No description available.

<p>Endozepine is an alternative name for the testis-specific isoform of the acyl-CoA binding protein (t-ACBP). Acyl-CoA binding proteins form a highly conserved family of proteins, which bind long chain fatty acid esters with nanomolar affinity. They are also known to be endogenous ligands to the --amino butyric acid (GABA) receptor in the central nervous system and to play a role in a wide variety of cellular functions such as vesicular trafficking, fatty acid biosynthesis and gene regulation. A role for endozepine in apoptosis was suggested through promoter gene trapping studies using CHO22 cells in which 90 % reduction in the expression of endozepine correlated with delayed mitochondrial permeabilization, a reduced activation of caspase-3 (an activator of apoptosis) and a consequent resistance to C2-ceramide induced apoptosis.</p> <p>Transduction studies using Tat-GFP-ELP fusion protein showed that endozepine restored the sensitivity of mutant CHO22 cells to C2-ceramide induced apoptosis. In this thesis, we have investigated two hypotheses for the involvement of endozepine in ceramide-induced apoptosis. The first hypothesis is that endozepine contributes to apoptosis through the transport of palmitoyl-CoA, a substrate required for the de novo synthesis of ceramide. The second hypothesis is that endozepine interacts directly with ceramide leading to interaction with peripheral benzodiazepine receptor and a subsequent opening of the mitochondria permeability transition pore, leading to apoptosis.</p>

<p>Endozepine is an alternative name for the testis-specific isoform of the acyl-CoA binding protein (t-ACBP). Acyl-CoA binding proteins form a highly conserved family of proteins, which bind long chain fatty acid esters with nanomolar affinity. They are also known to be endogenous ligands to the --amino butyric acid (GABA) receptor in the central nervous system and to play a role in a wide variety of cellular functions such as vesicular trafficking, fatty acid biosynthesis and gene regulation. A role for endozepine in apoptosis was suggested through promoter gene trapping studies using CHO22 cells in which 90 % reduction in the expression of endozepine correlated with delayed mitochondrial permeabilization, a reduced activation of caspase-3 (an activator of apoptosis) and a consequent resistance to C2-ceramide induced apoptosis.</p> <p>Transduction studies using Tat-GFP-ELP fusion protein showed that endozepine restored the sensitivity of mutant CHO22 cells to C2-ceramide induced apoptosis. In this thesis, we have investigated two hypotheses for the involvement of endozepine in ceramide-induced apoptosis. The first hypothesis is that endozepine contributes to apoptosis through the transport of palmitoyl-CoA, a substrate required for the de novo synthesis of ceramide. The second hypothesis is that endozepine interacts directly with ceramide leading to interaction with peripheral benzodiazepine receptor and a subsequent opening of the mitochondria permeability transition pore, leading to apoptosis.</p>

Magister Scientiae - MSc / Endozepine is an alternative name for the testis-specific isoform of the acyl-CoA binding protein (t-ACBP). Acyl-CoA binding proteins form a highly conserved family of proteins, which bind long chain fatty acid esters with nanomolar affinity. They are also known to be endogenous ligands to the --amino butyric acid (GABA) receptor in the central nervous system and to play a role in a wide variety of cellular functions such as vesicular trafficking, fatty acid biosynthesis and gene regulation. A role for endozepine in apoptosis was suggested through promoter gene trapping studies using CHO22 cells in which 90 % reduction in the expression of endozepine correlated with delayed mitochondrial permeabilization, a reduced activation of caspase-3 (an activator of apoptosis) and a consequent resistance to C2-ceramide induced apoptosis. Transduction studies using Tat-GFP-ELP fusion protein showed that endozepine restored the sensitivity of mutant CHO22 cells to C2-ceramide induced apoptosis. In this thesis, we have investigated two hypotheses for the involvement of endozepine in ceramide-induced apoptosis. The first hypothesis is that endozepine contributes to apoptosis through the transport of palmitoyl-CoA, a substrate required for the de novo synthesis of ceramide. The second hypothesis is that endozepine interacts directly with ceramide leading to interaction with peripheral benzodiazepine receptor and a subsequent opening of the mitochondria permeability transition pore, leading to apoptosis. / South Africa

