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Photosensitization of DNA of defined sequence by furochromones, khellin and visnagin
: The sequence specificity in the in vitro DNA photobinding of khellin and visnagin, two naturally occurring furochromones proposed for chemotherapy of vitiligo, was investigated by using DNA sequencing methodology. The 3'-5' exonuclease associated with the T4 DNA polymerase served as a tool for determining photoadducts distribution on DNA fragments of the lac I gene of Escherichia coli. The photoadduct distribution of psoralen is also studied for comparison. Upon UVA irradiation, visnagin mainly forms monoadducts with thymine and to a lower extent with cytosine. Alternating (A-T)n sequences are hot spots for visnagin photoaddition. This is a property shared with furocoumarins. TTT sites are also quite reactive to visnagin, as they are to methylated angelicins. In contrast, with psoralen derivatives, there is no preferential photobinding in 5'-TpA sites, and 5'-ApT sites react as well. Furthermore, many sites such as T in the GC context, and C in any context, react, although weakly. The visnagin photoadduct distribution resembles very much the photoadduct distribution of methylated angelicins as described by Miolo et al. The photoreaction of these two series of compounds is less sequence dependent than the photobinding of psoralen derivatives as described by Sage and Moustacchi and by Boyer et al. The sequence specificity in khellin-DNA photobinding is the same as for visnagin, even though it forms much fewer photoadducts. The absence of photo-oxidation of DNA after treatment with visnagin or khellin plus UVA suggests that furochromones do not present any photodynamic effect on DNA
Bioavailability of pyridine compounds in Ricinus communis L. seedlings at various stages of germination [Biodisponibilità dei composti piridinici nei semi di Ricinus communis a vari stadi di germinazione]
Metabolic pathways of carcinogenic chromium
The products of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] reduction by glutathione (GSH) alone or in the presence of equimolar quantities of aspartate (Asp) and/or glutamate (Glu) and a chromium-containing material extracted from bovine liver were studied by ultraviolet-visible spectrum (UV-vis) studies, electrospray mass spectrometry (ES-MS), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Reduction of chromate by GSH was followed by UV-vis and NMR, revealing the formation of a paramagnetic complex in which GSH acts as a ligand. ES-MS and EPR measurements provided unequivocal evidence of a dimeric Cr(V)2GSH2 species in which the two metal ions are bridged by the -Glu carboxylate. The analysis of the 1H and 13C shifts experienced by GSH protons and the values of paramagnetic contributions to proton spin-lattice relaxation rates provided a set of constraints for structural determination. The same experiments were repeated in the presence of an equimolar concentration of Asp, revealing the formation of a dimeric Cr(V) paramagnetic complex in which the two metals are now bridged by Asp. Nuclear magnetic resonance dispersion profiles show that water is not displaced by Asp and that the correlation time of this complex is slowed by the increased complexity. When Glu is also included in the solution in equimolar concentration to GSH and Asp, data are consistent with the formation of many mono- and dinuclear species, with the three ligands competing with each other. Finally, the spectroscopic investigation of the chromium-containing material extracted from bovine liver revealed the presence of a complicate mixture of Cr(IV) or Cr(V) complexes, among which some Cr(V)-GSH species are present alone or with other ligands in the metal coordination sphere
Inferences on the nature of a Cr(V) or Cr(IV) species formed by reduction of dichromate by a bovine liver homogenate: NMR and Mass-spectrometric studies
A low-molecular weight chromium-containing fraction of the material resulting from dichromate reduction by bovine liver homogenate was investigated by NMR and ES-MS. The ES-MS spectrum showed a readily detectable peak at m/z = 786.1. The same molecular weight reasonably agreed with the relatively low diffusion coefficient measured by NMR-DOSY experiments on the main species observed in the 1H NMR spectrum. At least two downfield shifted and broad paramagnetic signals were apparent in the 1H NMR spectrum. Temperature dependence of chemical shift was exploited in order to estimate the diamagnetic shift of the signals in the diamagnetic region of the spectrum. 2D TOCSY, NOESY, COSY and 1H-13C HMQC spectra revealed the presence of aromatic protons (which were assigned as His residues), Gly and some other short chain amino-acids. Combinations of the molecular masses of such components together with acetate (which is present in the solution) and chromium atoms allowed a tentative proposal of a model for the compound
Khellin, a naturally occurring furochromone, used for the photochemotherapy of skin diseases: mechanism of action.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Solvent spin-labelling for investigating the interaction of small mole- cules with biopolymers 1H paramagnetic relaxation study
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