Structural and tribometric characterization of biomimetically inspired synthetic "insect adhesives"

• Matthias W. Speidel,
• Malte Kleemeier,
• Andreas Hartwig,
• Klaus Rischka,
• Angelika Ellermann,
• Rolf Daniels and
• Oliver Betz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 45–63, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.6

• (C30) representing hydrocarbons of defined structure and length within the range of C23–C49 as established in the biological role models. Albumin and gelatin were substitutes for proteinogenic amino acids, with the surfactant Span 80 (Sorbitane monooleate) being used as a combined replacement for fatty

Intercalation and structural aspects of macroRAFT agents into MgAl layered double hydroxides

• Dessislava Kostadinova,
• Ana Cenacchi Pereira,
• Muriel Lansalot,
• Franck D’Agosto,
• Elodie Bourgeat-Lami,
• Fabrice Leroux,
• Christine Taviot-Guého,
• Sylvian Cadars and
• Vanessa Prevot

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2000–2012, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.191

• matrices [5][6][7]. For instance, hybrid LDH involving amino acids, peptides, nucleosides, nucleic acids [8][9][10], biopolymers [11][12] and various drugs [13][14][15] were investigated to develop efficient systems for therapeutic applications [16][17]. Various dyes (sulfonated spyrospiran, methyl orange

Controlled supramolecular structure of guanosine monophosphate in the interlayer space of layered double hydroxide

• Gyeong-Hyeon Gwak,
• Istvan Kocsis,
• Yves-Marie Legrand,
• Mihail Barboiu and
• Jae-Min Oh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1928–1935, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.184

• was suggested that the geometrical restriction of molecules under the confined interlayer space of inorganics would aid the polymerization of biological molecules. Mann et al. intercalated two kinds of amino acids, aspartate and glutamate, into layered double hydroxide (LDH) to synthesize bioinorganic

• nanocomposites [5]. Post-synthetic thermal treatment resulted in polymerization of amino acids in LDH. It was also reported that amino acids such as arginine and glutamate were polymerized via peptidic condensation both on the surface and in the interlayer space of clay [6]. In that literature, peptidic

• condensation of amino acids was determined to favor heteropeptide rather than homopeptide. Besides polymerization of amino acids, it was reported that abiotic oligomerization of RNA nucleotides was catalyzed by montmorillonite clay [7]. In the presence of clay, the length of polymerized RNA oligonucleotides

3D printing of mineral–polymer bone substitutes based on sodium alginate and calcium phosphate

• Aleksey A. Egorov,
• Alexander Yu. Fedotov,
• Anton V. Mironov,
• Vladimir S. Komlev,
• Vladimir K. Popov and
• Yury V. Zobkov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1794–1799, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.172

• by an increase in concentration of heterogeneous nucleation centers of a calcium phosphate phase on the carboxyl groups of the amino acids. X-ray diffraction data lend support to this tendency: the height of the strongest peak (020) of DCPD decreases by a factor of 7 as the alginate and

• phosphate reacts with alginate through the carboxyl groups of amino acids and calcium in calcium phosphate, because the frequency changes are observed for groups located near calcium ions in the phosphate structures [13]. The compressive strength of 3D printed samples is shown in Figure 6. The mechanical

Effective intercalation of zein into Na-montmorillonite: role of the protein components and use of the developed biointerfaces

• Ana C. S. Alcântara,
• Margarita Darder,
• Pilar Aranda and
• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1772–1782, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.170

• -montmorillonite) and the possible mechanism that leads to them have not been described so far. With regard to this, the complex structure of zein and the role of the amino acids in its composition have to be considered, as well as the specific conformation of this protein, in order to understand a mechanism that

• ninhydrin spray solution as revealing agent confirmed the presence of protein in the extracted liquid phase, showing a purplish color resulting from reaction between ninhydrin and free amino groups from amino acids of solubilized zein (Supporting Information File 1, Figure S2). The molecular weight of the

Antitumor magnetic hyperthermia induced by RGD-functionalized Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles, in an experimental model of colorectal liver metastases

• Oihane K. Arriortua,
• Eneko Garaio,
• Borja Herrero de la Parte,
• Maite Insausti,
• Luis Lezama,
• Fernando Plazaola,
• Jose Angel García,
• Jesús M. Aizpurua,
• Maialen Sagartzazu,
• Mireia Irazola,
• Nestor Etxebarria,
• Ignacio García-Alonso,
• Alberto Saiz-López and
• José Javier Echevarria-Uraga

