ABSTRACT
Using Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) we investigated the interaction of seven neuropeptides with different characteristics and beta-amyloid (Abeta42) peptide, with membranes containing gangliosides. A wide range of affinities characterized the bindings (K(D) = 10(-3)- 10(-7) M), following the scheme: for GM1, Abeta42 > DYN > SP = GAL = SOM = BRD > OXY = ENK; for GD1a, Abeta42 = DYN = GAL > SP = SOM = BRD = OXY > ENK and for GT1b, Abeta42 > DYN > SP = GAL > SOM = BRD = OXY > ENK. The ganglioside sugar moiety, specifically the sialic acid, had an important role in the interactions. In general the affinities were higher with polysialo, than with monosialo gangliosides. The sensorgrams describing the interactions of Abeta42 and SP with gangliosides differed from the interactions of the other studied peptides. Ca(2+) promoted changes in peptide-glycolipid interactions.
Subject(s)
Glycolipids/chemistry , Neuropeptides/chemistry , Neuropeptides/metabolism , Surface Plasmon Resonance/methods , Amino Acid Sequence , Calcium/metabolism , Calcium/pharmacology , Calcium Chloride/pharmacology , Carbohydrate Sequence , G(M1) Ganglioside/metabolism , Gangliosides/chemistry , Gangliosides/metabolism , Kinetics , Molecular Sequence Data , Peptides/chemistry , Peptides/metabolism , Protein Binding , Time FactorsABSTRACT
The uranium solution in the precipitation tank in the JCO's uranium conversion facility was analyzed in order to evaluate the total number of fissions in the criticality accident. Two analytical groups at JAERI performed chemical analyses independently in order to check the validity of the results: the concentration of the fission products (95Zr, 99Mo, 103Ru, 131I, 140Ba, etc), uranium, boron and impurity elements in the solution. The analytical results obtained by the two groups were almost in agreement within the analytical error. The number of fissions per one gram of uranium in the accident was determined to be (1.5 +/- 0.1 ) x 10(14). Also, the total number of events was evaluated to be (2.5 +/- 0.1) x 10(18) fissions using the total amount of uranium (16.6 kg) fed into the precipitation tank at the accident.
