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A new solid-state NMR method, the double-oscillating field technique (DUO), that under magic-angle-spinning conditions produces an effective Hamiltonian proportional to the native high-field homonuclear dipole-dipole coupling operator is presented. The method exploits one part of the radio frequency (rf) field to recouple the dipolar coupling interaction with a relatively high scaling factor and to eliminate offset effects over a reasonable bandwidth while in the recoupling frame, the other part gives rise to a sufficiently large longitudinal component of the residual rf field that averages nonsecular terms and in addition ensures stability toward rf inhomogeneity and rf miscalibration. The capability of the DUO experiment to mediate transfer of polarization is described theoretically and compared numerically and experimentally with finite pulse rf driven recoupling and experimentally with dipolar-assisted rotational resonance. Two-dimensional recoupling experiments were performed on antiparallel amyloid fibrils of the decapeptide SNNFGAILSS with the FGAIL fragment uniformly labeled with 13C and 15N. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new concept for homonuclear dipolar recoupling in magic-angle-spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR experiments which avoids the problem of dipolar truncation. This is accomplished through the introduction of a new NMR pulse sequence design principle: the triple oscillating field technique. We demonstrate this technique as an efficient means to accomplish broadband dipolar recoupling of homonuclear spins, while decoupling heteronuclear dipolar couplings and anisotropic chemicals shifts and retaining influence from isotropic chemical shifts. In this manner, it is possible to synthesize Ising interaction (2IzSz) Hamiltonians in homonuclear spin networks and thereby avoid dipolar truncation—a serious problem essentially all previous homonuclear dipolar recoupling experiments suffer from. Combination of this recoupling concept with rotor assisted dipolar refocusing enables easy readout of internuclear distances through comparison with analytical Fresnel curves. This forms the basis for a new class of solid-state NMR experiments with potential for structure analysis of uniformly 13C labeled proteins through accurate measurement of 13C–13C internuclear distances. The concept is demonstrated experimentally by measurement of Cα–C′, Cβ–C′, and Cγ–C′ internuclear distances in powder samples of the amino acids L-alanine and L-threonine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Currently, radiation treatments are being optimised based on in vivo imaging of radioresistant, hypoxic tumour areas. This study aimed at detecting nicotinamide's reduction of acute hypoxia in a mouse tumour model by two clinically relevant magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods at ultra-high magnetic field strength. Material and methods. The C3H mammary carcinoma was grown to 200 mm3 in the right rear foot of CDF1 mice. The mice were anaesthetised with ketamine and xylazine prior to imaging. A treatment group received nicotinamide intraperitoneally (i.p.) at the dose 1000 mg/kg, and a control group received saline. MRI was performed at 16.4 T with a spatial resolution of 0.156 × 0.156 × 0.5 mm3. The imaging protocol included BOLD imaging and two DCE-MRI scans. Initial area under the curve (IAUC) and the parameters from the extended Toft's model were estimated from the DCE-MRI data. Tumour median values of 1) T2* mean, 2) T2* standard deviation, 3) DCE-MRI parameters, and 4) DCE-MRI parameter differences between scans were compared between the treatment groups using Student's t-test (significance level p < 0.05). Results. Parametric maps showed intra- and inter-tumour heterogeneity. Blood volume was significantly larger in the nicotinamide-treated group, and also the blood volume difference between the two DCE-MRI scans was significantly larger in the treatment group. Conclusion. Higher blood volume and blood volume variation was observed by DCE-MRI in the treatment group. Other DCE-MRI parameters showed no significant differences, and the higher blood volume was not detected by BOLD MRI. The higher blood volume variation seen with DCE-MRI may be influenced by the drug effect reducing over time, and furthermore the anaesthesia may play an important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Efficient sampling of signals is a key issue for multiple-dimensional NMR experiments to establish the best ratio between experiment time and spectral quality. Focussing on the most widely used sampling strategy using standard rectangular sampling and data analysis by Fourier transformation, a central question is concerned with determining the optimal maximum sampling time in the individual dimensions. The spectral resolution depends directly on this choice, as do the overall experiment times when addressing the indirect dimensions. We present a theoretical, numerical, and experimental analysis of the sampling space problem and propose approaches to efficient sampling for typical cases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Heteronuclear spin decoupling is a highly important component of solid-state NMR experiments to remove undesired coupling interactions between unlike spins for spectral resolution. Recently, experiments using a unification strategy of standard decoupling schemes were presented for high radio-frequency (RF) amplitudes and slow-intermediate magic-angle-spinning (MAS) frequencies, in the pursuit of deeper understanding of spin decoupling under phase-modulated RF irradiation [A. Equbal et al., J. Chem. Phys. 142, 184201 (2015)]. The approach, unified two-pulse heteronuclear decoupling (UTPD), incorporates the simultaneous time- and phase-modulation strategies, commonly used in solid-state NMR. Here, the UTPD based decoupling scheme is extended to the experimentally increasingly important regime of low RF amplitudes and fast MAS frequencies. The unified decoupling approach becomes increasingly effective in identifying the deleterious dipole-dipole and, in particular, J recoupling conditions which become critical for the low-amplitude RF regime. This is because J coupling is isotropic and therefore not averaged out by sample spinning unlike the anisotropic dipole-dipole coupling. Numerical simulations and analytic theory are used to understand the effects of various nuclear spin interactions on the decoupling performance of UTPD, in particular, the crucial difference between the low-phase and high-phase UTPD conditions with respect to J coupling. In the UTPD scheme, when the cycle-frequency of the pulse-sequence is comparable to the RF nutation frequency, the existence of a non-zero effective rotation in the basic two-pulse scheme becomes an essential feature for the efficient and robust averaging out of the scalar J coupling. This broad viewpoint is expected to bring different optimum low-power decoupling