Nature, mimicking

An important nature-mimicking methodology involves the use of covalent synthesis followed by molecular self-assembly of the synthesized molecules. These molecules are generally small mono- or oligomers that interact with each other and with other kinds of mono- or oligomers to form thermodynamically stable, nanoscale structures. See also Molecular Recognition. 

Atovaquone, a hydroxynaphthoquinone, selectively inhibits the respiratory chain of protozoan mitochondria at the cytochrome bcl complex (complex III) by mimicking the natural substrate, ubiquinone. Inhibition of cytochrome bcl disrupts the mitochondrial electron transfer chain and leads to a breakdown of the mitochondrial membrane potential. Atovaquone is effective against all parasite stages in humans, including the liver stages. 

Psychotomimetic drags can be defined as chemical agents that reliably and dose-dependently induce a psychosis, often including hallucinations and delusions in normal individuals. Implicit in this term is a mimicking of naturally occulting psychosis. 

However, most natural peptides are composed of L-form a-amino acids and because of the ubiquitous prevalence of peptidases they have limited biostability, and consequently low bioavailability. Thus, a novel field of peptidomimetics has emerged in drug discovery, in attempts to design non-peptide compounds mimicking the pharmacophore and thus the activity of the original peptide. 

Much effort has also been directed toward mimicking electron transfer on natural photosynthetic systems. Recently, the group of Harada has been able to prepare monoclonal antibodies against metallo porphyrins and show that the biological edifice can control photoinduced electron transfer from the porphyrin to organic acceptor molecules in solution. As it was important to design a biomolecule able to accommodate not only the metalloporphyrin unit but also organic substrates, Harada recently used a hexacoordinated phosphorus... 

Given that a collision takes place, the nature of the momentum transfer between the cells must be specified. This should be done in such a way that the total momentum and kinetic energy on the double cell are conserved. There are many ways to do this. A multiparticle collision event may be carried out on all particles in the pair of cells. Alternatively, a hard sphere collision can be mimicked by exchanging the component of the mean velocities of the two cells along da,... 

From a fundamental viewpoint, carbon dioxide reduction is a model reaction which can help us to understand better the mechanism of natural photosynthesis.11 Development of artificial photosynthetic systems, by mimicking functions of green plants, is one of... 

The models which we have developed can be classified as follows. Some are intended to represent physicochemical processes and properties by mimicking quantitatively concepts which have become accepted by chemists in general. A simple example would be the transfer of electronic charge between two atoms of differing electronegativities. Other models are statistical in nature. We have applied parameters quantified by the physicochemical models to series of chemical data. The relationships thus derived by various statistical techniques, and their form, is such that they are readily applicable to the task of quantifying the evaluation process in EROS. Further discussion of these points is a major feature of this article. 

When supported complexes are the catalysts, two types of ionic solid were used zeolites and clays. The structures of these solids (microporous and lamellar respectively) help to improve the stability of the complex catalyst under the reaction conditions by preventing the catalytic species from undergoing dimerization or aggregation, both phenomena which are known to be deactivating. In some cases, the pore walls can tune the selectivity of the reaction by steric effects. The strong similarities of zeolites with the protein portion of natural enzymes was emphasized by Herron.20 The protein protects the active site from side reactions, sieves the substrate molecules, and provides a stereochemically demanding void. Metal complexes have been encapsulated in zeolites, successfully mimicking metalloenzymes for oxidation reactions. Two methods of synthesis of such encapsulated/intercalated complexes have been tested, as follows. 

Nowadays, bio-nanocomposites mimicking these natural materials have been prepared with the aim being to develop new biohybrids with improved mechanical properties together with biocompatibility and, in some cases, other interesting... 

Many of the materials currently under development draw their inspiration from structures found in nature. That is, by mimicking the supramolecular architecture of natural materials, one can prepare complex materials capable of highly sophisticated functions. An important aspect of this work involves the selection of microorganism templates (e.g., diatomite) based on specific porous structures that may benefit targeted applications. 

In this context, divalent presentation of this promising candidate has been investigated by the authors using the fixed cone conformation of calix[4]arene to allow introduction of the molecules onto the upper rim, and their projection into the same portion of space, thus mimicking, to some extent, a small portion of the natural cell-surface ganglioside. The synthesis of the divalent neoglycoconjugate was based on initial functionalization of the corresponding diacid with an aminated spacer and further introduction of squaric acid moieties. 

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