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Essays in Biochemistry Oct 2017Within every living organism, countless reactions occur every second. These reactions typically occur more rapidly and with greater efficiency than would be possible... (Review)
Review
Within every living organism, countless reactions occur every second. These reactions typically occur more rapidly and with greater efficiency than would be possible under the same conditions in the chemical laboratory, and while using only the subset of elements that are readily available in nature. Despite these apparent differences between life and the laboratory, biological reactions are governed by the same rules as any other chemical reaction. Thus, a firm understanding of the fundamentals of chemistry is invaluable in biochemistry. There are entire textbooks devoted to the application of chemical principles in biological systems and so it is not possible to cover all of the relevant topics in depth in this short article. The aim is instead to provide a brief overview of those areas in chemistry that are most relevant to biochemistry. We summarize the basic principles, give examples of how these principles are applied in biological systems and suggest further reading on individual topics.
Topics: Animals; Biochemistry; Humans; Metabolome; Organic Chemicals; Organic Chemistry Phenomena
PubMed: 28951470
DOI: 10.1042/EBC20160094 -
Accounts of Chemical Research Jan 2020The appeal and promise of synthetic organic electrochemistry have been appreciated over the past century. In terms of redox chemistry, which is frequently encountered... (Review)
Review
The appeal and promise of synthetic organic electrochemistry have been appreciated over the past century. In terms of redox chemistry, which is frequently encountered when forging new bonds, it is difficult to conceive of a more economical way to add or remove electrons than electrochemistry. Indeed, many of the largest industrial synthetic chemical processes are achieved in a practical way using electrons as a reagent. Why then, after so many years of the documented benefits of electrochemistry, is it not more widely embraced by mainstream practitioners? Erroneous perceptions that electrochemistry is a "black box" combined with a lack of intuitive and inexpensive standardized equipment likely contributed to this stagnation in interest within the synthetic organic community. This barrier to entry is magnified by the fact that many redox processes can already be accomplished using simple chemical reagents even if they are less atom-economic. Time has proven that sustainability and economics are not strong enough driving forces for the adoption of electrochemical techniques within the broader community. Indeed, like many synthetic organic chemists that have dabbled in this age-old technique, our first foray into this area was not by choice but rather through sheer necessity. The unique reactivity benefits of this old redox-modulating technique must therefore be highlighted and leveraged in order to draw organic chemists into the field. Enabling new bonds to be forged with higher levels of chemo- and regioselectivity will likely accomplish this goal. In doing so, it is envisioned that widespread adoption of electrochemistry will go beyond supplanting unsustainable reagents in mundane redox reactions to the development of exciting reactivity paradigms that enable heretofore unimagined retrosynthetic pathways. Whereas the rigorous physical organic chemical principles of electroorganic synthesis have been reviewed elsewhere, it is often the case that such summaries leave out the pragmatic aspects of designing, optimizing, and scaling up preparative electrochemical reactions. Taken together, the task of setting up an electrochemical reaction, much less inventing a new one, can be vexing for even seasoned organic chemists. This Account therefore features a unique format that focuses on addressing this exact issue within the context of our own studies. The graphically rich presentation style pinpoints basic concepts, typical challenges, and key insights for those "electro-curious" chemists who seek to rapidly explore the power of electrochemistry in their research.
Topics: Electrochemical Techniques; Molecular Structure; Organic Chemicals; Oxidation-Reduction
PubMed: 31823612
DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.9b00539 -
Journal of Industrial Microbiology &... Apr 2022Organic acids are an important class of compounds that can be produced by microbial conversion of renewable feedstocks and have huge demands and broad applications in... (Review)
Review
Organic acids are an important class of compounds that can be produced by microbial conversion of renewable feedstocks and have huge demands and broad applications in food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries. An economically viable fermentation process for production of organic acids requires robust microbial cell factories with excellent tolerance to low pH conditions, high concentrations of organic acids, and lignocellulosic inhibitors. In this review, we summarize various strategies to engineer robust microorganisms for organic acid production and highlight their applications in a few recent examples.