pulse schemes under a common footing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fact that membrane proteins are notoriously difficult to analyse using standard protocols for atomic-resolution structure determination methods have motivated adaptation of these techniques to membrane protein studies as well as development of new technologies. With this motivation, liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has recently been used with success for studies of peptides and membrane proteins in detergent micelles, and solid-state NMR has undergone a tremendous evolution towards characterization of membrane proteins in native membrane and oriented phospholipid bilayers. In this mini-review, we describe some of the technological challenges behind these efforts and provide examples on their use in membrane biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved variant of the popular double cross-polarization (DCP) experiment for heteronuclear dipolar recoupling in solid-state NMR spectroscopy under magic-angle-spinning is introduced. By simple phase and amplitude modulation of the rf irradiation at the Hartman-Hahn sideband conditions, the new pulse sequence, dubbed iDCP, enables broadband excitation with the high efficiency of γ-encoded coherence transfer. The efficiency and robustness of iDCP toward isotropic chemical shift variations and chemical shift anisotropies, in the order typically applying for the backbone atoms in uniformly 13C,15N-labeled proteins, is demonstrated numerically and experimentally by 15N to 13C coherence transfer for 15N-labeled N-Ac-l-valyl-l-leucine and 13C,15N-labeled-l-threonine. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A new approach to heteronuclear dipolar recoupling in solid-state NMR which combines symmetry-based, γ-encoded dipolar recoupling with off-resonance rf irradiation is described. By irradiating the two spin species with offsets of equal magnitude but opposite sign, the dipolar scaling factor may be increased while using lower rf field strengths than under on-resonance conditions. Larger scaling makes the experiment less susceptible to relaxation, while released rf field requirements facilitate combination with fast magic-angle spinning while maintaining efficient 1H decoupling. Furthermore, homonuclear dipolar couplings may be suppressed by adjusting the off-resonance irradiation to the Lee–Goldburg condition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Discusses the spectroscopy of a series of metavanadates and KV3O8. Analysis of parameters that describe the magnitudes and relative orientation of the quadrupole coupling and anisotropic shielding tensors; Resultant polymorphs; Correlations between 51V parameters and structural characteristics of the metavanadates.

We report analytical solutions to the unitary bound problem for coherence/polarization transfer in IS two-spin-[FRACTION SHAPE="CASE"][NUM]1[/NUM][DEN]2[/DEN][/FRACTION] systems by means of unitary operations. Theoretical upper bounds for the transfer efficiency along with the associated optimum transformation operators are obtained analytically by decomposing the unitary operator as a product of exponentials in the special unitary Lie group SU(4). Addressing NMR spectroscopy as a specific example, the method is demonstrated for the non-Hermitian transfers I[sup -]→S[sup -] and 2I[sup -]S[sub z]→S[sup -] being relevant for heteronuclear single-quantum coherence (HSQC) experiments as well as the double- to single-quantum transfer I[sup -]S[sup -]→I[sup -]S[sup β]+I[sup β]S[sup -] being representative for coherence-order and spin-state-selective transfer in INADEQUATE CR experiments. Furthermore, using a Lagrangian function approach it is demonstrated how the method enables analytical description of two-dimensional bounds for I[sub z]→S[sub z] cross polarization. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strongly enhanced spin polarization in the form of longitudinal spin order can be generated on target molecules by using parahydrogen in a catalyzed hydrogenation reaction. An optimal control algorithm was used to generate radiofrequency pulse sequences which convert the arising longitudinal two-spin order into single-spin Zeeman order with high efficiency and distribute it evenly between three coupled spins within the same molecule. The pulses are designed to be very robust towards variations in the B0 and B1 fields. Furthermore, this strategy is applied to enhance the NMR signal in an ultrafast gradient assisted single excitation two-dimensional spectroscopy experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimal control theory has recently been introduced to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy as a means to systematically design and optimize pulse sequences for liquid- and solid-state applications. This has so far primarily involved numerical optimization using gradient-based methods, which allow for the optimization of a large number of pulse sequence parameters in a concerted way to maximize the efficiency of transfer between given spin states or shape the nuclear spin Hamiltonian to a particular form, both within a given period of time. Using such tools, a variety of new pulse sequences with improved performance have been developed, and the NMR spin engineers have been challenged to consider alternative routes for analytical experiment design to meet similar performance. In addition, it has lead to increasing demands to the numerical procedures used in the optimization process in terms of computational speed and fast convergence. With the latter aspect in mind, here we introduce an alternative approach to numerical experiment design based on the Krotov formulation of optimal control theory. For practical reasons, the overall radio frequency power delivered to the sample should be minimized to facilitate experimental implementation and avoid excessive sample heating. The presented algorithm makes explicit use of this requirement and iteratively solves the stationary conditions making sure that the maximum of the objective is reached. It is shown that this method is faster per iteration and takes different paths within a control space than gradient-based methods. In the present work, the Krotov approach is demonstrated by the optimization of NMR and dynamic nuclear polarization experiments for various spin systems and using different constraints with respect to radio frequency and microwave power consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our recent exact effective Hamiltonian theory (EEHT) for exact analysis of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments relied on a novel entanglement of unitary exponential operators via finite expansion of the logarithmic mapping function. In the present study, we introduce simple alternant quotient expressions for the coefficients of the polynomial matrix expansion of these entangled operators. These expressions facilitate an extension of our previous closed solution to the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff