(E)-4-[(2-carbamoylhydrazinylidene)methyl]-3-hydroxy-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyridin-1-ium nitrate.

The title compound, C9H13N4O3(+)·NO3(-), is the first structurally characterized Schiff base derived from semicarbazide and pyridoxal. Unusually for an unsubstituted semicarbazone, the compound adopts a syn conformation, in which the carbonyl O atom is in a cis disposition relative to the azomethine N atom. This arrangement is supported by a pair of hydrogen bonds between the organic cation and the nitrate anion. The cation is essentially planar, with only a hydroxymethyl O atom deviating significantly from the mean plane of the remaining atoms (r.m.s. deviation of the remaining non-H atoms = 0.01 Å). The molecules are linked into flat layers by N-H···O and C-H···O hydrogen bonds. O-H···O hydrogen bonds involving the hydroxymethyl group as a donor interconnect the layers into a three-dimensional structure.

Neurons preferentially respond to self-MHC class I allele products regardless of peptide presented.

Studies of mice lacking MHC class I (MHC I)-associated proteins have demonstrated a role for MHC I in neurodevelopment. A central question arising from these observations is whether neuronal recognition of MHC I has specificity for the MHC I allele product and the peptide presented. Using a well-established embryonic retina explant system, we observed that picomolar levels of a recombinant self-MHC I molecule inhibited neurite outgrowth. We then assessed the neurobiological activity of a panel of recombinant soluble MHC Is, consisting of different MHC I heavy chains with a defined self- or nonself-peptide presented, on cultured embryonic retinas from mice with different MHC I haplotypes. We observed that self-MHC I allele products had greater inhibitory neuroactivity than nonself-MHC I molecules, regardless of the nature of the peptide presented, a pattern akin to MHC I recognition by some innate immune system receptors. However, self-MHC I molecules had no effect on retinas from MHC I-deficient mice. These observations suggest that neuronal recognition of MHC I may be coordinated with the inherited MHC I alleles, as occurs in the innate immune system. Consistent with this notion, we show that MHC I and MHC I receptors are coexpressed by precursor cells at the earliest stages of retina development, which could enable such coordination.