To control the rate of release of methylprednisolone (MP) in lysosomes, new dextran-MP conjugates with peptide linkers were synthesized and characterized. Methylprednisolone succinate (MPS) was attached to dextran 25 kDa using linkers with 1-5 Gly residues. The release characteristics of the conjugates in pH 4.0 and 7.4 buffers, blood, liver lysosomes, and various lysosomal proteinases were det...

A fundamental task in numerical computation is the solution of large linear systems. The conjugate gradient method is an iterative method which offers rapid convergence to the solution, particularly when an effective preconditioner is employed. However, for more challenging systems a substantial error can be present even after many iterations have been performed. The estimates obtained in this ...

SureLINK Chromophoric Biotin Labeling Kits allow for the easy labeling of proteins with biotin as well as an accurate, precise, and inexpensive method of quantitating biotin in biotin-protein conjugates. Accurate measurement of this parameter is critical for the efficient design of reproducible immunoassays. The basis of the quantitation method is a biotinylation reagent that contains a chromop...

A method for quantifying indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and its conjugates with the six amino acids, Ala, -Asp, -Ile, -Glu, -Phe and -Val, in rice (Oryza sativa) by using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization and tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) is described. Samples from the rice plant or callus were treated with 80% acetone in water containing 2.5 mM...

In recent years, convex optimization methods were successfully applied for various image processing tasks and a large number of first-order methods were designed to minimize the corresponding functionals. Interestingly, it was shown recently in [25] that the simple idea of so-called “superstep cycles” leads to very efficient schemes for time-dependent (parabolic) image enhancement problems as w...

The valency of quantum dot nanoparticles conjugated with biomolecules is closely related to their performance in cell tagging, tracking, and imaging experiments. Commercially available streptavidin conjugates (SAv QDs) are the most commonly used tool for preparing QD-biomolecule conjugates. The fluorescence quenching of biotin-4-fluorscein (B4F) provides a straightforward assay to quantify the ...

Nanoparticulate platinum (II) (nano Pt) is a powerful antioxidant that is widely used to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS). The antioxidant activity of nano Pt has gained attention as a potentially useful therapeutic for a variety of diseases including cancer and aging. In the present study, we prepared nanoparticulate saponin-Pt (II) (nano saponin-Pt) conjugates using the ethanol reductio...

The widespread occurrence in plant tissues of conjugates with quinic acid1 and with glucose of p-coumaric acid., caffeic acid, and ferulic acid (Fig. 1) is well established (2-6). Many of these compounds occur as only trace components in extremely complex mixtures of phenolic substances. Uncertainty exists as to the exact chemical structure of most of them, and relatively little is known about ...

LGD1069 (Targretin), a retinoid "X" receptor-selective ligand, or rexinoid, is in clinical trials for treating cancer. Biologically-active oxidized LGD1069 metabolites have been observed in patient plasma samples, making corresponding structural characterizations necessary. Formation of multiple metabolite isomers in vivo has created technical challenges in metabolite structural analysis; howev...