Study of STAT3 G-quadruplex folding patterns by CD spectroscopy and molecular modeling

The G-quadruplexes formed from G-rich strands in the telomere and oncogene-promoter regions are regarded as new promising targets in the cancer therapy.A G-quadruplex in the downstream flanking region of the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3（STAT3） gene was explored.Its folding patterns were proposed to be 3：2：2 and 3：3：1 loop isomers by the mutation analysis by CD spectroscopy.The structures were constructed and refined by molecular modeling method.

Characterization of Interaction Between Raltitrexed and Bovine Serum Albumin by Optical Spectroscopic Techniques

The interaction of raltitrexed（RTX） with bovine serum albumin（BSA） was investigated by steady state/lifetime fluorescence spectroscopy and circular dichroism（CD） spectroscopy under the simulative physiological conditions.The results of fluorescence titration reveal that RTX could strongly quench the intrinsic fluorescence of BSA via a static quenching procedure.The obtained binding constant K A of RTX with BSA was 478630 and 44259 L/mol at 298 and 310 K,respectively.According to van＇t Hoff equation,the thermodynamic parameters ΔH,ΔG and ΔS were calculated,indicating that hydrophobic forces were the predominant intermolecular forces in stabilizing the complex.The binding process was a spontaneous process,in which Gibbs free energy change was negative.According to F rster＇s non-radioactive energy transfer theory,the distance r between donor（BSA） and acceptor（RTX） was 3.82 nm,suggesting that the energy transfer from BSA to RTX occurred with high probability.Displacement experiment and the number of binding sites calculation confirmed that RTX could bind to the site-I of BSA.Furthermore,the effects of pH and some metal ions on the interaction of RTX with BSA were also investigated.The results of synchronous fluorescence and CD spectra show that the RTX-BSA binding induced conformational changes in BSA.

The Streptococcus agalactiae Ribose Binding Protein B (RbsB) Mediates Quorum Sensing Signal Uptake via Interaction with Autoinducer-2 Signals

Understanding aquatic pathogen in sediments or aquacultural water is crucial to protect public health from soilborne and waterborne diseases.Quorum sensing(QS)was increasingly reported in biological wastewater treatment processes because of their inherent roles in biofilm development,bacterial aggregation and so on.The widely QS signals was Antoinducer-2(AI-2),primarily involved to allow the possibility of interspecies communication.However,the cellular components that mediate the response of Streptococcus agalactiae to AI-2 have not been fully characterized.Analysis of the complete genome sequence of S.agalactiae indi-cated that its RbsB protein has similarity to Escherichia coli LsrB and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans RbsB proteins that bind AI-2.We hypothesized that RbsB protein mediates quorum sensing signal uptake via interaction with AI-2.To evaluate the regulatory effect of RbsB on QS system,the recombinant plasmid pGEX-6p-1-RbsB was constructed and RbsB protein was purified with GST-tag.To further elucidate the role of RbsB protein binding to DPD(AI-2 precursor dihydroxypentanedione),the systemati-cally throughput circular dichroism(CD)spectroscopy,isothermal titration calorimetry200(ITC200)and molecular docking methods were employed.The high expression of soluble RbsB protein with molecular weight of 33 kDa was obtained.The thermodynamics results(ΔH<0,ΔS<0,ΔG<0)with ITC determination indicated that the binding process between DPD and RbsB was exothermic and spontaneous,with hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces as the main binding forces.Obviously,DPD can be more easily combined with RbsB in a dose-dependent manner,suggesting that RbsB was changed in the microenvironment of DPD when the DPD concentration was between 0.8-1.0mmolL−1 and reaching the maximum binding amount.According to molecular docking,3 hydrophobic residues involved in DPD and RbsB protein stable binding were be found,and also hydrogen bonding plays a key role in the formation of the new complex.RbsB efficiently inhibited V.harveyi bioluminescence induced by both S.agalactiae AI-2 and V.harveyi AI-2 in a dose-dependent manner.However,our results suggest that RbsB may play a role in the response of S.agalactiace to AI-2.

Substrate temperature dependent studies on properties of chemical spray pyrolysis deposited CdS thin films for solar cell applications

Thin films of CdS have been prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis by spraying precursor solution directly onto soda lime glass（SLG） substrates. Influence of substrate temperature on structural, optical, morphological and electrical properties have been investigated by using various techniques such as low angle X-ray diffraction（XRD）, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）, field emission scanning electron microscopy（FESEM）, atomic force microscopy（AFM）, transmission electron microscopy（TEM）, UV–visible spectroscopy photoluminescence（PL） spectroscopy etc. Formation of CdS has been confirmed by low angle XRD,Raman spectroscopy and XPS analysis. XRD pattern showed that CdS films are polycrystalline, have hexagonal structure and prefer orientation of crystallites shifts from（101） to（002） with increase in substrate temperature.Raman spectroscopy revealed that exciton-phonon coupling depends on substrate temperature and hence on crystallite size. Optical band gap increased from 2.43 to 2.99 eV when substrate temperature increased from 325 to 475 ℃. Transmittance of the film also showed an increasing trend from 52% to 80% with increase in substrate temperature. Such high band gap and transmittance values of CdS films prepared at 475℃ make it a useful window material in CdS/CdTe and CdS/Cu_2S heterojunction solar cells.