Nearly exponential quadrupolar relaxation. A perturbation treatment

Nitroxyl Modified Tobacco Mosaic Virus as a Metal-Free High-Relaxivity MRI and EPR Active Superoxide Sensor

Superoxide overproduction is known to occur in multiple disease states requiring critical care; yet, noninvasive detection of superoxide in deep tissue remains a challenge. Herein, we report a metal-free magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) active contrast agent prepared by "click conjugating" paramagnetic organic radical contrast agents (ORCAs) to the surface of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). While ORCAs are known to be reduced in vivo to an MRI/EPR silent state, their oxidation is facilitated specifically by reactive oxygen species-in particular, superoxide-and are largely unaffected by peroxides and molecular oxygen. Unfortunately, single molecule ORCAs typically offer weak MRI contrast. In contrast, our data confirm that the macromolecular ORCA-TMV conjugates show marked enhancement for T1 contrast at low field (<3.0 T) and T2 contrast at high field (9.4 T). Additionally, we demonstrated that the unique topology of TMV allows for a "quenchless fluorescent" bimodal probe for concurrent fluorescence and MRI/EPR imaging, which was made possible by exploiting the unique inner and outer surface of the TMV nanoparticle. Finally, we show TMV-ORCAs do not respond to normal cellular respiration, minimizing the likelihood for background, yet still respond to enzymatically produced superoxide in complicated biological fluids like serum.

23Na NMR relaxation studies of the Na-DNA/drug interaction

This Minireview covers the methodological approaches of (23)Na NMR spectroscopy to the study of the structure and dynamics of the DNA molecule, in particular the application of the (23)Na NMR quadrupolar relaxation to investigate the perturbations on the polyion surface due to exogenous agents. A brief description of the (23)Na NMR quadrupolar relaxation and of the models used to describe the distribution of counterions around DNA, and the results of the application of the (23)Na NMR relaxation to the study of the cation-DNA interaction are also shown. Following sections present results of the investigation on ligand-DNA interaction and on ordered DNA systems.

Relaxation theory of the electronic spin of a complexed paramagnetic metal ion in solution beyond the Redfield limit

The relaxation of the electronic spin S of a paramagnetic metal ion with fully quenched orbital angular momentum in its ground state is investigated in an external magnetic field through a systematic study of the time correlation functions governing the evolution of the statistical operator (density matrix). Let omega0 be the Larmor angular frequency of S. When the relaxation is induced by a time-fluctuating perturbing Hamiltonian hH1(t) of time correlation tauc, it is demonstrated that after a transient period the standard Redfield approximation is relevant to calculate the evolution of the populations of the spin states if parallelH1 parallel2tauc2/(1+omega0(2)tauc2)<<1 and that this transient period becomes shorter than tauc at sufficiently high field for a zero-field splitting perturbing Hamiltonian. This property, proven analytically and confirmed by numerical simulation, explains the surprising success of several simple expressions of the longitudinal electronic relaxation rate 1/T1e derived from the Redfield approximation well beyond its expected validity range parallelH1 paralleltauc<<1. It has favorable practical consequences on the interpretation of the paramagnetic relaxation enhancement of nuclei used for structural and dynamic studies.

Electronic relaxation of paramagnetic metal ions and NMR relaxivity in solution: Critical analysis of various approaches and application to a Gd(III)-based contrast agent

The time correlation functions (TCFs) G(alphaalpha(t)[triple bond](Salpha(t)Salpha(0)) (alpha = x,y,z) of the electronic spin components of a complexed paramagnetic metal ion give information about the time fluctuations of its zero-field splitting (ZFS) Hamiltonian due to the random dynamics of the coordination polyhedron. These TCFs reflect the electronic spin relaxation which plays an essential role in the inner- and outer-sphere paramagnetic relaxation enhancements of the various nuclear spins in solution. When a static ZFS Hamiltonian is allowed by symmetry, its modulation by the random rotational motion of the complex has a great influence on the TCFs. We discuss several attempts to describe this mechanism and show that subtle mathematical pitfalls should be avoided in order to obtain a theoretical framework, within which reliable adjustable parameters can be fitted through the interpretation of nuclear-magnetic relaxation dispersion experimental results. We underline the advantage of the numerical simulation of the TCFs, which avoids the above difficulties and allows one to include the effect of the transient ZFS for all the relative magnitudes of the various terms in the electron-spin Hamiltonian and arbitrary correlation times. This method is applied for various values of the magnetic field taken to be along the z direction. At low field, contrary to previous theoretical expectations, if the transient ZFS has negligible influence, the longitudinal TCF GII(t) [triple bond] G(zz)(t) has a monoexponential decay with an electronic relaxation time T1e different from 1/(2D(r)), D(r) being the rotational diffusion coefficient of the complex. At intermediate and high field, the simulation results show that GII (t) still has a monoexponential decay with a characteristic time T1e, which is surprisingly well approximated by a simple analytical expression derived from the Redfield perturbation approximation of the time-independent Zeeman Hamiltonian, even in the case of a strong ZFS where this approximation is expected to fail. These results are illustrated for spins S = 1, 3/2, and 5/2 in axial and rhombic symmetries. Finally, the simulation method is applied to the reinterpretation of the water-proton relaxivity profile due to P760-Gd(III), an efficient blood pool contrast agent for magnetic-resonance imaging.

