4 research outputs found
Large-Scale Glass-Transition Temperature Prediction with an Equivariant Neural Network for Screening Polymers
The practically infinite
chemical and morphological space of polymers
makes them pervasive with applications in materials science but challenges
the rational discovery of new materials with favorable properties.
Polymer informatics aims to accelerate materials design through property
prediction and large-scale virtual screening. In this study, a new
method (Lieconv-Tg) has been developed to predict glass-transition
temperature (Tg) values from repeating units of polymers based on
Lieconv, which is equivariant with transformations from any specified
Lie group. The introduction of equivariance allows the prediction
of molecular properties from their 3D structures, independent of orientation
and position. A total of 27,659 homopolymers with Tg values were collected
from PolyInfo, and a standard data set containing 7166 polymers (named
data set_Tg) was created for training a robust Lieconv-Tg model. Using
the 3D coordinates as input, Lieconv-Tg performs better than Edge-Conditioned
Convolution (ECC), and the mean absolute error (MAE) is significantly
reduced by ∼6 from ∼30 to ∼24 on both the validation
set and the test set, and the R2 value
for both the validation set and the test set can reach 0.90. Lieconv-Tg
is thus used to screen promising candidates from a benchmark database
named PI1M with 995,800 generated polymers. However, there are some
implausible repeating units in PI1M. To get more reasonable candidates
from PI1M, a new filtering method has been accomplished by utilizing
Morgan fingerprints at the polymerization points (MF@PP) of repeating
units in data set_Tg. The combination of a standard data set, Lieconv-Tg,
and a more reasonable screening strategy provides new directions in
materials design for polymers
Lewis Acidic Metal–Organic Framework Assisted Ambient Liquid Extraction Mass Spectrometry Imaging for Enhancing the Coverage of Poorly Ionizable Lipids in Brain Tissue
The spatial distribution of lipidomes in tissues is of
great importance
in studies of living processes, diseases, and therapies. Mass spectrometry
imaging (MSI) has become a critical technique for spatial lipidomics.
However, MSI of low-abundance or poorly ionizable lipids is still
challenging because of the ion suppression from high-abundance lipids.
Here, a metal–organic framework (MOF) Zr6O4(OH)4(1,3,5-Tris(4-carboxyphenyl) benzene)2(triflate)6(Zr6OTf-BTB) was prepared and used
for selective on-tissue adsorption of phospholipids to reduce ion
suppression from them to poorly ionizable lipids. The results show
that Zr6OTf-BTB with strong Lewis acidic sites and a large
specific surface area (647.9 m2·g–1) could selectively adsorb phospholipids under 1% FA-MeOH. Adsorption
efficiencies of phospholipids are 88.4–144.9 times higher than
those of other neutral lipids. Moreover, the adsorption capacity and
the adsorption kinetic rate constant of the new material to phospholipids
are higher than those of Zr6-BTB (242.72 vs 73.96 mg·g–1, 0.0442 vs 0.0220 g·mg–1·min–1). A Zr6OTf-BTB sheet was prepared by a
lamination technique for on-tissue phospholipid adsorption from brain
tissue. Then, the tissue section on the Zr6OTf-BTB sheet
was directly imaged via ambient liquid extraction-MSI with 1% FA-MeOH
as the sampling solvent. The results showed that phospholipids could
be 100% removed directly on tissue, and the detection coverage of
the Zr6OTf-BTB-enhanced MSI method to ceramides (Cers)
and hexosylceramides (HexCers) was increased by 5–26 times
compared with direct tissue MSI (26 vs 1 and 17 vs 3). The new method
provides an efficient and convenient way to eliminate the ion suppression
from phospholipids in MSI, largely improving the detection coverage
of low-abundance and poorly ionizable lipids
Cd<sup>2+</sup> as a Ca<sup>2+</sup> Surrogate in Protein–Membrane Interactions: Isostructural but Not Isofunctional
Due
to its favorable spectroscopic properties, Cd<sup>2+</sup> is
frequently used as a probe of Ca<sup>2+</sup> sites in proteins. We
investigate the ability of Cd<sup>2+</sup> to act as a structural
and functional surrogate of Ca<sup>2+</sup> in protein–membrane
interactions. C2 domain from protein kinase Cα (C2α) was
chosen as a paradigm for the Ca<sup>2+</sup>-dependent phosphatidylserine-binding
peripheral membrane domains. We identified the Cd<sup>2+</sup>-binding
sites of C2α using NMR spectroscopy, determined the 1.6 Å
crystal structure of Cd<sup>2+</sup>-bound C2α, and characterized
metal-ion-dependent interactions between C2α and phospholipid
membranes using fluorescence spectroscopy and ultracentrifugation
experiments. We show that Cd<sup>2+</sup> forms a tight complex with
the membrane-binding loops of C2α but is unable to support its
membrane-binding function. This is in sharp contrast with Pb<sup>2+</sup>, which is almost as effective as Ca<sup>2+</sup> in driving the
C2α-membrane association process. Our results provide the first
direct evidence for the specific role of divalent metal ions in mediating
protein–membrane interactions, have important implications
for metal substitution studies in proteins, and illustrate the potential
diversity of functional responses caused by toxic metal ions