Bacterial cellulose was produced by Acetobacter xylinum (strain TISTR 975). Bacterial cellulose is an interesting material for using as a wound dressing since it provides moist environment to a wound resulting in a better wound healing. However, bacterial cellulose itself has no antimicrobial activity to prevent wound infection. To achieve antimicrobial activity, silver nanoparticles were impre...

Controlling amount of intrinsic S vacancies was achieved in ZnS spheres which were synthesized by a hydrothermal method using Zn and S powders in concentrated NaOH solution with NaBH4 added as reducing agent. These S vacancies efficiently extend absorption spectra of ZnS to visible region. Their photocatalytic activities for H2 production under visible light were evaluated by gas chromatograph,...

Three new mannose-binding lectins, isolated from daffodil (NPA), amaryllis (HHA), and snowdrop (GNA) bulbs, are capable of precipitating with a linear mannopentaose (Man alpha 1-3Man alpha 1-3Man alpha 1-3Man alpha 1-2Man). NPA and HHA reacted strongly with the mannopentaose whereas GNA gave a precipitate only at concentrations greater than 500 microM. A phosphate group at C-6 of the nonreducin...

In this study, we describe the experiments determining whether coating gold nanoparticles with tetraethylene glycol (TEG) provides pharmacologically relevant advantages, such as increased serum half-life and resistance to protein adsorption. Monodisperse TEG-coated, NaBH4-reduced gold nanoparticles with a hydrodynamic size comparable to albumin were synthesized by reducing gold chloride with Na...

1. Pig heart mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase incubated with pyridoxal 5'-phosphate at pH 8.0 and 25 degrees C gradually loses activity. Such inactivation can be largely reversed by dialysis or by addition of L-lysine or L-cysteine, and can be made permanent by NaBH4 reduction. 2. Modification of malate dehydrogenase with pyridoxal 5'-phosphate at 35 degrees C involves two phases, an initial ...

Selenium exhibits several useful properties such as high photoconductivity and catalytic activity and has commercial use in photocopiers and rectifiers. It also undergoes an interesting amorphous to t-phase transition. Nanorods of selenium of different diameters from 20 nm to several hundred nanometers have been prepared by laser ablation of selenium powder. Se nanowires have been prepared by r...

A terminally protected, hydrophobic dipeptide Boc-L-Cys(Me)-L-Leu-OMe (1) was synthesized and its 3D-structure was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. This peptide is able to hierarchically self-assemble in a variety of superstructures, including hollow rods, ranging from the nano- to the macroscale, and organogels. In addition, 1 is able to drive fullerene (C60) or multiwa...

Dichloroethane is a raw material used for the manufacture of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and therefore has very often been detected as a contaminant in the groundwater nearby the VCM manufacturing plant. Zero-valent iron is capable of degrading a wide array of chlorinated contaminants in groundwater such as trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, carbon tetrachloride, and tetrachloroethane. However...

Biosynthesis of metal nanoparticles represents a clean, eco-friendly and sustainable "green chemistry" engineering. Lately, a number of metal selenides were successfully synthesized by biological methods. Here, cuprous selenide (Cu2 Se) nanospheres were prepared under mild conditions by a novel biological-chemical coupling reduction process. The simple process takes place between EDTA-Cu and Na...

In nearly all systems studied, ribonucleotide reductase consists of two non-identical subunits. We present here the results of our study on herpes simplex virus (HSV) ribonucleotide reductase in favour of the existence of two subunits, H1 and H2, different from the mammalian subunits, M1 and M2. First, although the viral subunits could not be separated by Blue Sepharose chromatography (unlike m...