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1532–1542, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.147

• motifs. These molecules could also be easily modified with functional groups, from azides or amines to other amino acids and fluorophores that give them different specificities [28]. One of the procedures to bind RGD peptides due to its unique features such as high aqueous competency, efficiency and

Functional diversity of resilin in Arthropoda

• Jan Michels,
• Esther Appel and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1241–1259, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.115

• exoskeletons of arthropods. It is composed of randomly orientated coiled polypeptide chains that are covalently cross-linked together at regular intervals by the two unusual amino acids dityrosine and trityrosine forming a stable network with a high degree of flexibility and mobility. As a result of its

• protein is called resilin, whereas the not yet cross-linked or not fully cross-linked protein is called pro-resilin [6]. Within hydrolysates of resilin, glycine constitutes the largest proportion (30–40%) of the total residues [7][8]. Such hydrolysates also feature the two unusual amino acids dityrosine

• . When resilin is stained with one of these two dyes, it does not show metachromasia. Among the amino acids that form resilin, dityrosine and trityrosine exhibit a relatively pronounced autofluorescence. This autofluorescence is present in natural resilin-containing structures and in isolated resilin

Preparation of alginate–chitosan–cyclodextrin micro- and nanoparticles loaded with anti-tuberculosis compounds

• Albert Ivancic,
• Fliur Macaev,
• Fatma Aksakal,
• Veaceslav Boldescu,
• Serghei Pogrebnoi and
• Gheorghe Duca

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1208–1218, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.112

• interactions with isoconazole. Multiple hydrophobic contacts of amino acids with the inhibitor were indicated by green spheres in Figure 12b. Frontier molecular orbital analyses The analysis of specificity of the enzyme–ligand interaction is closely related to the analysis of frontier orbitals (HOMO and LUMO

• Figure 13a, the electron density of the HOMO was distributed on the atoms of the amino acid residues. Methionine amino acids and Ile215, Tyr158, Gly96, and Phe97 residues are involved in the acceptor interaction of the HOMO. In contrast, the role of frontier orbitals in the ligand–receptor interaction

Tight junction between endothelial cells: the interaction between nanoparticles and blood vessels

• Yue Zhang and
• Wan-Xi Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 675–684, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.60

• from 21 to 63 amino acids, which may be associated with the localization of these proteins in the tight junction. However, there are only a limited number of proteins in this family that are expressed in endothelial cells, among those proteins, is claudin-5 which shows its predominant function in the

Novel roles for well-known players: from tobacco mosaic virus pests to enzymatically active assemblies

• Claudia Koch,
• Fabian J. Eber,
• Carlos Azucena,
• Alexander Förste,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Alexander M. Bittner,
• Holger Jeske,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Fania C. Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 613–629, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.54

• consists of 158 amino acids. Numerous studies have investigated the self-assembly of TMV in vitro and provided many pieces of the puzzle, with most of them evidencing a bidirectional tube growth starting at an origin of assembly (OAs) site in the 3'-portion of the viral RNA [33][47], as illustrated in

• 1.11.1.9), a natural selenoenzyme: Computer-aided design identified adjacent, adequately positioned amino acids of the viral CP which offered the chance to be modified into a glutathione-attracting pocket containing a catalytic selenocysteine (Sec) moiety [133]. A corresponding project thus investigated if

Bacteriorhodopsin–ZnO hybrid as a potential sensing element for low-temperature detection of ethanol vapour

• Saurav Kumar,
• Sudeshna Bagchi,
• Senthil Prasad,
• Anupma Sharma,
• Ritesh Kumar,
• Rishemjit Kaur,
• Jagvir Singh and
• Amol P. Bhondekar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 501–510, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.44

• attributed to C–O–C asymmetric stretching, O–H bending, C=C stretching and C–H bending of the retinal chromophore, amino acids and lipids [66]. Further investigation indicates a small change in the amide I vibration spectra (at 1660 cm−1) due to the C=O stretch in the skeleton and amide II vibration spectra

Organized films

• Maurizio Canepa and
• Helmuth Möhwald

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 406–408, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.35

• molecules such as small amino acids, which allow fundamental and still open issues to be addressed about the subtle interplay between molecule–molecule and molecule–substrate interactions in determining the molecular networking at surfaces [27][28][29]. These few notes introduce this Thematic Series, which

