Aldehyde group pendant-grafted pectin-based injectable hydrogel.

Periodate oxidation has been the widely accepted route for obtaining aldehyde group-functionalized polysaccharides but significantly influenced the various physicochemical properties due to the ring opening of the backbone of polysaccharides. The present study, for the first time, presents a novel method for the preparation of aldehyde group-functionalized polysaccharides that could retain the ring structure and the consequent rigidity of the backbone. Pectin was collected as the representative of polysaccharides and modified with cyclopropyl formaldehyde to obtain pectin aldehyde (AP), which was further crosslinked by DL-lysine (LYS) via the Schiff base reaction to prepare injectable hydrogel. The feasibility of the functionalization was proved by FT-IR and 1H NMR techniques. The obtained hydrogel showed acceptable mechanical properties, self-healing ability, syringeability, and sustained-release performance. Also, as-prepared injectable hydrogel presented great biocompatibility with a cell proliferation rate of 96 %, and the drug-loaded hydrogel exhibited clear inhibition of cancer cell proliferation. Overall, the present study showed a new method for the preparation of aldehyde group-functionalized polysaccharides, and the drug-loaded hydrogel has potential in drug release applications.

Biotransformation of gallate esters by a pH-stable tannase of mangrove-derived yeast Debaryomyces hansenii.

Introduction: Tannase is a crucial enzyme that finds wide applications in the pharmaceutical industry, feed processing, and beverage manufacturing. Although extensive studies have been conducted on tannases from fungi and bacteria, reports on tannases exhibiting favorable pH stability are relatively limited. Methods: In this study, a tannin-degrading strain Debaryomyces hansenii was screened to induce tannase production, and the corresponding tannase coding gene TANF was successfully cloned and expressed in Yarrowia lipolytica. SDS-PAGE analysis revealed that the purified TanF tannase had a molecular weight of approximately 70 kDa. Results and Discussion: The enzyme demonstrated optimal activity at 40°C and retained over 80% of its activity in the range of 35°C-60°C. Of particular interest, TanF exhibited remarkable enzyme activity at pH 5.0 and retained more than 70% of its relative activity across a wide pH range of 3.0-8.0. Furthermore, TanF exhibited broad substrate specificity for gallate esters. The final gallic acid production by TanF from tannic acid achieved 18.32 g/L. Therefore, the excellent properties TanF has been demonstrated to be an efficient tool for the preparation of gallic acid.

Author Correction: Universal mechanical exfoliation of large-area 2D crystals.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Universal mechanical exfoliation of large-area 2D crystals.

Two-dimensional materials provide extraordinary opportunities for exploring phenomena arising in atomically thin crystals. Beginning with the first isolation of graphene, mechanical exfoliation has been a key to provide high-quality two-dimensional materials, but despite improvements it is still limited in yield, lateral size and contamination. Here we introduce a contamination-free, one-step and universal Au-assisted mechanical exfoliation method and demonstrate its effectiveness by isolating 40 types of single-crystalline monolayers, including elemental two-dimensional crystals, metal-dichalcogenides, magnets and superconductors. Most of them are of millimeter-size and high-quality, as shown by transfer-free measurements of electron microscopy, photo spectroscopies and electrical transport. Large suspended two-dimensional crystals and heterojunctions were also prepared with high-yield. Enhanced adhesion between the crystals and the substrates enables such efficient exfoliation, for which we identify a gold-assisted exfoliation method that underpins a universal route for producing large-area monolayers and thus supports studies of fundamental properties and potential application of two-dimensional materials.

[Construction, Expression of hERα-LBD Prokaryotic Vector and the Activity of Expressed Protein].

OBJECTIVES: To construct the prokaryotic expression system of estrogen receptor α ligand bingding domain (hERα-LBD) and to evaluate the estrogen receptor ligand binding activity of the expressed protein. METHODS: hERα -LBD was amplicated from the plasmid of hERα -LBD by PCR, the identified PCR product was ligated with pGEM-T-easy vector to generate pGM-T-hERα -LBD. After the confirmation, the hERα -LBD fragments were obtained by enzyme digestion and inserted into pET-28a. The expression vectors were expressed in E.Coli to produce hERα-LBD protein. We mixed the hERα-LBD protein and estradiol and bovine serum albumin conjugated antigens (E2-BSA), then evaluated the binding activity of hERα-LBD by electrophoresis. RESULTS: The amplified fragment was about 1.9 kb, which was in agreement with the expected target fragment. Recombinant plasmid of pGM-T-hERα -LBD was confirmed by enzyme digestion and sequencing, then pET-28a(+)-hERα -LBD was constructed successfully. The expressed hERα-LBD protein in E.Coli was observed and the expression amount was 250 mg/L after affinity chromatography purification. hERα-LBD was confirmed to had estrogen binding activity by electrophoresis. CONCLUSIONS: The prokaryotic expression system of pET-28a(+)-hERα -LBD was successfully constructed, and hERα-LBD had the activity of binding.

Crystal structure of 1,1'-bis-(2-meth-oxy-carbonyl-2-methyl-prop-yl)ferrocene.

The Fe atom in the title ferrocene derivative, [Fe(C11H15O2)2], is situated on an inversion centre. As a result of the point-group symmetry -1 of the mol-ecule, the ferrocene moiety adopts a staggered conformation. The average Fe-C(Cp) bond length (Cp is cyclo-penta-dien-yl) is 2.045 (4) Å, in agreement with that of other disubstituted ferrocenes. The Fe-C bond length involving the substituted C atom is slightly longer [2.0521 (17) Å] than the remaining Fe-C bond lengths caused by the inductive effect of the methyl-ene group on the Cp ring. Apart from van der Waals forces, no significant inter-molecular inter-actions are observed in the crystal packing.

Growth of single-crystal Ca10(Pt4As8)(Fe(1.8)Pt(0.2)As2)5 nanowhiskers with superconductivity up to 33 K.

Single-crystal Ca(10)(Pt(4)As(8))(Fe(1.8)Pt(0.2)As(2))(5) superconducting (SC) nanowhiskers with widths down to hundreds of nanometers were successfully grown in a Ta capsule in an evacuated quartz tube by a flux method. Magnetic and electrical properties measurements demonstrate that the whiskers have excellent crystallinity with critical temperature of up to 33 K, upper critical field of 52.8 T, and critical current density of J(c) of 6.0 × 10(5) A/cm(2) (at 26 K). Since cuprate high-T(c) SC whiskers are fragile ceramics, the present intermetallic SC whiskers with high T(c) have better opportunities for device applications. Moreover, although the growth mechanism is not understood well, the technique can be potentially useful for growth of other whiskers containing toxic elements.