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O objetivo deste trabalho foi implementar a técnica de dupla ressonância denominada Desacoplamento Heteronuclear em Banda Larga. Tal técnica consiste em eliminar a interação dipolar magnética nuclear existente entre núcleos atômicos raros que desejamos observar (13C, por exemplo) e núcleos atômicos abundantes que existem em sua vizinhança (1H, por exemplo). Para implementar algumas das técnicas de Desacoplamento Heteronuclear em Banda Larga (DBL), foi desenvolvido o instrumental eletrônico necessário, que consistiu em projeto e construção de moduladores de pulsos de radiofreqüência com controle de fase, em programação de seqüências especiais de pulsos para DBL e em sistemas de controle digital. As técnicas de DBL implementadas foram: \"Noise Modulation\", \"Squarewave modulation\", \"MLEV-64\" e \"WALTZ-16\". Avaliamos o desempenho destas técnicas através de resultados experimentais obtidos utilizando o composto ADAMANTANO (Cl10H16). Todos os equipamentos desenvolvidos foram incorporados ao espectrômetro de alta resolução por ressonância magnética nuclear existente no Laboratório de Espectroscopia de Alta Resolução (LEAR), do Departamento de Física e Informática, Instituto de Física de São Carlos, USP, e estão sendo utilizados rotineiramente nos experimentos de espectroscopia de alta resolução / The goal of this work was to improve the double resonance technique called Broadband Heteronuclear Decoupling. This technique consists on eliminate the dipolar heteronuclear interaction that exists between rare nucleous (13C, for example) and abundant nucleous that exists around (1H, for example). To improve some techniques of Broadband Heteronuclear Decoupling (BBDec), an electronic apparatus was made, which consisted of design and implementation of radiofrequency pulse modulators with phase control, special BBDec pulse sequences programming and digital control systems. The implemented Broadband Heteronuclear Decoupling techniques were: Noise Modulation, Square-wave Modulation, MLEV-64 sequence and WALTZ-16 sequence. We evaluated the performance of these techniques utilizing the experimental results obtained with the sample ADAMANTANO (Cl10H16). All developed apparatus was incorporated with the high resolution NMR spectrometer that exists at the High Resolution Spectroscopy Laboratory (LEAR), of the Instituto de Física de Sao Carlos, USP, and are being used at all high resolution NMR experiments

Dois dos principais aspectos da Química de Produtos Naturais são a identificação e a determinação estrutural dos compostos orgânicos presentes em materiais de origem vegetal ou animal. Para realizar esta tarefa são empregados diversos métodos de separação e espectroscópicos. Dentre os métodos espectroscópicos, destaca-se a espectroscopia de ressonância magnética nuclear pela riqueza dos dados fornecidos. Entretanto, o desenvolvimento da área exige métodos cada vez mais eficientes e sensíveis, para permitir o estudo de amostras em quantidades cada vez menores. Neste trabalho, empregamos três estratégias distintas para aumentar a eficiência da análise de amostras de produtos naturais por RMN. A primeira estratégia busca acelerar o processo de identificação dos componentes de frações de extratos vegetais através da separação virtual dos componentes da mistura, baseada nas diferenças de seus coeficientes de difusão. Esta estratégia permitiu identificar os quatro componentes majoritários da fração em acetato de etila do extrato etanólico das partes aéreas de Bidens sulphurea (Asteraceae) através de um estudo de RMN DOSY-2D. A segunda estratégia é dedicada ao problema da baixa sensibilidade da RMN 13C, o que torna difícil, e em alguns casos, proibitiva em termos do tempo necessário, a análise de amostras muito pequenas. Dada a dificuldade de se obter diretamente um espectro com uma relação sinal/ruído adequada, uma abordagem possível se baseia em estratégias de pós-processamento de um espectro de RMN em que predomina o ruído. A estratégia utilizada neste trabalho fornece um espectro reconstruído de secções que foram previamente processadas para a eliminação do ruído pela decomposição do valor singular (SVD). Os espectros assim processados nos auxiliaram na identificação e/ou elucidação estrutural de dois alcalóides obtidos de Duguetia furfuraceae (Annonaceae) e um poliacetileno e dois flavonóides de B. sulphurea (Asteraceae). A terceira estratégia utilizada neste trabalho se baseia na ampliação dos parâmetros rotineiramente obtidos numa análise por RMN, com a finalidade de fornecer novos subsídios para a determinação da estrutura de produtos naturais. Neste sentido, a determinação das constantes de acoplamento heteronuclear forneceu dados valiosos para a identificação de dois poliacetilenos obtidos de B. gardneri. / Two major aspects of Natural Products Chemistry are the identification and structure determination of organic compounds in materials of vegetable or animal. To accomplish this task are used various methods of separation and spectroscopic. Among spectroscopic methods, we highlight the spectroscopy of nuclear magnetic resonance by the wealth of data provided. However, the development of the area requires methods increasingly efficient and sensitive to allow the study of small or diluted samples. In this work, we employ three different strategies to increase the efficiency of analysis of samples of natural products by NMR. The first strategy seeks to accelerate the process of identifying the components of fractions of plant extracts through the virtual separation of the components of the mixture based on differences in their diffusion coefficients. With this strategy we have identified four major components of the in ethyl acetate fraction of ethanol extract of aerial parts of Bidens sulphurea (Asteraceae) by 2D DOSY NMR. The second strategy is devoted to the problem of low sensitivity of 13C NMR, which makes it difficult, and in some cases prohibitive in terms of time, the analysis of very small samples. Due to the difficulty of obtaining directly a spectrum with a signal-to-noise ratio adequate, a possible approach is based on strategies for post-processing of an NMR spectrum in which noise predominates. This strategy used here provides a spectrum of reconstructed sections were first processed to remove noise by singular value decomposition (SVD). Spectra processed of this way helped us in identifying and / or structural elucidation of two alkaloids derived from Duguetia furfuraceae (Annonaceae) and a polyacetylene and two flavonoids from Bidens gardneri (Asteraceae). The third strategy used in this work is based on expansion of the parameters routinely obtained in an analysis by NMR in order to provide new subsidies for the structure determination of natural products. In this sense, the determination of heteronuclear coupling constants provided valuable data for the identification of two polyacetylenes obtained from B. gardneri.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi implementar a técnica de dupla ressonância denominada Desacoplamento Heteronuclear em Banda Larga. Tal técnica consiste em eliminar a interação dipolar magnética nuclear existente entre núcleos atômicos raros que desejamos observar (13C, por exemplo) e núcleos atômicos abundantes que existem em sua vizinhança (1H, por exemplo). Para implementar algumas das técnicas de Desacoplamento Heteronuclear em Banda Larga (DBL), foi desenvolvido o instrumental eletrônico necessário, que consistiu em projeto e construção de moduladores de pulsos de radiofreqüência com controle de fase, em programação de seqüências especiais de pulsos para DBL e em sistemas de controle digital. As técnicas de DBL implementadas foram: \"Noise Modulation\", \"Squarewave modulation\", \"MLEV-64\" e \"WALTZ-16\". Avaliamos o desempenho destas técnicas através de resultados experimentais obtidos utilizando o composto ADAMANTANO (Cl10H16). Todos os equipamentos desenvolvidos foram incorporados ao espectrômetro de alta resolução por ressonância magnética nuclear existente no Laboratório de Espectroscopia de Alta Resolução (LEAR), do Departamento de Física e Informática, Instituto de Física de São Carlos, USP, e estão sendo utilizados rotineiramente nos experimentos de espectroscopia de alta resolução / The goal of this work was to improve the double resonance technique called Broadband Heteronuclear Decoupling. This technique consists on eliminate the dipolar heteronuclear interaction that exists between rare nucleous (13C, for example) and abundant nucleous that exists around (1H, for example). To improve some techniques of Broadband Heteronuclear Decoupling (BBDec), an electronic apparatus was made, which consisted of design and implementation of radiofrequency pulse modulators with phase control, special BBDec pulse sequences programming and digital control systems. The implemented Broadband Heteronuclear Decoupling techniques were: Noise Modulation, Square-wave Modulation, MLEV-64 sequence and WALTZ-16 sequence. We evaluated the performance of these techniques utilizing the experimental results obtained with the sample ADAMANTANO (Cl10H16). All developed apparatus was incorporated with the high resolution NMR spectrometer that exists at the High Resolution Spectroscopy Laboratory (LEAR), of the Instituto de Física de Sao Carlos, USP, and are being used at all high resolution NMR experiments

