Characterization of the patients with antibodies against nodal-paranodal junction proteins in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy.

OBJECTIVE: Antibodies against nodal-paranodal junction proteins have been detected in some patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP), which is a crucial step to define the most effective treatment strategies. In this paper, we tested the positive rates of these antibodies in CIDP and characterized the clinical and electrophysiological features of the antibodies-positive patients. METHODS: We prospectively recruited 47 patients with CIDP. We detected IgG antibodies against human neurofascin-155 (NF155), neurofascin-186 (NF186), contactin-1 (CNTN1), contactin-2 (CNTN2) and contactin-associated protein-1 (Caspr1), and identified the IgG isotype with cell-based assay (CBA). We collected the demographic, clinical, laboratory, and electrophysiological information of the patients that were seropositive. RESULTS: Five patients (10.6 %) had IgG against NF155, 3 (6.4 %) against Caspr1, 2 (4.3 %) against NF186 and 1 (2.1 %) against CNTN1. All the 11 antibody-positive patients (8 males and 3 females) presented with typical clinical features. Five of them needed assistance in walking, 5 had cranial nerve impairments and 3 had autonomic disturbances. The age at onset of the patients that were anti-NF155-positive was younger (19.60 ± 9.02 years vs. 55.33 ± 11.93 years, P = 0.003) than those that were anti-Caspr1-positive. No significant difference in the functional status was observed between these two groups. The action potentials of 11/79 (13.9 %) motor nerves and 62/93 (66.7 %) sensory nerves exhibited no response. Moreover, 16/68 (23.5 %) nerves presented conduction block and 13/68 (19.1 %) nerves presented temporal dispersion. Distal motor latency (DML) of ulnar nerve and tibial nerve tended to be longer (p = 0.008 and p = 0.006, respectively) in anti-NF155-positive patients than that in anti-Caspr1-positive patients. Of the 11 patients that were antibody-positive patients, corticosteroids were effective in 3/7 (42.9 %), intravenous immunoglobins (IVIG) were effective in 1/7 (14.3 %), and rituximab was effective in 6/8 (75.0 %). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings validate the previous observation on the clinico-serological correlation between CIDP and antibodies against nodal-paranodal proteins. Of note, the damage on nerves is more severe in anti-NF155-positive patients than that in anti-Caspr1-positive patients during electrophysiological diagnosis.

Trapping N5 rings and N3 chains on the outer surface of fullerene C60: a theoretical study.

The capture of N3-chains and N5-rings on the outer surface of C60 was studied using density functional calculations. For the neutral N5-ring, it was found that a N5-ring trapped by a C60 cage becomes more stable than an isolated N5-ring radical, and a C60-N5 compound with a C-N bond at an exohedral position of C60 is more stable than an isomer with the N5-ring encapsulated in C60. Such stability arises from the reduction in molecular strain energy, and charge transfer from C60 to N5. Dynamics calculations indicate that capture of the N5-ring on the outer surface of C60 is a barrierless process. Furthermore, the trapping sites of more N5-rings on the C60 were determined using condensed Fukui functions, where the N5-rings prefer to be trapped on the surface to form addition products across 6,6-junctions. Based on the optimized geometries of C60-(N5) n (n = 2, 6, 10), their chemical stabilities were found to be comparable with that of C60 in terms of the gap between the highest occupied molecular orbitals and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals. Similar phenomena were found for an N3-chain wrapped on the surface of C60. However, the results of the average adsorption energies show that C60 can capture N5-rings more effectively than N3-chains.

Binuclear cyclopentadienylrhenium hydride chemistry: terminal versus bridging hydride and cyclopentadienyl ligands.

