The usage of gelatin hydrogel is limited due to its instability and poor mechanical properties, especially under physiological conditions. Divalent metal ions present in gelatin such as Ca(2+) and Fe(2+) play important roles in the gelatin molecule interactions. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of divalent ion removal on the stability and mechanical properties of gelatin ...

To identify the divalent metal ions that can support the self-cleavage activity of the genomic ribozyme of human hepatitis delta virus (HDV), we tested the activity of various divalent metal ions in the ribozyme reactions catalyzed by HDV88 (683-770 nt) and 88DI3 (HDV88 with the sequence from 740-752 nt deleted). Among various metal ions tested, Mg2+, Mn2+, Ca2+ and Sr2+ efficiently supported t...

Proteins obtained from agricultural sources were blended with divalent metal ions to see if binding reactions occurred between protein chains. Feather keratin, egg albumin, and wheat gluten showed elastic modulus increases of 2–3 times with addition of divalent transition metal ions Cu2þ and Zn2þ. Increasing concentrations of ions resulted in increased stiffness. Birefringence experiments perfo...

Interaction of certain metal ions with prothrombin and prothrombin fragment 1 has been shown to result in conformational change(s). Self-association of prothrombin and prothrombin fragment 1 in the presence of divalent cations has been reported. The present study has made use of a covalent cross-linking reagent, dithiobis(succinimidylpropionate), to study the self-association of prothrombin in ...

Diarrhea causes monovalent and divalent ion losses that can influence clinical outcome. Unlike the losses of monovalent ions, such as Na+, K+, Cl-, and [Formula: see text], which are generally large in quantity (osmoles) and therefore determine the severity of diarrhea, the losses of divalent ions are relatively small in osmoles and are often overlooked during diarrheal treatment. Studies now s...

The modulation of pentameric ligand-gated ion channels (pLGICs) by divalent cations is believed to play an important role in their regulation in a physiological context. Ions such as calcium or zinc influence the activity of pLGIC neurotransmitter receptors by binding to their extracellular domain and either potentiate or inhibit channel activation. Here we have investigated by electrophysiolog...

Polynucleotide adsorption to negatively charged surfaces via divalent ions is extensively used in the study of biological systems. We analyze here the adsorption mechanism via a self-consistent mean-field model that includes the pH effect on the surface-charge density and the interactions between divalent ions and surface groups. The adsorption is driven by the cooperative effect of divalent me...

Accurate force field parameters for ions are essential for meaningful simulation studies of proteins and nucleic acids. Currently accepted models of ions, especially for divalent ions, do not necessarily reproduce the right physiological behavior of Ca(2+) and Mg(2+) ions. Saxena and Sept (J. Chem. Theor. Comput. 2013, 9, 3538-3542) described a model, called the multisite-ion model, where inste...

The transport of Fe(2+) and other divalent transition metal ions across the intestinal brush border membrane (BBM) was investigated using brush border membrane vesicles (BBMVs) as a model. This transport is an energy-independent, protein-mediated process. The divalent metal ion transporter of the BBM is a spanning protein, very likely a protein channel, that senses the phase transition of the B...