problem for SU(N) systems from N≤4 to any N, and thereby the potential application of EEHT to more complex NMR spin systems. Similarity matrix transformations of the EEHT expansion are used to develop alternant quotient expressions, which are fully general and prove useful for evaluation of any smooth matrix function. The general applicability of these expressions is demonstrated by several examples with relevance for NMR spectroscopy. The specific form of the alternant quotients is also used to demonstrate the fundamentally important equivalence of Sylvester’s theorem (also known as the spectral theorem) and the EEHT expansion. © 2004 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Composite spin-state-selective rotations are introduced. They are devised to remedy the following problem: When determining scalar plus residual dipolar couplings by conventional NMR experiments in partially aligned molecules, a considerable variation in the effective coupling constant often entails systematic errors compromising the accuracy of the measurements. The concept of composite pulses is extended in order to design spin-state-selective composite rotations (S[sup 3]CR) robust to variation in effective coupling constants. With the S[sup 3]CR approach the broadband performance of spin-state-selective excitation improves significantly as is demonstrated both numerically and experimentally. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a bimodal Floquet analysis of the recently introduced refocused continuous wave ( r CW) solid-state NMR heteronuclear dipolar decoupling method and compare it with the similar looking X-inverse X (XiX) scheme. The description is formulated in the rf interaction frame and is valid for both finite and ideal π pulse r CW irradiation that forms the refocusing element in the r CW scheme. The effective heteronuclear dipolar coupling Hamiltonian up to first order is described. The analysis delineates the difference between the two sequences to different orders of their Hamiltonians for both diagonal and off-diagonal parts. All the resonance conditions observed in experiments and simulations have been characterised and their influence on residual line broadening is highlighted. The theoretical comparison substantiates the numerical simulations and experimental results to a large extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes a family of novel recoupling pulse sequences, called three pulse recoupling. These pulse sequences can be employed for both homonuclear and heteronuclear recoupling experiments and are robust to dispersion in chemical shifts and rf-inhomogeneity. These recoupling pulse sequences can be used in design of two-dimensional solid state NMR experiments that use powdered dephased antiphase coherence ( γ preparation) to encode chemical shifts in the indirect dimension. Both components of this chemical shift encoded gamma-prepared states can be refocused into inphase coherence by a recoupling element. This helps to achieve sensitivity enhancement in 2D NMR experiments by quadrature detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-field NMR sensor technology is proposed for accurate and operationally simple on-farm or laboratory determination of protein and phosphorus constituents in livestock feed. The total phosphorus content is determined directly on the native sample, while quantification of digestible protein involves enzymatic digestion here adapted to provide the total protein content. Comparison with traditional laboratory reference analysis for the total protein and phosphorus contents of 31 feed samples (including various grains, feed mixtures, and commercial feed products for cattle, pigs, horses, poultry, and sheep) demonstrate the feasibility and good accuracy of the NMR measurements. Table of contents entry – for TOC only. [Display omitted] • Mobile, multinuclear, low-field NMR for on-farm measurements. • Total/digestible protein and total phosphorus contents. • Direct analysis of bulk sample (raw material for phosphorus, digested for protein). • Feasibility and accuracy demonstrated on feed for a wide range of animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a general theoretical description that allows us to describe the influence of isotropic chemical shift in homonuclear and heteronuclear dipolar recoupling experiments in magic-angle-spinning solid-state NMR. Through a transformation of the Hamiltonian into an interaction frame with the combined radio-frequency irradiation and the isotropic chemical shift, we determine an effective Hamiltonian to first order with respect to the relevant internal nuclear spin interactions. This unravels the essential resonance conditions for efficient dipolar recoupling. Furthermore, we propose how to handle situations where the resonance conditions are not exactly fulfilled. To verify the general theoretical description, we compare numerical simulations using a time-sliced time-dependent Hamiltonian with simulations using the calculated effective Hamiltonian for propagation. The comparisons are exemplified for the homonuclear dipolar recoupling experiments C72¹ and POST-C72¹. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symmetry plays an important role in the retention or annihilation of a desired interaction Hamiltonian in NMR experiments. Here, we explore the role of symmetry in the radio-frequency interaction frame Hamiltonian of the refocused-continuous-wave (rCW) pulse scheme that leads to efficient 1H heteronuclear decoupling in solid-state NMR. It is demonstrated that anti-periodic symmetry of single-spin operators (Ix, Iy, Iz) in the interaction frame can lead to complete annihilation of the ¹H-¹H homonuclear dipolar coupling effects that induce line broadening in solid-state NMR experiments. This symmetry also plays a critical role in cancelling or minimizing the effect of ¹H chemical-shift anisotropy in the effective Hamiltonian. An analytical description based on Floquet theory is presented here along with experimental evidences to understand the decoupling efficiency of supercycled (concatenated) rCW scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a theoretical analysis of the influence of chemical shifts on amplitude-modulated heteronuclear dipolar recoupling experiments in solid-state NMR spectroscopy. The method is demonstrated using the Rotor Echo Short Pulse IRrAdiaTION mediated Cross-Polarization (RESPIRATIONCP) experiment as an example. By going into the pulse sequence rf interaction frame and employing a quintuple-mode operator-based Floquet approach, we describe how chemical shift offset and anisotropic chemical shift affect the efficiency of heteronuclear polarization transfer. In this description, it becomes transparent that the main attribute leading to non-ideal performance is a fictitious field along the rf field axis, which is generated from second-order cross terms arising mainly between chemical shift tensors and themselves. This insight is useful for the development of improved recoupling experiments. We discuss the validity of this approach and present quaternion calculations to determine the effective resonance conditions in a combined rf field and chemical shift offset interaction frame transformation. Based on this, we derive a broad-banded version of the RESPIRATIONCP experiment. The new sequence is experimentally verified using SNNFGAILSS amyloid fibrils where simultaneous 15N→ 13CO and 15N→ 13Cα coherence transfer is demonstrated on high-field NMR instrumentation, requiring great offset stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Refocused continuous wave (rCW) decoupling is presented as an efficient and robust means to obtain well-resolved magic-angle-spinning solid-state NMR spectra of low-γ spins, such as 13C dipolar coupled to fluorine. The rCW decoupling sequences, recently introduced for 1H decoupling, are very robust towards large isotropic and anisotropic shift ranges as often encountered for 19F spins. In rCW decoupling, the so-called refocusing pulses inserted into the CW irradiation eliminate critical residual second- and third-order dipolar coupling and dipolar-coupling against chemical shielding anisotropy cross-terms in the effective Hamiltonian through time-reversal (i.e. refocusing). As important additional assets, the rCW decoupling sequences are robust towards variations in rf amplitudes, operational at low to high spinning speeds, and easy to set-up for optimal performance experimentally. These aspects are demonstrated analytically/numerically and experimentally in comparison to state-of-the-art decoupling sequences such as TPPM, SPINAL-64, and frequency-swept variants of these. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We investigated the age-related changes in the metabolic profile of male Drosophila melanogaster and compared the metabolic profile of flies selected for increased longevity to that of control flies of equal age. We found clear differences in metabolite composition between selection regimes and among age groups. Contrary to results found in a previous study of the transcriptome of these lines the metabolic profile did not show a younger pattern in longevity-selected (LS) flies than in same aged control (C) flies. Rather, many of the metabolites affected by age had levels common to older control individuals in the young LS flies. Furthermore, ageing affected the metabolome in a different LS specific direction. The selection induced difference increased with age. Some metabolites involved in oxidative phosphorylation changed with age highlighting the importance of mitochondrial function in the ageing process. However, these metabolites were not affected by selection for increased longevity, indicating that improvements of mitochondrial function were not involved in the increased lifespan of LS lines. Of the eight metabolites identified as having a significant difference in relative abundance between selection regimes in our study choline, lysine and glucose also show difference among lifespan phenotypes in C. elegans indicating that the correlation between the concentration of these metabolites and longevity was evolutionary conserved. Links between longevity and choline concentration is also found in mice making this metabolite an obvious target for further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have synthesized two isotopically labeled variants of the β-amyloid binding compound FSB possessing 13C-labels on the two terminal aryl carboxylic acid moieties. One of these was also fully deuterated on the olefinic spacers. The 13C-isotope labeling was achieved applying a Pd-catalyzed methoxycarbonylation of the corresponding aryl chlorides with externally (ex situ) generated 13C -labeled CO. Application of the Shirakawa-Hayashi protocol for the Pd-catalyzed reduction of a dialkyne intermediate using D2O allowed for the selective deuterium labeling of the two trans-C,C double bonds of FSB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Three different techniques (adiabatic passage Hartman-Hahn cross-polarization, optimal control designed pulses, and EXPORT) are compared for transferring 15N magnetization to 13C in solid-state NMR experiments under magic-angle-spinning conditions. We demonstrate that, in comparison to adiabatic passage Hartman-Hahn cross-polarization, optimal control transfer pulses achieve similar or better transfer efficiencies for uniformly-13C,15N labeled samples and are generally superior for samples with non-uniform labeling schemes (such as 1,3- and 2-13C glycerol labeling). In addition, the optimal control pulses typically use substantially lower average RF field strengths and are more robust with respect to experimental variation and RF inhomogeneity. Consequently, they are better suited for demanding samples. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A computer program for fast and accurate numerical simulation of solid-state NMR experiments is described. The program is designed to emulate a NMR spectrometer by letting the user specify high-level NMR concepts such as spin systems, nuclear spin interactions, RF irradiation, free precession, phase cycling, coherence-order filtering, and implicit/explicit acquisition. These elements are implemented using the Tel scripting language to ensure a minimum of programming overhead and direct interpretation without the need for compilation, while maintaining the flexibility of a full-featured programming language. Basicly, there are no intrinsic limitations to the number of spins, types of interactions, sample conditions (static or spinning, powders, uniaxially oriented molecules, single crystals, or solutions), and the complexity or number of spectral dimensions for the pulse sequence. The applicability ranges from simple ID experiments to advanced multiple-pulse and multiple-dimensional experiments, series of simulations, parameter scans, complex data manipulation/visualization, and iterative fitting of simulated to experimental spectra. A major effort has been devoted to optimizing the computation speed using state-of-the-art algorithms for the time-consuming parts of the calculations implemented in the core of the program using the C programming language. Modification and maintenance of the program are facilitated by releasing the program as open source software (General Public License) currently at http://nmr.imsb.au.dk. The general features of the program are demonstrated by numerical simulations of various aspects for REDOR, rotational resonance, DRAMA, DRAWS, HORROR, C7, TEDOR, POST-C7, CW decoupling, TPPM, F-SLG, SLF, SEMA-CP, PISEMA, RFDR, QCPMG-MAS, and MQ-MAS experiments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Aimed at performing dipolar recoupling as part of biological solid-state NMR experiments without using excessively strong rf irradiation, we present a series of low-power supercycled symmetry-based and exponentially modulated pulse sequences facilitating efficient recoupling over specified chemical shift ranges even at high-speed spinning conditions. The experiments are designed through simple phase modulation of known ‘lower-quality’ symmetry-based pulse sequences or highly rf-demanding exponentially modulated recoupling experiments. The methods are described analytically and numerically and demonstrated experimentally by one- and two-dimensional correlation spectra of 2,3-13C2-L-alanine and the fibrillating-core decapeptide SNNFGAILSS of human Islet Amyloid Poly-Peptide (hIAPP, or amylin) uniformly 13C,15N-labeled at the FGAIL residues. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cisplatin [ cis-diamminedichloridoplatinum(II)] is used in chemotherapy where platinum–DNA adducts initiate tumor cell death. It is possible that side effects such as neurotoxicity and cellular cisplatin resistance can be due to interaction of cisplatin with lipids and the phospholipid bilayer. In this study, 13C, 31P, and 15N solid-state NMR spectra of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl phosphatidylserine (POPS) bilayers, POPS bilayers with 10 mol% cisplatin, and POPS bilayers with 30 mol% cisplatin were acquired. In addition, 15N{31P} rotational echo double resonance spectra of POPS bilayers with 30 mol% cisplatin were acquired. The data demonstrate that the serine head group of phosphatidylserine binds to the aquated form of cisplatin and that cisplatin release of ammine takes place. It appears that the cisplatin release of ammine is followed by another cisplatin–POPS complex formation, possibly with cisplatin binding to one of the oxygen atoms of the POPS phosphate moiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Multilayer tandem polymer solar cells were prepared by solution processing using thermocleavable polymer materials that allow for conversion to an insoluble state through a short thermal treatment. The problems associated with solubility during application of subsequent layers in the stack were efficiently solved. Devices comprised a transparent front cathode based on solution processed zinc oxide nanoparticles, a large band gap active layer based on a bulk heterojunction between zinc oxide and poly(3-carboxydithiophene) (P3CT) followed by a layer of PEDOT:PSS processed from water. The second cell in the stack employed a zinc oxide front cathode processed on top of the PEDOT:PSS layer from an organic solvent, a low band gap active layer based on a bulk heterojunction between zinc oxide and the novel poly(carboxyterthiophene-co-diphenylthienopyrazine) (P3CTTP) followed by a layer of PEDOT:PSS again processed from water and finally a printed silver electrode. The devices were prepared without the use of fullerenes and vacuum steps and employ only thermal treatments and orthogonal solvents. The devices exhibited operational stability in air without any form of encapsulation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A new experiment, clean HMBC, is introduced for suppression of strong-coupling induced artifacts in HMBC spectra. The culprits of these artifacts are an inherent shortcoming of low-pass J filters in the presence of strong coupling and the 1H π pulse in the middle of the evolution period aimed at suppressing evolution under heteronuclear J couplings and 1H chemical shifts. A π pulse causes coherence transfer in strongly coupled spin systems and, as is well known in e.g., homonuclear J spectra, this leads to peaks that would not be there in the absence of strong coupling. Similar artifacts occur in HMBC spectra, but they have apparently been overlooked, presumably because they have been assigned to inefficiency of low-pass J filters or not noticed because of a coarse digital resolution in the spectra. Clean HMBC is the HMBC technique of choice for molecules notorious for strong coupling among protons, such as carbohydrates, and the new technique is demonstrated on D-mannose. Finally, a fundamental difference between HMBC and H2BC explains why strong-coupling artifacts are much less of a problem in the latter type of spectra. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A novel procedure for reconstruction of 2D separated-local-field (SLF) NMR spectra from projections of 1D NMR data is presented. The technique, dubbed SLF projection reconstruction from one-dimensional spectra (SLF-PRODI), is particularly useful for uniaxially oriented membrane protein samples and represents a fast and robust alternative to the popular PISEMA experiment which correlates 1H–15N dipole–dipole couplings with 15N chemical shifts. The different 1D projections in the SLF-PRODI experiment are obtained from 1D spectra recorded under influence of homonuclear decoupling sequences with different scaling factors for the heteronuclear dipolar couplings. We demonstrate experimentally and numerically that as few as 2–4 1D projections will normally be sufficient to reconstruct a 2D SLF-PRODI spectrum with a quality resembling typical PISEMA spectra, leading to significant reduction of the acquisition time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cation binding to Na,K-ATPase is characterized in native membranes at room temperature by solid-state NMR spectroscopy using the K+ congener 205Tl. It has been demonstrated that the signals from occluded Tl+ and nonspecifically bound Tl+ can be detected and distinguished by NMR. Effects of dipole-dipole coupling between ¹H and 205Tl in the occlusion sites show that the ions are rigidly bound, rather than just occluded. Furthermore, a low chemical shift suggests occlusion site geometries with a relatively small contribution from carboxylate and hydroxyl groups. Nonspecific binding of Tl+ is characterized by rapid chemical exchange, in agreement with the observed low binding affinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cellular functions of several S100 proteins involve specific interactions with phospholipids and the cell membrane. The interactions between calbindin D9k (S100D) and the detergent dodecyl phosphocholine (DPC) were studied using NMR spectroscopy. In the absence of Ca2+, the protein associates with DPC micelles. The micelle-associated state has intact helical secondary structures but no apparent tertiary fold. At neutral pH, Ca2+-loaded calbindin D9k does not associate with DPC micelles. However, a specific interaction is observed with individual DPC molecules at a site close to the linker between the two EF-hands. Binding to this site occurs only when Ca2+ is bound to the protein. A reduction in pH in the absence of Ca2+ increases the stability of the micelle-associated state. This along with the corresponding reduction in Ca2+ affinity causes a transition to the micelle-associated state also in the presence of Ca2+ when the pH is lowered. Site-specific analysis of the data indicates that calbindin D9k has a core of three tightly packed helices (A, B, and D), with a dynamic fourth helix (C) more loosely associated. Evidence is presented that the Ca2+-binding characteristics of the two EF-hands are distinctly different in a micelle environment. The role of calbindin D9k in the cell is discussed, along with the broader implications for the function of the S100 protein family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The homonuclear radio-frequency driven recoupling (RFDR) experiment is commonly used in solid-state NMR spectroscopy to gain insight into the structure of biological samples due to its ease of implementation, stability towards fluctuations/missetting of radio-frequency (rf) field strength, and in general low rf requirements. A theoretical operator-based Floquet description is presented to appreciate the effect of having a temporal displacement of the π-pulses in the RFDR experiment. From this description, we demonstrate improved transfer efficiency for the RFDR experiment by generating an adiabatic passage through the zero-quantum recoupling condition. We have compared the performances of RFDR and the improved sequence to mediate efficient 13CO to 13Cα polarization transfer for uniformly 13C,15N-labeled glycine and for the fibril forming peptide SNNFGAILSS (one-letter amino acid codes) uniformly 13C,15N-labeled at the FGAIL residues. Using numerically optimized sweeps, we get experimental gains of approximately 20% for glycine where numerical simulations predict an improvement of 25% relative to the standard implementation. For the fibril forming peptide, using the same sweep parameters as found for glycine, we have gains in the order of 10%-20% depending on the spectral regions of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A unified strategy of two-pulse based heteronuclear decoupling for solid-state magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance is presented. The analysis presented here shows that different decoupling sequences like two-pulse phase-modulation (TPPM), X-inverse-X (XiX), and finite pulse refocused continuous wave (rCWA) are basically specific solutions of a more generalized decoupling scheme which incorporates the concept of time-modulation along with phase-modulation. A plethora of other good decoupling conditions apart from the standard, TPPM, XiX, and rCWA decoupling conditions are available from the unified decoupling approach. The importance of combined time- and phasemodulation in order to achieve the best decoupling conditions is delineated. The consequences of different indirect dipolar interactions arising from cross terms comprising of heteronuclear and homonuclear dipolar coupling terms and also those between heteronuclear dipolar coupling and chemicalshift anisotropy terms are presented in order to unfold the effects of anisotropic interactions under different decoupling conditions. Extensive numerical simulation results are corroborated with experiments on standard amino acids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Application of sets of 13C-13C internuclear distance restraints constitutes a typical key element in determining the structure of peptides and proteins by magic-angle-spinning solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Accurate measurements of the structurally highly important 13C-13C distances in uniformly 13C-labeled peptides and proteins, however, pose a big challenge due to the problem of dipolar truncation. Here, we present novel two-dimensional (2D) solid-state NMR experiments capable of extracting distances between carbonyl (13C′) and aliphatic (13Caliphatic) spins with high accuracy. The method is based on an improved version of the four-oscillating field (FOLD) technique [L. A. Straasø, M. Bjerring, N. Khaneja, and N. C. Nielsen, J. Chem. Phys.130, 225103 (2009)] which circumvents the problem of dipolar truncation, thereby offering a base for accurate extraction of internuclear distances in many-spin systems. The ability to extract reliable accurate distances is demonstrated using one- and two-dimensional variants of the FOLD experiment on uniformly 13C,15N-labeled-L-isoleucine. In a more challenging biological application, FOLD 2D experiments are used to determine a large number of 13C′-13Caliphatic distances in amyloid fibrils formed by the SNNFGAILSS fibrillating core of the human islet amyloid polypeptide with uniform 13C,15N-labeling on the FGAIL fragment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We present a historical recollection on the development of the software package SIMPSON (SIMulation Package for SOlid-state Nmr). This covers a brief description of the underlying ideas and events leading to creation of SIMPSON and numerous auxiliary programs as well as comments on its impact on the development and application of solid-state NMR in research laboratories world-wide. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The direct synthesis of a ketomethylene isostere of the fibril-forming decapeptide SNNFGAILSS is presented with the goal of understanding how small structural changes alter the ability of such peptides to recognize each other for β-sheet formation. The key synthetic step relies on a SmI2-mediated coupling of a N-tetrapeptidyl oxazolidinone with a simple acrylate followed by deprotection of the carboxylic acid and a peptide coupling step with the pentapeptide H-AILSS-NH2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel strategy for heteronuclear dipolar decoupling in magic-angle spinning solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is presented, which eliminates residual static high-order terms in the effective Hamiltonian originating from interactions between oscillating dipolar and anisotropic shielding tensors. The method, called refocused continuous-wave (rCW) decoupling, is systematically established by interleaving continuous wave decoupling with appropriately inserted rotor-synchronized high-power π refocusing pulses of alternating phases. The effect of the refocusing pulses in eliminating residual effects from dipolar coupling in heteronuclear spin systems is rationalized by effective Hamiltonian calculations to third order. In some variants the π pulse refocusing is supplemented by insertion of rotor-synchronized π/2 purging pulses to further reduce the residual dipolar coupling effects. Five different rCW decoupling sequences are presented and their performance is compared to state-of-the-art decoupling methods. The rCW decoupling sequences benefit from extreme broadbandedness, tolerance towards rf inhomogeneity, and improved potential for decoupling at relatively low average rf field strengths. In numerical simulations, the rCW schemes clearly reveal superior characteristics relative to the best decoupling schemes presented so far, which we to some extent also are capable of demonstrating experimentally. A major advantage of the rCW decoupling methods is that they are easy to set up and optimize experimentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of increasingly strong magnetic fields in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) improves sensitivity, susceptibility contrast, and spatial or spectral resolution for functional and localized spectroscopic imaging applications. However, along with these benefits come the challenges of increasing static field (B0) and rf field (B1) inhomogeneities induced by radial field susceptibility differences and poorer dielectric properties of objects in the scanner. Increasing fields also impose the need for rf irradiation at higher frequencies which may lead to elevated patient energy absorption, eventually posing a safety risk. These reasons have motivated the use of multidimensional rf pulses and parallel rf transmission, and their combination with tailoring of rf pulses for fast and low-power rf performance. For the latter application, analytical and approximate solutions are well-established in linear regimes, however, with increasing nonlinearities and constraints on the rf pulses, numerical iterative methods become attractive. Among such procedures, optimal control methods have recently demonstrated great potential. Here, we present a Krotov-based optimal control approach which as compared to earlier approaches provides very fast, monotonic convergence even without educated initial guesses. This is essential for in vivo MRI applications. The method is compared to a second-order gradient ascent method relying on the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) quasi-Newton method, and a hybrid scheme Krotov-BFGS is also introduced in this study. These optimal control approaches are demonstrated by the design of a 2D spatial selective rf pulse exciting the letters 'JCP' in a water phantom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decade has demonstrated increasing interests in using optimal control based methods within coherent quantum controllable systems. The versatility of such methods has been demonstrated with particular elegance within nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) where natural separation between coherent and dissipative spin dynamics processes has enabled coherent quantum control over long periods of time to shape the experiment to almost ideal adoption to the spin system and external manipulations. This has led to new design principles as well as powerful new experimental methods within magnetic resonance imaging, liquid-state and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. For this development to continue and expand, it is crucially important to constantly improve the underlying numerical algorithms to provide numerical solutions which are optimally compatible with implementation on current instrumentation and at same time are numerically stable and offer fast monotonic convergence toward the target. Addressing such aims, we here present a smoothing monotonically convergent algorithm for pulse sequence design in magnetic resonance which with improved optimization stability lead to smooth pulse sequence easier to implement experimentally and potentially understand within the analytical framework of modern NMR spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present design of novel low-power homonuclear dipolar recoupling experiments for magic-angle-spinning solid-state NMR studies of proteins. The pulse sequences are developed by combining principles of symmetry-based dipolar recoupling and optimal control-based pulse sequence design. The scaffold of the pulse sequences is formed by known CN-type recoupling sequences, while the intrinsic sequence elements are designed using optimal control. This procedure allows for the development of high-performance pulse sequences demanding significantly weaker rf fields than previous symmetry-based pulse sequences while compensating for rf inhomogeneity and providing excitation over relevant ranges of chemical shifts for biological applications. The new recoupling experiments, referred to as optimal control CN (OCCN), are demonstrated numerically and experimentally by two-dimensional (2D) 13C–13C and three-dimensional (3D) 15N–13C–13C chemical shift correlation experiments on uniformly 13C, 15N-labeled ubiquitin. Exploiting the double-quantum, band-selective dipolar recoupling properties of the OCCN experiments, we demonstrate significant sensitivity enhancement for 2D and 3D correlation spectra showing exclusively one- or two-bond correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dipolar truncation prevents accurate measurement of long-range internuclear distances between nuclei of the same spin species, e.g., within 13C–13C spin pairs in uniformly 13C-isotope-labeled proteins, using magic-angle spinning solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Accordingly, one of the richest sources of accurate structure information is at present not exploited fully, leaving the bulk part of the experimentally derived structural constraints to less accurate long-range 13C–13C dipolar couplings estimated from methods based on spin diffusion through proton spins in the close environment. In this paper, we extend our previous triple-oscillating field technique [N. Khaneja and N. C. Nielsen, J. Chem. Phys. 128, 015103 (2008)] for dipolar recoupling without dipolar truncation in homonuclear spin systems to a more advanced rf modulation with four independent oscillations and rotations involving nonorthogonal axes. This provides important new degrees of freedom, which are used to improve the scaling factor of the recoupled dipole-dipole couplings by a factor of 2.5 relative to the triple-oscillating field approach. This significant improvement, obtained by refocusing of otherwise defocused parts of the residual dipolar coupling Hamiltonian, may be exploited to measure much weaker 13C–13C dipolar couplings (and thereby longer distances) with much higher accuracy. We present a detailed theoretical description of multiple-field oscillating recoupling experiments, along with numerical simulations and experimental results on U–13C, 15N-L-threonine and U–13C,15N-ubiquitin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the use of optimal control algorithms for tailoring the effective Hamiltonians in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy through sophisticated radio-frequency (rf) pulse irradiation. Specifically, we address dipolar recoupling in solid-state NMR of powder samples for which case pulse sequences offering evolution under planar double-quantum and isotropic mixing dipolar coupling Hamiltonians are designed. The pulse sequences are constructed numerically to cope with a range of experimental conditions such as inhomogeneous rf fields, spread of chemical shifts, the intrinsic orientation dependencies of powder samples, and sample spinning. While the vast majority of previous dipolar recoupling sequences are operating through planar double-or zero-quantum effective Hamiltonians, we present here not only improved variants of such experiments but also for the first time homonuclear isotropic mixing sequences which transfers all Ix, Iy, and Iz polarizations from one spin to the same operators on another spin simultaneously and with equal efficiency. This property may be exploited to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of two-dimensional experiments by a factor of √2 compared to conventional solid-state methods otherwise showing the same efficiency. The sequences are tested numerically and experimentally for a powder of 13Cα, 13Cβ-L-alanine and demonstrate substantial sensitivity gains over previous dipolar recoupling experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficiency of dipole-dipole coupling driven coherence transfer experiments in solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of powder samples is limited by dispersion of the orientation of the internuclear vectors relative to the external magnetic field. Here we introduce general design principles and resulting pulse sequences that approach full polarization transfer efficiency for all crystallite orientations in a powder in magic-angle-spinning experiments. The methods compensate for the defocusing of coherence due to orientation dependent dipolar coupling interactions and inhomogeneous radio-frequency fields. The compensation scheme is very simple to implement as a scaffold (comb) of compensating pulses in which the pulse sequence to be improved may be inserted. The degree of compensation can be adjusted and should be balanced as a compromise between efficiency and length of the overall pulse sequence. We show by numerical and experimental data that the presented compensation protocol significantly improves the efficiency of known dipolar recoupling solid-state NMR experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel type of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance experiment for efficient transfer of coherence between different nuclear spin I=1/2 species under magic-angle spinning conditions is introduced. The method combines the attractive features of γ-encoded dipolar recoupling [Nielsen et al., J. Chem. Phys. 101, 1805 (1995)] with coherence transfer mediated by a longitudinal spin-order operator in a transferred echo experiment. Using two-channel rotary resonance recoupling with different phase and amplitude modulation schemes, the transferred echo sequence can be tuned to achieve dipolar recoupling and coherence transfer over a well-defined range of chemical shifts while keeping the ratio between the rf field strength and the sample spinning frequency relatively low. The method, referred to as gamma-encoded transfer echo, is described analytically, by numerical simulations for various different spin systems, and experimentally by [sup 15]N to [sup 13]C coherence transfers in a powder sample of [sup 13]C, [sup 15]N-labeled glycine. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noninvasive therapeutic cell tracking methods in living animals are important for understanding cell function and fate in connection with cell therapy. Here we report a new particle system based on chitosan-coated poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) perfluorooctyl bromide (PLGA PFOB) nanoparticles designed for 19 F magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) cell tracking. Chitosan was adsorbed onto the PLGA PFOB nanoparticles through electric interactions, which led to an increase in the hydrodynamic size and a surface charge proportional to the coating weight ratio. Confocal laser scanning microscopy, flow cytometry analysis and 19 F-MRI showed that to achieve the highest labeling efficiency in vitro , the optimal weight ratio of chitosan to the PLGA PFOB nanoparticles was 1:10 for human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and 1:100 for Raw 264.7 macrophages. In vivo 19 F-MRI showed that 19 F labeled hMSCs remained at the injected site 24 h after injection. Thus, this study validates that chitosan-coated PLGA PFOB nanoparticles have the potential to track cell migration in vivo . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heteronuclear spin decoupling in solid-state magic-angle spinning NMR is investigated to present methods overcoming interferences between rf irradiation and sample spinning in the intermediate to fast spinning regime. We demonstrate that a recent phase-alternated variant of refocused CW irradiation ( r CW ApA ) provides efficient and robust decoupling in this regime. An extensive experimental and numerical comparison is presented for r CW ApA and PISSARRO (phase-inverted supercycled sequence for attenuation of rotary resonance), previously introduced to quench rotary-resonance recoupling effects, under conditions with spinning frequencies between 30 and 60 kHz. Simulations are used to identify the effect of decoupling for various nuclear spin interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human transforming growth factor β-induced protein (TGFBIp) is involved in several types of corneal dystrophies where protein aggregation and amyloid fibril formation severely impair vision. Most disease-causing mutations are located in the last of four homologous fasciclin-1 (FAS1) domains of the protein, and it has been shown that when isolated, the fourth FAS1 domain (FAS1-4) mimics the behavior of full-length TGFBIp. In this study, we use molecular dynamics simulations and principal component analysis to study the wild-type FAS1-4 domain along with three disease-causing mutations (R555W, R555Q, and A546T) to decipher any internal difference in dynamical properties of the domains that may explain their varied stabilities and aggregation properties. In addition, we use a protein-protein docking method in combination with chemical cross-linking experiments and mass spectrometry of the cross-linked species to obtain information about interaction faces between identical FAS1-4 domains. The results show that the pathogenic mutations A546T and R555W affect the packing in the hydrophobic core of FAS1-4 in different directions. We further show that the FAS1-4 monomers associate using their β-rich regions, consistent with peptides observed to be part of the amyloid fibril core in lattice corneal dystrophy patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful application of solid-state NMR spectroscopy for structural study of biological macromolecules requires high spectral resolution. In presence of abundant H 1 spins, the resolution of the prevailing C 13 or N 15 chemical shift encoding experiments critically depends on the availability of efficient and robust heteronuclear decoupling methods in addition to the use of high-field instrumentation and fast sample spinning. Robustness of the decoupling method towards alterations in amplitude/offset of radio frequency fields due to varying sample states is important to ensure recording of spectra with high resolution over long sampling periods for insensitive samples. Here, we present a phase-alternated refocused continuous-wave decoupling method offering better resolution, easier setup, and higher robustness than previous methods. Improved decoupling is in part ascribed to more efficient cancellation of the residual heteronuclear, H 1 – C 13 , dipolar coupling interactions which are induced by homonuclear, H 1 – H 1 , dipolar coupling interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]