In well-characterised species of the Rhodobacter (Rba.) genus of purple photosynthetic bacteria it is known that the photochemical reaction centre (RC) is intimately-associated with an encircling LH1 antenna pigment protein, and this LH1 antenna is prevented from completely surrounding the RC by...

The bandwidth of the exciton manifold in LH2 peripheral antenna complexes from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides has been determined using polarized fluorescence excitation spectroscopy and model simulations. It is shown that the fluorescence anisotropy spectra reveal a hidden...

The core complex of purple bacteria is a supramolecular assembly consisting of an array of light-harvesting LH1 antenna organized around the reaction center. It has been isolated and characterized in this work using a Rubrivivax gelatinosus mutant lacking the peripheral LH2 antenna. The purifica...

Photosystem II complex embedded in thylakoid membrane performs oxygenic photosynthesis where the reaction center D1/D2 heterodimer accommodates all components of the electron transport chain. To express thermostable D1/D2 heterodimer in a cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, we const...

The purple bacterial antenna complexes continue to provide an area of very active and fertile research. During the past year, exciting advances have been made both on their structure and function, and on how their synthesis is regulated by various environmental factors.

Artificial chlorophyll–peptide complexes were prepared by mixing ionic chlorophyll derivatives and oligopeptides in aqueous media containing a small amount of organic solvent. The pigment–peptide complexes provided chlorophyll assemblies showing a sharp red-shifted Qy absorption band concomita...

Comparative primary structural analysis of polypeptides from antenna complexes from species of the three families of Rhodospirillaneae indicates the structural principles responsible for the formation of spectrally distinct light-harvesting complexes. In many of the characterized antenna systems...

The light-harvesting 2 complex (LH2) of the purple phototrophic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides is a highly efficient, light-harvesting antenna that allows growth under a wide-range of light intensities. In order to expand the spectral range of this antenna complex, we first used a series of c...

For light harvesters with a reaction center complex (LH1-RC complex) of three types, we propose an experiment to verify our analysis based upon antenna theories that automatically include the required structural information. Our analysis conforms to the current understanding of light-harvesting ...

In the ongoing search for an effective, orally active iron–chelator, the capacity of a series of halogenated analogs of pyridoxal isonicotinoyl hydrazone (PIH) to bind intracellular 59Fe and cause its release from cells was investigated. Reticulocytes labeled with 59Fe2-transferrin in which hem...

The orally effective iron chelator, pyridoxal isonicotinoyl hydrazone (PIH), and five analogues, pyridoxal benzoyl hydrazone (PBH), pyridoxal p-methoxybenzoyl hydrazone ((PpMBH), pyridoxal m-fluorobenzoyl hydrazone (PmFBH), 3-hydroxy- isonicotinaldehyde isonicotinoyl hydrazone (IIH) and salicyla...

The catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor tolcapone causes hepatotoxicity and mitochondrial damage in animal models. We studied the interaction of tolcapone with mitochondrial respiration in comparison to entacapone in different experimental models. In HepaRG cells (human cell-line), tolcapone ...

In this study, an antiparkinson drug Entacapone (ENP) is electrochemically investigated under optimized conditions using NH2 functionalized multi walled carbon nanotubes (NH2fMWCNT) decorated over glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The surface morphology of the NH2fMWCNT/GCE was probed by scanning e...

To assess the signal of death associated with the use of an entacapone-containing drug combination in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database.Reports of death events submitted between January 2004 and December 2010 were retrieved and analysed by the reporting odds ratio (ROR). Th...

A method based on micellar liquid chromatography to quantify levodopa, carbidopa and entacapone in plasma is reported. The sample pretreatment was a simple dilution in a pure micellar solution then filtration and direct injection, without requiring extraction or purification steps. The three dru...

BackgroundAn increased incidence of prostate cancer was observed in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients treated with entacapone during a pre-approval randomized clinical trial; the relation has not been robustly investigated in the U.S. ambulatory setting.

We attempted to characterize a spinal neuronal correlate of painful neuropathy induced by diabetes mellitus (DM). Pain behavior and response properties of spinal dorsal horn neurons were determined in rats with a streptozocin-induced DM. A catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor with potent antio...

Publisher SummaryThis chapter discusses the antioxidant activity of nitecapone and its analog OR-1246. The effect of structural modification on antioxidant action is also described. Nitecapone is an effective peripherally acting inhibitor of catechol O-methyl-transferase. Nitecapone scavenges su...

1. A gastric mucosal laminin receptor has been isolated from the epithelial cell membrane by affinity chromatography on Sepharose-bound laminin, and following radioiodination was incorporated into liposomes which displayed specific affinity towards the laminin-coated surface.2. The binding of li...

Methods based on reversed-phase liquid chromatography with amperometric detection have been developed for determination of nitecapone, 3-(3,4-dihydroxy-5-nitrobenzylidene)-2,4-pentanedione, a COMT inhibitor, in human plasma and urine. Nitecapone was extracted with ethyl acetate—hexane mixtures ...