TY - JOUR A1 - Heck, Christian A1 - Michaeli, Yael A1 - Bald, Ilko A1 - Ebenstein, Yuval T1 - Analytical epigenetics BT - single-molecule optical detection of DNA and histone modifications JF - Current Opinion in Biotechnology N2 - The field of epigenetics describes the relationship between genotype and phenotype, by regulating gene expression without changing the canonical base sequence of DNA. It deals with molecular genomic information that is encoded by a rich repertoire of chemical modifications and molecular interactions. This regulation involves DNA, RNA and proteins that are enzymatically tagged with small molecular groups that alter their physical and chemical properties. It is now clear that epigenetic alterations are involved in development and disease, and thus, are the focus of intensive research. The ability to record epigenetic changes and quantify them in rare medical samples is critical for next generation diagnostics. Optical detection offers the ultimate single-molecule sensitivity and the potential for spectral multiplexing. Here we review recent progress in ultrasensitive optical detection of DNA and histone modifications. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2018.09.006 SN - 0958-1669 SN - 1879-0429 VL - 55 SP - 151 EP - 158 PB - Elsevier CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gangloff, Niklas A1 - Ulbricht, Juliane A1 - Lorson, Thomas A1 - Schlaad, Helmut A1 - Luxenhofer, Robert T1 - Peptoids and Polypeptoids at the Frontier of Supra- and Macromolecular Engineering JF - Chemical reviews Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00201 SN - 0009-2665 SN - 1520-6890 VL - 116 SP - 1753 EP - 1802 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fudickar, Werner A1 - Linker, Torsten T1 - Release of Singlet Oxygen from Organic Peroxides under Mild Conditions JF - ChemPhotoChem N2 - Singlet oxygen can be released in the dark in nearly quantitative yield from endoperoxides of naphthalenes, anthracenes and pyridones as an alternative to its generation by photosensitization. Recently, new donor systems have been designed which operate at very low temperatures but which are prepared from their parent forms at acceptable rates. Enhancement of the reactivity of donors is conveniently achieved by the design of the substitution pattern or through the use of plasmonic heating of nanoparticle-bound donors. The most important aim of these donor molecules is to transfer singlet oxygen in a controlled and directed manner to a target. Low temperatures and the linking between donors and acceptors reduce the random walk of oxygen and may force an attack at the desired position. By using chiral donor systems, new stereocenters might be introduced into prochiral acceptors. KW - donor-acceptor systems KW - oxygenation KW - peroxides KW - polycycles KW - retro reactions Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/cptc.201700235 SN - 2367-0932 VL - 2 IS - 7 SP - 548 EP - 558 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Braune, Steffen A1 - Latour, Robert A. A1 - Reinthaler, Markus A1 - Landmesser, Ulf A1 - Lendlein, Andreas A1 - Jung, Friedrich T1 - In Vitro Thrombogenicity Testing of Biomaterials JF - Advanced healthcare materials N2 - The short- and long-term thrombogenicity of implant materials is still unpredictable, which is a significant challenge for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. A knowledge-based approach for implementing biofunctions in materials requires a detailed understanding of the medical device in the biological system. In particular, the interplay between material and blood components/cells as well as standardized and commonly acknowledged in vitro test methods allowing a reproducible categorization of the material thrombogenicity requires further attention. Here, the status of in vitro thrombogenicity testing methods for biomaterials is reviewed, particularly taking in view the preparation of test materials and references, the selection and characterization of donors and blood samples, the prerequisites for reproducible approaches and applied test systems. Recent joint approaches in finding common standards for a reproducible testing are summarized and perspectives for a more disease oriented in vitro thrombogenicity testing are discussed. KW - biomaterials KW - blood tests KW - implants KW - in vitro KW - thrombogenicity Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.201900527 SN - 2192-2640 SN - 2192-2659 VL - 8 IS - 21 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bornhorst, Julia A1 - Kipp, Anna P. A1 - Haase, Hajo A1 - Meyer, Soeren A1 - Schwerdtle, Tanja T1 - The crux of inept biomarkers for risks and benefits of trace elements JF - Trends in Analytical Chemistry N2 - Nowadays, the role of trace elements (TE) is of growing interest because dyshomeostasis of selenium (Se), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) is supposed to be a risk factor for several diseases. Thereby, research focuses on identifying new biomarkers for the TE status to allow for a more reliable description of the individual TE and health status. This