SnS nanoflowers containing hierarchically organized nanosheet subunits were synthesized using a simple solution route, and they function as lithium ion battery anodes that maintain high capacities and coulombic efficiencies over 30 cycles.

We hypothesized that by substituting a dye surrogate in place of local anesthetic, we could visually demonstrate dye sequestration by lipid emulsion that would be dependent on both dye lipophilicity and the amount of lipid emulsion used. We selected 2 lipophilic dyes, acid blue 25 and Victoria blue, with log ...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate and improve the in vitro transcorneal permeability characteristics of Δ(9) -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) through prodrug derivatization and formulation approaches. In vitro corneal permeability of THC and its hemisuccinate (THC-HS) and hemiglutarate (THC-HG) ester prodrugs and WIN 55-212-2 (WIN), a synthetic cannabinoid, was ...

An investigation of the diffusional mobility of a bioactive compound (caffeine) within the high-solid (80.0% w/w) matrices of glucose syrup, and kappa-carrageenan plus glucose syrup exhibiting distinct mechanical glass-transition properties is reported. Experimental temperature range was from 20°C to -60°C and the techniques of modulated differential scanning calorimetry, small-deformation dynamic ...

The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of caffeine on band 3 (the anion exchanger protein), haemoglobin function, caspase 3 activation and glucose-6-phosphate metabolism during the oxygenation-deoxygenation cycle in human red blood cells. A particular attention has been given to the antioxidant activity by using in vitro antioxidant ...

Carbon nanotube membranes with inner diameter ranging from 1.5-7 nm were examined for enhanced electroosmotic flow. After functionalization via electrochemical diazonium grafting and carbodiimide coupling reaction, it was found that neutral caffeine molecules can be efficiently pumped via electroosmosis. An electroosmotic velocity as high as 0.16 cm s(-1) V(-1) has ...

In the fields of the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries and in toxicology, the study of the skin penetration of molecules is very interesting. Various studies have considered the impact of different physicochemical drug characteristics, skin thickness, and formulations, on the transition from the surface of the skin to the underlying ...

A novel two-photon fluorescence probe for Zn(2+) derived from dicyanostilbene as a two-photon fluorophore and 4-(pyridine-2-ylmethyl)piperazine as a novel Zn(2+) ligand was developed. The probe shows a 72.5-fold fluorescence enhancement in response to Zn(2+), a large two-photon action cross-section (580 GM), a noncytotoxic effect, and pH insensitivity in the biologically ...

This review describes and discusses techniques useful for monitoring the activity of protein ion channels in vitro. In the first section the biological importance and the classification of ion channels are outlined in order to justify the strong motivation for dealing with this important class of membrane proteins. The expression, ...

Adenosine levels are increased under conditions of energy deprivation, both because intracellular energy stores are reduced and because ATP is released. The adenosine thus formed can serve to influence energy homeostasis in a number of different ways, besides alterations in blood supply and cellular work (including contraction, maintenance of membrane ...

The short-term effects of coumarin on three different maize primary root zones, transition zone (TZ, 3 mm), and two non-growing zones (NGZ1 and NGZ2 at 20 and 50 mm, respectively), were studied in order to investigate the effect of the allelochemical on maize root elongation rate (RER). The RER, plasma ...

Pancreas secretes fluid rich in digestive enzymes and bicarbonate. The alkaline secretion is important in buffering of acid chyme entering duodenum and for activation of enzymes. This secretion is formed in pancreatic ducts, and studies to date show that plasma membranes of duct epithelium express H(+)/HCO(3)(-) transporters, which depend on ...

Btn1p the yeast homolog of human CLN3, which is associated with juvenile Batten disease has been implicated in several cellular pathways. Yeast cells lacking BTN1 are unable to couple ATP hydrolysis and proton pumping activities by the vacuolar ATPase (V-ATPase). In this work, we demonstrate that changes in extracellular pH ...

