Conformationally Restricted Glycopeptide Backbone Inhibits Gas-Phase H/D Scrambling between Glycan and Peptide Moieties.

Protein glycosylation is a common post-translational modification on extracellular proteins. The conformational dynamics of several glycoproteins have been characterized by hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS). However, it is, in most cases, not possible to extract information about glycan conformation and dynamics due to the general difficulty of separating the deuterium content of the glycan from that of the peptide (in particular, for O-linked glycans). Here, we investigate whether the fragmentation of protonated glycopeptides by collision-induced dissociation (CID) can be used to determine the solution-specific deuterium content of the glycan. Central to this concept is that glycopeptides can undergo a facile loss of glycans upon CID, thereby allowing for the determination of their masses. However, an essential prerequisite is that hydrogen and deuterium (H/D) scrambling can be kept in check. Therefore, we have measured the degree of scrambling upon glycosidic bond cleavage in glycopeptides that differ in the conformational flexibility of their backbone and glycosylation pattern. Our results show that complete scrambling precedes the glycosidic bond cleavage in normal glycopeptides derived from a glycoprotein; i.e., all labile hydrogens have undergone positional randomization prior to loss of the glycan. In contrast, the glycosidic bond cleavage occurs without any scrambling in the glycopeptide antibiotic vancomycin, reflecting that the glycan cannot interact with the peptide moiety due to a conformationally restricted backbone as revealed by molecular dynamics simulations. Scrambling is also inhibited, albeit to a lesser degree, in the conformationally restricted glycopeptides ristocetin and its pseudoaglycone, demonstrating that scrambling depends on an intricate interplay between the flexibility and proximity of the glycan and the peptide backbone.

Properties of the Sodium Naproxen-Lactose-Tetrahydrate Co-Crystal upon Processing and Storage.

Co-crystals and co-amorphous systems are two strategies to improve the physical properties of an active pharmaceutical ingredient and, thus, have recently gained considerable interest both in academia and the pharmaceutical industry. In this study, the behavior of the recently identified sodium naproxen-lactose-tetrahydrate co-crystal and the co-amorphous mixture of sodium, naproxen, and lactose was investigated. The structure of the co-crystal is described using single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The structural analysis revealed a monoclinic lattice, space group P21, with the asymmetric unit containing one molecule of lactose, one of naproxen, sodium, and four water molecules. Upon heating, it was observed that the co-crystal transforms into a co-amorphous system due to the loss of its crystalline bound water. Dehydration and co-amorphization were studied using synchrotron X-ray radiation and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Subsequently, different processing techniques (ball milling, spray drying, and dehydration) were used to prepare the co-amorphous mixture of sodium, naproxen, and lactose. X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) revealed the amorphous nature of the mixtures after preparation. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis showed that the blends were single-phase co-amorphous systems as indicated by a single glass transition temperature. The samples were subsequently tested for physical stability under dry (silica gel at 25 and 40 °C) and humid conditions (25 °C/75% RH). The co-amorphous samples stored at 25 °C/75% RH quickly recrystallized into the co-crystalline state. On the other hand, the samples stored under dry conditions remained physically stable after five months of storage, except the ball milled sample stored at 40 °C which showed signs of recrystallization. Under these dry conditions, however, the ball-milled co-amorphous blend crystallized into the individual crystalline components.

The influence of labor education participation on the subjective well-being of college students: chain mediation effect of self-efficacy and healthy lifestyle.

Background: In the process of modernization, along with economic development, intensified social competition, and increasing mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, the issue of subjective well-being has received widespread attention. The level of subjective well-being of college students also affects whether society can achieve sustainable development. In philosophy, political science, economics, sociology and other disciplines, labor is regarded as an important factor affecting subjective well-being. Labor education is an educational activity carried out by Chinese universities in recent years. This further inspires the author to think, for the college students, will the labor education received on campus have an impact on the subjective well-being? What characteristics will its impact mechanism present? What are the characteristics of the influence on subjective well-being?. Methods: This research adopts a cross-sectional design, specifically employing a random sampling approach. In this study, the questionnaire was distributed to the college's students of 14 universities in China through the Internet. A total of 2100 questionnaires were collected. Results: This paper mainly used questionnaires to collect data, and on this basis, examined the relationship between labor education participation, self-efficacy, healthy lifestyle and subjective well-being of college students. The results showed that: (1) Labor education participation positively affected college students' subjective well-being. (2) Self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between labor education participation and college students' subjective well-being. (3) Healthy lifestyle partially mediated the relationship between labor education participation and college students' subjective well-being. (4) Self-efficacy and healthy lifestyle played a chain mediating role between labor education participation and college students' subjective well-being.

The influence of pressure on the intrinsic dissolution rate of amorphous indomethacin.

New drug candidates increasingly tend to be poorly water soluble. One approach to increase their solubility is to convert the crystalline form of a drug into the amorphous form. Intrinsic dissolution testing is an efficient standard method to determine the intrinsic dissolution rate (IDR) of a drug and to test the potential dissolution advantage of the amorphous form. However, neither the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) nor the European Pharmacopeia (Ph.Eur) state specific limitations for the compression pressure in order to obtain compacts for the IDR determination. In this study, the influence of different compression pressures on the IDR was determined from powder compacts of amorphous (ball-milling) indomethacin (IND), a glass solution of IND and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) and crystalline IND. Solid state properties were analyzed with X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and the final compacts were visually observed to study the effects of compaction pressure on their surface properties. It was found that there is no significant correlation between IDR and compression pressure for crystalline IND and IND-PVP. This was in line with the observation of similar surface properties of the compacts. However, compression pressure had an impact on the IDR of pure amorphous IND compacts. Above a critical compression pressure, amorphous particles sintered to form a single compact with dissolution properties similar to quench-cooled disc and crystalline IND compacts. In such a case, the apparent dissolution advantage of the amorphous form might be underestimated. It is thus suggested that for a reasonable interpretation of the IDR, surface properties of the different analyzed samples should be investigated and for amorphous samples the IDR should be measured also as a function of the compression pressure used to prepare the solid sample for IDR testing.