Current Physical Chemistry - Volume 3, Issue 1, 2013

This short review is formed on the basis of the great contributions for the section: Quantum Nanobiology and Biophysical Chemistry to appear in Current Physical Chemistry. The review is concerned with problems and perspectives of Molecular Biophysics of today and especially with respect to quantum aspects.

Biological macromolecules evolved over billions of years to achieve dynamic structures adapted to their function. Appropriate structure and appropriate dynamics are necessary for biological activity. Intra and inter protein interactions are modulated by weak forces, which depend sensitively on the environment. These forces define the active fold of the macromolecule and also its dynamics about the time-average Read More

The lamellar lipid-bilayer component of cell membranes is a complex self-assembled macromolecular aggregate that hosts a large part of the cell's biological activity such as signal transduction, energy- and materials transport, as well as communication with the environment. The structure, dynamics, and stability of the lipid bilayer are controlled by thermodynamic forces leading to overall tensionless bilayers with a conspicu Read More

Modelling how proteins bind to one another is a challenging task, in part due to the conformational changes that can occur upon complex formation. We here describe the various types of motion that occur upon protein binding and discuss their treatment in computational protein-protein docking methods to predict the structure of the bound complex. Considered are five different categories of structural change, th Read More

In this work we have used Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) / vibrational absorption (VA) spectroscopy to study two cancer cell lines: the Henrietta Lacks (HeLa) human cervix carcinoma and 5637 human bladder carcinoma cell lines. Our goal is to experimentally investigate biochemical changes and differences in these cells lines utilizing FTIR spectroscopy. We have used the chemometrical and statistical method principal compon Read More

Redox proteins and enzymes containing iron-sulfur clusters continue to emerge as key elements of cellular metabolism. Proteins and clusters of enormous complexity continue to succumb to experimental definition, such as nitrogenase and hydrogenase enzymes. Simpler systems, including iron-sulfur clusters of the general formula FexSy(SCys) z, have long been subject to fundamental research, including the theoretical mod Read More

Over the past 10-15 years LNA (Locked Nucleic Acid) has taken a central position in nucleic acid chemistry and biology. The enhanced hybridization properties against both DNA and RNA have become a new reference in the field and proven to be enabling for many application in life sciences. For therapeutic use as RNA targeting drugs LNA enable the design of potent antisense oligonucleotides. Much effort has been dedicated to g Read More

One remarkable aspect of small globular proteins folding process is the fastness. However, different proteins of similar sizes may paradoxically present folding rates that differ by several orders of magnitude. In the present work we show how reliably a specific minimalist lattice model can reproduce such large range of folding characteristic times during the search stage of the protein folding process. We select nine repres Read More

Superconductivity is described by the well-known Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory, which is a symmetry breaking approximation. Color superconductivity shows up in extremely high density matter and temperature, which is here investigated and compared to the other end of the scale of low energy/temperature of organic superconductors. An approach to color superconductivity conciliating the BCS theory with th Read More

An extensive conformational analysis of 2´,3´-didehydro-2´,3´-dideoxythymidine (stavudine, d4T), a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor widely used in anti-retroviral therapy, is presented. At 298.15 K all 19 allowed d4T conformers are within the 5.51 kcal/mol Gibbs free energy range. Eight types of specific intramolecular interactions, which govern the conformational properties of d4T, were identified, namely: O5´H···O Read More

We consider here the electronic deactivation pathway/process of the carotenoid-chlorophyll complex following photoabsorption/activation. We point out the reasoning why the conventional Foster-Dexter (FD) approach, or deexcitation via tunneling, or paths through conical intersections are not compatible with all experimental data for this system. The proposed Bio-Auger (B-A) process discussed in connection with deactivation o Read More

A method of analytical prediction (AP) and the corresponding index LAP used for predicting high-spin stability of alternant conjugated hydrocarbon radical polymers were generalized for both non-disjoint closed-type and open-type systems. The general formulas of LAP were derived analytically as the function of the number of unpaired electrons, denoted as N, without performing any localization procedure to attain the minimu Read More

The bio-protective properties of monosaccharaides, namely mannose, fructose and fucose, on the stability and dynamical properties of the NMR determined hen egg-white lysozyme structure have been investigated by means of molecular dynamics simulations at room temperature in aqueous solution and in 7 and 13 wt % concentrations of the three sugars. Results are discussed in the framework of the bio-protective Read More