Metallobiochemistry of the magnesium ion. Characterization of the essential metal-binding site in Escherichia coli ribonuclease H

Ribonuclease H (Escherichia coli) contains one strong magnesium-binding site, as determined by metal-titration experiments monitored by high field 1H-NMR and also by direct titration calorimetry. Kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were evaluated by 25Mg-NMR and were as follows: dissociation constant Kd, approximately 60 +/- 10 microM; activation free energy delta G*, approximately 49.8 +/- 0.9 kJ; on/off-rate for magnesium binding Kon, approximately 1.8 x 10(8) M-1 s-1, koff, approximately 1.1 x 10(4) s-1; quadrupole coupling constant chi B, 1.2 +/- 0.2 MHz. The dissociation constant was independently determined by standard analysis of 1H chemical shifts in magnesium-titration experiments and by microcalorimetry (Kd approximately 200 +/- 20 microM). Cobalt hexaamine, which also activates RNase H [Jou, R. & Cowan, J. A. (1991) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 113, 6685-6686], appears to bind at the same location as Mg2+(aqueous). Assignments of C2H and C4H protons to specific histidine residues have been made by two-dimensional correlated spectroscopy experiments. Direct 25Mg-NMR pH titrations show that an ionizable residue (pKa approximately 5.8), most likely one of the carboxylates in the active site, influences magnesium binding. On the basis of the magnesium coordination chemistry elucidated herein, recent proposals on active-site chemistry are critically assessed and general physicochemical aspects of magnesium-binding sites on proteins and enzymes are discussed.

The use of dietary loading of 133Cs as a potassium substitute in NMR studies of tissues

133Cs NMR chemical shifts and relaxation times have been measured for tissue samples in vitro and in vivo from rats which have been fed on a high cesium, low potassium diet, which leads to a predominantly intracellular distribution of this ion, similar to that of K+. The high sensitivity, large chemical shift range, and narrow linewidths of 133Cs, compared with 39K, allow chemical shift differences to be observed between tissues, and in subcellular organelles such as mitochondria. For example, in vitro tissue chemical shifts, relative to 150 mM CsCl, are 1.06 +/- 0.11 ppm for liver, 0.02 +/- 0.05 ppm for brain, 1.76 +/- 0.20 ppm for erythrocytes, and -0.13 +/- 0.02 ppm for plasma. T1 and spin-echo T2 values range from 1.26 +/- 0.05 s (T1), and 0.028 +/- 0.006 s (T2) for liver, to 6.49 +/- 0.19 s and 1.12 +/- 0.03 s for plasma. 133Cs relaxation times show the same relative trends between tissues as are observed in 39K tissue studies.

A potassium-39 NMR study of potassium binding to double-helical DNA

The binding of K+ to double-helical DNA has been examined by 39K NMR. The results obtained are in substantial agreement with previous measurements of 23Na+ binding to DNA. Thus, in both cases the fractional neutralization of DNA phosphate charge appears independent of the total univalent cation concentration. Further, the dependences of the 23Na+ and 39K+ linewidths on Mg2+ and on temperature are strikingly similar. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of current theories of counterion binding to cylindrical polyelectrolytes.

Potassium-39 and sodium-23 NMR studies of cation binding to phosvitin

The binding of Na+ and K+ to hen egg-yolk phosvitin has been studied by 23Na and 39K NMR. A transition in the binding behaviour of these cations is shown to accompany deprotonation of the phosphate groups on this highly charged protein. At lower pH the data are well described by a purely mass-action binding model, whereas at higher pH significant polyelectrolyte effects are apparent. From single ion as well as competition experiments K+ is shown to bind more strongly to phosvitin than does Na+. The temperature and magnetic field strength dependences of the 23Na and 39K relaxation rates provide a picture of phosvitin as a highly flexible macromolecule. This work demonstrates the potential of 39K NMR as a useful tool in the study of protein-cation interactions.