Effect of repetitive lysine–tryptophan motifs on the bactericidal activity of antimicrobial peptides

Previous studies identified lysine- and tryptophan-rich sequences within various cationic antimicrobial peptides. In the present study, we synthesized a series of peptides composed of lysine (K)-tryptophan (W) repeats (KW)(n) (where n equals 2, 3, 4 or 5) with amidation of the C-terminal to increase cationicity. We found that increases in chain length up to (KW)(4) enhanced the peptides’ antibacterial activity; (KW)(5) exhibited somewhat less bactericidal activity than (KW)(4). Cytotoxicity, measured as lysis of human red blood cells, also increased with increasing chain length. With (KW)(5), reduced antibacterial activity and increased cytotoxicity correlated with greater hydrophobicity and self-aggregation in the aqueous environment. The peptides acted by inducing rapid collapse of the bacterial transmembrane potential and induction of membrane permeability. The mode of interaction of the peptides and the phosphate groups of lipopolysaccharide was dependent upon the peptides’ ability to permeate the membrane. Longer peptides [(KW)(4) and (KW)(5)] but not shorter peptides [(KW)(2) and (KW)(3)] strongly bound and partially inserted into negatively charged, anionic lipid bilayers. These longer peptides also induced membrane permeabilization and aggregation of lipid vesicles. The peptides had a disordered structure in aqueous solution, and only (KW)(4) and (KW)(5) displayed a folded conformation on lipid membranes. Moreover, (KW)(4) destroyed and agglutinated bacterial cells, demonstrating its potential as an antimicrobial agent. Collectively, the results show (KW)(4) to be the most efficacious peptide in the (KW)(n) series, exhibiting strong antibacterial activity with little cytotoxicity. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00726-012-1388-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Quantum plasmonics: Symmetry-dependent plasmon-molecule coupling and quantized photoconductances

We investigate photoinduced electron transport through nanoparticle dimers connected by linear and ringlike molecules. The two model junctions exhibit similar absorption but distinct photoconductance. The linear-chain junction shows a constant conductance that is independent of photon energies. In contrast, the ring molecules show quantized conductance resonances at energies corresponding to the molecular excitations. These results can be understood from the symmetry and quantization of local molecular excitations, and have implications for plasmon-molecule interactions in general

Water-Soluble Organic Components in Aerosols Associated with Savanna Fires in Southern Africa: Identification, Evolution, and Distribution

During the SAFARI 2000 field campaign, both smoke aerosols from savanna fires and haze aerosols in the boundary layer and in the free troposphere were collected from an aircraft in southern Africa. These aerosol samples were analyzed for their water-soluble chemical components, particularly the organic species. A novel technique, electrospray ionization-ion trap mass spectrometry, was used concurrently with an ion chromatography system to analyze for carbohydrate species. Seven carbohydrates, seven organic acids, five metallic elements, and three inorganic anions were identified and quantified. On the average, these 22 species comprised 36% and 27% of the total aerosol mass in haze and smoke aerosols, respectively. For the smoke aerosols, levoglucosan was the most abundant carbohydrate species, while gluconic acid was tentatively identified as the most abundant organic acid. The mass abundance and possible source of each class of identified species are discussed, along with their possible formation pathways. The combustion phase of a fire had an impact on the chemical composition of the emitted aerosols. Secondary formation of sulfate, nitrate, levoglucosan, and several organic acids occurred during the initial aging of smoke aerosols. It is likely that under certain conditions, some carbohydrate species in smoke aerosols, such as levoglucosan, were converted to organic acids during upward transport

Human Normal Keratinocytes Express Biologically Functional CD14 and Toll-Like Receptors

Digitalitzat per Artypla

Aerosol Properties and Chemical Apportionment of Aerosol Optical Depth at Locations off the U.S. East Coast in July and August 2001

Airborne in situ measurements of vertical profiles of the aerosol light scattering coefficient, light absorption coefficient, and single scattering albedo (ω0) are presented for locations off the East Coast of the United States in July–August 2001. The profiles were obtained in relatively clean air, dominated by airflows that had passed over Canada and the Atlantic Ocean. Comparisons of aerosol optical depths (AODs) at 550 nm derived from airborne in situ and sun-photometer measurements agree, on average, to within 0.034 ± 0.021. A frequency distribution of ω0 measured in the atmospheric boundary layer off the coast yields an average value of ω0 = 0.96 ± 0.03 at 550 nm. Values for the mass scattering efficiencies of sulfate and total carbon (organic and black carbon) derived from a multiple linear regression are 6.0 ± 1.0 m2 (g SO=4)−1 and 2.6 ± 0.9 m2 (g C)−1, respectively. Measurements of sulfate and total carbon mass concentrations are used to estimate the contributions of these two major components of the submicron aerosol to the AOD. Mean percentage contributions to the AOD from sulfate, total carbon, condensed water, and absorbing aerosols are 38% ± 8%, 26% ± 9%, 32% ± 9%, and 4% ± 2%, respectively. The sensitivity of the above results to the assumed values of the hygroscopic growth factors for the particles are examined and it is found that, although the AOD derived from the in situ measurements can vary by as much as 20%, the average value of ω0 is not changed significantly. The results are compared with those obtained in the same region in 1996 under more polluted conditions

