Botulinum toxin type A is a potent muscle relaxant that blocks the transmission and release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction. Intramuscular injection of botulinum toxin type A has served as an effective ...Botulinum toxin type A is a potent muscle relaxant that blocks the transmission and release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction. Intramuscular injection of botulinum toxin type A has served as an effective and safe therapy for strabismus and focal dystonia. However, muscular weakness is temporary and after 3-4 months, muscle strength usually recovers because function- al recovery is mediated by nerve sprouting and reconstruction of the neuromuscular junction. Acrylamide may produce neurotoxic substances that cause retrograde necrotizing neuropathy and inhibit nerve sprouting caused by botulinum toxin type A. This study investigated whether acrylamide inhibits nerve sprouting after intramuscular injection of botulinum toxin type A. A tibial nerve sprouting model was established through local injection of botulinum toxin type A into the right gastrocnemius muscle of Sprague-Dawley rats. Following intramuscular injection, rats were given intraperitoneal injection of 3% acrylamide every 3 days for 21 days. Nerve sprout- ing appeared 2 weeks after intramuscular injection of botulinum toxin type A and single-fiber electromyography revealed abnormal conduction at the neuromuscular junction I week after intra- muscular injection of botulinum toxin type A. Following intraperitoneal injection of acrylamide, the peak muscle fiber density decreased. Electromyography jitter value were restored to normal levels 6 weeks after injection. This indicates that the maximal decrease in fiber density and the time at which functional conduction of neuromuscular junction was restored were delayed. Addition- ally, the increase in tibial nerve fibers was reduced. Acrylamide inhibits nerve sprouting caused by botulinum toxin type A and may be used to prolong the clinical dosage of botulinum toxin type A.展开更多
We propose a new way of regulating protein adsorption by using a pH-responsive polymer. According to the the- oretical results obtained from the molecular theory and kinetic approaches, both thermodynamics and kinetic...We propose a new way of regulating protein adsorption by using a pH-responsive polymer. According to the the- oretical results obtained from the molecular theory and kinetic approaches, both thermodynamics and kinetics of protein adsorption are verified to be well controlled by the solution pH. The kinetics and the amount of adsorbed proteins at equi- librium are greatly increased when the solution environment changes from acid to neutral. The reason is that the increased pH promotes the dissociation of the weak polyelectrolyte, resulting in more charged monomers and more stretched chains. Thus the steric repulsion within the polymer layer is weakened, which effectively lowers the barrier felt by the protein during the process of adsorption. Interestingly, we also find that the kinetics of protein desorption is almost unchanged with the variation of pH. It is because although the barrier formed by the polymer layer changes along with the change of pH, the potential at contact with the surface varies equally. Our results may provide useful insights into controllable protein adsorption/desorption in practical applications.展开更多
A new simulation approach to incorporate hydration force into generalized Langevin dynamics (GLD) is developed in this note. The hydration force determined by the boundary element method (BEM) is taken into account as...A new simulation approach to incorporate hydration force into generalized Langevin dynamics (GLD) is developed in this note. The hydration force determined by the boundary element method (BEM) is taken into account as the mean force terms of solvent including Coulombic interactions with the induced surface charge and the surface pressure of solvent. The exponential model is taken for the friction kernel. A simulation study has been performed on the cyclic undecapeptide cyclosporin A (CPA). The results obtained from the new method (GLDBEM) have been analyzed and compared with that obtained from the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and the conventional stochastic dynamics (SD) simulation. We have found that the results obtained from GLDBEM show the obvious improvement over the SD simulation technique in the study of molecular structure and dynamic properties.展开更多
Statistical energy functions are general models about atomic or residue-level interactions in biomolecules, derived from existing experimental data. They provide quantitative foundations for structural modeling as wel...Statistical energy functions are general models about atomic or residue-level interactions in biomolecules, derived from existing experimental data. They provide quantitative foundations for structural modeling as well as for structure-based protein sequence design. Statistical energy functions can be derived computationally either based on statistical distributions or based on variational assumptions. We present overviews on the theoretical assumptions underlying the various types of approaches. Theoretical considerations underlying important pragmatic choices are discussed.展开更多
We used a combined quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics （QM/MM） method to investigate the solvent effects and potential of mean force of the CH3F＋CN- reaction in water. Comparing to gas phase, the water soluti...We used a combined quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics （QM/MM） method to investigate the solvent effects and potential of mean force of the CH3F＋CN- reaction in water. Comparing to gas phase, the water solution substantially affects the structures of the stationary points along the reaction path. We quantitatively obtained the solvent effects＇ contributions to the reaction： 1.7 kcal/mol to the activation barrier and -26.0 kcal/mol to the reaction free energy. The potential mean of force calculated with the density functional theory/MM theory has a barrier height at 19.7 kcal/mol, consistent with the experimental result at 23.0 kcal/mol; the calculated reaction free energy at -43.5 kcal/mol is also consistent with the one estimated based on the gas-phase data at -39.7 kcal/mol.展开更多
The hydrogen mean force from experimental neutron Compton profiles is derived using deep inelastic neutron scattering on amorphous and polycrystalline ice. The formalism of mean force is extended to probe its sensitiv...The hydrogen mean force from experimental neutron Compton profiles is derived using deep inelastic neutron scattering on amorphous and polycrystalline ice. The formalism of mean force is extended to probe its sensitivity to anharmonicity in the hydrogen-nucleus effective potential. The shape of the mean force for amorphous and polycrystalline ice is primarily determined by the anisotropy of the underlying quasi-harmonic effective potential. The data from amorphous ice show an additional curvature reflecting the more pronounced anharmonicity of the effective potential with respect to that of ice Ih.展开更多