Dois dos principais aspectos da Química de Produtos Naturais são a identificação e a determinação estrutural dos compostos orgânicos presentes em materiais de origem vegetal ou animal. Para realizar esta tarefa são empregados diversos métodos de separação e espectroscópicos. Dentre os métodos espectroscópicos, destaca-se a espectroscopia de ressonância magnética nuclear pela riqueza dos dados fornecidos. Entretanto, o desenvolvimento da área exige métodos cada vez mais eficientes e sensíveis, para permitir o estudo de amostras em quantidades cada vez menores. Neste trabalho, empregamos três estratégias distintas para aumentar a eficiência da análise de amostras de produtos naturais por RMN. A primeira estratégia busca acelerar o processo de identificação dos componentes de frações de extratos vegetais através da separação virtual dos componentes da mistura, baseada nas diferenças de seus coeficientes de difusão. Esta estratégia permitiu identificar os quatro componentes majoritários da fração em acetato de etila do extrato etanólico das partes aéreas de Bidens sulphurea (Asteraceae) através de um estudo de RMN DOSY-2D. A segunda estratégia é dedicada ao problema da baixa sensibilidade da RMN 13C, o que torna difícil, e em alguns casos, proibitiva em termos do tempo necessário, a análise de amostras muito pequenas. Dada a dificuldade de se obter diretamente um espectro com uma relação sinal/ruído adequada, uma abordagem possível se baseia em estratégias de pós-processamento de um espectro de RMN em que predomina o ruído. A estratégia utilizada neste trabalho fornece um espectro reconstruído de secções que foram previamente processadas para a eliminação do ruído pela decomposição do valor singular (SVD). Os espectros assim processados nos auxiliaram na identificação e/ou elucidação estrutural de dois alcalóides obtidos de Duguetia furfuraceae (Annonaceae) e um poliacetileno e dois flavonóides de B. sulphurea (Asteraceae). A terceira estratégia utilizada neste trabalho se baseia na ampliação dos parâmetros rotineiramente obtidos numa análise por RMN, com a finalidade de fornecer novos subsídios para a determinação da estrutura de produtos naturais. Neste sentido, a determinação das constantes de acoplamento heteronuclear forneceu dados valiosos para a identificação de dois poliacetilenos obtidos de B. gardneri. / Two major aspects of Natural Products Chemistry are the identification and structure determination of organic compounds in materials of vegetable or animal. To accomplish this task are used various methods of separation and spectroscopic. Among spectroscopic methods, we highlight the spectroscopy of nuclear magnetic resonance by the wealth of data provided. However, the development of the area requires methods increasingly efficient and sensitive to allow the study of small or diluted samples. In this work, we employ three different strategies to increase the efficiency of analysis of samples of natural products by NMR. The first strategy seeks to accelerate the process of identifying the components of fractions of plant extracts through the virtual separation of the components of the mixture based on differences in their diffusion coefficients. With this strategy we have identified four major components of the in ethyl acetate fraction of ethanol extract of aerial parts of Bidens sulphurea (Asteraceae) by 2D DOSY NMR. The second strategy is devoted to the problem of low sensitivity of 13C NMR, which makes it difficult, and in some cases prohibitive in terms of time, the analysis of very small samples. Due to the difficulty of obtaining directly a spectrum with a signal-to-noise ratio adequate, a possible approach is based on strategies for post-processing of an NMR spectrum in which noise predominates. This strategy used here provides a spectrum of reconstructed sections were first processed to remove noise by singular value decomposition (SVD). Spectra processed of this way helped us in identifying and / or structural elucidation of two alkaloids derived from Duguetia furfuraceae (Annonaceae) and a polyacetylene and two flavonoids from Bidens gardneri (Asteraceae). The third strategy used in this work is based on expansion of the parameters routinely obtained in an analysis by NMR in order to provide new subsidies for the structure determination of natural products. In this sense, the determination of heteronuclear coupling constants provided valuable data for the identification of two polyacetylenes obtained from B. gardneri.

Lignin is one of the most abundant and underutilized biopolymers on earth. Primarily composed on three monolignol units (sinapyl, coniferyl, and p-coumaryl alcohol), lignin is formed through a radical pathway resulting in an assortment of linkages, of which the β-O-4 linkage is the most prevalent (up to 60% in some hardwood species). In planta, lignin plays an important role in water transport and in protecting plants from chemical and biological attack. Traditional attempts to depolymerize lignin have focused on the cleavage of β-O-4 linkages via thermal or reductive routes. However these pathways lead to low-value, unstable product mixtures. Moreover, typical product yields are low and the highly corrosive reaction medium results in added expense. More recently, catalytic oxidations have been studied as a viable means to lignin utilization. The present work will review the state-of-the-art of lignin oxidations, and focus on stoichiometric and catalytic attempts to oxidize lignin and lignin model compounds in order achieve selective stepwise depolymerization of lignin. Specifically, activated dimethyl sulfoxides and LDH catalysts were evaluated for lignin and/or lignin model compound oxidations leading, in some cases, to unexpected products.