Symbol-Based Supervised Learning Predistortion for Compensating Transmitter Nonlinearity

We experimentally demonstrate a symbol-based nonlinear digital predistortion (DPD) technique utilizing supervised learning, which is robust against a change of modulation format. Back-to-back transmission of 30 Gbaud 32, 64 and 256QAM confirms that our scheme significantly outperforms the baseline of arcsine-based predistortion

Reentrant charge ordering caused by polaron formation

Based on a two-dimensional extended Hubbard model with electron-phonon interaction, we have studied the effect of polaron formation on the charge ordering (CO) transition. It is found that for fully ferromagnetically ordered spins the CO state may go through a process of appearance, collapse and reappearance with decreasing temperature. This is entirely due to a emperature-dependent polaron bandwidth. On the other hand, when a paramagnetic spin state is considered, only a simple reentrant behavior of the CO transition is found, which is only partly due to polaron effect. This model is proposed as an explanation of the observed reentrant behavior of the CO transition in the layered manganite LaSr$_2$Mn$_2$O$_7$.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps figures, revised version accepted by Phys. Rev. Let

Phi Mesons from a Hadronic Fireball

Production of $\phi$ mesons is considered in the course of heavy-ion collisions at SPS energies. We investigate the possible difference in momentum distributions of $\phi$ mesons measured via their leptonic ($\mu^+\mu^-$) and hadronic ($K^+K^-$) decays. Rescattering of secondary kaons in the dense hadron gas together with the influence of in-medium kaon potential can lead to a relative decrease of a $\phi$ yield observed in the hadronic channel. We analyze how the in-medium modifications of meson properties affect apparent - reconstructed momentum distributions of $\phi$ mesons. Quantitative results are presented for central Pb+Pb collisions at $E_{beam}=158 GeV/A$.Comment: style Revtex4,9 pages, 5 figures. submitted to Phys. Rev.

APE1 Promotes Pancreatic Cancer Proliferation through GFRα1/Src/ERK Axis-Cascade Signaling in Response to GDNF

Pancreatic cancer is the worst exocrine gastrointestinal cancer leading to the highest mortality. Recent studies reported that aberrant expression of apurinic/apyrimidinic endodeoxyribonuclease 1 (APE1) is involved in uncontrolled cell growth. However, the molecular mechanism of APE1 biological role remains unrevealed in pancreatic cancer progression. Here, we demonstrate that APE1 accelerates pancreatic cancer cell proliferation through glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF)/glial factor receptor α1 (GFRα1)/Src/ERK axis-cascade signaling. The proliferation of endogenous APE1 expressed-MIA PaCa-2, a human pancreatic carcinoma cell line, was increased by treatment with GDNF, a ligand of GFRα1. Either of downregulated APE1 or GFRα1 expression using small interference RNA (siRNA) inhibited GDNF-induced cancer cell proliferation. The MEK-1 inhibitor PD98059 decreased GDNF-induced MIA PaCa-2 cell proliferation. Src inactivation by either its siRNA or Src inhibitor decreased ERK-phosphorylation in response to GDNF in MIA PaCa-2 cells. Overexpression of GFRα1 in APE1-deficient MIA PaCa-2 cells activated the phosphorylation of Src and ERK. The expression of both APE1 and GFRα1 was gradually increased as progressing pancreatic cancer grades. Our results highlight a critical role for APE1 in GDNF-induced pancreatic cancer cell proliferation through APE1/GFRα1/Src/ERK axis-cascade signaling and provide evidence for future potential therapeutic drug targets for the treatment of pancreatic cancer

Ultrafast nonlocal control of spontaneous emission

Solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics systems will form scalable nodes of future quantum networks, allowing the storage, processing and retrieval of quantum bits, where a real-time control of the radiative interaction in the cavity is required to achieve high efficiency. We demonstrate here the dynamic molding of the vacuum field in a coupled-cavity system to achieve the ultrafast nonlocal modulation of spontaneous emission of quantum dots in photonic crystal cavities, on a timescale of ~200 ps, much faster than their natural radiative lifetimes. This opens the way to the ultrafast control of semiconductor-based cavity quantum electrodynamics systems for application in quantum interfaces and to a new class of ultrafast lasers based on nano-photonic cavities.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure