Background: In the present study, a tissue engineered silk fibroin (SF) scaffold containing simvastatin-loaded silk fibroin nanoparticles (SFNPs) were used to stimulate the regeneration of the defected bone. Methods: At first, the porous SF scaffold was prepared using freeze-drying. Then simvastatin-loaded SFNPs were made by dissolvation method and embedded in the SF scaffold. Afterwards, the ...

It is recognized that high-throughput enzyme inhibition screens often return nonspecific inhibitors as "hits". Recently, high-throughput screens for enzyme activators have led to the identification of several compounds with novel and potent biological activity. Here, we show that enzyme activation screens can also uncover compounds that activate multiple enzymes in a nonspecific fashion. Descri...

A microscopic model for the excitation and relaxation processes in photochemistry at surfaces is developed. Our study is based on ab initio calculations and the surrogate Hamiltonian method treating surface electron-hole pairs as a bath of two-level systems. Desorption probabilities and velocities in the experimentally observed range are obtained. The excited state lifetime is calculated, and a...

New research reveals how the intricate repertoire of ascarosides--small molecules acting as multifaceted pheromones in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans--has evolved in divergent nematode taxa occupying contrasted ecological niches.

Recently, aptamers began to emerge as therapeutics. In this issue of Chemistry & Biology, Famulok and colleagues [1] present a twist on this concept, using an enzyme-inhibiting aptamer as a tool to screen for small molecules that block HIV replication.