Nuclei bind yeast vacuoles via nucleus-vacuole (NV) junctions. Under nutrient restriction, NV junctions invaginate and release vesicles filled with nuclear material into vacuoles, resulting in piecemeal microautophagy of the nucleus (PMN). We show that the electrochemical gradient across the vacuolar membrane promotes invagination of NV junctions. Existing invaginations persist independently ...

Palytoxin-group toxins (PlTX) exert their potent biological activity by altering mechanisms of ion homeostasis in excitable and non-excitable tissues. This review will describe major aspects that led to the relatively early identification of the Na(+),K(+)-ATPase as the molecular target and receptor of the toxin in sensitive systems. The importance of ...

Curcumin is an important nutraceutical widely used in disease treatment and prevention. We have previously suggested that curcumin interferes with K(+) binding to pig kidney Na,K-ATPase by interaction with its extracellular domains. The aim of this study was to further characterize the site of curcumin interaction with the ATPase. We ...

P4 ATPases (subfamily IV P-type ATPases) form a specialized subfamily of P-type ATPases and have been implicated in phospholipid translocation from the exoplasmic to the cytoplasmic leaflet of biological membranes. Pivotal roles of P4 ATPases have been demonstrated in eukaryotes, ranging from yeast, fungi and plants to mice and humans. ...

To better comprehend the structural and biochemical underpinnings of ion uptake across the gills of true freshwater crabs, we performed an ultrastructural, ultracytochemical and morphometric investigation, and kinetically characterized the Na(+),K(+)-ATPase, in posterior gill lamellae of Dilocarcinus pagei. Ultrastructurally, the lamellar epithelia are markedly asymmetrical: the thick, mushroom-shaped, proximal ionocytes ...

Despite its similarity with the Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase, it has not been possible so far to isolate a K(+)-occluded state in the H(+)/K(+)-ATPase at room temperature. We report here results on the time course of formation of a state containing occluded Rb(+) (as surrogate for K(+)) in H(+)/K(+)-ATPase from gastric vesicles at ...

Integrity of the cell membrane is a basic requirement for maintaining the biological characteristics of a cell. In this study, cell membrane as the target of drug action was investigated. CCK-8 assay suggested that Artesunate (ART) could significantly suppress the proliferation of Jurkat cells in a dose-dependent manner. Changes in ...

About 30 years ago seminal reports of anion-sensitive proton-pumping activity associated with microsomal membranes initiated research on the plant vacuolar-type H(+)-ATPase (V-ATPase, VHA). Since, it has been firmly established that these complex molecular machines are essential for what can be defined as cellular logistics. In a eukaryotic cell, the flow ...

The Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase pumps three sodium ions out of and two potassium ions into the cell for each ATP molecule that is split, thereby generating the chemical and electrical gradients across the plasma membrane that are essential in, for example, signalling, secondary transport and volume regulation in animal cells. Crystal structures ...

Acidification of synaptic vesicles by the vacuolar proton ATPase is essential for loading with neurotransmitter. Debated findings have suggested that V-ATPase membrane domain (V0) also contributes to Ca(2+)-dependent transmitter release via a direct role in vesicle membrane fusion, but the underlying mechanisms remain obscure. We now report a direct interaction ...

Active transport across membranes is a crucial requirement for life. P-type ATPases build up electrochemical gradients at the expense of ATP by forming and splitting a covalent phosphoenzyme intermediate, coupled to conformational changes in the transmembrane section where the ions are translocated. The marked increment during the last three years ...

The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) and the Na,K-ATPase functionally interact in skeletal muscle (Krivoi, I. I., Drabkina, T. M., Kravtsova, V. V., Vasiliev, A. N., Eaton, M. J., Skatchkov, S. N., and Mandel, F. (2006) Pflugers Arch. 452, 756-765; Krivoi, I., Vasiliev, A., Kravtsova, V., Dobretsov, M., and Mandel, F. ...

Anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria are divided into three compartments by bilayer membranes (from out- to inside): paryphoplasm, riboplasm and anammoxosome. It is proposed that the anammox reaction is performed by proteins located in the anammoxosome and on its membrane giving rise to a proton-motive-force and subsequent ATP synthesis by membrane-bound ...

