Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei spp., is a major health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. New drugs are urgently required for the disease. Selective uptake of toxic compounds into trypanosomes has been achieved by exploiting plasma membrane transporters. For example, the P2 aminopurine transporter, along with other transporters, selectively ...

Through screening, diagnosing, and treating childhood urinary stones induced by melamine-tainted formula, Chinese doctors obtained more experience with the clinical as well as the imaging features of the stones, although there still are many questions regarding melamine-associated stones. By reviewing the earlier reports on animals along with our recent experiences with humans, we concluded tha...

The CO2 capturing and sequestration are of importance in environmental science. Understanding of the CO2-interactions with various functional molecules including multi-N-containing superbases and heteroaromatic ring systems is essential for designing novel materials to effectively capture the CO2 gas. These interactions are investigated using density functional theory (DFT) with dispersion corr...

Maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) sawdust was used to produce liquefied wood by the polyhydric method with acid catalysis. The process was optimized to produce the highest amount of liquefied wood. Wood liquefied at 160oC for 90 min was used in the adhesion tests. The bond strength of veneer glued with ureaformaldehyde and melamine-urea-formaldehyde resins and several mixtures of liquefied wood wi...

The co-adsorption behavior of nucleic-acid base (thymine; cytosine) and melamine was investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) technique at liquid/solid (1-octanol/graphite) interface. STM characterization results indicate that phase separation happened after dropping the mixed solution of thymine-melamine onto highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface, while the hetero-compon...

This article describes the novel possibility of the polyester (polyethylene terephthalate) surface modification by plasma treatment. Moreover, this modified polyester could be component for the composite material (with hyaluronic acid) used in the wound healing. In this study, the experimental methods: FT-IR spectroscopy, the contact angle measurement, Xray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanni...

Background & Aims: Nanosilver-based paint is a new technology with antimicrobial and antifungal characteristics. These characteristics were investigated in this study with regard to fungal contamination in hospitals. Method: Regarding hospitalization of transplant patients and their sensitivity to hospital infections, two similar rooms were selected in nephrology ward. One of them was paint...

We report herein the structuring of single-stranded thymine-rich DNA sequences into peptide-DNA hairpin triplex structures via designed melamine-thymine nucleobase recognition. Melamine-displaying α-peptides were synthesized with the general form (EM*)n, where M* denotes a lysine residue side chain derivatized with melamine, a bifacial hydrogen bond complement for thymine. We have found that (E...