Kinds Of Molecules Research Articles

Exciplex Emission in the POSS Possessing Two Kinds of Luminophores

AbstractHere we report the synthesis and luminescent properties of the modified polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) that possesses two types of luminophores, cyanobenzene and N,N‐diethylaniline for inducing significant emission not only from each dye but also from molecular interactions on the POSS core. From the optical measurements in the diluted solution, we observed both locally‐excited emission and excimer emission originating from intramolecular interactions assisted by POSS. Moreover, highly‐efficient exciplex emission was observed from the thin film, indicating that the interaction between luminophores easily occurs in the solid state by accumulating two kinds of molecules in the single POSS molecule. Finally, we also found that the modified POSS showed a unique acid responsiveness which can be caused by protonation at two types of amino moieties. In this manuscript, it is shown that POSS is able to play various roles at the same time: recruiting excited molecules to form exciplexes, suppressing concentration quenching in the solid state, and imparting stimulus responsiveness to exciplexes.

Carborane-based BODIPY dyes: synthesis, structural analysis, photophysics and applications.

Icosahedral boron clusters-based BODIPY dyes represent a cutting-edge class of compounds that merge the unique properties of boron clusters with the exceptional fluorescence characteristics of BODIPY dyes. These kinds of molecules have garnered substantial interest due to their potential applications across various fields, mainly including optoelectronics, bioimaging, and potential use as boron carriers for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). Carborane clusters are known for their exceptional stability, rigid geometry, and 3D-aromaticity, while BODIPY dyes are renowned for their strong absorption, high fluorescence quantum yields, and photostability. The integration of carborane into BODIPY structures leverages the stability and versatility of carboranes while enhancing the photophysical properties of BODIPY-based fluorophores. This review explores the synthesis and structural diversity of boron clusters-based BODIPY dyes, highlighting how carborane incorporation can lead to significant changes in the electronic and optical properties of the dyes. We discuss the enhanced photophysical characteristics, such as red-shifted absorption and emission poperties, charge and electronic transfer effects, and improved cellular uptake, resulting from carborane substitution. The review also delves into the diverse applications of these compounds. In bioimaging, carborane-BODIPY dyes offer superior fluorescence properties and cellular internalization, making them ideal for cell tracking. In photodynamic therapy, (PDT) these dyes can act as potent photosensitizers capable of generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) for targeted cancer treatment making them excellent candidates for PDT. Additionally, their unique electronic properties make them suitable candidates for optoelectronic applications, including organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and sensors. Overall, carborane-BODIPY dyes represent a versatile and promising class of materials with significant potential for innovation in scientific and technological applications. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on carborane-BODIPY dyes, highlighting their synthesis, properties, and broad application spectrum.

DNA-Origami-Based Precise Molecule Assembly and Their Biological Applications.

Inspired by efficient natural biomolecule assembly with precise control on key parameters such as distance, number, orientation, and pattern, the constructions and applications of artificial precise molecule assembly are highly important in many research areas including chemistry, biology, and medicine. DNA origami, a sophisticated DNA nanotechnology with rational design, can offer a predictable, programmable, and addressable nanoscale scaffold for the precise assembly of various kinds of molecules. Herein, we summarize recent progress, particularly in the last three years, in DNA-origami-based precise molecule assembly and their emerging biological applications. We first introduce DNA origami and the progress on DNA-origami-based precise molecule assembly, including assembly of various kinds of molecules (e.g., nucleic acids, proteins, organic molecules, nanoparticles), and precise control of important parameters (e.g., distance, number, orientation, pattern). Their biological applications in sensing, imaging, therapy, bionics, biophysics, and chemical biology are then summarized, and current challenges and opportunities are finally discussed.

Efficient and highly reproducible production of red blood cell-derived extracellular vesicle mimetics for the loading and delivery of RNA molecules

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are promising natural nanocarriers for the delivery of therapeutic agents. As with any other kind of cell, red blood cells (RBCs) produce a limited number of EVs under physiological and pathological conditions. Thus, RBC-derived extracellular vesicles (RBCEVs) have been recently suggested as next-generation delivery systems for therapeutic purposes. In this paper, we show that thanks to their unique biological and physicochemical features, RBCs can be efficiently pre-loaded with several kinds of molecules and further used to generate RBCEVs. A physical vesiculation method, based on “soft extrusion”, was developed, producing an extremely high yield of cargo-loaded RBCEV mimetics. The RBCEVs population has been deeply characterized according to the new guidelines MISEV2023, showing great homogeneity in terms of size, biological features, membrane architecture and cargo. In vitro preliminary results demonstrated that RBCEVs are abundantly internalized by cells and exert peculiar biological effects. Indeed, efficient loading and delivery of miR-210 by RBCEVs to HUVEC has been proven, as well as the inhibition of a known mRNA target. Of note, the bench-scale process can be scaled-up and translated into clinics. In conclusion, this investigation could open the way to a new biomimetic platform for RNA-based therapies and/or other therapeutic cargoes useful in several diseases.

Orthogonal effect of exchange and correlation parameters in density functional theory to compute geometric and spectroscopic quantities.

The influence of the composition of the functional used for density functional theory computations on one structural parameter (a dihedral angle) and a spectroscopic parameter (absorption wavelength) is assessed in this study on the basis of two molecules (flavonols). In this kind of molecules, these two parameters should be correlated according to the nature of the electronic transition involved. However, it is shown herein that by varying the proportion of true exchange and correlation while building a functional, it is possible to obtain independently a large range of values for these parameters without any relation with the underlying real values. Therefore, it is concluded that the choice of a functional after a benchmark, especially using user-defined functionals, should be carried out with great care to avoid such effects.

StoneMod 2.0: Database and prediction of kidney stone modulatory proteins

Stone modulators are various kinds of molecules that play crucial roles in promoting/inhibiting kidney stone formation. Several recent studies have extensively characterized the stone modulatory proteins with the ultimate goal of preventing kidney stone formation. Herein, we introduce the StoneMod 2.0 database (https://www.stonemod.org), which has been dramatically improved from the previous version by expanding the number of the modulatory proteins in the list (from 32 in the initial version to 17,130 in this updated version). The stone modulatory proteins were recruited from solid experimental evidence (via PubMed) and/or predicted evidence (via UniProtKB, QuickGO, ProRule, STITCH and OxaBIND to retrieve calcium-binding and oxalate-binding proteins). Additionally, StoneMod 2.0 has implemented a scoring system that can be used to determine the likelihood and to classify the potential stone modulatory proteins as either “solid” (modulator score ≥ 50) or “weak” (modulator score < 50) modulators. Furthermore, the updated version has been designed with more user-friendly interfaces and advanced visualization tools. In addition to the monthly scheduled update, the users can directly submit their experimental evidence online anytime. Therefore, StoneMod 2.0 is a powerful database with prediction scores that will be very useful for many future studies on the stone modulatory proteins.

Hydroxyapatite Nanorods Based Drug Delivery Systems for Bumetanide and Meloxicam, Poorly Water Soluble Active Principles.

Poorly water-soluble drugs represent a challenge for the pharmaceutical industry because it is necessary to find properly tuned and efficient systems for their release. In this framework, organic-inorganic hybrid systems could represent a promising strategy. A largely diffused inorganic host is hydroxyapatite (HAP, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2), which is easily synthesized with different external forms and can adsorb different kinds of molecules, thereby allowing rapid drug release. Hybrid nanocomposites of HAP nanorods, obtained through hydrothermal synthesis, were prepared with two model pharmaceutical molecules characterized by low and pH-dependent solubility: meloxicam, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, and bumetanide, a diuretic drug. Both hybrids were physically and chemically characterized through the combined use of X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and infrared spectroscopy measurements. Then, their dissolution profiles and hydrophilicity (contact angles) in different media as well as their solubility were determined and compared to the pure drugs. This hybrid system seems particularly suitable as a drug carrier for bumetanide, as it shows higher drug loading and good dissolution profiles, while is less suitable for meloxicam, an acid molecule.

