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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Exploring The Role Of A Conserved Class A Residue In The Ω-Loop Of Kpc-2 Β-Lactamase: A Mechanism For Ceftazidime Hydrolysis Sep 2012

Exploring The Role Of A Conserved Class A Residue In The Ω-Loop Of Kpc-2 Β-Lactamase: A Mechanism For Ceftazidime Hydrolysis

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Gram-negative bacteria harboring KPC-2, a class A β-lactamase, are resistant to all β-lactam antibiotics and pose a major public health threat. Arg-164 is a conserved residue in all class A β-lactamases and is located in the solvent-exposed Ω-loop of KPC-2. To probe the role of this amino acid in KPC-2, we performed site-saturation mutagenesis. When compared with wild type, 11 of 19 variants at position Arg-164 in KPC-2 conferred increased resistance to the oxyimino-cephalosporin, ceftazidime (minimum inhibitory concentration; 32→128 mg/liter) when expressed in Escherichia coli. Using the R164S variant of KPC-2 as a representative β-lactamase for more detailed analysis, we …


Light Scattering Study Of Elongated Particles: From Inorganic Nanorice To Polypeptide Micelles, Philip Dee Sep 2012

Light Scattering Study Of Elongated Particles: From Inorganic Nanorice To Polypeptide Micelles, Philip Dee

Undergraduate Research Posters 2012

Utilizing the powerful experimental technique of Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) for size characterization of anisotropic particles can be extremely misleading. Unfortunately, this point is often not realized by researchers who strive for particle sizing of nanoparticles in suspensions. We present a consistent analysis of DDLS results on FeOOH nanorice and outline the potential difficulties and challenges of DDLS application for polypeptide micelles.


Understanding The Molecular Determinants Of Substrate And Inhibitor Specificities In The Carbapenemase Kpc-2: Exploring The Roles Of Arg220 And Glu276 Aug 2012

Understanding The Molecular Determinants Of Substrate And Inhibitor Specificities In The Carbapenemase Kpc-2: Exploring The Roles Of Arg220 And Glu276

Chemistry Faculty Publications

β-Lactamases are important antibiotic resistance determinants expressed by bacteria. By studying the mechanistic properties of β-lactamases, we can identify opportunities to circumvent resistance through the design of novel inhibitors. Comparative amino acid sequence analysis of class A β-lactamases reveals that many enzymes possess a localized positively charged residue (e.g., R220, R244, or R276) that is critical for interactions with β-lactams and β-lactamase inhibitors. To better understand the contribution of these residues to the catalytic process, we explored the roles of R220 and E276 in KPC-2, a class A β-lactamase that inactivates carbapenems and β-lactamase inhibitors. Our study reveals that substitutions …


Chemical And Isotopic Evaluation Of Sulfur Sources And Cycling In The Pecos River, New Mexico, Usa, Fasong Yuan, Bernhard Mayer Jan 2012

Chemical And Isotopic Evaluation Of Sulfur Sources And Cycling In The Pecos River, New Mexico, Usa, Fasong Yuan, Bernhard Mayer

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

The use of stable isotopes in studies of watershed biogeochemical processes has increased greatly throughout the last several decades. Much of the sulfur cycling research has addressed the influence of changes in atmospheric acid deposition on sulfur dynamics in temperate ecosystems. Little is known about sulfur cycling in dryland ecosystems such as those in the American Southwest. To identify the sources and assess the cycling of sulfur in dryland ecosystems, chemical and isotopic compositions of water were measured on samples collected from the Pecos River (New Mexico, USA) during a reconnaissance survey in spring 2010. Based on the chemical and …


Development Of A ‘Clickable’ Non-Natural Nucleotide To Visualize The Replication Of Non-Instructional Dna Lesions, Edward A. Motea, Irene Lee, Anthony J. Berdis Jan 2012

Development Of A ‘Clickable’ Non-Natural Nucleotide To Visualize The Replication Of Non-Instructional Dna Lesions, Edward A. Motea, Irene Lee, Anthony J. Berdis

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The misreplication of damaged DNA is an important biological process that produces numerous adverse effects on human health. This report describes the synthesis and characterization of a non-natural nucleotide, designated 3-ethynyl-5-nitroindolyl-2′-deoxyriboside triphosphate (3-Eth-5-NITP), as a novel chemical reagent that can probe and quantify the misreplication of damaged DNA. We demonstrate that this non-natural nucleotide is efficiently inserted opposite an abasic site, a commonly formed and potentially mutagenic non-instructional DNA lesion. The strategic placement of the ethynyl moiety allows the incorporated nucleoside triphosphate to be selectively tagged with an azide-containing fluorophore using ‘click’ chemistry. This reaction provides a facile way to …


Removal Of Uracil By Uracil Dna Glycosylase Limits Pemetrexed Cytotoxicity: Overriding The Limit With Methoxyamine To Inhibit Base Excision Repair, A. D. Bulgar, L. D. Weeks, Y. Miao, S. Yang, Yan Xu, C. Guo, S. Markowitz, N. Oleinick, S. L. Gerson, Lili Liu Jan 2012

Removal Of Uracil By Uracil Dna Glycosylase Limits Pemetrexed Cytotoxicity: Overriding The Limit With Methoxyamine To Inhibit Base Excision Repair, A. D. Bulgar, L. D. Weeks, Y. Miao, S. Yang, Yan Xu, C. Guo, S. Markowitz, N. Oleinick, S. L. Gerson, Lili Liu

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) specifically removes uracil bases from DNA, and its repair activity determines the sensitivity of the cell to anticancer agents that are capable of introducing uracil into DNA. In the present study, the participation of UDG in the response to pemetrexed-induced incorporation of uracil into DNA was studied using isogenic human tumor cell lines with or without UDG (UDG+/+/UDG−/−). UDG−/− cells were very sensitive to pemetrexed. Cell killing by pemetrexed was associated with genomic uracil accumulation, stalled DNA replication, and catastrophic DNA strand breaks. By contrast, UDG+/+ cells were >10 times more resistant to pemetrexed due to …