基金supported by TCM General Research Project of Zhejiang Province,No.2014ZA071Health General Research Project of Zhejiang Province,No.2014KYA106
文摘Botulinum toxin type A is a potent muscle relaxant that blocks the transmission and release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction. Intramuscular injection of botulinum toxin type A has served as an effective and safe therapy for strabismus and focal dystonia. However, muscular weakness is temporary and after 3-4 months, muscle strength usually recovers because function- al recovery is mediated by nerve sprouting and reconstruction of the neuromuscular junction. Acrylamide may produce neurotoxic substances that cause retrograde necrotizing neuropathy and inhibit nerve sprouting caused by botulinum toxin type A. This study investigated whether acrylamide inhibits nerve sprouting after intramuscular injection of botulinum toxin type A. A tibial nerve sprouting model was established through local injection of botulinum toxin type A into the right gastrocnemius muscle of Sprague-Dawley rats. Following intramuscular injection, rats were given intraperitoneal injection of 3% acrylamide every 3 days for 21 days. Nerve sprout- ing appeared 2 weeks after intramuscular injection of botulinum toxin type A and single-fiber electromyography revealed abnormal conduction at the neuromuscular junction I week after intra- muscular injection of botulinum toxin type A. Following intraperitoneal injection of acrylamide, the peak muscle fiber density decreased. Electromyography jitter value were restored to normal levels 6 weeks after injection. This indicates that the maximal decrease in fiber density and the time at which functional conduction of neuromuscular junction was restored were delayed. Addition- ally, the increase in tibial nerve fibers was reduced. Acrylamide inhibits nerve sprouting caused by botulinum toxin type A and may be used to prolong the clinical dosage of botulinum toxin type A.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.21274062,11474155,and 91027040)
文摘We propose a new way of regulating protein adsorption by using a pH-responsive polymer. According to the the- oretical results obtained from the molecular theory and kinetic approaches, both thermodynamics and kinetics of protein adsorption are verified to be well controlled by the solution pH. The kinetics and the amount of adsorbed proteins at equi- librium are greatly increased when the solution environment changes from acid to neutral. The reason is that the increased pH promotes the dissociation of the weak polyelectrolyte, resulting in more charged monomers and more stretched chains. Thus the steric repulsion within the polymer layer is weakened, which effectively lowers the barrier felt by the protein during the process of adsorption. Interestingly, we also find that the kinetics of protein desorption is almost unchanged with the variation of pH. It is because although the barrier formed by the polymer layer changes along with the change of pH, the potential at contact with the surface varies equally. Our results may provide useful insights into controllable protein adsorption/desorption in practical applications.
文摘A new simulation approach to incorporate hydration force into generalized Langevin dynamics (GLD) is developed in this note. The hydration force determined by the boundary element method (BEM) is taken into account as the mean force terms of solvent including Coulombic interactions with the induced surface charge and the surface pressure of solvent. The exponential model is taken for the friction kernel. A simulation study has been performed on the cyclic undecapeptide cyclosporin A (CPA). The results obtained from the new method (GLDBEM) have been analyzed and compared with that obtained from the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and the conventional stochastic dynamics (SD) simulation. We have found that the results obtained from GLDBEM show the obvious improvement over the SD simulation technique in the study of molecular structure and dynamic properties.
基金This work has been supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China （Grant Nos. 31370755 and 21173203） and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology （Grant No. 2012AA02A704）.
文摘Statistical energy functions are general models about atomic or residue-level interactions in biomolecules, derived from existing experimental data. They provide quantitative foundations for structural modeling as well as for structure-based protein sequence design. Statistical energy functions can be derived computationally either based on statistical distributions or based on variational assumptions. We present overviews on the theoretical assumptions underlying the various types of approaches. Theoretical considerations underlying important pragmatic choices are discussed.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.11774206)Taishan Scholarship Fund from Shandong Province,China
文摘We used a combined quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics （QM/MM） method to investigate the solvent effects and potential of mean force of the CH3F＋CN- reaction in water. Comparing to gas phase, the water solution substantially affects the structures of the stationary points along the reaction path. We quantitatively obtained the solvent effects＇ contributions to the reaction： 1.7 kcal/mol to the activation barrier and -26.0 kcal/mol to the reaction free energy. The potential mean of force calculated with the density functional theory/MM theory has a barrier height at 19.7 kcal/mol, consistent with the experimental result at 23.0 kcal/mol; the calculated reaction free energy at -43.5 kcal/mol is also consistent with the one estimated based on the gas-phase data at -39.7 kcal/mol.
文摘The hydrogen mean force from experimental neutron Compton profiles is derived using deep inelastic neutron scattering on amorphous and polycrystalline ice. The formalism of mean force is extended to probe its sensitivity to anharmonicity in the hydrogen-nucleus effective potential. The shape of the mean force for amorphous and polycrystalline ice is primarily determined by the anisotropy of the underlying quasi-harmonic effective potential. The data from amorphous ice show an additional curvature reflecting the more pronounced anharmonicity of the effective potential with respect to that of ice Ih.