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of selective area growth of mix deposited organic molecules

The selective area growth approach (namely the self-assembly of molecules on pre-patterned surfaces) that takes into account the properties of organic molecular materials and traditional lithography techniques, is expected to play a significant role in manufacturing organic micro-nano patterns for photoelectric and full-color display. The manufacture of organic devices with tunable multicolor patterned films depends on the control of nucleation distribution of two or more organic molecules by using a selective area growth approach, particularly through the application of mixed deposition growth that can enhance the nucleation efficiency of multicolor thin films. However, till now the issue of mixed deposition growth of two kinds of organic molecules has been rarely reported, owing to the complexity in experimental operation. In this work, the selective area growth of mixed deposition of two kinds of molecules is studied by molecular kinetic Monte Carlo approach in order to find the experimental conditions for separating two kinds of molecular growth. In the simulation, the interaction energy between the two molecules is adjusted and controlled to study its influence on the separately selective area growth of the two molecules. The results show that when the intermolecular interaction energy is weak, the planar molecules and the non-planar molecules exhibit completely different growth behaviors. The most of non-planar molecules gather at the top of the electrode in an island mode, while planar molecules mainly accumulate in a layer-by-layer mode on the sides of the electrode. On the contrary, when the intermolecular interaction energy is strong, the number of non-planar particles on the tops decreases and a large number of planar particles appear. Moreover, on the sides of the electrode, the doping nucleation of planar molecules and non-planar molecules also exists, resulting in the failure of molecular phase separation growth. It proves that the intermolecular interaction energy can affect separately area-selective growth of various organic molecules. Therefore, when several different kinds of molecules are mixed and deposited, relatively pure crystalline monochromatic films can be obtained at the top and on the sides of the electrode, respectively, by appropriately adjusting the intermolecular interaction energy, which can further facilitate the application of multi-color organic micro-nano pattern in display and other fields.

The disordering effect of SARMs on a biomembrane model.

From medicine to sport, selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) have represented promising applications. The ability of SARMs to selectively interact with the androgen receptor (AR) indicates that this kind of molecule can interfere with numerous physiological and pathological processes controlled by the AR regulatory mechanism. However, critical concerns in relation to safety and potential side effects of SARMs remain under discussion and investigation. SARMs, being hydrophobic/organic compounds, can be subjected to hydrophobic interactions. In this perspective, we hypothesize that SARMs interact with lipid membranes, producing significant physical and chemical changes that could be associated with several effects that SARMs represent in biological systems. In this context, the effect of SARMs on lipid membranes mediated by non-specific interactions is little explored. Here, we report significant information related to the changes that ostarine, ligandrol, andarine, and cardarine produce in the thermodynamic properties of a lipid biomembrane model. Physical changes and chemical interactions of the systems were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic light scattering (DLS), attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), and theoretical calculations implementing density functional theory (DFT). We demonstrate that ostarine, ligandrol, andarine, and cardarine can strongly interact with a lipid biomembrane model composed of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC), and accordingly, these molecules can be incorporated into the polar/hydrophobic regions of the lipid bilayer. By employing theoretical calculations, we gained insights into the possible electrostatic interactions between SARMs and phospholipid molecules, enhancing our understanding of the driving forces behind the interactions of SARMs with lipid membranes. Overall, this investigation provides relevant knowledge related to the biophysical-chemical effects that SARMs produce in biomembrane models and could be of practical reference for promising applications of SARMs in medicine and sport.