Early breast cancer screening using iron/iron oxide-based nanoplatforms with sub-femtomolar limits of detection

• Dinusha N. Udukala,
• Hongwang Wang,
• Sebastian O. Wendel,
• Aruni P. Malalasekera,
• Thilani N. Samarakoon,
• Asanka S. Yapa,
• Gayani Abayaweera,
• Matthew T. Basel,
• Pamela Maynez,
• Raquel Ortega,
• Yubisela Toledo,
• Leonie Bossmann,
• Colette Robinson,
• Katharine E. Janik,
• Olga B. Koper,
• Ping Li,
• Massoud Motamedi,
• Daniel A. Higgins,
• Gary Gadbury,
• Gaohong Zhu,
• Deryl L. Troyer and
• Stefan H. Bossmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 364–373, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.33

• ://www.lifetein.com/peptide-analysis-tool.html). Essential amino acids of the consensus sequences are bold. Supporting Information Supporting Information File 68: Determination of matrix effects on the observed fluorescence intensities of the nanoplatforms, relative error from 10 repetitive protease measurements

Single pyrimidine discrimination during voltage-driven translocation of osmylated oligodeoxynucleotides via the α-hemolysin nanopore

• Yun Ding and
• Anastassia Kanavarioti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 91–101, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.11

• bases by amino acids or by PEGylation [33][34][35], assessing the specific current level sensed by the pore for each possible sequence in order to create a complete data set of current signatures [36], and the use of improved bioinformatic tools [37][38]. Incorporation of a processing enzyme, phi29 DNA

Ultrastructural changes in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus induced by positively charged silver nanoparticles

• Dulce G. Romero-Urbina,
• Humberto H. Lara,
• J. Jesús Velázquez-Salazar,
• M. Josefina Arellano-Jiménez,
• Eduardo Larios,
• Anand Srinivasan,
• Jose L. Lopez-Ribot and
• Miguel José Yacamán

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2396–2405, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.246

• permeability [38]. After penetrating the cell membrane, AgNPs can also alter sulfur-containing amino acids and phosphorus (a main constituent of DNA), inhibiting replication via attaching to the bacterial ribosome [39][40]. The proteomic signatures of AgNP-treated E. coli demonstrated an accumulation of

Green and energy-efficient methods for the production of metallic nanoparticles

• Mitra Naghdi,
• Mehrdad Taheran,
• Satinder K. Brar,
• M. Verma,
• R. Y. Surampalli and
• J. R. Valero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2354–2376, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.243

• their FTIR results, different sugars, amino acids and fatty acids are responsible for the stabilization processes. They also observed that by changing the concentration of precursor, one can obtain NPs with average particle diameter from 7.8 to 4.8 nm [89]. Polyols Shameli et al. used polyethylene

• Ag ions during process [66]. Kumar et al. used amino acid based phenolic compounds as reducer and stabilizer for production of Ag NPs from AgNO3 at room temperature. They stated that amino acids have reactive hydroxyl groups and their structural variations can result in the production of spherical

Au nanoparticle-based sensor for apomorphine detection in plasma

• Chiara Zanchi,
• Andrea Lucotti,
• Matteo Tommasini,
• Sebastiano Trusso,
• Ugo de Grazia,
• Emilio Ciusani and
• Paolo M. Ossi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2224–2232, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.228

• regions where the SERS spectrum of blood plasma does not display any characteristic band. Using the near-infrared excitation at 785 nm, the spectra are dominated by protein bands with broad amide bands at 1650 cm−1 (amide I) and 1250 cm−1 (amide III), and sharp bands due to aromatic amino acids at 1004 cm

The role of low-energy electrons in focused electron beam induced deposition: four case studies of representative precursors

• Rachel M. Thorman,
• Ragesh Kumar T. P.,
• D. Howard Fairbrother and
• Oddur Ingólfsson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1904–1926, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.194

• attachment leads to the formation of neutral HF, which in turn releases the 5.9 eV HF BDE [37] and promotes further fragmentation of the parent molecule. This is also observed for other molecules such as the amino acids glycine [38] and valine [39], and hexafluoroacetone azine [40], wherein the formation of

Atomic force microscopy as analytical tool to study physico-mechanical properties of intestinal cells

