A bacterium capable of degrading herbicide, pendimethalin, was isolated from the contaminated soil by enrichment culture technique and identified as Bacillus circulans. The organism grew on pendimethalin (1 g/L) as the sole source of carbon and accumulated 6-aminopendimethalin and 3,4-dimethyl 2,6-dinitroaniline as metabolites in the culture medium. The cell-free extract of B. circulans grown o...

Abstract Fluoroquinolones such as levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin are potent antibiotics prescribed to treat various bacterial infections. Recent studies have also identified prominent examples promising anti‐cancer agents. However, significant off‐target effects observed in human patients precluded their wide‐spread clinical use. For instance, upon systemic administration, overt toxicity toward...

Two new classes of near-infrared molecular probes were prepared and shown to exhibit “turn on” fluorescence when cleaved by the nitroreductase enzyme, a well-known biomarker cell hypoxia. The fluorescent are heptamethine cyanine dyes with central 4‘-carboxylic ester group on chain that is converted self-immolative fragmentation mechanism 4‘-caboxylate greatly enhances brightness. Each compound ...

Nitroreductases (NRs) hold promise for converting nitroaromatics to aromatic amines. Nitroaromatic reduction rate increases with Hammett substituent constant for NRs from two different subgroups, confirming substrate identity as a key determinant of reactivity. Amine yields were low, but compounds yielding amines tend to have a large π system and electron withdrawing substituents. Therefore, we...

The chromate reductase purified from Pseudomonas ambigua was found to be homologous with several nitroreductases. Escherichia coli DH5alpha and Vibrio harveyi KCTC 2720 nitroreductases were chosen for the present study, and their chromate-reducing activities were determined. A fusion between glutathione S-transferase (GST) and E. coli DH5alpha NfsA (GST-EcNfsA), a fusion between GST and E. coli...

The Thermotoga maritima NADH:thioredoxin reductase (TmTR) contains FAD and a catalytic disulfide in the active center, and uses a relatively poorly studied physiological oxidant Grx-1-type glutaredoxin. In order to further assess the redox properties of TmTR, we used series of quinoidal and nitroaromatic oxidants with a wide range of single-electron reduction potentials (E(1)7, -0.49-0.09 V). W...

Drug discovery pipelines for the "neglected diseases" are now heavily populated with nitroheterocyclic compounds. Recently, the bicyclic nitro-compounds (R)-PA-824, DNDI-VL-2098 and delamanid have been identified as potential candidates for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis. Using a combination of quantitative proteomics and whole genome sequencing of susceptible and drug-resistant parasi...