Topics: Acids; Fermentation; Metabolic Engineering; Organic Chemicals
PubMed: 34549297
DOI: 10.1093/jimb/kuab067 -
Brazilian Journal of Biology = Revista... 2023Nanosensors work on the "Nano" scale. "Nano" is a unit of measurement around 10- 9 m. A nanosensor is a device capable of carrying data and information about the...
Nanosensors work on the "Nano" scale. "Nano" is a unit of measurement around 10- 9 m. A nanosensor is a device capable of carrying data and information about the behavior and characteristics of particles at the nanoscale level to the macroscopic level. Nanosensors can be used to detect chemical or mechanical information such as the presence of chemical species and nanoparticles or monitor physical parameters such as temperature on the nanoscale. Nanosensors are emerging as promising tools for applications in agriculture. They offer an enormous upgrade in selectivity, speed, and sensitivity compared to traditional chemical and biological methods. Nanosensors can be used for the determination of microbe and contaminants. With the advancement of science in the world and the advent of electronic equipment and the great changes that have taken place in recent decades, the need to build more accurate, smaller and more capable sensors was felt. Today, high-sensitivity sensors are used that are sensitive to small amounts of gas, heat, or radiation. Increasing the sensitivity, efficiency and accuracy of these sensors requires the discovery of new materials and tools. Nano sensors are nanometer-sized sensors that, due to their small size and nanometer size, have such high accuracy and responsiveness that they react even to the presence of several atoms of a gas. Nano sensors are inherently smaller and more sensitive than other sensors.
Topics: Organic Chemicals; Nanoparticles; Agriculture
PubMed: 37194801
DOI: 10.1590/1519-6984.268893 -
Chembiochem : a European Journal of... Nov 2021Fluorescent probes have gained profound use in biotechnology, drug discovery, medical diagnostics, molecular and cell biology. The development of methods for the... (Review)
Review
Fluorescent probes have gained profound use in biotechnology, drug discovery, medical diagnostics, molecular and cell biology. The development of methods for the translation of fluorophores into fluorescent probes continues to be a robust field for medicinal chemists and chemical biologists, alike. Access to new experimental designs has enabled molecular diversification and led to the identification of new approaches to probe discovery. This review provides a synopsis of the recent lessons in modern fluorescent probe discovery.
Topics: Drug Discovery; Fluorescent Dyes; Humans; Organic Chemicals
PubMed: 34062039
DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202100171 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Nov 2010The use of small-molecule organic catalysts in organic synthesis has flourished over the past decade. Examples of defining concepts and cutting-edge results are provided...
The use of small-molecule organic catalysts in organic synthesis has flourished over the past decade. Examples of defining concepts and cutting-edge results are provided in the papers in this Special Feature.
Topics: Amines; Catalysis; Enzymes; Lewis Bases; Organic Chemicals
PubMed: 21119011
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1016087107 -
Water Research Jul 2022Semi-quantitative GC-MS and LC-MS measurements of organic chemicals in groundwater and surface waters were used to assess the overall magnitude and contribution of the...
Semi-quantitative GC-MS and LC-MS measurements of organic chemicals in groundwater and surface waters were used to assess the overall magnitude and contribution of the most important substances to calculated mixture hazard. Here we use GC-MS and LC-MS measurements taken from two separate national monitoring programs for groundwater and surface water in England, in combination with chronic species sensitivity distribution (SSD) HC50 values published by Posthuma et al. (2019, Environ. Toxicol. Chem, 38, 905-917) to calculate individual substance hazard quotients and mixture effects using a concentration addition approach. The mixture analysis indicated that, as anticipated, there was an increased hazard from the presence of a cocktail of substances at sites compared to the hazard for any single chemical. The magnitude of the difference between the hazard attributed to the most important chemical and the overall mixture effect, however, was not large. Thus, the most toxic chemical contributed ≥ 20% of the calculated mixture effect in >99% of all measured groundwater and surface water samples. On the basis of this analysis, a 5 fold assessment factor placed on the risk identified for any single chemical would offer a high degree of in cases where implementation of a full mixture analysis was not possible. This finding is consistent with previous work that has assessed chemical mixture effects within field monitoring programs and as such provides essential underpinning for future policy and management decisions on how to effectively and proportionately manage mixture risks.