review mirrors a lack of well-defined, sensitive, and selective biomarkers and summarizes technical limitations to measure them. Thus, the capacity to assess the relationship between dietary TE intake, homeostasis, and health is restricted, which would otherwise provide the basis to define adequate intake levels of single TE in both healthy and diseased humans. Besides that, our knowledge is even more limited with respect to the real life situation of combined TE intake and putative interactions between single TE. KW - Trace elements KW - Copper KW - Zinc KW - Manganese KW - Selenium KW - Biomarker KW - Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry KW - Hyphenated techniques KW - Isotope ratios Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2017.11.007 SN - 0165-9936 SN - 1879-3142 VL - 104 SP - 183 EP - 190 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bleek, Katrin A1 - Taubert, Andreas T1 - New developments in polymer-controlled, bioinspired calcium phosphate mineralization from aqueous solution JF - Acta biomaterialia N2 - The polymer-controlled and bioinspired precipitation of inorganic minerals from aqueous solution at near-ambient or physiological conditions avoiding high temperatures or organic solvents is a key research area in materials science. Polymer-controlled mineralization has been studied as a model for biomineralization and for the synthesis of (bioinspired and biocompatible) hybrid materials for a virtually unlimited number of applications. Calcium phosphate mineralization is of particular interest for bone and dental repair. Numerous studies have therefore addressed the mineralization of calcium phosphate using a wide variety of low- and high-molecular-weight additives. In spite of the growing interest and increasing number of experimental and theoretical data, the mechanisms of polymer-controlled calcium phosphate mineralization are not entirely clear to date, although the field has made significant progress in the last years. A set of elegant experiments and calculations has shed light on some details of mineral formation, but it is currently not possible to preprogram a mineralization reaction to yield a desired product for a specific application. The current article therefore summarizes and discusses the influence of (macro)molecular entities such as polymers, peptides, proteins and gels on biomimetic calcium phosphate mineralization from aqueous solution. It focuses on strategies to tune the kinetics, morphologies, final dimensions and crystal phases of calcium phosphate, as well as on mechanistic considerations. KW - Calcium phosphate KW - Biomimetics KW - Mineralization KW - Polymers KW - Bioinspired Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2012.12.027 SN - 1742-7061 SN - 1878-7568 VL - 9 IS - 5 SP - 6283 EP - 6321 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bandrauk, Andre D. A1 - Paramonov, Guennaddi K. T1 - Excitation of muonic molecules dd mu and dt mu by super-intense attosecond soft X-ray laser pulses: Shaped post-laser-pulse muonic oscillations and enhancement of nuclear fusion JF - International journal of modern physics : E, Nuclear physics N2 - The quantum dynamics of muonic molecular ions dd mu and dt mu excited by linearly polarized along the molecular (z)-axis super-intense laser pulses is studied beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation by the numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation within a three-dimensional model, including the internuclear distance R and muon coordinates z and rho. The peak-intensity of the super-intense laser pulses used in our simulations is I-0 = 3.51 x 10(22) W/cm(2) and the wavelength is lambda(l) = 5nm. In both dd mu and dt mu, expectation values < z > and of muon demonstrate "post-laser-pulse" oscillations after the ends of the laser pulses. In dd mu post-laser-pulse z-oscillations appear as shaped nonoverlapping "echo-pulses". In dt mu post-laser-pulse muonic z-oscillations appear as comparatively slow large-amplitude oscillations modulated with small-amplitude pulsations. The post-laser-pulse rho-oscillations in both dd mu and dt mu appear, for the most part, as overlapping "echo-pulses". The post-laser-pulse oscillations do not occur if the Born-Oppenheimer approximation is employed. Power spectra generated due to muonic motion along both optically active z and optically passive rho degrees of freedom are calculated. The fusion probability in dt mu can be increased by more than 11 times by making use of three sequential super-intense laser pulses. The energy released from the dt fusion in dt mu can by more than 20 GeV exceed the energy required to produce a usable muon and the energy of the laser pulses used to enhance the fusion. The possibility of power production from the laser-enhanced muon-catalyzed fusion is discussed. KW - Muonic molecules KW - super-intense laser pulses KW - laser-enhanced nuclear fusion Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218301314300148 SN - 0218-3013 SN - 1793-6608 VL - 23 IS - 9 PB - World Scientific CY - Singapore ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bald, Ilko A1 - Keller, Adrian T1 - Molecular processes studied at a single-molecule level using DNA origami nanostructures and atomic force microscopy JF - Molecules N2 - DNA origami nanostructures allow for the arrangement of different functionalities such as proteins, specific DNA structures, nanoparticles, and various chemical modifications with unprecedented precision. The arranged functional entities can be visualized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) which enables the study of molecular processes at a single-molecular level. Examples comprise the investigation of chemical reactions, electron-induced bond breaking, enzymatic binding and cleavage events, and conformational transitions in DNA. In this paper, we provide an overview of the advances achieved in the field of single-molecule investigations by applying atomic force microscopy to functionalized DNA origami substrates. KW - DNA origami KW - atomic force microscopy KW - single-molecule analysis KW - DNA radiation damage KW - protein binding KW - enzyme reactions KW - G quadruplexes Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules190913803 SN - 1420-3049 VL - 19 IS - 9 SP - 13803 EP - 13823 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ast, Sandra A1 - Fischer, Tobias A1 - Müller, Holger A1 - Mickler, Wulfhard A1 - Schwichtenberg, Mathias A1 - Rurack, Knut A1 - Holdt, Hans-Jürgen T1 - Integration of the 1,2,3-Triazole "Click" Motif as a potent signalling element in metal ion responsive fluorescent probes JF - Chemistry - a European journal N2 - In a systematic approach we synthesized a new series of fluorescent probes incorporating donoracceptor (D-A) substituted 1,2,3-triazoles as conjugative -linkers between the alkali metal ion receptor N-phenylaza-[18]crown-6 and different fluorophoric groups with different electron-acceptor properties (4-naphthalimide, meso-phenyl-BODIPY and 9-anthracene) and investigated their performance in organic and aqueous environments (physiological conditions). In the charge-transfer (CT) type probes 1, 2 and 7, the fluorescence is almost completely quenched by intramolecular CT (ICT) processes involving charge-separated states. In the presence of Na+ and K+ ICT is interrupted, which resulted in a lighting-up of the fluorescence in acetonitrile. Among the investigated fluoroionophores, compound 7, which contains a 9-anthracenyl moiety as the electron-accepting fluorophore, is the only probe which retains light-up features in water and works as a highly K+/Na+-selective probe under simulated physiological conditions. Virtually decoupled BODIPY-based 6 and photoinduced electron transfer (PET) type probes 35, where the 10-substituted anthracen-9-yl fluorophores are connected to the 1,2,3-triazole through a methylene spacer, show strong ion-induced fluorescence enhancement in acetonitrile, but not under physiological conditions. Electrochemical studies and theoretical calculations were used to assess and support the underlying mechanisms for the new ICT and PET 1,2,3-triazole fluoroionophores. KW - charge transfer KW - click chemistry KW - electron transfer KW - fluorescent probes KW - metal ions Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201201575 SN - 0947-6539 VL - 19 IS - 9 SP - 2990 EP - 3005 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ast, Cindy A1 - Schmälzlin, Elmar A1 - Löhmannsröben, Hans-Gerd A1 - van Dongen, Joost T. T1 - Optical oxygen micro- and nanosensors for plant applications JF - Sensors N2 - Pioneered by Clark's microelectrode more than half a century ago, there has been substantial interest in developing new, miniaturized optical methods to detect molecular oxygen inside cells. While extensively used for animal tissue measurements, applications of intracellular optical oxygen biosensors are still scarce in plant science. A critical aspect is the strong autofluorescence of the green plant tissue that interferes with optical signals of commonly used oxygen probes. A recently developed dual-frequency phase modulation technique can overcome this limitation, offering new perspectives for plant research. This review gives an overview on the latest optical sensing techniques and methods based on phosphorescence quenching in diverse tissues and discusses the potential pitfalls for applications in plants. The most promising oxygen sensitive probes are reviewed plus different oxygen sensing structures ranging from micro-optodes to soluble nanoparticles. Moreover, the applicability of using heterologously expressed oxygen binding proteins and fluorescent proteins to determine changes in the cellular oxygen concentration are discussed as potential non-invasive cellular oxygen reporters. KW - oxygen sensor KW - biosensors KW - microsensors KW - nanosensors KW - endogenous sensor proteins KW - dual-frequency phase-modulation KW - phosphorescence quenching KW - plant science Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/s120607015 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 12 IS - 6 SP - 7015 EP - 7032 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER -