ordering is introduced.
According to this mechanism under the low salt concentrations electrical
conductivity of the system is caused by counterions of DNA ion-hydrate shell.
Increasing the amount of salt to the critical concentration counterions
condense on DNA polyanion. Further increase of salt concentration leads to the
formation of DNA-salt complexes that decreases the conductivity of the system.Comment: 12 pages, 6figures. Ukr. J. Phys. (2014
Improved functionalization of oleic acid-coated iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications
Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles
can providemultiple benefits for biomedical applications
in aqueous environments such asmagnetic separation or
magnetic resonance imaging. To increase the colloidal
stability and allow subsequent reactions, the introduction
of hydrophilic functional groups onto the particles’
surface is essential. During this process, the original
coating is exchanged by preferably covalently bonded
ligands such as trialkoxysilanes. The duration of the
silane exchange reaction, which commonly takes more
than 24 h, is an important drawback for this approach. In
this paper, we present a novel method, which introduces
ultrasonication as an energy source to dramatically
accelerate this process, resulting in high-quality waterdispersible nanoparticles around 10 nmin size. To prove
the generic character, different functional groups were
introduced on the surface including polyethylene glycol
chains, carboxylic acid, amine, and thiol groups. Their
colloidal stability in various aqueous buffer solutions as
well as human plasma and serum was investigated to
allow implementation in biomedical and sensing
applications.status: publishe
Counterion vibrations in the DNA low-frequency spectra
The vibrations of univalent metal cations with respect to phosphate groups of the DNA backbone are described using the four-mass model approach (S.N. Volkov, S.N. Kosevich, J. Biomol. Struct. Dyn. 8, 1069 (1991)) extended in this paper. The force constant of the counterion-phosphate interaction is determined by considering the DNA with counterions as a lattice of ion crystal. For such ion-phosphate lattice the Madelung constant and the dielectric constant are estimated. The obtained value of the Madelung constant is lower than for the NaCl crystal, and its value is about 1.3. The dielectric constant is within 2.3-2.7 depending on the counterion type and form of the double helix. The calculations of the low-frequency spectra show that for the DNA with metal cations Na+ , K+ , Rb+ and Cs+ the frequency of ion-phosphate vibrations decreases from 174 to 96cm^-1 as the counterion mass increases. The obtained frequencies agree well with the vibrational spectra of polynucleotides in a dry state which prove our suggestion about the existence of the ion-phosphate lattice around the DNA double helix. The amplitudes of conformational vibrations for DNA in B -form are calculated as well. The results demonstrate that light counterions ( Na+ do not disturb the internal dynamics of the DNA. However, heavy counterions ( Cs+ have effect on the internal vibrations of the DNA structural elements