Topics: Environmental Monitoring; Groundwater; Organic Chemicals; Water; Water Pollutants, Chemical
PubMed: 35635919
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118641 -
Zeitschrift Fur Naturforschung. C,... Feb 2019
Topics: Biocatalysis; Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic; Enzymes; Escherichia coli; Food Technology; Humans; Organic Chemicals; Protein Engineering
PubMed: 30739100
DOI: 10.1515/znc-2019-0016 -
The Journal of Toxicological Sciences 2016Bio-organometallics is a research strategy of biology that uses organic-inorganic hybrid molecules. The molecules are expected to exhibit useful bioactivities based on... (Review)
Review
Bio-organometallics is a research strategy of biology that uses organic-inorganic hybrid molecules. The molecules are expected to exhibit useful bioactivities based on the unique structure formed by interaction between the organic structure and intramolecular metal(s). However, studies on both biology and toxicology of organic-inorganic hybrid molecules have been incompletely performed. There can be two types of toxicological studies of bio-organometallics; one is evaluation of organic-inorganic hybrid molecules and the other is analysis of biological systems from the viewpoint of toxicology using organic-inorganic hybrid molecules. Our recent studies indicate that cytotoxicity of hybrid molecules containing a metal that is nontoxic in inorganic forms can be more toxic than that of hybrid molecules containing a metal that is toxic in inorganic forms when the structure of the ligand is the same. Additionally, it was revealed that organic-inorganic hybrid molecules are useful for analysis of biological systems important for understanding the toxicity of chemical compounds including heavy metals.
Topics: Biology; Endothelial Cells; Heavy Metal Poisoning; Humans; Inorganic Chemicals; Metallothionein; Organic Chemicals; Organometallic Compounds; Poisoning; Toxicology
PubMed: 28320985
DOI: 10.2131/jts.41.SP81 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Nov 2022Solid Phase Adsorption Toxin Tracking (SPATT) and Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) are in situ methods that have been applied to pre-concentrate a... (Review)
Review
A Review of In Situ Methods-Solid Phase Adsorption Toxin Tracking (SPATT) and Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) for the Collection and Concentration of Marine Biotoxins and Pharmaceuticals in Environmental Waters.
Solid Phase Adsorption Toxin Tracking (SPATT) and Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) are in situ methods that have been applied to pre-concentrate a range of marine toxins, pesticides and pharmaceutical compounds that occur at low levels in marine and environmental waters. Recent research has identified the widespread distribution of biotoxins and pharmaceuticals in environmental waters (marine, brackish and freshwater) highlighting the need for the development of effective techniques to generate accurate quantitative water system profiles. In this manuscript, we reviewed in situ methods known as Solid Phase Adsorption Toxin Tracking (SPATT) and Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) for the collection and concentration of marine biotoxins, freshwater cyanotoxins and pharmaceuticals in environmental waters since the 1980s to present. Twelve different adsorption substrates in SPATT and 18 different sorbents in POCIS were reviewed for their ability to absorb a range of lipophilic and hydrophilic marine biotoxins, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, antibiotics and microcystins in marine water, freshwater and wastewater. This review suggests the gaps in reported studies, outlines future research possibilities and guides researchers who wish to work on water contaminates using Solid Phase Adsorption Toxin Tracking (SPATT) and Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) technologies.
Topics: Marine Toxins; Adsorption; Environmental Monitoring; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Organic Chemicals; Pesticides; Water; Pharmaceutical Preparations
PubMed: 36431996
DOI: 10.3390/molecules27227898