Facile SERS substrates from Ag nanostructures chemically synthesized on glass surfaces

A quick one-step fabrication of efficient SERS substrates by a modified approach based on a silver-mirror reaction (using Tollens’ reagent) is reported. Commercially available microscope slides or cover glass (coverslips) were used as-received, without special surface treatment. In contrast to the commonly used two-step process, the composition of the Tollens reagent was modified to use a single-step process. The obtained rather homogeneous films of densely packed nanoislands are promising for application as substrates for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), as demonstrated by several different kinds of molecules as analytes. In particular, the achieved level of detection of a standard dye analyte, down to 10-14 M of Rhodamine 6G, is in the range of best values reported in the literature. Low concentrations of some biomolecules are also detected, such as lysozyme (10-4 M), adenine (10-4 M), and salicylic acid (10-5 M). For some analytes, stronger SERS was observed in the drop, and for others after the solvent was dried. The possible reasons for this effect are described. By applying thermal annealing in the inert gas atmosphere, the Ag film morphology can be partially converted into a coral-like 3D structure that may be advantageous for the localization of the analyte in the “hot spots” and allow additional spectral tunability of the plasmon resonance.&#x0D;

Expansion microscopy using a single anchor molecule for high-yield multiplexed imaging of proteins and RNAs.

Expansion microscopy (ExM), by physically enlarging specimens in an isotropic fashion, enables nanoimaging on standard light microscopes. Key to existing ExM protocols is the equipping of different kinds of molecules, with different kinds of anchoring moieties, so they can all be pulled apart from each other by polymer swelling. Here we present a multifunctional anchor, an acrylate epoxide, that enables proteins and RNAs to be equipped with anchors in a single experimental step. This reagent simplifies ExM protocols and reduces cost (by 2-10-fold for a typical multiplexed ExM experiment) compared to previous strategies for equipping RNAs with anchors. We show that this united ExM (uniExM) protocol can be used to preserve and visualize RNA transcripts, proteins in biologically relevant ultrastructures, and sets of RNA transcripts in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) cancer tissues and may support the visualization of other kinds of biomolecular species as well. uniExM may find many uses in the simple, multimodal nanoscale analysis of cells and tissues.

Separation of lipids and proteins from clarified microalgae lysate: The effect of lipid-protein interaction on the cross-flow and shear-enhanced microfiltration performances

For microalgae biorefinery, membrane process is a suitable technology for biomolecules (i.e., proteins, lipids or carbohydrates) fractionation due to the simplicity in operation, the flexibility for implementation and the potential for processing large volumes. Here the objective was to microfiltrate microalgae aqueous extracts, after cell disruption and clarification, to concentrate lipids in retentate and recover hydrophilic proteins in permeate. However, the optimization of the membrane process requires a large amount of raw material and the composition of real microalgae extracts is so complex that it limits the in-depth understanding of the membrane / molecules interactions on the modification of the filtration performances. Thus, simplified model mixtures of clarified microalgae lysates were formulated, aiming at quite a high complexity with constant composition but a nice representativity with respect to the real mixture. Through the microfiltration of three model mixtures containing lipids, proteins or both kinds of molecules, it was demonstrated that the strong interaction between the biomolecules in solution modified the membrane fouling and had a clear impact on the membrane permeation and selectivity, similarly to the real mixtures. The dynamic filtration was tested to enhance the performances compared to cross-flow filtration. The higher shear rate favored an increase in flux and therefore productivity, but did not modify membrane selectivity. It was therefore demonstrated that the interaction between molecules existing in the cell or generated during the cell disruption drives the separation efficiency and should be mitigated in future works to allow the whole biomass biorefining.