The antimycotic drug clotrimazole inhibits the function of the gastric H,K-ATPase in a manner similar to that observed for the Na,K-ATPase. Because of the high hydrophobicity of the compound, the interaction between clotrimazole and the ion pump occurs at the membrane domain in the apolar core of the membrane. The ...

Brush border membrane vesicles (BBMVs) from Whole larvae of Aedes aegypti (AeBBMVWs) contain an H(+) V-ATPase (V), a Na(+)/H(+) antiporter, NHA1 (A) and a Na(+)-coupled, nutrient amino acid transporter, NAT8 (N), VAN for short. All V-ATPase subunits are present in the Ae. aegypti genome and in the vesicles. AgNAT8 was ...

The present study characterizes canine reticulocyte exosomes. Exosomes are small membrane vesicles involved in membrane remodeling that are released from reticulocytes during the final maturation step of red blood cells. The vesicles collected from reticulocyte culture supernatants by differential centrifugation contained major exosomal proteins including heat shock protein cognate 70 ...

Copper-transporting P(IB)-type ATPases are highly conserved, and while unicellular eukaryotes and invertebrates have only one, a gene duplication has occurred during vertebrate evolution. Copper-induced trafficking of mammalian ATP7A and ATP7B from the trans-Golgi Network towards the plasma membrane is critical for their role in copper homeostasis. In polarized epithelial cells ...

Vesicular V-ATPase (V-type H+-ATPase) and the plasma membrane-bound Na+/K+-ATPase are essential for the cycling of neurotransmitters at the synapse, but direct functional studies on their action in native surroundings are limited due to the poor accessibility via standard electrophysiological equipment. We performed SSM (solid supported membrane)-based electrophysiological analyses of synaptic ...

The productivity of higher plants as a major source of food and energy is linked to their ability to buffer changes in the concentrations of essential and toxic ions. Transport across the tonoplast is energized by two proton pumps, the vacuolar H(+)-ATPase (V-ATPase) and the vacuolar H(+)-pyrophosphatase (V-PPase); however, their ...

Since its first characterization in the erythrocyte membrane the plasma membrane Ca(2+)-ATPase has been well-defined as a ubiquitous mechanism for the efflux of Ca(2+) from eukaryotic cells. With 4 isoforms and potentially 30 splice variants, defining the absolute physiological role of plasma membrane Ca(2+)-ATPase has been difficult and very limited ...

We compared the P-glycoprotein ATPase activity in inside-out plasma membrane vesicles and living NIH-MDR1-G185 cells with the aim to detect substrate transport. To this purpose we used six substrates which differ significantly in their passive influx through the plasma membrane. In cells, the cytosolic membrane leaflet harboring the substrate binding ...

Previously we have shown that the temperature dependence of the sodium pump (Na(+),K(+)-ATPase) is altered under different neuropathological conditions. In this study we compared temperature dependence of the Na(+),K(+)-ATPase in the fronto-parietal cortex of CCK(2) receptor-deficient (homo- and heterozygous) and normal (wild-type) mice. The Arrhenius plot for Na(+),K(+)-ATPase from wild-type ...

Ethanol disorders biological membranes causing perturbations in the bilayer and also by altering the physicochemical properties of membrane lipids. But, chronic alcohol consumption also increases nitric oxide (NO) production. There was no systemic study was done related to alcohol-induced production of NO and consequent formation of peroxynitrite mediated changes in ...

Cyclophilins (Cyps), the intracellular receptors for Cyclosporine A (CsA), are responsible for peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerisation and for chaperoning several membrane proteins. Those functions are inhibited upon CsA binding. Albeit its great benefits as immunosuppressant, the use of CsA has been limited by undesirable nephrotoxic effects, including sodium retention, hypertension, hyperkalemia, ...

Ergosterol is an important constituent of fungal membranes. Azoles inhibit ergosterol biosynthesis, although the cellular basis for their antifungal activity is not understood. We used multiple approaches to demonstrate a critical requirement for ergosterol in vacuolar H(+)-ATPase function, which is known to be essential for fungal virulence. Ergosterol biosynthesis mutants ...

