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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Glutathione: A Small Molecule With Big Sense, Cristina E. Raya, Debasish Bandyopadhyay Aug 2018

Glutathione: A Small Molecule With Big Sense, Cristina E. Raya, Debasish Bandyopadhyay

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Glutathione, a peptide found in microbes, plants and animals including human plays a key role in maintaining healthy cells. The peptide exists in both reduced and oxidized forms. Synthesis of GSH occurs in the cytosol of cells, and the extent of glutathione synthesis relies on various factors, such as amino acid availability, protein activity etc. Once synthesized, glutathione exists in both forms: oxidized (GSSG) and reduced (GSH). Oxidized glutathione characterized by its disulfide linkage. On the other hand, presence of a thiol group characterizes the reduced glutathione. This thiol makes the tripeptide an essential component of health; it makes glutathione …


Efficient Esterification Of Oxidized L-Glutathione And Other Small Peptides, Emily Rose Vogel, William Jackson, Douglas S. Masterson Dr. Jun 2015

Efficient Esterification Of Oxidized L-Glutathione And Other Small Peptides, Emily Rose Vogel, William Jackson, Douglas S. Masterson Dr.

Faculty Publications

xidized l-glutathione was esterified to the tetra methyl ester using thionyl chloride in methanol solvent. Other alcohols were tested and the reaction progress was monitored via ESI-MS. This procedure proved to be compatible with other small peptides not containing serine and cysteine residues. In contrast to previously reported methods this procedure provided convenient access to esterified peptides requiring no purification, extended reaction times, or complicated reaction setups.


The Identification Of Amino Acids By Interpretation Of Titration Curves: An Undergraduate Experiment For Biochemistry, Cassidy M. Dobson, Nathan S. Winter Dec 2014

The Identification Of Amino Acids By Interpretation Of Titration Curves: An Undergraduate Experiment For Biochemistry, Cassidy M. Dobson, Nathan S. Winter

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Undergraduate biochemistry students should have great familiarity with titration curves. These curves allow the prediction of protonation states, charges, and isoelectric points. Here we describe an experiment in which students identify four amino acids based on their titration behavior. Students make solutions of each unknown amino acid and monitor the change in pH upon adding aliquots of a strong base. They identify the amino acids based on the shapes of the curves. They annotate the plots with isoelectric points, pKas, buffering regions and the structures of the amino acids.


A Facile Route To Tailoring Peptide-Stabilized Gold Nanoparticles Using Glutathione As A Synthon, Rosina Ho Wu, Tan P. Nguyen, Grant W. Marquart, Thomas J. Miesen, Theresa Mau, Marilyn R. Mackiewicz May 2014

A Facile Route To Tailoring Peptide-Stabilized Gold Nanoparticles Using Glutathione As A Synthon, Rosina Ho Wu, Tan P. Nguyen, Grant W. Marquart, Thomas J. Miesen, Theresa Mau, Marilyn R. Mackiewicz

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The preparation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of high purity and stability remains a major challenge for biological applications. This paper reports a simple synthetic strategy to prepare water-soluble peptide-stabilized AuNPs. Reduced glutathione, a natural tripeptide, was used as a synthon for the growth of two peptide chains directly on the AuNP surface. Both nonpolar (tryptophan and methionine) and polar basic (histidine and dansylated arginine) amino acids were conjugated to the GSH-capped AuNPs. Ultracentrifugation concentrators with polyethersulfone (PES) membranes were used to purify precursor materials in each stage of the multi-step synthesis to minimize side reactions. Thin layer chromatography, transmission electron …


Murchison Chondrite, Marisol Chirinos Jan 2014

Murchison Chondrite, Marisol Chirinos

Natural Sciences Student Research Presentations

Murchson Chondrite is a carbonaceous meteorite that fell in a small town called Murchson in Victoria, Australia, on September 28, 1969. It is believed to be one of the most primitive meteorites to fall on earth. Amino acides found in Murchison differ in structures from amino acids found on Earth. While the carbon atom in the carboxylic acid and amion group of biological terrestrial amino acids have a hydrogen atom attached to it, the Murchison's amino acids have a methyl group instead.


Characterization And Reaction Of An Analog Of The Anticancer Drug Oxaliplatin, Jonathan D. Hendrie Dec 2013

Characterization And Reaction Of An Analog Of The Anticancer Drug Oxaliplatin, Jonathan D. Hendrie

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Oxaliplatin is an anticancer drug that reacts with DNA, RNA, and proteins both in vitro and in vivo. Our research focuses on synthesizing analogs of oxaliplatin and understanding how bulky ligand groups affect reaction with amino acids. (R,R)-N,N’-dimethyl-1,2-diaminocyclohexane platinum(II) oxalate or Pt(Me2dach)(ox) varies from oxaliplatin or Pt(dach)(ox) in that it has one methyl group attached to each platinum coordinated nitrogen. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has shown that the reactions of N-Acetylmethionine (N-AcMet) with Pt(Me2dach)(ox) and Pt(dach)(ox) proceed at similar rates suggesting that the methyl groups of Pt(Me2dach)(ox) have little effect on the initial reaction. Whereas the reaction of Pt(dach)(ox) …


Sequence-Specific Inhibition Of A Nonspecific Protease, Leigh A. Logsdon, Adam R. Urbach Jan 2013

Sequence-Specific Inhibition Of A Nonspecific Protease, Leigh A. Logsdon, Adam R. Urbach

Chemistry Faculty Research

A nonspecific exopeptidase, aminopeptidase N (APN), is inhibited sequence-specifically by a synthetic host, cucurbit[7]uril (Q7), which binds with high affinity and specificity to N-terminal phenylalanine (Phe) and 4-(aminomethyl)phenylalanine (AMPhe) and prevents their removal from the peptide. Liquid chromatography experiments demonstrated that in the presence of excess Q7, APN quantitatively converts the pentapeptides Thr-Gly-Ala-X-Met into the dipeptides X-Met (X = Phe, AMPhe). The resulting Q7-bound products are completely stable to proteolytic digestion for at least 24 h. Structure–activity studies revealed a direct correlation between the extent of protection of an N-terminal amino acid and its affinity for Q7. Therefore, Q7 provides …


Dissolved Organic Matter Composition And Bioavailability Reflect Ecosystem Productivity In The Western Arctic Ocean, Yuan Shen, Cedric Fichot, Ronald Benner Dec 2012

Dissolved Organic Matter Composition And Bioavailability Reflect Ecosystem Productivity In The Western Arctic Ocean, Yuan Shen, Cedric Fichot, Ronald Benner

Faculty Publications

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total dissolved amino acids (TDAA) were measured in high (Chukchi Sea) and low (Beaufort Sea) productivity regions of the western Arctic Ocean to investigate the composition and bioavailability of dissolved organic matter (DOM). Concentrations and DOC-normalized yields of TDAA in Chukchi surface waters were relatively high, indicating an accumulation of bioavailable DOM. High concentrations and yields of TDAA were also observed in the upper halocline of slope and basin waters, indicating off-shelf transport of bioavailable DOM from the Chukchi Sea. In contrast, concentrations and yields of TDAA in Beaufort surface waters were relatively low, indicting …


Experimental And Theoretical Studies In Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Monica N. Kinde Aug 2012

Experimental And Theoretical Studies In Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Monica N. Kinde

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR) has proven to be a powerful tool for probing molecular structure and dynamics. Deuterium SSNMR is particularly useful due to the presence of anisotropic interactions whose motional averaging contributes structural and dynamical insight. The magnitude and type of molecular motion can be determined from analysis of solid echo deuterium lineshapes and/or relaxation studies. This work uses various applications of solid-state NMR as well as ab initio and density functional computational methods to study three different areas of physical chemistry: biophysical chemistry, materials science and fundamental concepts of physical chemistry. The first project addressed the dynamics …


Nanomolar Binding Of Peptides Containing Noncanonical Amino Acids By A Synthetic Receptor, Leigh A. Logsdon, Christopher L. Schardon, Vijayakumar Ramalingam, Sharon K. Kwee, Adam R. Urbach Oct 2011

Nanomolar Binding Of Peptides Containing Noncanonical Amino Acids By A Synthetic Receptor, Leigh A. Logsdon, Christopher L. Schardon, Vijayakumar Ramalingam, Sharon K. Kwee, Adam R. Urbach

Chemistry Faculty Research

This paper describes the molecular recognition of phenylalanine derivatives and their peptides by the synthetic receptor cucurbit[7]uril (Q7). The 4-tert-butyl and 4-aminomethyl derivatives of phenylalanine (tBuPhe and AMPhe) were identified from a screen to have 20–30-fold higher affinity than phenylalanine for Q7. Placement of these residues at the N-terminus of model tripeptides (X-Gly-Gly), resulted in no change in affinity for tBuPhe-Gly-Gly, but a remarkable 500-fold increase in affinity for AMPhe-Gly-Gly, which bound to Q7 with an equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) value of 0.95 nM in neutral phosphate buffer. Structure–activity studies revealed that three functional groups …


Chiral Recognition Of Amino Acids By Use Of A Fluorescent Resorcinarene, Gerald I. Richard, Hadi M. Marwani, Shan Jiang, Sayo O. Fakayode, Mark Lowry, Robert M. Strongin, Isiah M. Warner Jan 2008

Chiral Recognition Of Amino Acids By Use Of A Fluorescent Resorcinarene, Gerald I. Richard, Hadi M. Marwani, Shan Jiang, Sayo O. Fakayode, Mark Lowry, Robert M. Strongin, Isiah M. Warner

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The spectroscopic properties of a chiral boronic acid based resorcinarene macrocycle employed for chiral analysis were investigated. Specifically, the emission and excitation characteristics of tetraarylboronate resorcinarene macrocycle (TBRM) and its quantum yield were evaluated. The chiral selector TBRM was investigated as a chiral reagent for the enantiomeric discrimination of amino acids using steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy. Chiral recognition of amino acids in the presence of the macrocycle was based on diastereomeric complexes. Results demonstrated that TBRM had better chiral discrimination ability for lysine as compared to the other amino acids. Partial least squares regression modeling (PLS-1) of spectral data for macrocycle-lysine …


Effect Of Temperature On Retention Of Enantiomers Of Β-Methyl Amino Acids On A Teicoplanin Chiral Stationary Phase, Antal Péter, Gabriella Török, Daniel W. Armstrong, Géza Tóth, Dirk Tourwé Dec 1998

Effect Of Temperature On Retention Of Enantiomers Of Β-Methyl Amino Acids On A Teicoplanin Chiral Stationary Phase, Antal Péter, Gabriella Török, Daniel W. Armstrong, Géza Tóth, Dirk Tourwé

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

The isocratic retention of enantiomers of β-methyl amino acids (β-methyltyrosine, β-methylphenylalanine, β-methyltryptophan and β-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline-3-carboxylic acid) was studied on a teicoplanin-containing chiral stationary phase at different temperatures and at different mobile phase compositions, using the reversed-phase mode. With variation of both mobile phase composition and temperature, almost baseline separations could be achieved for all four enantiomers of sterically hindered amino acids. The retention factors and selectivity factors for the enantiomers of all investigated compounds decreased with increasing temperature. The natural logarithms of the retention factors (ln k) of the investigated compounds depended linearly on the inverse of temperature (1/T). van 't …


High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Separation Of Enantiomers Of Unusual Amino Acids On A Teicoplanin Chiral Stationary Phase, Antal Péter, Gabriella Török, Daniel W. Armstrong Jan 1998

High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Separation Of Enantiomers Of Unusual Amino Acids On A Teicoplanin Chiral Stationary Phase, Antal Péter, Gabriella Török, Daniel W. Armstrong

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

A glycopeptide antibiotic, teicoplanin, was used as chiral stationary phase for the high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) separation of enantiomers of more than 30 unnatural amino acids, such as phenylalanine and tyrosine analogues and analogues containing 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline, tetraline, 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-2-carboline, cyclopentane, cyclohexane, cyclohexene, bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane or heptene skeletons. Excellent resolutions were achieved for most of the investigated compounds by using a hydro-organic mobile-phase system. The effects of organic modifier content, temperature and flow-rate on the resolution were investigated and the conditions of separation were optimized.


Facile Liquid Chromatographic Enantioresolution Of Native Amino Acids And Peptides Using A Teicoplanin Chiral Stationary Phase, Alain Berthod, Youbang Liu, Christina Bagwill, Daniel W. Armstrong Apr 1996

Facile Liquid Chromatographic Enantioresolution Of Native Amino Acids And Peptides Using A Teicoplanin Chiral Stationary Phase, Alain Berthod, Youbang Liu, Christina Bagwill, Daniel W. Armstrong

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

The glycopeptide antibiotic teicoplanin is shown to be a highly effective stationary phase chiral selector for the resolution of underivatized amino-acid and imino-acid enantiomers. Fifty four of these compounds (including all chiral protein amino acids) as well as a number of dipeptides were resolved. Hydro-organic mobile phases are used and no buffers or added salts are needed in most cases. Hence the purified analytes are easily isolated in pure form, if needed, by evaporating of the solvent. The effect of pH, organic modifier type and amount are discussed. The enantioselective separation mechanism is examined using both molecular modeling and retention …