The number and variety of known compounrjs between proteins and small molecules are increasing rapidly and make a fascinating story. For instance, there are the compounds of iron, which is carried in our blood plasma by a globulin, two atoms of iron to each molecule of globulin held in a rather tight salt-lie binding? which is stored as ferric hydroxide by ferritin much as water is held by a sponge? and which functions in hemoglobin, four iron atoms in tight porphyrin complexes in each protein molecule. Or, there are many compounds of serum albumin, which was used during the war by many chemists, most of whom found at least one 6ew compound. This molecule, which has about a hundred carboxyl radicals, each of which can take on a proton, and about the same number of ammonium radicals, each of which can dissociate a proton, has one single radical which combines with mercuric ion so firmly that two albumin molecules will share one mercury atom if there are not enough to go a r ~ u n d . ~ At the present stage of rapid growth of known compounds, it seems more profitable for me to make no attempt to catalogue the various classes of compounds, but to discuss the general principles involved, in the hope that this will make more useful the information which is accumulating so rapidy from so many laboratories. We want to know of each molecule or ion whicb can combine with a protein molecule, /‘How many? How tightly? Where? Why?” The answer to the first two questions, and sometimes to the third, can be furnished by the physical chemist, but he will often need to team with an organic chemist to determine the effect of altering specified groups to find if they are reactive. The determination of function iç a complicated problem which may be the business of the physiologist or physiological chemist. But the answers to both of the more complicated problems will depend on the answers to the simpler questions, “HOW many?” and “How tightly bound?” If the various groups on a protein molecule act independently, we can apply the law of mass action as though each group were on a separate molecule,4 and the strength of binding can be expressed as the constant for each group. Often, a single constant will express the behavior of severa1 groups. If the constants are widely spread, as those for the reaction of hydrogen ion with carboxylate ions, with imidazoles and with amines, the interpretation is simple. If the separation is less, it is very difficult to distinguish the case of different intrinsic affinities from the case of interaction among the groups. We know that such interaction occurs in simple moleculeç in which a reac-

The Attractions of Proteins for Small Molecules and Ions

抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1（PfPMP1）与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用，在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员，通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Ju Mei,†,‡,∥ Nelson L. C. Leung,†,‡,∥ Ryan T. K. Kwok,†,‡ Jacky W. Y. Lam,†,‡ and Ben Zhong Tang*,†,‡,§ †HKUST-Shenzhen Research Institute, Hi-Tech Park, Nanshan, Shenzhen 518057, China ‡Department of Chemistry, HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study, Institute of Molecular Functional Materials, Division of Biomedical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, Division of Life Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China Guangdong Innovative Research Team, SCUT-HKUST Joint Research Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China

Aggregation-Induced Emission: Together We Shine, United We Soar!

Although electrophoresis is one of the most effective methods for the separation of ionic components of a mixture, the resolving power of different electrophoretic methods is quite variable. To separate two component ions, it is necessary to permit migration to continue until one of the kinds of ions has traveled at least one thickness of the volumes that it initially occupied (the starting zone) further than the other. However, the sharpness, and therefore the resolution, of the zones occupied by each ion diminishes with time because of the spreading of the zones as a result of diffusion. Remarkable resolution has been achieved when advantage is taken of the frictional properties of gels to aid separation by seiving at the molecular level (see Smithies’). A new method, disc electrophoresis, t has been designed that takes advantage of the adjustability of the pore size of a synthetic gel and that automatically produces starting zones of the order of 10 microns thickness from initial volumes with thicknesses of the order of centimeters. High resolution is thus achieved in very brief runs. With this technique, over 20 serum proteins are routinely separated from a sample of whole human serum as small as one microliter in a 20-minute run (see FIGURE 1) . Direct analysis of even very dilute samples becomes routine because the various ions are automatically concentrated to fixed high values at the beginning of the run just prior to separation. Preliminary laboratory studies and theoretic considerations provide evidence of the applicability of this technique to a wide range of ionic species for both analytic and large-scale preparative purposes. Theory has also provided the basis for a simple application of disc electrophoresis to the simultaneous determination of both the free mobility and the aqueous diffusion constant of a protein. This report will detail some mechanisms that provide a rationale for the resolution afforded by zone electrophoresis in many gels; will develop the theory of some new modifications of zone electrophoresis that have been designed to take maximum advantage of these mechanisms; and will provide some examples of the results that disc electrophoresis has produced.