Theoretical studies predict the lowest energy structures of the binuclear cyclopentadienylrhenium hydrides Cp2Re2H n (Cp = η(5)-C5H5; n = 4, 6, 8) to have a central doubly bridged Re2(µ-H)2 unit with terminal η(5)-Cp rings and the remaining hydrides as terminal ligands. However, the lowest energy Cp2Re2H2 structure by more than 12 kcal mol(-1) has one terminal η(5)-Cp ring, a bridging η(3),η(2)-Cp ring, and two terminal hydride ligands bonded to the same Re atom. The lowest energy hydride-free Cp2Re2 structure is a perpendicular structure with two bridging η(3),η(2)-Cp rings. The previously predicted bent singlet Cp2Re2 structure with terminal η(5)-Cp rings and a formal Re-Re sextuple bond lies ∼37 kcal mol(-1) above this lowest energy (η(3),η(2)-Cp)2Re2 structure. The thermochemistry of the CpReH n and Cp2Re2H n systems is consistent with the reported synthesis of the permethylated derivatives Cp*ReH6 and Cp*2Re2H6 (Cp* = η(5)-Me5C5) as very stable compounds. Additionally, natural bond orbital analysis, atoms-in-molecules and overlap population density-of-state in AOMIX were applied to present the existence of rhenium-rhenium multiple bonds.

Formation of difluorosulfane complexes of the third row transition metals by sulfur-to-metal fluorine migration in trifluorosulfane metal complexes: the anomaly of trifluorosulfane iridium tricarbonyl.

The stability of the experimentally known complex (Et3P)2Ir(CO)(Cl)(F)(SF3) of the third row transition metal iridium suggests that SF3 complexes of the third row transition metals might be viable species in contrast to the SF3 complexes of the first row transition metals previously studied by theoretical methods. However, the metal complexes [M](SF3) ([M] = Ta(CO)5, Re(CO)4, CpW(CO)2, CpOs(CO), and CpPt) containing three-electron donor tetrahedral SF3 ligands are thermodynamically disfavored relative to the isomeric [M](SF2)(F) derivatives with predicted energy differences ranging from -19 to -44 kcal/mol. The one exception is an Ir(SF3)(CO)3 isomer containing a one-electron donor pseudo-square-pyramidal SF3 ligand having essentially the same energy as the lowest energy Ir(SF2)(F)(CO)3 isomer. This, as well as the stability of the known (Et3P)2Ir(CO)(Cl)(F)(SF3), suggests that metal complexes containing one-electron donor pseudo-square-pyramidal SF3 ligands might be viable synthetic objectives in contrast to those containing three-electron donor tetrahedral SF3 ligands. The [M](SF2)(F) derivatives formed by sulfur-to-metal fluorine migration from isomeric [M](SF3) complexes are predicted to be viable toward SF2 dissociation to give the corresponding [M](F) derivatives. This suggests the possibility of synthesizing metal complexes of the difluorosulfane (SF2) ligand via the corresponding metal trifluorosulfane complexes with the SF3(+) cation as the ultimate source of the SF2 ligand. Such a synthetic approach bypasses the need for the very unstable SF2 as a synthetic reagent.

A density functional theory study of paramagnetic cyclopentadienylcobalt(III) derivatives: fluoride versus cyanide.

The cobalt(III) complexes Cp2Co2F4 and Cp2Co2(CN)4 have been studied by density functional theory methods as representatives of the experimentally known Cp2Co2X4 species with the weak-field fluoride ligand and the strong-field cyanide ligand. Both complexes were found to have relatively complicated energy surfaces with low-energy triplet and quintet spin state structures as well as the expected singlet-state structures for Co(III) complexes. This existence of singlet-, triplet-, and quintet-state structures of similar energies complicates the study of these complexes by density functional theory. The B3LYP* method of Reiher et al. was chosen in an effort to provide the most reliable estimates of the relative energies of the singlet, triplet, and quintet spin states. The lowest-energy Cp2Co2F4 structure was found to be a doubly bridged quintet spin state structure, with similar triplet and singlet structures lying within ∼4 kcal mol⁻¹ of this quintet structure. The lowest-energy Cp2Co2(CN)4 structure was found to be a triplet spin state structure, with a singlet structure lying within ∼1 kcal mol⁻¹ of this triplet structure. Almost all of the Cp2Co2X4 structures were found to have nonbonding Co···Co distances in excess of 2.9 Å, as expected for Co(III) complexes. In general, structures with trans stereochemistry of the Cp and other terminal ligands were found to be of lower energy than the corresponding structures with cis stereochemistry.