The magnitude of the membrane dipole field was measured using vibrational Stark effect (VSE) shifts of nitrile oscillators placed on the unnatural amino acid p-cyanophenylalanine (p-CN-Phe) added to a peptide sequence at four unique positions. These peptides, which were based on a repeating alanine-leucine motif, intercalated into small unilamellar DMPC vesicles which formed an α-helix as confi...

Seventy nine (13%) punctures were identified in 612 gloves. Gloves from the left hand showed the highest incidence of punctures. No puncture was observed in 100 gloves tested as a control. The results showed that glove puncture was more likely to occur in gloves worn on left (nonworking) hand overall as compared with gloves from the right hand. Gloves used for surgical procedures in which wires...

BACKGROUND The invasive nature of surgery, with its increased exposure to blood, means that during surgery there is a high risk of transfer of pathogens. Pathogens can be transferred through contact between surgical patients and the surgical team, resulting in post-operative or blood borne infections in patients or blood borne infections in the surgical team. Both patients and the surgical team...

BACKGROUND Reduction of accidental contamination of the near-patient environment has potential to reduce acquisition of healthcare-associated infection(s). Although medical gloves should be removed when soiled or touching the environment, compliance is variable. The use of antimicrobial-impregnated medical gloves could reduce the horizontal-transfer of bacterial contamination between surfaces. ...

The photolysis at 222 nm of 5-methyltetrazole isolated in a cryogenic argon matrix leads to formation of methyl nitrile imine as primary product. Subsequent irradiation at 328 nm induces transformation of the nitrile imine into 4π-electron three-membered-ring 3-methyl-1H-diazirine, which photorearranges to give methyl carbodiimide. These products were characterized by IR spectroscopy and theore...

We report the deprotonation of a chiral nitrile and reaction of the resulting chiral organometallic species with a variety of electrophiles to give highly enantiomerically enriched 2-substituted nitrile products. The nitrile was treated with TMPMgCl and the resulting anion, an asymmetric alpha cyano Grignard species, was found to be configurationally stable at low temperature for a short time (...

Difluoromethylation on sp(3) carbon of various nitrile compounds with lithium base and fluoroform (CF3H), which is an ideal difluoromethylating reagent, is shown to provide the α-difluoromethylated nitrile products with an all-carbon quaternary center in moderate to high yields. The Ruppert-Prakash reagent (CF3TMS) is also applicable to the reaction, affording the α-siladifluoromethylated nitri...

Vibrational Stark effect spectroscopy was used to measure electrostatic fields in the hydrophobic region of the active site of human aldose reductase (hALR2). A new nitrile-containing inhibitor was designed and synthesized, and the X-ray structure of its complex, along with cofactor NADP(+), with wild-type hALR2 was determined at 1.3 Å resolution. The nitrile is found to be in the proximity of ...

Paclitaxel (taxol) is an antimicrotubule agent widely used in the treatment of cancer. Taxol is prepared in a semisynthetic route by coupling the N-benzoyl-(2R,3S)-3-phenylisoserine sidechain to the baccatin III core structure. Precursors of the taxol sidechain have previously been prepared in chemoenzymatic approaches using acylases, lipases, and reductases, mostly featuring the enantioselecti...