403 research outputs found

    Social problem-solving in the classroom

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    A homolog of the vertebrate pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide is both necessary and instructive for the rapid formation of associative memory in an invertebrate

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    Similar to other invertebrate and vertebrate animals, cAMP dependent signaling cascades are key components of long-term memory (LTM) formation in the snail Lymnaea stagnalis, an established experimental model for studying evolutionarily conserved molecular mechanisms of long-term associative memory. Although a great deal is already known about the signaling cascades activated by cAMP, the molecules involved in the learning-induced activation of adenylate cyclase (AC) in Lymnaea remained unknown. Using Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectroscopy in combination with biochemical and immunohistochemical methods, recently we have obtained evidence for the existence of a Lymnaea homologue of the vertebrate pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) and for the AC activating effect of PACAP in the Lymnaea nervous system. Here we first tested the hypothesis that PACAP plays an important role in the formation of robust LTM after single-trial classical food-reward conditioning. Application of the PACAP receptor antagonist PACAP6-38 around the time of single-trial training with amyl acetate and sucrose blocked associative LTM, suggesting that in this strong food-reward conditioning paradigm the activation of AC by PACAP was necessary for LTM to form. We found that in a weak multi-trial food-reward conditioning paradigm, lip-touch paired with sucrose, memory formation was also dependent on PACAP. Significantly, systemic application of PACAP at the beginning of multi-trial tactile conditioning accelerated the formation of transcription dependent memory.Our findings provide the first evidence to show that in the same nervous system PACAP is both necessary and instructive for fast and robust memory formation after reward classical conditioning

    Treatment of model oily waste water by microfiltration

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    Microfiltration membranes made from polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) have been successfully used for the separation of oily waste waters by membrane coalescence, but filtration of the oily waste waters with high emulsifier content have not yet been investigated. Our aim was to examine the effect of emulsifier content on membrane coalescence on this type of membrane, and to investigate the effect of surfactant addition on oil retention and filtration parameters. It was found that the oil content of the emulsion can be separated with MF PTFE membranes. Efficiency of the retention depends on the concentration of emulsion: increasing concentrations resulted in an increased retention. The addition of coagulant also affected filtration parameters: higher coagulant concentrations resulted in a significant increase of the flux, while the retention marginally decreased

    Új, potenciálisan bioaktív szénhidrátok: szintetikus és NMR kutatások = Novel carbohydrates with potential biological activity: synthetic and NMR investigations

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    Új típusú, 3-kötéses glikozidos hidat (3KGH: -S-S-, -S-C- ) tartalmazó glikomimetikumokat szintetizáltunk. Monoszacharidokat egy központi aromás gyűrűre SS-kötéssel kapcsolva szimmetrikus oligovalens struktúrákat nyertünk. Tioéter (4->6', -S-C-) interglikozidos kiépítésével új típusú pszeudo-diszacharidokat konstruáltunk. A nem hidrolizálható kötés miatt utóbbiak a glikozilhidroláz enzimek potenciális inhibitorai. Új NMR módszereket fejlesztettünk ki a kémiai szerkezet és dinamika hatékonyabb vizsgálatára. Izotópszelektív (15N) telítés alkalmazása az STD NMR kísérletben (15N GS-STD) teljes jelátfedés esetén is lehetővé teszik fehérje-ligandum kölcsönhatások vizsgálatát. Többkötéses heteronukleáris (H,X)-, valamint 13C-13C skaláris csatolási állandók meghatározására új, hatékony 2D NMR módszereket, ill. érzékeny, 1H-detektáláson alapuló kísérleteket (CPMG-HSQMBC, ill. IPAP-DEPT-INADEQUATE és RINEPT-INADEQUATE) javasoltunk. A mért csatolási állandók és egyéb NMR adatok (NOESY/ROESY) felhasználásával elméleti molekulamodellezési módszerekkel határoztuk meg diglikozil-diszulfidok és egyéb szénhidrát-származékok konformációs preferenciáit oldatban. Szilárd fázisban röntgendiffrakciós és kiroptikai (CD) módszereket alkalmaztunk. Az aromás, oligovalens mannozil-diszulfid származékok specifikusan kötődnek a Concanavalin-A lektin-fehérjéhez. A fehérje-ligandum komplexek termodinamikai paramétereit mikrokalorimetriai (ITC), szerkezetüket STD-NMR mérésekkel határoztuk meg. | Novel glycomimetics were synthesized containing three-bond interglycosidic linkages (3BIGL, -S-S-, -S-C-). Glycopyranosyl units were attached to an aromatic scaffold through SS-linkages to obtain symmetric oligovalent structures. Non-glycosidic, 4,6'-thioether (-S-C-) -linked pseudodisaccharides were constructed via highly diastereoselective synthesis; these are potential inhibitors of glycosylhydrolases. Efficient NMR techniques were developed for in-depth studies of molecular structures and dynamics. Extension of the STD NMR experiment with an isotope selective (15N) saturation sequence allows exploration of protein-ligand interactions even in case of complete signal overlap. Novel 2D NMR methods were devised for more accurate measurement of long-range heteronuclear couplings (CPMG-HSQMBC), including sensitive 1H-detection schemes for 13C-13C scalar couplings at natural abundance (DEPT-INADEQUATE, RINEPT-INADEQUATE). Complete sets of experimental coupling constants and NOESY/ROESY data supplemented with molecular modelling allowed determination of conformational preferences of diglycosyl disulfides and other carbohydrate derivatives in solution. X-ray and chiroptical (CD) methods were applied for solid state studies. Aromatic, oligovalent mannosyl disulfides were shown to bind specifically to Concanavalin A, a plant lectin. The thermodynamic parameters and structures of the protein-ligand complexes were determined by microcalorimetry (ITC) and STD-NMR, respectively
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