• Christa Schimpel,
• Oliver Werzer,
• Eleonore Fröhlich,
• Gerd Leitinger,
• Markus Absenger-Novak,
• Birgit Teubl,
• Andreas Zimmer and
• Eva Roblegg

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1457–1466, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.151

• University of Graz, Austria) and were grown in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) (Invitrogen GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany), 1% non-essential amino acids (NEAA) (Invitrogen GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany), 1% L-glutamine (Invitrogen GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany) and 1% penicillin and

Peptide-equipped tobacco mosaic virus templates for selective and controllable biomineral deposition

• Klara Altintoprak,
• Axel Seidenstücker,
• Alexander Welle,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Petia Atanasova,
• Nina Stitz,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Joachim Bill,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Holger Jeske,
• Dirk Rothenstein,
• Fania Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1399–1412, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.145

• [53][54], or into particles fashioned evenly with mixtures of two or more functional groups at predefined ratios [51]. To vary and control the deposition of inorganic minerals on TMV templates, extensive modifications of the surface amino acids are desirable. They enable defined alterations of the

• modification of the TMV–CP sequence is, however, limited in view of the extent of alteration tolerated by virus particles upon their multiplication in plants, regarding number and composition of exchanged or inserted amino acids. In addition, high-throughput screening of different surface-expressed peptides is

• tetraethylorthosilicate, TEOS) in alcohol-containing media (see Figure 1 for the mechanistic scheme). Obviously, the viral coating (which exhibits patches of both positively and negatively charged amino acids in nanometric vicinity to each other) is prone to silica deposition by itself. Concomitant with silicification

Natural and artificial binders of polyriboadenylic acid and their effect on RNA structure

• Giovanni N. Roviello,
• Domenica Musumeci,
• Valentina Roviello,
• Marina Pirtskhalava,
• Alexander Egoyan and
• Merab Mirtskhulava

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1338–1347, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.138

• structures of adducts formed between amino acids and europium metal ions, was investigated for the first time. In particular, a L-valine-europium complex (Figure 12) proved to be able to bind both the DNA and RNA molecules studied by the authors. Interestingly, this complex was able to induce self-structure

Fulleropeptide esters as potential self-assembled antioxidants

• Mira S. Bjelaković,
• Tatjana J. Kop,
• Jelena Đorđević and
• Dragana R. Milić

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1065–1071, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.107

• -assembly has been observed. Here, cryo-transmission electron microscopy [14] and SEM [15] experiments on aqueous solutions of fullerene-based amino acids and peptides confirmed their strong aggregation behavior and formation of spherical and ellipsoidal clusters. In the area of biological applications, a

• described the synthesis and provided a thorough spectral characterization of a series of fulleropeptide tert-butyl esters (2–12, Figure 1) consisting of two aliphatic amino acids, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glycine (Gly), using fulleropyrrolidinic ester 1 as a starting compound. In continuation of our

Morphology control of zinc oxide films via polysaccharide-mediated, low temperature, chemical bath deposition

• Florian Waltz,
• Hans-Christoph Schwarz,
• Andreas M. Schneider,
• Stefanie Eiden and
• Peter Behrens

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 799–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.83

• (malate) [36], ascorbate [37], diaminopropane [38], hexadecyl(trimethyl)azanium bromide (CTAB) [39], and block copolymers [40] have been used for this purpose, in addition to naturally occurring amino acids and peptides [41], which have already been successfully applied in this respect. We recently

Functionalization of α-synuclein fibrils

• Simona Povilonienė,
• Vida Časaitė,
• Virginijus Bukauskas,
• Arūnas Šetkus,
• Juozas Staniulis and
• Rolandas Meškys

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 124–133, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.12

• ]. α-Syn has an unfolded C-terminal region and the NAC region (amino acids 61–95) that is responsible for aggregation. It was also demonstrated that the C-terminal is very important in the oligomerization process [47] and has a chaperone-like activity [11]. Therefore, a α-SynC141 mutant with one

Synthesis of boron nitride nanotubes and their applications

• Saban Kalay,
• Zehra Yilmaz,
• Ozlem Sen,
• Melis Emanet,
• Emine Kazanc and
• Mustafa Çulha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 84–102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.9

• interaction with the surface of the BNNTs. This study provides a deeper understanding into the nature of the interactions of amino acids (and perhaps similar molecules) with surface of the BNNTs [68]. The interaction of a peptide, HWSAWWIRSNQS, with BNNTs was studied using AFM [69]. It was found that the