It has been widely accepted that chloride ions moving along chloride channels act to dissipate the electrical gradient established by the electrogenic transport of H(+) ions performed by H(+)-ATPase into subcellular vesicles. Largely known in intracellular compartments, this mechanism is also important at the plasma membrane of cells from various ...

BACKGROUND: The vacuolar H+-ATPase, or V-ATPase, is a highly-conserved multi-subunit enzyme that transports protons across membranes at the expense of ATP. The resulting proton gradient serves many essential functions, among them energizing transport of small molecules such as neurotransmitters, and acidifying organelles such as endosomes. The enzyme is not present ...

In this study, the effect of metabolic inhibition (MI) by glucose substitution with 2-deoxyglucose (2-DOG) and/or application of antimycin A on ovine rumen epithelial cells (REC) vacuolar-type H(+)-ATPase (vH(+)-ATPase) activity was investigated. Using fluorescent spectroscopy, basal pH(i) of REC was measured to be 7.3 +/- 0.1 in HCO(3) (-)-free, glucose-containing ...

The gastric parietal cell was the first system where a regulated membrane recycling hypothesis was proposed as the principal means for moving molecular transporters between cellular compartments. Upon stimulation, massive membrane flow from an endosomal compartment of tubulovesicle membranes to the apical secretory surface places the ATP-driven pumps in position ...

Dynamic oscillation of the Min system in Escherichia coli determines the placement of the division plane at the midcell. In addition to stimulating MinD ATPase activity, we report here that MinE can directly interact with the membrane and this interaction contributes to the proper MinDE localization and dynamics. The N-terminal ...

Na(+)-K(+) ATPases have been observed and located by in situ AFM and single molecule recognition technique, topography and recognition imaging (TREC) that is a unique technique to specifically identify single protein in complex during AFM imaging. Na(+)-K(+) ATPases were well distributed in the inner leaflet of cell membranes with about ...

The activities of inorganic pyrophosphatase (PPase) and adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) were studied in the plasma membrane of Leishmania donovani promastigotes and amastigotes. It was shown that the specific activity of PPase was greater than that of ATPase in the promastigote plasma membrane. We characterized H+-PPase present in the plasma membrane ...

We studied the thermal dependence of amide I' infrared absorption and fluorescence emission of Trp residues in the Na,K-ATPase of rabbit kidney. We studied the whole enzyme solubilized with detergent, the whole enzyme reconstituted in proteoliposomes and the protein fraction that remained in the lipid membrane after the trypsin digestion ...

A method for investigating electrogenic partial reactions in the pump cycle of membrane-bound P-type ATPases with electrochromic fluorescent dyes has been extended to detergent-solubilized native and purified recombinant Na,K-ATPase. As a first step, it has been shown here that the function and ion binding properties of the detergent-soluble and membrane-bound ...

In Caenorhabditis elegans, oscillations of intestinal pH contribute to the rhythmic defecation behavior, but the acid-base transport mechanisms that facilitate proton movement are not well understood. Here, we demonstrate that VHA-6, an intestine-specific a-subunit of the H(+)-K(+)-ATPase complex (V-ATPase), resides in the apical membrane of the intestinal epithelial cells and ...

It has been proposed that intestinal sodium transport is mediated by two different active mechanisms: the ouabain-sensitive Na+/K(+)-ATPase and ouabain-insensitive Na(+)-ATPase. In order to determine the optimum conditions to solubilize the membrane-bound Na(+)-ATPase of enterocyte, basolateral plasma membranes were solubilized using different amounts of octyl glucoside (O.G), Tween 20, octaethylene ...

The weatherloach, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, is a freshwater, facultative air-breathing fish that lives in streams and rice paddy fields, where it may experience drought and/or high environmental ammonia (HEA) conditions. The aim of this study was to determine what roles branchial Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase, H(+)-ATPase, and Rhcg have in ammonia tolerance and how ...