In Silico Analysis and Docking Studies on Cystic Fibrosis to identify Potential Drug Candidates

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a multi-system autosomal recessive disorder due to defects in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein, most commonly affecting the lungs. Despite being thought of as an uncommon ailment, cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common monogenic sickness among those who are mostly of European descent. It is estimated that 1% of people worldwide have a single faulty copy of the CFTR gene. A recent pilot study using NGS technology in 2020 from Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, indicated the prevalence of cystic fibrosis mutations of 1 in 2,000 persons. This is much higher than the earlier estimated prevalence as the disease was rare in the Indian population. The most common mutations are delta F 508 and G551D which are also prevalent in the Indian population. The use of computer-aided drug design (CADD) can reduce the time needed for the discovery, evaluation and structure-optimization of new therapeutic candidates. CADD may be advantageous for pharmaceuticals with logical designs. Multiple breakthroughs have been made in the study of small molecule medicines and natural chemicals for the treatment of cystic fibrosis. Seven well-known small-molecule medications that target the CFTR were chosen including Ivacaftor, Lumacaftor, Tezacaftor, Galicaftor, Olacaftor, Navocaftor and Elexacaftor. The natural compounds chosen were Genistein, Curcumin and Resveratrol. They were all docked onto the CFTR target protein and the effectiveness of the therapy was evaluated based on the docking scores. It was also planned to investigate if the combined impacts of these two different kinds of molecules may help in the development of new medications. To achieve this, combinatorial docking was tried using the small molecule market medication and the natural chemical that showed the best interaction with the target protein. Finally, based on molecular docking studies, Lonidamine, a well-known medicinal molecule was used to determine whether it may target cystic fibrosis.

Intrinsic SERS Fingerprints of Aptamer-Peptide Conjugates for Direct High-Specific Profiling Abnormal Protein Levels in Cancer Patients.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with ultrasensitive vibrational fingerprints enables quick identification and trace detection of various kinds of molecules. But proteins usually have low Raman cross sections and are difficult to generate recognizable signals in direct SERS detection. Recently, nucleic acid-peptide conjugates are emerging with great potential in structuring, assembling, catalyzing, sensing, etc., and the coupling of aptamers further enables superior biological recognition and programmability. Here, we develop the aptamer-peptide conjugates as a new kind of SERS probe for direct high-specific profiling abnormal protein levels in cancer patients. The aptamer conjugated with glutathione (GSH) functions as both the recognition element and the SERS reporters that can simultaneously generate SERS fingerprints of both peptides and nucleic acids. This kind of biocompatible probe appears to have excellent performance in high-salt environments and realizes rapid, simple, and multisignal detection of thrombin (TB). Data-driven soft independent modeling of class analogy (DD-SIMCA) is used to distinguish SERS profiles of actual blood samples and realize the identification and classification of cancer patients. Furthermore, the effect of low-temperature storage time on blood samples is analyzed by tracking the changes of SERS profiles; the results hint that plasma samples stored under 4 °C for more than 2 days could generate false negative results due to TB hydrolysis, which has important implications for clinical sample analysis. This kind of nucleic acid-peptide conjugate provides new ideas for SERS sensing strategy in the future.

Spectroscopic and molecular docking study of three kinds of cinnamic acid interaction with pepsin

In this work, under simulated physiological conditions (pH = 2.2, glycine hydrochloric acid buffer solution), the interactions of cinnamic acid (CA), m-hydroxycinnamic acid (m-CA) and p-hydroxycinnamic acid (p-CA) with pepsin were studied by fluorescence spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulation (MD). The spectrogram results showed that these three kinds of CA had a strong ability to quench the intrinsic fluorescence of pepsin, and the quenching effects were obvious with the increase of concentration of these three kinds of molecules. The quenching mechanism of CA, m-CA and p-CA on the fluorescence of pepsin was static quenching. In addition, a stable complex was formed between three kinds of CA with pepsin. Thermodynamic data and docking information suggested that three kinds of CA combine with pepsin were mainly driven by electrostatic force and hydrogen bond. The binding constant and the number of binding sites were determined. The interaction of CA, m-CA and p-CA with pepsin was spontaneous, and accompanied by non-radiative energy transfer. The results from CD, FTIR, UV–Vis and synchronous fluorescence spectra measurements manifested that the secondary structure of pepsin was changed by the binding of three kinds of CA. The β-sheet of pepsin increased after the interaction with three kinds of CA. The assay results of pepsin activity showed that three kinds of CA led to a decrease in pepsin activity within the investigated concentrations. Molecular docking investigation revealed the formation of polar hydrogen bonds as well as hydrophobic interactions between three kinds of CA with pepsin, and the ligand within the binding pocket of pepsin. MD results implied the formation of a stable complex between three kinds of CA and pepsin. The research suggested that cinnamic acid and its derivatives could be a potential effect on the structure and properties of digestive enzyme.