Disc electrophoresis-i background and theory*

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an insight of the findings of past significant papers with the current knowledge of the recently determined high resolution X-ray structure of serum albumin. The most outstanding property of albumin is its ability to bind reversibly an incredible variety of ligands. The sequences of all albumins are characterized by a unique arrangement of disulfide double loops that repeat as a series of triplets. Albumin belongs to a multigene family of proteins that includes α- fetoprotein (AFP) and vitamin D-binding protein (VDP), also known as G complement (Gc) protein. Although AFP is considered the fetal counterpart of albumin, its binding properties are distinct and it is suggested that AFP may have a higher affinity for some unknown ligands important for fetal development. Domain structure and the arrangement of the disulfides, the surface charge distribution, and the conformational flexibility of the albumin molecule are described. The nature of ligand binding, including small organics, long-chain fatty acids, and metals, to multiple sites on the albumin molecule is clearly depicted. The chapter concludes with the perceptive comments on future directions being taken to explore the structure and function of this fascinating protein.

Structure of serum albumin.

Physical-chemical characteristics of certain of the proteins of normal human plasma.

The vertical excitation energies of 17 boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) core structures with a variety of substituents and ring sizes are benchmarked using time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) with nine different functionals combined with the cc-pVTZ basis set. When compared to experimental measurements, all functionals provide mean absolute errors (mean AEs) greater than 0.3 eV, larger than the 0.1-0.3 eV differences typically expected from TD-DFT. Due to the high linear correlation of TD-DFT results with experiment, most functionals can be used to predict excitation energies if corrected empirically. Using the CAM-B3LYP functional, 0-0 transition energies are determined, and while the absolute difference is improved (mean AE = 0.478 eV compared to 0.579 eV), the correlation diminishes substantially (R(2) = 0.961 to 0.862). Two very recently introduced charge transfer (CT) indices, q(CT) and d(CT), and electron density difference (EDD) plots demonstrate that CT does not play a significant role for most of the BODIPYs examined and, thus, cannot be the source of error in TD-DFT. To assess TD-DFT methods, vertical excitation energies are determined utilizing TD-HF, configuration interaction CIS and CIS(D), equation of motion EOM-CCSD, SAC-CI, and Laplace-transform based local coupled-cluster singles and approximate doubles LCC2* methods. Moreover, multireference CASSCF and CASPT2 vertical excitation energies were also obtained for all species (except CASPT2 was not feasible for the four largest systems). The SAC-CI/cc-pVDZ, LCC2*/cc-pVDZ, and CASPT2/cc-pVDZ approaches are shown to have the smallest mean AEs of 0.154, 0.109, and 0.100 eV, respectively; the utility of the LCC2* approach is demonstrated for eight extended BODIPYs and aza-BODIPYs. We found that the problems with TD-DFT arise from difficulties in dealing with the differential electron correlation (as assessed by comparing CCS, CC2, LR-CCSD, CCSDR(T), and CCSDR(3) vertical excitation energies for five compounds) and from contributions of multireference character and double excitations (from analysis of the CASSCF wave functions).

Why do TD-DFT excitation energies of BODIPY/Aza-BODIPY families largely deviate from experiment? Answers from electron correlated and multireference methods.

The synthesis of the first examples of tellurophenes exhibiting phosphorescence in the solid state and under ambient conditions (room temperature and in air) is reported. Each of these main-group-element-based emitters feature pinacolboronates (BPin) as ring-appended side groups. The nature of the luminescence observed was also investigated using computational methods.

Coaxing Solid‐State Phosphorescence from Tellurophenes

Preparation and Properties of Serum and Plasma Proteins. VI. Osmotic Equilibria in Solutions of Serum Albumin and Sodium Chloride1,2,3

We present isolable examples of formal zinc hydride cations supported by N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) donors, and investigate the dual electrophilic and nucleophilic (hydridic) character of the encapsulated [ZnH](+) units by computational methods and preliminary hydrosilylation catalysis.

Alex Brown

Papers

Physical-chemical characteristics of certain of the proteins of normal human plasma.

Why do TD-DFT excitation energies of BODIPY/Aza-BODIPY families largely deviate from experiment? Answers from electron correlated and multireference methods.

Coaxing Solid‐State Phosphorescence from Tellurophenes

Preparation and Properties of Serum and Plasma Proteins. VI. Osmotic Equilibria in Solutions of Serum Albumin and Sodium Chloride1,2,3

Accessing Zinc Monohydride Cations through Coordinative Interactions