A theoretical approach is developed to quantify hydrophobic hydration and interactions on a molecular scale, with the goal of insight into the molecular origins of hydrophobic effects. The model is based on the fundamental relation between the probability for cavity formation in bulk water resulting from molecular-scale density fluctuations, and the hydration free energy of the simplest hydroph...

Patterns of hydrophobic and hydrophilic residues play a major role in protein folding and function. Long, predominantly hydrophobic strings of 20-22 amino acids each are associated with transmembrane helices and have been used to identify such sequences. Much less attention has been paid to hydrophobic sequences within globular proteins. In prior work on computer simulations of the competition ...

PURPOSE To determine the hydrophobic, antiglistening, and bioadhesiveness properties of a new polymer, GF raw material, and to determine the suitability of this material for use in intraocular lenses (IOLs). SETTING University of Liege, Liege, Belgium. DESIGN Experimental study. METHODS Intraocular lenses made of the new hydrophobic acrylic material were tested and compared with reference...

© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 6023 wileyonlinelibrary.com Our work is inspired by passive transport across cell membranes, which offer an intriguing example of regulating membrane permeability based on transmembrane hydrophilic/hydrophobic interactions. [ 10 ] The cell membrane has a lipid bilayer structure consisting of hydrophilic phosphate outer layers and hydrophobic hyd...

We present here a brief review of direct force measurements between hydrophobic surfaces in aqueous solutions. For almost 70 years, researchers have attempted to understand the hydrophobic effect (the low solubility of hydrophobic solutes in water) and the hydrophobic interaction or force (the unusually strong attraction of hydrophobic surfaces and groups in water). After many years of research...

Recent work has shown that the nature of hydration of pure hydrophobic surfaces changes with the length scale considered: water hydrogen-bonding networks adapt to small exposed hydrophobic species, hydrating or "wetting" them at relatively high densities, whereas larger hydrophobic areas are "dewetted" [Chandler D (2005), Nature 29:640-647]. Here we determine whether this effect is also present...

We have used computer simulation to study the collapse of a hydrophobic chain in water. We find that the mechanism of collapse is much like that of a first-order phase transition. The evaporation of water in the vicinity of the polymer provides the driving force for collapse, and the rate limiting step is the nucleation of a sufficiently large vapor bubble. The study is made possible through th...

For more than a century, urea has been commonly used as an agent for denaturing proteins. However, the mechanism behind its denaturing power is still not well understood. Here we show by molecular dynamics simulations that a 7 M aqueous urea solution unfolds a chain of purely hydrophobic groups which otherwise adopts a compact structure in pure water. The unfolding process arises due to a weake...

We report temperature-dependent acoustic and densimetric data on changes in volume, expansibility, and adiabatic compressibility accompanying the binding of 1-adamantanecarboxylic acid (AD) to beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD). We interpret our volumetric results in terms of hydration. Based on our compressibility and expansibility data, we estimate that, at 25 degrees C, the binding of AD to beta-CD...

he 2003 American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) survey of practice styles and preferences indicated that, since 1998, hydrophobic acrylic has been the preferred IOL optic material.1 Because surgeons appreciate the controlled unfolding characteristics associated with this class of materials, the popularity of hydrophobic acrylic lenses has increased worldwide since their intr...