New Insights into Adsorption Properties of the Tubular Au26 from AIMD Simulations and Electronic Interactions

Recently, we revealed the electronic nature of the tubular Au26 based on spherical aromaticity. The peculiar structure of the Au26 could be an ideal catalyst model for studying the adsorptions of the Au nanotubes. However, through Google Scholar, we found that no one has reported connections between the structure and reactivity properties of Au26. Here, three kinds of molecules are selected to study the fundamental adsorption behaviors that occur on the surface of Au26. When one CO molecule is adsorbed on the Au26, the σ-hole adsorption structure is quickly identified as belonging to a ground state energy, and it still maintains integrity at a temperature of 500 K, where σ donations and π-back donations take place; however, two CO molecules make the structure of Au26 appear with distortions or collapse. When one H2 is adsorbed on the Au26, the H-H bond length is slightly elongated due to charge transfers to the anti-bonding σ* orbital of H2. The Au26-H2 can maintain integrity within 100 fs at 300 K and the H2 molecule starts moving away from the Au26 after 200 fs. Moreover, the Au26 can act as a Lewis base to stabilize the electron-deficient BH3 molecule, and frontier molecular orbitals overlap between the Au26 and BH3.

ON THE HEAT DISSIPATION FUNCTION FOR MAGNETIC RELAXATION PHENOMENA IN ANISOTROPIC MEDIA

Using the methods of classical irreversible thermodynamics with internal variables, the heat dissipation function for magnetizable ani­sotropic media, in which phenomena of magnetic relaxation occur, is derived. It is assumed that if different types of irreversible microscopic phenomena give rise to magnetic relaxation, it is possible to describe these microscopic phenomena splitting the total specific magnetization in two irreversible parts and introducing one of these partial specific magnetizations as internal variable in the thermodynamic state space. It is seen that, when the theory is linearized, the heat dissipation func­tion is due to the electric conduction, magnetic relaxation, viscous, magnetic irreversible phenomena. This is the case of complex media, where different kinds of molecules have different magnetic susceptibili­ties and relaxation times, present magnetic relaxation phenomena and contribute to the total magnetization. These situations arise in nuclear magnetic resonance in medicine and biology and in other fields of the applied sciences. Also, the heat conduction equation for these media is worked out and the special cases of anisotropic Snoek media and anisotropic De-Groot-Mazur media are treated.

Sulfonylpyrazole- and pyrazole-directed ortho-selective C-H functionalization/alkenylation and desulfenylative olefination of aryl(sulfonyl)pyrazoles.

ortho-Selective C-H alkenylation of arenes was achieved using sulfonylpyrazoles and pyrazoles as directing groups, favored by a combination of a Pd(OAc)2 catalyst, Boc-Sar-OH and silver acetate. A wide variety of mono-alkenylated products of aryl-sulfonylpyrazoles and pyrazoles were synthesized with complete site-selectivity under mild reaction conditions. This transformation tolerated several electron-withdrawing and electron-donating groups on the aryl ring and the yields ranged from 52% to 70%, producing highly decorated/valuable alkenylated sulfonylpyrazole and pyrazole derivatives. Amazingly, switching of the oxidant, with the use of AgBF4 in place of AgOAc, offered cinnamic acid derivatives through de-sulfonylation followed by alkenylation at the same position with good yields in the case of aryl-sulfonylpyrazoles. These kinds of molecules have great biological importance and target predictions indicate that they may serve as potential antifungal and anti-tumor agents.

Photoassociation spectra of cesium 31D&lt;sub&gt;5/2&lt;/sub&gt;+6S&lt;sub&gt;1/2&lt;/sub&gt;(&lt;i&gt;F&lt;/i&gt; = 4) ultralong-range Rydberg molecules

In this paper, we conduct the experiment and simulation on 31D&lt;sub&gt;5/2&lt;/sub&gt;+6S&lt;sub&gt;1/2&lt;/sub&gt;(&lt;i&gt;F&lt;/i&gt; = 4) Cs&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; ultralong-range Rydberg molecules (ULRMs). These molecules are prepared by employing a two-photon photoassociation scheme. Two distinct ultralong-range Rydberg molecular signals are observed at the detuning –162.8 MHz and –66.6 MHz of 31D&lt;sub&gt;5/2&lt;/sub&gt; atomic resonant line, which are bound by the pure triplet potential and mixed singlet-triplet potential, respectively. We use the model of scattering interaction between the Rydberg electron and ground-state atom to perform the simulation. The molecular potential-energy curves are obtained by solving the Hamiltonian on a grid of intermolecular distances &lt;i&gt;R&lt;/i&gt;. The calculations of the binding energy of pure triplet and mixed singlet-triplet &lt;i&gt;v&lt;/i&gt; = 0 vibrational states are compared with the experimental measurements. The calculated and measured values of the binding energy are in good agreement. The s-wave pure triplet and singlet zero-energy scattering length are obtained to be &lt;inline-formula&gt;&lt;tex-math id="M3"&gt;\begin{document}${a}_{{\rm{s}}}^{{\rm{T}}}({0})=-{19.16}{a}_{0}$\end{document}&lt;/tex-math&gt;&lt;alternatives&gt;&lt;graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="14-20230520_M3.jpg"/&gt;&lt;graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="14-20230520_M3.png"/&gt;&lt;/alternatives&gt;&lt;/inline-formula&gt; and &lt;inline-formula&gt;&lt;tex-math id="M4"&gt;\begin{document}$ {a}_{{\rm{s}}}^{{\rm{S}}}(0)=-{1.92}{a}_{0} $\end{document}&lt;/tex-math&gt;&lt;alternatives&gt;&lt;graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="14-20230520_M4.jpg"/&gt;&lt;graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="14-20230520_M4.png"/&gt;&lt;/alternatives&gt;&lt;/inline-formula&gt;, respectively. This kind of molecule with large size, abundant vibrational states and large permanent electric dipole moment is an excellent candidate for studying low-energy collision dynamics. The study of these molecules will further deepen and enrich the understanding of the special binding mechanism and exotic properties of the ULRMs.

Why we are made of proteins and nucleic acids: Structural biology views on extraterrestrial life.

Is it a miracle that life exists on the Earth, or is it a common phenomenon in the universe? If extraterrestrial organisms exist, what are they like? To answer these questions, we must understand what kinds of molecules could evolve into life, or in other words, what properties are generally required to perform biological functions and store genetic information. This review summarizes recent findings on simple ancestral proteins, outlines the basic knowledge in textbooks, and discusses the generally required properties for biological molecules from structural biology viewpoints (e.g., restriction of shapes, and types of intra- and intermolecular interactions), leading to the conclusion that proteins and nucleic acids are at least one of the simplest (and perhaps very common) forms of catalytic and genetic biopolymers in the universe. This review article is an extended version of the Japanese article, On the Origin of Life: Coevolution between RNA and Peptide, published in SEIBUTSU BUTSURI Vol. 61, p. 232-235 (2021).